Tuesday, November 22, 2011

No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn

Many thanks to Umlaut’s old friend Trace Rayfield for this! I remember this photo from back in The Day and he recently resent it to me… Time travel rules! Trace interviewed Lars and James for my fanzine Whiplash; it was probably their first interview after Kirk joined the band. Oh, and the interview was recorded in a moving car… but I’ll let Trace tell the story:

Metallica in New Jersey - April 1983

"This picture was taken in the parking lot of the record store Rock 'N Roll Heaven in New Jersey. This was the beginning of my 4 hour odyssey with James and Lars including the Whiplash interview. We then went to the record store Zig Zag for an in-store appearance and ended up at L'Amours in Brooklyn for an Anvil show. In between was a comical drive through the streets of Brooklyn with lots of beer drinking and bad directions from the locals. Two kids from California and two kids from the Midwest lost in Brooklyn. Of course, the more beer we drank, the more lost we got. The happy ending was we made it before Anvil hit the stage and I got my interview."

An excerpt from Trace's 1983 interview:

WHIPLASH: HOW DO YOU GUYS LIKE THE EAST COAST SO FAR?

JAMES: Not as good as San Francisco.


LARS: The bangers out here aren't as fanatic.


JAMES: They don't get into mobs and bang like out in 'Frisco.

WHIPLASH: HOW DO THE AUDIENCES DIFFER ON THE EAST COAST FROM THE WEST COAST?

LARS: They just aren't as crazy. Fuckin' out there in San Francisco the first ten rows is just hair and sweat and bobbing heads. They're just fuckin' all over each other, but maybe it will be the same here soon 'cause we've only done a few gigs out here so far. The crowds are still kind of checking us out where as out there (in San Francisco) it's like home turf.

JAMES: L.A. was the fuckin' worst.


No Sleep 'Til.....

Update:  Trace has now posted the audio of the entire interview online:

In a car somewhere in New Jersey / New York - April 23, 1983