Metallibash 2003

30 December 2003 was the first official UK Torn Metallibash. It took place in the most famous and kick arse metal pub in the whole of the UK. Famous around the world and to all self-respecting metalheads and famous for being the hangout of rock stars such as Metallica themselves in the late 80’s! The Intrepid Fox is also a notorious stop off point for bands playing in London. Spotted recently was Blaze Bayley, Twiggy Ramirez and Matt Byrne. The management of the Intrepid Fox pub are Metallica fans themselves, so they agreed to give us the upstairs of the pub for the day free of charge. With that we had our own bar, PA system and fantastic barman!

This event was placed strategically to pull in fans from all over, in particular those who were attending the 2nd London date of the Metallica tour. Doors opened at lunch time and ended when it was time to trek to the concert itself.

The response to the bash was absolutely phenomenal. I spent all day talking to everyone who attended, and managed to find out where they were from. The bulk of the attendees were our very own UK Torn members, many of which knew each other by chats on the UK Torn message boards and the Metclub – Poor Posting Me message boards. Amongst them we had people from: Poland, USA, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland, Austria, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany.

The Bash focused mainly on hanging with each other, drinking, meeting new people, drinking, and also more drinking. We also gave away some excellent exclusive prizes in a raffle we held. Amongst the prizes was a signed copy of the ‘Rock Tribune - Metallica Special’, a Danish magazine which I purchased at the Roskilde festival. This magazine was subsequently signed by the entire band at the Oslo, Norway concert during a meet and greet. We also gave away posters, CD’s, t-shirts and other rarities.

From the response I have received about this particular event, it is safe to say that the Bash was a massive success. Friendships have formed through it and maintained till this very day. The admin team have impressed on the success and the experiences will be carried over to subsequent events.