Rhino Historic Tours: Metallica Hits the UK

31 years ago today, Metallica brought their heavy metal stylings to England for the first time, delivering to dear old Blighty some rather hard rock.

The gig in question took place at London's famed Marquee Club, with the band Savage also on the bill. How did this pairing come about? Well, we'd guess it had something to do with a young man by the name of Lars Ulrich having discovered the band's song “Let It Loose,” which appeared on a compilation album entitled Scene of the Crime. If you've somehow managed to find yourself a copy of Metallica's famed audition tape for the Whiskey A Go-Go, then you know that the band covered that song, along with “Killing Time” by the band Sweet Savage. (No relation.)

Metallica delivered an 11-song set that evening, consisting predominantly of tracks from their 1983 debut album, Kill 'Em All, but they did tease their upcoming sophomore effort with a pair of new songs: “Ride the Lightning,” which was destined to become the title track of their second album, and “When Hell Freezes Over,” which would soon become known as “The Call of Ktulu.”

To celebrate this momentous anniversary, we've compiled a playlist featuring the 11 songs Metallica performed that evening - that's 10 in the set proper, plus a one-song encore (“Seek and Destroy”) - that gives you an idea of what the audience at the Marquee Club heard that evening…except you can imagine that it was louder and angrier and probably caused more than a few Brits to ask, “What in the bloody hell is this racket?” And that's fair enough: it was their first time in the UK, after all. But they'd know who Metallica was enough…and they'd never forget it.