Metallica By Request

June 19^th has been and gone. That day might not mean much to some people (in fact I’d wager there are a fair few football fans in England who might want to pretend that nothing ever happened on this day) but to Sonisphere ticket holders, this day meant something. This was the day that voting closed on the Metallica By Request set list voting. When I bought my day tickets, I voted for the 17 of 18 songs I wanted to hear them play (the 18^th being a new song called Lords of Summer). Only one of the 17 songs I voted for ended up in the top 17, which was a shame. Across the board, there have been very few “rarer” songs that have been voted for. While there has been the odd occasional surprise in some of Metallica’s set lists this year, most of the songs that have been played you would expect to be played at any Metallica show. One of the big surprises has been the very first live performance of The Frayed Ends Of Sanity being voted for in Helsinki (I may have priced up flights). I’m not complaining about the lack of surprises in these set lists. I had hoped there would be more, but bands have most popular songs, and these songs are the ones which got the most votes. I’m going to see Metallica at Sonisphere Knebworth, and this is what has been chosen (in order of the % of votes they received). At the end, there will be 3 songs which will have VOTD next to them – I’ll explain that later.

1. Master of Puppets (65%)

2. For Whom The Bell Tolls (58%)

3. One (56%)

4. Fade To Black (49%)

5. Battery (49%)

6. Seek And Destroy (49%)

7. Enter Sandman (47%)

8. Nothing Else Matters (44%)

9. Welcome Home (Sanitarium) (43%)

10. Creeping Death (40%)

11. Sad But True (39%)

12. Ride The Lightning (38%)

13. Whiskey In The Jar (38%)

14. The Unforgiven (38%)

15. Blackened (36%)

16. Fuel (35%)

17. The Four Horsemen (32%) VOTD

18. Wherever I May Roam (32%) VOTD

19. ...And Justice For All (31%) VOTD

VOTD means Vote Of The Day. I’m not 100% certain how it is going to work other than the songs that finished 17^th, 18^th and 19^th go into a separate vote on the day of the gig and whichever song wins is played as the 17^th song that day. Like I said, I’ve no idea how it works, it could be by texting I guess which might explain why at a festival of over 100,000 people, less than 3,000 votes were cast at Rock AM Ring – they are the only people who could get phone signal! If I had to make a choice regarding the Vote Of The Day song for Knebworth, I would vote for ...And Justice For All. I like all 3 songs that are available so I don’t mind which way it goes, but I’ve only seen that song live twice before (just realised as I looked it up, I’ve only seen Four Horseman twice before as well, oh well). The question on nobody’s lips at this point is which the 1 song is that I voted for that made it to the top 17. Well, I can reveal that the song I voted for that made it is Metallica’s cover of Whiskey In The Jar. I am stoked that I will be seeing this song live – I was prepared to fly to Dublin to see Metallica live just to I could hear this song performed. I am quite glad I don’t have to do that now (as that really wouldn’t have been cheap). One thing I have observed is that aside from one song from the 17 we voted for, Knebworth and Rock AM Ring will have identical set lists. For that reason, I believe on the day, Metallica’s set list will look something like this

Battery
Master of Puppets
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Ride The Lightning
The Unforgiven
Creeping Death
Lords Of Summer
Sad But True
Fade To Black
Fuel
One
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Whiskey In The Jar
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
-----------------------------------------------
Blackened
Vote Of The Day
Seek And Destroy


Metallica play Sonisphere Knebworth in 2 weeks from today, and I can’t bloody wait!