Metal

Metallica's only appearance as a 5 piece happened on April 23 with Damien Phillips (aka Jeff Warner). James did not want to have to sing and play guitar so the band were looking for a vocalist. JamesHetfield played his first gig on rhythm guitar on May 25 at Lars High school at Back Bay Costa Mesa California. It was at this point that Dave Mustaine joined the band he came to replace Lloyd Grantand played lead guitar, the joining with Dave Mustaine brought the band allot more equipment which they needed at that time.

It was on June 14 that the Metal Massacre LP was released it wasMetallica's first appearance on an official record the first release of the LP contained a few mistakes though the bands name was miss spelt Mettallica and Lloyd grants name was misspelled as Loydd Grant.Brian Slagel did not have the money to reprint the sleeves and they had to stay as the were.

July 6 marked the start of the recording of the No Life Til Leather demo tape which contained the songsHit The Lights (version 4), Seek And Destroy, Motorbreath (version 2), The Mechanix (version 2), Jump In The Fire (version 2), Metal Militia and Phantom Lord. This demo was funded by High VelocityRecords

Metallica played their first San Francisco gig at the Keystone on September 18. On November 11 the band played at the Woodstock in Los Angeles supporting Y&T but it was on November 29 thatMetallica played their first headlining show in San Francisco with Kirk Hammett's band Exodus opening for them. Ron Mcgovney played his last gig with Metallica on November 30 it was at Mabukay Gardens inSan Francisco. It was only on December 10 that Metallica and Ron Mcgovney parted company though.

December 28 1982 was the day when Cliff Burton joined Metallica after persuading them to relocate toSan Francisco, this was Cliff's deal for joining the band. This led to Metallica musically reaching a stage they may not have reached if Cliff had not joined the band his influence was immediately...