Sometimes a simple image can hit you with a mountain of memories and that happened to me today.
The Official Therapy? Instagram feed this week posted this “Festival” poster for Donington Monsters of Rock 1995.
It is without a doubt one of the most epic moments of my younger years.
Anyone that has ever been into music will tell you that the music you listen to when you were in your teens will always have the biggest impact on you.
I was 16 years old and was well and truly into the Rock/Metal/Grunge scene. The year before (1994, The Greatest year ever for music) some of the most epic bands released some amazing albums.
- The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails.
- Vitalogy, Pearl Jam.
- Dookie, Green Day.
- Soundgarden, Superunknown.
- Grace, Jeff Buckley.
- Purple, Stone Temple Pilots.
- No Need to Argue, The Cranberries.
- Sixteen Stone, Bush.
- The Holy Bible, Manic Street Preachers.
- Deliverance, Corrosion of Conformity.
- Troublegum, Therapy?
- MTV Unplugged in New York, Nirvana.
It was an epic time of music in the UK, brit pop was at its hight and the fallout from the death of Kurt Cobain was driving interest in the Rock music scene.
One big name in the Rock industry that was missing however everybody wondering what they were going to do next. Metallica.
For me; Therapy? was my band. They had hit it big in the UK with the track Screamager and I had not only become obsessed with the Troublegum Album I had also been absorbing their “Nurse” Album.
The day of Therapy?’s released the “Infernal Love” Album in the summer of 1995 I turned up at the record store first thing to get my copy with my best mate.
I sat in the living room of my mate’s house that morning, we put the CD in and pressed play. We both sat there and didn’t move until we had really listened to it. The amazing Photography from Anton Corbijn, the transitions between songs, the rock Cello from Martin McCarrick, the lyrics and the songs. I was in love with “Infernal Love”.
Metallica was on the backend of the Black Album and hadn’t put out any music for a while. While working on their new album they decided to start drumming up interest in preparation for their further release. They picked up that phone and called in some big-name band to support them. Metallica is a very big band and Therapy? by comparison was not, so when Metallica announced a massive UK gig that was basically a takeover of a whole festival for the “Mattalica: Escape from the studio 95” I was shocked to see that one line down on the bill was Therapy?
I had to be there.
My best mate and me as well as some only friends got coach tickets heading from Sunderland City Centre at 4 am in morning to Donnington for a full day of Epicness.
The full bill for the days in retrospect is one of the best lineups of a Rock/Metal gig ever. Looking back Therapy? had no write to be on that bill for such a big event but for me thay 100% should have been there.
I didn’t tell my parents about the Gig… I simply got up at 3 am and made my way to the coach.
My friends were aged 14-17 and not one of us should have been allowed into the gig without adult supervision…. But this was the 90’s.
I had my leather jacket, jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of boots. I had no money to buy food or drink for the whole day. I was just there.
One of my friends (14 years old) got drunk on the coach on the way and they made him wait at the gates for 2 hours to “sober up”.
During the Machine Head set I was down in the mosh pit when a guy ask to use my water to wash the sand off his thumb…. It was hanging off by the skin. We offer to take him to a medical tent… he said he would after the set!!
The Therapy? The set felt so epic after spending the last few months wearing out my copy of Infernal Love, Troublegum and Nurse.
I also remember being totally overwhelmed and transfixed with the fireworks/strobes when Metallica played “One” after a long day of no food or drink and struggling to keep standing. I sat back to allowed it to take me.
In December of that year, me and my best mate both got the mirrored “?” logo tattooed on my body. It was my first tattoo. Ozzie, an old-school tattoo artist must have thought we were gay and was so uncomfortable with the whole thing and didn’t check our ages. I guess he just wanted the money, and us out the door.
When I got back home my parents were very confused while I looked like a sweaty hobo and simply asked…. “Where have you been?”
Still one of the best musical moments of my life and all i have to remember it by is memory and a bootleg Tshirt with incorrectly spelt band names on it. (I blaged £10 off a mate for it)
Phil GB
Offical Metallica Events Page: https://www.metallica.com/
Full Set List: https://www.concertarchives.org