Metallica Glastonbury

METALLICA's appearance Saturday night (June 28) at Glastonbury festival marked the first time in the U.K.s event's 44-year history that a metal act has topped the bill.

The heavy metal giants faced much controversy when they were first announced as headliners — drawing criticism for frontman James Hetfield's apparent support of bear hunting and with many arguing that the band had no place at Glastonbury, a very laid-back type of festival, with more of a hippie/indie vibe than most.

Metallica  found a way to poke fun of the controversy surrounding its headlining appearance at this weekend's Glastonbury festival by selling a special t-shirt at the U.K. event featuring negative quotes about the band emblazoned across it. (See images below.) The front of the shirt features the word "GLASTALLICA" at the top written in the classic METALLICA logo font along with the message "Peace, Love & Metal" at the bottom. Quotes on the back of the shirt range from Alex Turner of the ARCTIC MONKEYS saying "I'm not sure it adds up… Could you have METALLICA in the hippy nucleus?" to British web site The Guardian's headline of "METALLICA at Glastonbury. Whoopee-fucking-doo." Also included is a seemingly out-of-place quote from JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford, who said, "I had a diva moment when I heard about METALLICA at Glastonbury. Next time, Michael [Eavis, Glastonbury organizer], when you want to bring metal to Glastonbury, can you make sure it's British?"

Here is the t shirt

 METALLICA took to the stage last night to a Julien Temple-directed intro video showing a traditional British fox hunt where all four bandmembers played hunt saboteurs, disguised a bears, and killing hunters. The eight-minute video, which can be seen below, was soundtracked by SWEET's glam rock classic "Fox On The Run" and included a clip of the the classic film "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly", in tribute to actor Eli Wallach, who died this week. (METALLICA has used the song "The Ecstasy Of Gold" from "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly" as prelude music at the band's concerts since 1985 and recorded a version of the instrumental for a compilation tribute to composer Ennio Morricone.)

METALLICA's setlist for the Glastonbury festival:

01. Creeping Death
02. For Whom The Bell Tolls
03. Wherever I May Roam
04. Sad But True
05. Fade To Black
06. Cyanide
07. The Unforgiven
08. The Memory Remains
09. One
10. Master Of Puppets
11. Nothing Else Matters
12. Enter Sandman

Encore:

13. Whiskey In The Jar
14. Seek & Destroy

Personally to watch it on mainstream TV in all it's glory on a Saturday night was wonderful.

Never expected Metallica and Glastonbury to be used in the same sentence.

Metallica continue to kick ass.