So it’s Thursday afternoon, the breaking news is that this Sunday at the Download festival is going to be special, and I mean SPECIAL!

There is a band due to play the secondary Scuzz stage mid-afternoon, and lots of people say it isn’t who it’s supposed to be. But before you can say ‘Holy-Fucking S&M‘ there is a statement from Download promoter Clear Channel about the ‘Secret’ band’s appearance, or lack of. It read thus:

‘Having seen the rumours circulating online, and heard the rumour on the radio today, Clear Channel, in it’s capacity as Download Festival promoter, has issued the following statement: ‘We are huge fans at Download and would be honoured to have them [Metallica] performing at our festival. However, they are not playing at Download. We gather a rumour was started when we added Apocalyptica to the bill earlier this week’

That’s that then. So we at Shakenstir head off on a sunny Sunday morning to a racetrack in the deepest East Midlands. We get there at midday, we stop off at the media portacabin on the way in to pick up our guest and photo passes for the Scuzz stage, although we are not allowed one for the main stage! Rumours abound: will it? won’t it? could it be? Well, like the Egyptian river (Denial) we get blank stares. We park and amble through while our photographer heads to take some shots while me and my bud go to the bar!

We check out some live acts, go back to the bar, then around 2:30pm strange things are afoot at the circle D! There’s a chap who’s running around telling everyone, “it’s a Tama drum kit, double bass, just like what HE plays.” Someone else yells, “I just saw ‘Big Mick‘, THEY don’t have anyone else to do their sound, Mick don’t do anyone else.” We hear a huge cheer from the Scuzz stage tent, a kid comes running through the backstage guest area yelling “It’s THEM! they have their new logo all over every amp!” At this point around 250 people are in the guest area, within two seconds there are two! Me and Mark, even the bar staff and the food venders are out, ‘You want a burger and a beer, you best come back in an hour’ is the story.

So we amble out around 2:45pm, the tent is two thirds full, people are milling around, every other person has a mobile phone in their hand and is telling someone ‘I don’t fucking care where you are, you best get your arse over here fast.’ Then out of the shadows of the backstage area a figure appears. A guy shouts ‘That’s him, nobody else has that look, that black vest, curly long hair.’ The vibe is electric, you can feel the tension, anticipation is so high, still we all look at each other, ‘it can’t be, can it?’ Then the lights change, four men walk onto the stage, the crowd goes fucking mental, they pick up their instruments. It’s 3:15pm on a Sunday afternoon, then like a flash straight out of hell No Remorse ladies and gentleman, one band, one word…

METALLICA!!!!!!!!!

You read that right, James, Kirk, Lars & ‘new boy’ Robert are right in front of my eyes. I have goosebumps the size of grapes all over my arms, we are still shocked and stunned, because it really is them. Not only is it them, but they are on fire. James is chopping those licks like he has a knife at his most hated enemy’s neck. Robert is playing that bass like a demon possessed. Kirk seems like a man who has everything riding on every guitar solo, and Lars! Lars is like a man half his age, fuck me he’s hitting those drums so hard! Hungry? This band is fucking famished!

They run through Blackened, Damage Inc, Harvester of Sorrow, Sanitarium, Sad But True - it’s like Christmas and your birthday has come all at once! I’m singing, my voice is just getting more fucked by the minute, three-quarters of an hour have passed in a flash. Our roving reporter Ade turns up. As he walked into the tent, a security guy said to him ‘Some band is on in there playing Metallica covers.’ So as Ade walks closer to the stage, he realizes that this ain’t no tribute act, this is the real thing. He stands like all around - in total awe, in amazement - they play two new songs, one is the new single from the new album ST ANGER. Then they play a song and dedicate it to ‘the faithful’. That song is Master Of Puppets and it’s like they never played any of these older songs before, they take on a fresh new life. The crowd reaction is amazing, they give so much love to the band, the band give it right back, the crowd want the band to go higher, the band want the crowd to respond more - back and forth like some sublime feeding frenzy, each element playing off each other. The sound is awesome; the drums and bass rattle your soul, the vocals are crisp and clear, every note is perfect, it’s loud, fuck yeah, it’s loud, but it’s also clear…

What seems like five minutes, has been an hour, they leave, they come back. They then deliver one more reason why they are still the number 1 Rock band. That reason is Creeping Death, like everything else today it sounds so fresh, so now!

This was one of ‘those’ moments, around 8,000 of the 40,000 here today at Download are in this tent, they all fell as one, they all know this will be talked about for years as one of those ‘I was there, where where you?’ moments. I bet by today the other 32,000 are all claiming to have been in the tent also… Metallica played for 1 hour and 15 minutes, it was one of the best hour and a quarters of my life. I don’t know what has happened to this band, well I do, it’s been well documented, but they are ‘reborn’ they have a determination to prove they are still the best. They wave goodbye, they smile, they tell us that they will see us at Reading then they are gone. We all clamber to get to the back of the stage, they have security around them that’s presidential, they are gone.

We return to the guest area, we sit around looking at each other, questioning what we just saw, what we think we saw, others around us confirm it was true, 2003 just got better…

Suffice to say that there were plenty of bands left to see at Download, but when we met up with our photographer in the car park at 11pm, we had not bothered to see another one, what would have been the point?