Metallica Stir Up a Mosh Pit at "Death Magnetic" Show for BBC

Fresh off a launch party/concert for Death Magnetic in Berlin, Metallica checked into London's BBC Theatre last night to record a one-hour live radio broadcast that saw the band test five new tracks and rifle through a handful of old favorites. "Do you like?" Metallica frontman James Hetfield asked of 300-plus fan club members after the band ripped through "That Was Just Your Life" and "End of the Line," two cuts from the new album.

The Metallica faithful were well acquainted with Death Magnetic and obliged Hetfield when asked to "Sing along, if you know the words" on the first two singles "Cyanide" and "The Day That Never Comes." After 45 minutes of nonstop speed metal, Metallica produced a thundering conclusion (and perhaps the first-ever mosh pit at the BBC) with classics "Master of Puppets" and "Blackened." Metallica stuck around for a few moments after the show as Hetfield high-fived fans while Lars Ulrich tossed drumsticks into the crowd.

For those in the U.K., the concert will be broadcast tonight on Radio One at 9:00 PM GMT. Following the radio broadcast, the full gig will be available for streaming on the BBC's Website. Metallica play in London again tonight at the O2 Arena and will kick off their 35-date North American tour on October 21st in Glendale, Arizona.

Set List:
"That Was Just Your Life"
"End of the Line"
"Until it Sleeps"
"Broken Beat Scarred"
"Cyanide"
"Frantic"
"For Whom the Bell Tolls"
"The Day That Never Comes"
"Master of Puppets"
"Blackened"

Related Stories: • Metallica Expected to Sell 500K Copies of Death Magnetic Despite Short Sales Week
• Album Review: Metallica, Death Magnetic (4 stars)
• Metallica Premiere Video For "The Day That Never Comes"

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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