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 WHAT
HAPPENED THAT TERRIBLE DAY?
 Fresh
from their triumphant UK tour, Metallica had headed once more
for Scandinavia where they'd played three shows at the Olympen
in Lund (September 24, 1986), the Skedsmohallen (September 25,
1986) in Oslo and at the Sonahallen in Stockholm (September 26,
1986). It was approaching dawn on Saturday, the 27th of September
1986, and Metallica's two tour buses were on their way to do a
fourth show in Copenhagen. The were traveling along a god forsaken
road between the Scandinavian cities of Stockholm and Copenhagen.
Apart from these vehicles, the route was deserted, there was no
one else traveling at that early hour of the morning. Suddenly,
for no apparent reason, just before dawn, at about 5:15 am, one
of the coaches swerved violently to its right and started careening
wildly down the wrong side of the road. It was out of control,
and a crash was inevitable. On board were the four band members,
along with drum tech Flemming Larsen, guitar assistants John Marshall
and Aidan Mullen, and road manager Bobby Schneide
John
Marshall: "We were on a two-lane road. The bus went off to
the right, and I think the driver over corrected, cranking the
wheel to the left to get us back on the road. The wheel grabbed,
and the bus swung completely around. During this time, the tail
of the bus was sliding, kind of fishtailing around and bouncing
on its wheels. That was right when we all started to wake up.
I think I bounced right out of my bunk. The bunks were like trays
with foam in them. The foam was held in place by a wooden lip.
When the bus started rocking, my back bounced across that lip.
Afterwards, I could barely walk, it hurt so bad. The bus eventually
slid to the dirt alongside the road. When the wheels caught, the
bus rolled over on its side."
The
bus's brief but horrific excursion came to a halt some 60 feet
further up the tarmac. By this time, though, the vehicle was on
its side and lying in a ditch by the side of the road near the
small Swedish town of Ljungby.
 During
the unavoidable confusion that followed, the vast majority of
the overturned bus's passengers managed to scramble free of the
wreckage. Mullen and Larsen, who'd slept in right-side bunks,
were pinned under the rubble for nearly three hours before the
fire department jacked up the debris and rescued them. Those that
emerged included three of the four members of the band. In truth,
the survivors had been extremely lucky, as they'd all some how
managed to escape with little more than minor injuries and shock.
Lars broke a finger, James only suffered from minor superficial
injuries and Kirk's eye was blackened. Kirk, who'd blacked out
after being thrown from his bunk, snapped to consciousness and
made his way through a side emergency hatch. Bobby Schneider,
the tour manager, dislocated his arm, and another crew member
had contusions.
Swedish
police arriving on the scene of the accident immediately arrested
the driver as a matter of routine. They later released him without
charging him after further investigation revealed that the cause
of the accident was black ice on a nasty bend in the road. This
episode was simply a tragic and cruel accident that killed the
way Metallica was building.
"We
were all sitting out there in 35 degree weather, with me in my
socks and underwear before someone gave me a blanket. I remember
Kirk and James yelling at the driver. By then, everyone had begun
to realize that something was wrong with Cliff. I remember James
walking up the road a bit to see if there was ice on the road,
because the driver had claimed he'd slid over a sheet of ice.
Kirk was crying." ---John Marshall---
 Unfortunately,
however, there had been one fatality in the accident. The deceased
individual turned out to be one of the group. Cliff was sleeping
on the top level of the right rear bunk in the bus when the bus
started to roll and he was thrown out of the bus window. The bunks
had toppled like match sticks, teetering into one another and
collapsing into what resembled a pile of kindling.He was crushed
by the bus in the accident and died immediately on contact. So,
tragically, in the short space of those few dreadful seconds on
that lonely Swedish road, Metallica's dreamlike existence was
suddenly transformed into a hellish nightmare. Their 24 year-old
bass player, Cliff Burton, was dead.
"I
saw the bus lying right on him. I saw his legs sticking out. I
freaked. The bus driver, I recall, was trying to yank the blanket
out from under him to use for other people. I just went, 'Don't
fucking do that!' I already wanted to kill the guy. I don't know
if he was drunk or if he hit some ice. All I knew was, he was
driving and Cliff wasn't alive anymore."
"I
just recall our tour manager Bobby saying, 'Okay, let's get the
band together and take them back to the hotel.' The only thing
I could think was, 'The band? No way! There ain't no band. The
band is not "the band" right now. It's just three guys."
--- James Hetfield - 1993
The
dazed group dealt with their anxiety in the manner they were most
familiar with: drinking. James broke two hotel windows and screamed,
venting his rage. Kirk and his guitar tech, John Marshall, were
so shaken that they left the light on in their room that night.
On September 29th, Metallica minus one returned to the United
States.
CLIFF'S
MEMORIAL GUESTBOOK
Everyday
lot's of Metallica fans come here and write their opinions about
Cliff Burton. It's your turn now. Would you like to write something
about Cliff Burton? You can also read what other fans wrote about
Cliff...
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