Metallica are annoyed at me

500-Weeks #004

Metallica in Toronto. Photo © 1996 by Steven Lungley

Did you ever discover a band that blew your young, teenage mind? Then try to play the bands’ so obviously awesome and life-changing tunes to your parents, who just didn’t get it? They would listen to make you happy, and say it was very nice – if a bit too loud - and then ask if you liked the music from when they were fourteen? And you just knew they were just so out if it?

Remember that thought for a minute.

The 1996 edition of Lollapalooza was coming to Barrie, Canada, with Metallica as the headliners. I got the assignment to go and take their photo.

They were a multi-platinum selling band at this point, with a rabid, worldwide fan base. Problem was, I wasn’t one of them. I had heard of them, and some of their songs, but it wasn’t my thing. I grew up listening to punk rock before moving on to RnB and funk. Metal just never made me want to move my feet, or shake my head.  

Nothing against them, or anyone who loves them, or anyone who loves any other type of music, it’s just that, well, metal has never spoken to me. However, I am very much a “to each their own” kind of guy when it comes to music. If it moves you, that’s great.

I did know they projected a threatening image, so I decided to go with that, planning to make them look fierce and a bit menacing. With that in mind I planned to light them from below, in a horror movie style, with the shading going up. I tried out several versions at my studio / apartment before hand.

This was the year I gave up on using flash for everything and went with hot lights on certain projects. I had several 650-watt lamps from the 1960s that were designed for amateur filmmakers. The boxes they came in proclaimed “Super 8 Quartz Movie Lite.” They were really small and got really hot if used for too long, but none of my photo shoots lasted more than ten minutes. The drawback was I had to use slower shutter speeds and a tripod, but I was okay with that level of formality. The upside was they were quite bright, so focusing was easier. And the subject certainly knew they were in the spotlight, because of the bright light.

On the day the shoot was scheduled, I went to the appropriate hotel, arriving in one of the rooms they had assigned for photography and looked around, trying to find a spot where I could stage a group photo. I wasn’t into wide-angle lenses at the time, so I needed enough space to back up with the camera and manage to see all four of them. Found my spot, set up and checked my lighting, re-creating what I had tested at home. While waiting around, the phone in the room rang. I answered, and a very intense, male voice comes over the line:

“Hello. Metallica are on their way. I repeat: Metallica are on their way. Are you ready?”

“Uh, yeah” was my comeback.

The voice hung up.

Another ten minutes go by.  The phone rings again. The intense voice is back.

“Metallica are on their way. You will have six minutes. Are you ready?”

“Uhhh, yep” I reply. “Still ready.”

About ten minutes later, Metallica are in the room, along with their own make-up artist. They get touched up. Special attention is paid to their eyeliner.

I set them up, and I have to say, they know their part of the deal. Close to each other, but no faces blocked. Attitudes put in place, serious facial expressions displayed, hands in good places. They have an image to project and that is what they deliver. 

Metallica, standing still. Photo © 1996 by Steven Lungley

However, due to my hot light use, there is no “flash” to freeze the action. I was using a slow, 1/15^th of a second shutter speed, so I needed them to stand quite still. The band member in the middle, camera right, was moving around, so I moved my eye from the viewfinder and requested “Can you, um, stop moving around, please?“

One of the band members respond back “Who? Kirk or Lars?” 

I had to admit, “I don’t know” I point and indicate “You.”

They were flabbergasted “You don’t know our names?”

I responded, rather sheepishly “Uhhh, no.”

And instantly, I’m the uncool, out of touch dad in this scenario. The one who just doesn’t get it. Or maybe, I just sort of popped the bubble on their sense of self-importance.  Hard to be sure, as I didn’t have the time to ask.

Regardless, the result was that the band became annoyed with me, their scowls began very real and even more intense than before, and the results are the photos you see here. I changed cameras – one was loaded with colour, the other with B&W – took photos until my six minutes were up, and off they went.

To their credit, they did follow my request and stopped moving around.

The lights used for these photos. Image © 1996 by Steven Lungley

As the 90’s wore on, pitcher Mariano Rivera rose to fame with the New York Yankees as the greatest closer in baseball. He used “Enter Sandman” by Metallica as his entrance music whenever he came into a game. I’m a baseball fan. I listed to that tune a lot. As well as some others, and discovered that Metallica are an awesome band. 

And that it was Lars who kept moving around.

Technical stuff: Cameras: B&W shot with a Rolleiflex TLR with 75mm f/3.5 Schneider Xenar lens and outfitted with a Beattie Intenscreen ground glass using Agfapan APX 400 film. Colour shot with a Bronica ETRsi wth 75mm f/2.8 Zenzanon-PE lens using Fuji Super-G 400 colour negative film.

Lighting: Tungsten, one 650 watt Acme-Lite bounced into an umbrella, placed below the lens.