TIL Metallicas Dave Mustaine tried to get a concert in Belfast to support him by saying “Give Ireland back to the Irish”. He instead caused a riot

by Canners19

27 comments

  5. >Metallicas Dave Mustaine

    Oh FFS 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

  7. I think it was in the Antrim Forum in Antrim Town, I don’t think it was in Belfast.

  8. Jesus Christ that title is awful and entirley wrong.

    First off, Dave Mustaine was no longer in Metallica at this stage and hadn’t been for many years. This was with his own band, Megadeth who were/are also very successful in their own right.

    Secondly, there’s actually a massive story behind it all straight from him. There’s no one video with the full story oddly enough so I’d suggest checking out both of these two short interviews about it:

    https://youtu.be/NYPypHTTpNY

    https://youtu.be/h4Ru5tKlm-8

    TL;Dr: It was in Antrim town, not Belfast. A guy was selling bootleg shirts at the venue and when Dave asked why that was allowed, he was told it was for “the cause.”

    Mustaine gets hit by a coin on stage and, probably because he was fairly drunk, decides to [mimic Paul McCartney](https://youtu.be/P_O3cCs9qmM) by saying “give Ireland back to the Irish” and “this is for the cause” before launching into [their cover of Anarchy in the U.K.](https://youtu.be/RvI_UsP_7iA)

    The room divides, a full-scale riot ensues and the band has to be escorted back to Dublin in an armoured bus.

    The whole thing lead to the writing of [Holy Wars… The Punishment Due](https://youtu.be/9d4ui9q7eDM) by the band.

    Also, according to many bootleg sites there’s an audio recording of this gig and I’ve been looking for a copy for ages. If anyone has it please hit me up.

  9. Never change Dave, never change

    Had to get a bulletproof bus back to Dublin as well from what I can remember

  10. The way I heard it told was that Dave came across some street vendors selling bootleg Megadeth t-shirts in the North. When he tried to get them to stop he was told he shouldn’t stop them from selling, because it was for “The cause”.

    Fast forward to the gig that night and Dave is hammered and/or high. Before playing a cover of Anarchy in the UK he says “This one is for the cause!”

    Obviously didn’t go down too well, and a riot broke out. Apparently he then has to travel through Ireland on a bulletproof bus.

  12. Holy Wars was born out of this….”killing for religion is something I don’t understand”

  13. I was at the show in Dublin the next day and the band was really fucked up on stage

  15. He might of being joking but he had a pint🍻😂

  16. Megadeth not Metallica. He wrote the song “Holy Wars and the punishment due” after the incident.

  17. He was off his tits at that gig, could see him snorting something in between songs off a speaker to his left.
    He got political and the mood died in the hall.
    Then the coins and crumpled up cup got sent his way.
    I remember it well, got him on the forehead myself.
    A lot of folks including myself stoped buying MD albums after that

  18. I mean, the title is wildly wrong, but I always appreciate a pic of Dave and his mane.

    I’ll allow it.

  19. Here’s the summarised version. Source: Dave Mustaine’s autobiography, page 191-193.

    They were playing in Antrim, getting hammered backstage pre-show. Someone was selling bootleg T-shirts in the crowd. Mustaine got angry, someone local explained the sales were trying to raise money for the cause. Mustaine said fuck that and the local tried to explain The Troubles. Mustaine was “too drunk to give a shit”.

    They started the show. Mustaine got nailed in the head with a pound coin. Mustaine was fuming now over the T-shirts and getting hit with a coin. Mustaine continued to drink heavily during the show and doesn’t actually remember what happened. He was told that he introduced their last song of the night, a cover of the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy In The UK, by saying “This one’s for the cause. Give ireland back to the Irish!”

    It turned into a riot, the show ended immediately and Megadeth “were quickly escorted out of the area in a bulletproof bus”.

    Mustaine goes on to say he wrote Holy Wars as a result of this and the lyric “fools like me, who cross the sea, and come to foreign lands. Ask the sheep for their beliefs, do you kill on god’s command?” is him taking a self-deprecating go at himself because he was embarrassed by the whole thing.

  20. Anyone else think that was a photo of Jessie Buckley?

  21. Sometimes, people can get carried away by an event, idealism and a lack of knowledge over who is their primary audience.

  23. Northern Irish living in Northern Ireland

    ![gif](giphy|TIdt5o6esGNzdNEsUD)

  25. This is a misconception. He cause a riot because his singing is so terrible.

  26. Not even a United Ireland could get people to warm to Dave Mustaine

  27. Dave Mustaine was fired from Metallica in 1983 and replaced by Kirk Hammett. He (Mustaine) claimed that he wrote the bulk of Kill ‘Em All, even though it was long since proven that he didn’t.

    What actually happened at that gig in Antrim is kind of a long story, and someone might have already said/told an abbreviated version of it.

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