Metallica have donated £20,000 to a foodbank in Cardiff after playing in the city on Sunday night (June 28).
They made a stop there as part of the ongoing ‘M72 World Tour’, which so far has also seen the band become the first-ever metal group to collaborate with UK blood services as part of a charitable effort to urge fans to donate blood and plasma around their UK tour dates.
Now, it’s emerged that they also donated to Cardiff Foodbank through their All Within My Hands foundation.
“We had an email saying ‘This isn’t a scam, please get in touch with the foundation’,” Rachel Biggs, CEO of Cardiff Foodbank told the BBC. “They said, ‘We are going to donate £20,000 to you’.”
It came after the foodbank were forced to appeal for donations on social media, saying they were “very worried” because they had never seen their warehouse so empty. “It’s an incredible amount of money which will make such a difference and replenish our empty shelves,” Biggs added.
Cardiff Foodbank supports 20,000 people a year and has eight centres across the city, as well as a mobile service delivering pre-packaged bags.
Metallica now joined Taylor Swift in donating to the cause, after she made her own donation in 2024 after her ‘Era’s Tour’ stop at the Principality Stadium.
Having described the latest donation from Metallica as their “largest celebrity donation”, they added: “What’s great for us [is] it helps raise the profile and what Metallica are doing is mobilising their fans, mobilising the local community.”
Before the Cardiff stop, the band hit Dublin and Glasgow, covering The Proclaimers’ ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ and The Pogues‘ ‘Dirty Old Town’.
At their first show in Dublin on June 19, Hammett fell from the stage during ‘Seek & Destroy’, with the guitarist losing his footing near the edge of the stage, before being helped back up and continuing the song. He later joked about the moment on Instagram, captioning a clip: “Slip & Destroy.”
That came days after Hammett drew criticism from Swift fans for wearing a T-shirt reading “Taylor Swift Is A CIA Psyop” at a June 13 show in Budapest. Hammett appeared to address the controversy in a recent interview, criticising the current state of popular music by claiming: “Right now, songwriting and pop music is crap.”
“I’m hoping that all these great musicians who can teach themselves through the internet step up and put all that great learning and all that great inspiration into creating new stuff, new songs, the future of music, and at a higher standard than what it is now,” he added. “Because I’ll say it again, K-R-A-P. Crap. Sorry for all you pop fans out there.”
Metallica are currently on the UK and European leg of their ‘M72’ world tour, which began in 2023 in support of their 11th studio album ‘72 Seasons’. Remaining UK and European dates are:
JULY
3 – London, London Stadium
5 – London, London Stadium
Find any remaining tickets here.
In a four-star review of Metallica’s ‘M72’ tour opener in Amsterdam, NME wrote: “Metallica have always been a gateway band for heavy music, but there’s a renewed excitement around them now. Tonight’s surprising, ambitious and giddy gig matches that energy at every turn.”
“From the gorgeous ‘Nothing Else Matters’ through to the unifying ‘Seek & Destroy’, the majesty of heavy music is on full display throughout the gig as Metallica prove why they’re clearly still the greatest metal band around.”
The band also released ‘Reload (Remastered)’, an expanded reissue of their 1997 album featuring previously unreleased demos, rough mixes, live performances and more, yesterday (June 26).