Two Metallica fans in Australia have been slapped with lifetime bans from Perth’s Optus Stadium. The reason? They climbed a speaker tower during the band’s Nov. 1 concert, as part of their M72 World Tour. A judge called their stunt “incredibly stupid.”
According to local news outlet PerthNow, 20-year-old Beau William Loch Rollings and 23-year-old Rory Hugh Culbert were the men arrested. They jumped a safety barrier and scaled the central tower inside the stadium bowl. They reportedly were “clinging to the structure at heights reportedly between 10 and 50 meters for around 20 minutes while the concert continued.”
Ultimately, stadium security and police officers swooped in and apprehended the men. Officers also confiscated the men’s phones, which allegedly contained footage of their climbing stunt.
The defense lawyer for the men who climbed the speaker towers stated that she found their behavior to be “just stupid.”
In her assessment of the crime, Magistrate Ruth Dineen was very direct with Rollings and Culbert. She described their tower climb as “an incredibly stupid thing to do and a good way to ruin your night out.” She also noted that, while it may have “seemed funny at the time,” this incident was a very serious safety issue.
The men’s defense attorney, Rachael Gemmell, characterized it as “just stupid behavior.” She added that the two men had learned their lesson.
Rollings and Culbert both pleaded guilty to trespassing charges. They reportedly acknowledged “the gravity of the situation without offering a motive.” IN addition to being banned from the stadium, Rollings was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $308.80 in court costs. Culbert’s court penalty was similar.
This wasn’t even the first notable incident at a Metallica concert this year
The climbing stunt is certainly not a small deal, but it’s not even the first big incident at one of Metallica’s 2025 stadium tour concerts. On the band’s May 7th show at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia, the crowd went so wild that they essentially caused an earthquake.
During the concert, the Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory registered two tremors. Both were when the band was performing “Enter Sandman.” The tremors were believed to have been caused by 60,000 audience members jumping in unison throughout the song.
The Observatory published readings that indicated two major spikes. The first was when Metallica teased the intro of “Enter Sandman.” The second, larger spike was when they went into the song. Notably, “Enter Sandman” has been the entrance theme for Virginia Tech’s football team, the Hokies, for many years.
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