Metallica: Halifax threatens to not send in the cops

This is a bit of a complicated one.

Last year, the Black Eyed Peas and Alan Jackson played Halifax - we're talking Nova Scotia here, not the Yorkshire one. Ticket sales were disappointing (or, perhaps, expectations were unrealistic) and the promoter, Harold MacKay, is yet to pay back CAD400,000 advanced by the city. Harold had paid back a bit, but then his company went into insolvency.

This year, Harold's wife Michelle MacKay is trying to put on a Metallica concert in the city. Not so fast, says the city:

"The MacKay family has asked the municipality to provide services in support of the METALLICA concert. The municipality is not obliged to provide the services you have requested. If you and any member of your family wish to continue to do concert business with the municipality, the municipality expects that a payment plan to reimburse the public for concert debts will have to be negotiated."

The city won't let police, fire or even permits for the merchandise stall to be assigned to the event without seeing greenbacks. Canadian greenbacks.

It's possible that Metallica fans would prefer there to be no police involved, but the idea of not being able to buy a tshirt would be horrible. They'd be planning to wear that tshirt until the next time Metallica are in town.