Iron Maiden at the O2

RobDavies

Took the kids to see Maiden at the O2 last night.  What a great show - not seen them since Donington in '88, but they've still got it (Maiden that is, not the kids).

Dave Murray is Mr Legato..... just brilliant.

not_the_dj

Really wish I'd been able to see that show.

What was the stage set like? I saw footage of Donnington with the Seventh Son set-up, looked fantastic. 

RobDavies

Yeah - it was Seventh Son.   A "greatest hits" show as well, so nowt from the last five albums, which suits me just fine.

No Hallowed Be Thy Name, though.... :-(

monquixote

Never seen Maiden which is something I need to remedy. 

I have played one of Dave Murray's guitars which was ace. 

mike_l

I would have loved to have gone to that.

I've seen Maiden a few times, last one being at Twickenham, on the  "Somewhere back in time" jaunt.

@monquixote, I'm seriously jealous as without Dave Murray and Adrian Smith, I doubt I'd have picked up a guitar.

@RobDavies, I believe Hallowed got dropped a couple of tours back, having been played constantly (at every concert I think) for 30 (I think) years........

 

Flanging_Fred

I went last night. My ears are still ringing. 'twas a great show and even better than when I saw them about 20 years ago. How much energy do those guys have? Pretty amazing considering they're all getting on a bit now.

joneve

Gutted I didn't get tickets and go. Bah!

Lixarto

It may surprise you to learn that I saw Maiden once - Coatham Bowl in Redcar. 1980.

RocknRollDave

Listen back to Live After Death and then one of the more contemporary live recordings, such as Flight 666.

This is NOT a band which is as good as it was back in the day.



This is a band which is BETTER than ever. How the hell that has happened at their age?! 
Bruce Dickinson's voice, in particular, is in rude health.

dafuzz

Saw them at Download. And a Spitfire!

Never seen them live before. Awesome awesome awesome.

mike_l

RocknRollDave said:

Listen back to Live After Death and then one of the more contemporary live recordings, such as Flight 666.


Since the mid-late 80's when (live) they were trying to play everything at 1,000,000,000 MPH, they've slowed back to the original song tempo's and sound so much better for it. Adrian Smith has commented on the speed thing too, I hadn't noticed until he did.

As for Bruce's voice, yep it's great, but I think a low gig/year ratio and not smoking helps a lot, especially for screamy-singers. IMO Rob Halford would be almost as good these days if he didn't smoke... I also think that Steve Harris' fitness regime for the whole band helps (He likes the whole band to be physically fit for touring)

 

joneve

RocknRollDave said:

Listen back to Live After Death and then one of the more contemporary live recordings, such as Flight 666.

This is NOT a band which is as good as it was back in the day.



This is a band which is BETTER than ever. How the hell that has happened at their age?! 
Bruce Dickinson's voice, in particular, is in rude health.

I would agree with this. I find it difficult to listen to Live After Death because the sound is particularly average. I find Rock in Rio FAR more enjoyable to listen to if I'm hankering for some live Maiden.

digitalscream

I have to say, I often get pilloried for saying that A Matter of Life and Death is my favourite Maiden album. It just feels like there's so much more of everything I loved about earlier albums in it.

I'm yet to see them live, though. I'm not really into going to live shows, to be honest, but Maiden are definitely one of the few on the list of bands I'd like to see.

RocknRollDave

Have to say I'm with you on A Matter of Life and Death. Having never really given them much attention over the years, that was the album that got me into Maiden, so I am very late to the party! Great album, though, much underrated, IMO.

joneve

My only problem with aMoLaD is that EVERY song is an 8 minute opus (with the exception of Different World)! Don't get me wrong, I love 8 and 12 minute epics as much as the next guy, but sometimes I want to bang an album on in the car on my way to town, turn it up and enjoy..It's difficult to do that with aMoLaD because by the time I get to town, I'm still only on the second song!

It's very hard going  (for me anyway) when EVERY song is so long. Dance of Death has a great balance of short, infectious, upbeat rock tracks in  (Rainmaker for example) an slow burners (Paschendale, Dance of Death, No More Lies)..

Having said that, I still like aMoLaD. I really liked Final Frontier too. It's a grower, but I appreciated it more after seeing some of the songs performed live.

BNW will always be the best album of the "new" Maiden era though.

RocknRollDave

Yeah, I know what you mean. Wicker Man is probably my all time favourite Maiden song, so I have a soft spot for BNW too..!

All of the "reunion" albums are excellent, it's like they went from Seventh Son to BNW without all that nonsense in the middle.

digitalscream

RocknRollDave said:

Yeah, I know what you mean. Wicker Man is probably my all time favourite Maiden song, so I have a soft spot for BNW too..!

All of the "reunion" albums are excellent, it's like they went from Seventh Son to BNW without all that nonsense in the middle.

I hear you - the problem is, we supported Blaze Bayley a couple of years ago...talking to the guy, and seeing the haunted look of sadness in his eyes when he talks about Maiden, I feel incredibly guilty for holding to the opinion that his time at the helm resulted in the worst albums they ever made

It's just impossible to not feel for the guy.

RocknRollDave

I suspect that neither the fans nor the band themselves fully embraced him as the singer or gave him a fair crack of the whip.

Bruce is an impossible act to follow, so I do indeed feel for the guy.

Grumpyrocker

X-Factor was a great album. It's very dark - mostly due to the things happening in Steve's life at the time.

But Virtual XI is a very poor effort - though I really like one track "The Educated Fool".

joneve

digitalscream said:

RocknRollDave said:

Yeah, I know what you mean. Wicker Man is probably my all time favourite Maiden song, so I have a soft spot for BNW too..!

All of the "reunion" albums are excellent, it's like they went from Seventh Son to BNW without all that nonsense in the middle.

I hear you - the problem is, we supported Blaze Bayley a couple of years ago...talking to the guy, and seeing the haunted look of sadness in his eyes when he talks about Maiden, I feel incredibly guilty for holding to the opinion that his time at the helm resulted in the worst albums they ever made

It's just impossible to not feel for the guy.

To be fair to Blaze, some of the stuff he recorded is far superior to the first couple of "Janick Years"...I heard "Holy Smoke" on the radio the other day...I couldn't listen to it. Absolutely terrible song.

"Fear of the Dark", as an album was probably the only post-Smith album I can just about listen to...I don't even own "No Prayer for the Dying".

Some of the Blaze-era Maiden tracks I LOVE - Futureal, Sign of the Cross, The Clansman, Lord of the Flies - But as noted, I don't think he was ever given a real shot at the gig.

I have also developed a huge problem with Janick Gers. Don't get me wrong, he seems like a nice guy, but I really don't get what he brings to the band....All he does is ruin classic solos when they play live. Can't he leave well alone with classic guitar solos?

not_the_dj

X-Factor is the only Maiden album I've not got, I should track it down. I recently got a few of the post reunion DVDs, amazing to see how much energy they have on stage, and how up for it the audiences are. I tend to watch Maiden DVDs when I'm doing the ironing, yes I am so Rock'n'Roll