Description
Grey marbled vinyl. Limited 100 numbered copies
The 2013 tour with Iron Maiden was based on their 1988 Maiden England tour, on the back of that year’s Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son album. Thus there are larks aplenty: Dickinson draping a flag on guitarist Janick Gers’ head as he solos his way through The Trooper, and generally making a nuisance of himself with his bandmates over the course of a couple of hours. Hopefully we’ve got some surprises for you, except you’ve probably read about them on the internet, says Dickinson during the first break in the set. Still, we might change things around a bit … no, no, we won’t. That said, there is an air of spontaneity about the band and the crude sexual miming by mascot Eddie during his first appearance on stage seems more off-the-cuff than the result of hours of rehearsal. Opening with Moonchild and Can I Play With Madness from the 88 album the tour is based upon and then going into The Prisoner and so on. Their is virtually nothing to complain about as, despite all the smoke and mirrors and leaping about, it’s the songs that are the star here, particularly as this set is almost solely based on their 80s heyday. It’s almost too easy for those not beguiled by the cult of Iron Maiden to dismiss them, as they are pretty much the embodiment of heavy metal’s enduring tropes: straggly hair and tight jeans/spandex – check; endless guitar solos – check (and with three guitarists on lead duties, Maiden can offer 33% more solo for your money, something to consider in these straitened times); portentous, fantastical song titles and themes – check (Phantom Of The Opera, for example, gets a run out this evening, or the Lucozade advert song as it’s known to a certain generation); stuff with skulls and devils on it – check (Eddie appears in three different guises at this gig, eventually ending up as a huge animatronic cadaver holding his own beating heart. Oh, and a giant Baphomet with glowing red eyes is unveiled for Number Of The Beast, too, just in case anyone thought the band was straying from their polite-society-baiting roots). But to criticise the band for their dedication to stagecraft betrays a certain joylessness that goes hand in hand with minimising their musical prowess. This is a group that writes giant, catchy songs with a rough-hewn, but undeniable, pop sensibility. There’s a reason why Two Minutes To Midnight and Run To The Hills (both of which are given an airing) hit the upper echelons of the charts, and this was in the days before concerted campaigns by fans could distort sales figures with ease. And when you hear or see the band, like ont his album from Prague on the 29th of July 2013, you can’t help but marvel at the sheer physicality of the band’s performance – when he is on stage, Dickinson does not stand still for a second; when Gers isn’t scissor kicking or flinging his Strat around his neck, he is resting his leg high above his waist on a side-stage speaker like a ballet dancer at the barre. This no doubt prompts another pang of nostalgia among certain sections of the crowd, as I’m certain I’m ot alone in thinking that the last time I could have done something like that was probably around 1988, too. It’s hard to believe the average age of this band (in 2013 was57) is only a dozen or so years younger than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, as you can’t imagine for a second that any tabloid journalist would be foolish enough to write off these guys in the same way that the Stones Hyde Park performance was derided.
Track list:
1. Moonchild
2. Can I Play With Madness
3. The Prisoner
4. 2 Minutes To Midnight
5. Afraid To Shoot Strangers
6. The Trooper
7. The Number Of The Beast
8. Phantom Of The Opera
9. Run To The Hills
10. Wasted Years
11. Running Free