Listen to New Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) Album

I was really surprised to find out a couple of weeks ago that Iron Maiden founder and bassist Steve Harris was putting out his first-ever solo album.

I thought every Iron Maiden album was a Steve Harris solo album. But it turns out that this release came from a project Steve started contributing to back in the 90s. From a Loudwire article:

Two decades ago, Steve Harris told Raw Magazine that he was beginning a band called British Lion, although the name ‘British Lion’ has since been relegated to an album title, Harris explained the connection in a recent interview with Classic Rock Magazine.

"That’s how it originated,” says Harris. “Over the years I’ve kept in touch with Richie and Graham, and then Richie was working with another guitarist called David Hawkins, who’s a really talented guy, and so we started writing songs together. So on the album there are six songs written with Richie and David, there’s one with just me and Richie, and the others are me, Richie, Graham and a couple of other guys that were around at the time.”

Today, fans can listen to the whole album on the Web, at Metal Hammer. I just started listening, and so far I like it. For sure different from Maiden but good straight-ahead rock and roll. But with Steve Harris' unmistakable bass playing!

For some quick clips, listen to this:



Check it out and let me know what you think?

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Rant

Reading reports of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame event last weekend makes me think it was a big wet fart.

Now, I wasn't there and I have to say that the Guns and Roses semi-reunion sounded great on YouTube. But where were the reunions or even full attendance from inductees this year?

OK no one expected Axl Rose to perform with Slash but not even showing up? Come on dude. He even asked the Hall to not induct him. Ok I guess that is typical Axl but a great opportunity missed.

But what about The Faces? Why didn't Rod the Mod show up? Is he too big for his britches for Woody and company? That would have been a live reunion worth seeing. (Ooops - reports are that he had the flu. Hmmm...)

Only 2/3 of the Beasties showing up is excusable because one of them has cancer.

But how about this: induct bands who can actually show up, not in wheelchairs, but in the flesh to show why the fuck they are still vibrant and deserving to be chosen by Springsteen, Wenner and Van Zandt's boys club.

For example:

Rush. Still touring, putting out new material, selling out venues (and they are not casinos). Maybe on the top of their game after 35 years. A live performance by Rush at a RARHOF event would literally peel people's faces off.

KISS. Ok I get it. Shlock. Hype. Merchandising. But again, still touring and recording. Many millions sold. And that would be a reunion worth seeing just one last time for closure. Peter Criss is not getting any younger and Ace is sober at the moment.

Iron Maiden. I know. Never going to happen. But you don't have Metallica and probably GNR without Maiden. And again, a band still touring amphitheaters, huge around the world, all members currently living. Bruce Dickinson's acceptance speech would be a real keeper, laden with F words and digs at the Hall. Great PR!

OK rant over but a guy can dream, right?

Who do you think ought to be in the Hall? Living or dead?

Iron Maiden to Revisit Seventh Son Setlist on Summer U.S. Tour

I love Iron Maiden, no matter what they choose to play live. The last tour, they did mostly stuff I had never heard before, from their last few albums. And I loved it.

Today the band has announced a Summer 2012 tour where they will dip back into the classic era and play much of the material they did on the 1988 tour for Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

On the Maiden website, singer Bruce Dickinson said:

We have great fun playing the History of Maiden Tours because it gives us an opportunity between new albums to go out and play songs from our earlier catalogue. It’s always fantastic seeing the crowd reaction from a new generation of fans who have never experienced some of these tracks performed live before, and of course we know our longstanding fans will enjoy seeing the original Seventh Son Tour re-visited - with many other surprises! Our intention is to play about two thirds of the original track list of Maiden England, including some songs we have not played live in a very, very long time, plus other favourites we just know the fans are going to want to hear.

For the record, the Seventh Son setlist was:
1. Moonchild
2. The Evil That Men Do
3. The Prisoner
4. Still Life
5. Die With Your Boots On
6. Infinite Dreams
7. Killers
8. Can I Play With Madness
9. Heaven Can Wait
10. Wasted Years
11. The Clairvoyant
12. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
13. The Number Of The Beast
14. Hallowed Be Thy Name
15. Iron Maiden

I saw this tour in 1988. It was the last Maiden show for me for many years, as I lost interest in them until about 6 or 7 years ago when they started coming back around and kicking ass again with great new material.

You can read reviews of some of the band's recent shows here, here and here.

In 1988 the opener was Guns and Roses and frankly I thought they sucked. They were all wasted and I just didn't get into it at all. This time around Alice Cooper opens. How cool is that?

They come to the White River in Washington on July 30 - my wife's birthday, so not toooo sure if I will be making this gig. :) But you sure as hell should. Full tour is here:

Schoolchildren Sing Iron Maiden - Priceless

Props to Seano at Circle of Fits, who found and posted this already but I just had to steal it. Why in the hell was my elementary school music class not this cool? Holy shit. This needs zero explanation or analysis. Just watch it.

Well, actually two notes - see how the BOYS are much more animated by this music, and I do love the ripping air guitar solo section. 'Nuff said.

The Grammy Awards - Neil, Vultures, Maiden, Jeff Beck Win

I did not watch the Grammy Awards tonight. In fact I stopped watching the annual show ages ago. My last good Grammy memory was watching Train perform Drops of Jupiter in 2006 and thinking that they were so fucking good even though that song got way overplayed.

Train won again tonight for a far inferior song but there were some other nice wins. Neil Young won for Best Rock Song with Angry World - his first Grammy win for an actual song (he won for "best art direction on a boxed or special limited edition package" last year - come the hell on), so that injustice has finally been righted.

Them Crooked Vultures took Best Hard Rock Performance for New Fang, beating out Ozzy, Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden. They for sure deserved it - that band is super and I look forward to the second album this year.

And Iron Maiden took Best Metal Performance for El Dorado, beating out Megadeath and Slayer - I guess Jethro Tull didn't have an album out this year.

Jeff Beck took best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Rock Instrumental Performance, and Paul McCartney took Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for Helter Skelter from Good Evening in NYC, so good for him.

Of course the filmmakers who brought us Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage got snubbed for The Doors film, proving that the band can't get into any of these awards or Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame spots even through the back door.

But overall some nice solid rock and hard rock was acknowledged tonight, and for that I am thankful.

But now I can't get that goddamn Train song out of my head again. Here it is so you too can relive the over saturation (right after the youngling's cello solo):

CD Review - Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier

Iron Maiden’s smash hit new album (I am not kidding -- check this out) The Final Frontier combines what we expect from Maiden (time signature and tempo changes galore, dual and triple guitar harmonies, galloping bass and apocalyptic lyrics) with some new twists (slide guitar, some gorgeous acoustic picking, and – gasp – electronic drums). Overall it’s a strong release, and after a few listens here is a sort of song by song take:

First song is in two parts. The first part, called Satellite 15, starts with something I have never heard on a Maiden album, which is heavily distorted Steve Harris bass, transitioning into a bit of a heavy metal jazz odyssey with heavily processed vocals and another first, electronic drums. A bit of a stretch for me here, but then half way through, the song jumps into the Maiden we know and love, as the song The Final Frontier.

Actually I had heard this second half before, as it came out on video a month ago. It’s very melodic. Good guitars and vocal melody but lyrically a little clunky. Kind of like a heavy metal version of Elton John’s Rocket Man, or David Bowie’s Space Oddity, but not as good.

This 8:41 opener goes right into El Dorado, which Maiden released online a while ago too. So I know this one and even saw them play it live. It’s a great tune and really kicks ass live.

Third track, Mother of Mercy, is very, very melodic. Guitars are almost jangling on this song. What I like about this is that with KISS for example, they feel obligated for every guitar tone to be totally overdriven to prove how much they rock. Maiden is cool with clean guitar tones and this song, while about soldiers and war (of course), has a lot of very clean, cool guitar tones on it. Good tune.

Fourth track, Coming Home is really solid – sounds a bit like Revelations but lyrically is about what space travelers feel when their mission is over and they land back on Earth. But you can read into this as a personal band road story too. Very cool – a bit of a departure from Maiden who don’t usually write about personal topics. Some great multi-part guitar harmonies on this one and a nice trading solos center section. Next up is The Alchemist. Upbeat tune. Again great guitar harmonies.

Island of Avalon is a nine-plus minute Steve Harris bass-driven tune a la To Tame A Land but really more like the center section of Seventh Son of A Seventh Son. Very nice chorus effect on the bass – again a nice, pure tone. As with most things Maiden, things move along and change quickly. Before you know it, you are in the 7/8 time center solo section, which I have to say is some of the coolest, trickiest new Maiden I have heard in a long time. If you only wanted to get one song off this CD and lean towards Maiden’s more epic, Steve Harris material, this one is your track. Otherwise, it's El Dorado.

Starlight is another good tune that sort of chugs along in the verses and straightens out in the choruses, which are also a bit of a Seventh Son throwback, chordally. This song is a great example of how with three guitars, the band can have a crunchy complex dual-guitar rhythm going, and then add a cool layer of lead fills or melody over the top. And the solo section is another 7/8 crank fest – they are flexing their 7/8 chops on this CD, and as usual drummer Nicko makes it sound very fluid. Never have been sure how he changes beats, time signatures, grooves etc on a dime but he does, and always has.

The Talisman is a nine-minute tune that starts with some very cool acoustic guitar picking. My guess is that this is driven by Janick Gers, who despite being totally annoying live brought more of a Genesis style open picked chordal feel to a lot of Maiden’s more recent quiet stuff. Shit, this song almost sounds like Steve Hackett on Entanged from Trick of the Tail! Love it. Very different. Of course this acoustic intro bashes into full Maiden gallop overdrive after a couple of minutes and yeah we’ve heard this before but it was good then and it’s good now. Handle it. There is actually some slide guitar in this song and I am not sure I have heard much of that over the years…

The last two songs are long epics as well. The first starts with bass chords, a repeating guitar melody and some moody synth. Maiden embraced synth way back on Seventh Son and I always thought it worked well in these quieter sections. Both of these last songs are top notch with some epic Maiden moments. Overall I give the album a 7 out of 10. For sure worth getting if you are a Maiden fan.

I have to say, after seeing the band on the last tour I went back and bought Brave New World and Dance of Death. I still far prefer A Matter of Life and Death and I hear this as a continuation of that latter album. Very real guitar tones, not a lot of processing on anything. Certainly a CD I will come back to more than a few times. I hope the Final Frontier tour comes back to my neck of the woods – these songs will be great live. Up the Irons!

New Iron Maiden Debuts in U.S. at #4 - Their Highest U.S. Spot Ever - and is #1 in 21 Other Countries

Dig the press release below. With zero support from radio singles, reality TV or having its songs in movies, Iron Maiden has somehow managed to have their new Final Frontier album debut at the band's highest U.S. chart spot ever (#4), and have the release debut at #1 in 21 other countries.

Yes, these days you need to sell fewer units to get on the charts compared to the old days, but all boats lower equally in that scenario. Meaning, that is the case for every album on the charts now. It's all relative.

I just got the CD yesterday (trying to bump them up to #3 you see) and it's very good. I will post a review later this week after I soak in in a bit more.

IRON MAIDEN DEBUTS #4 ON THE U.S. BILLBOARD TOP 200 CHART:

THE FINAL FRONTIER IS THEIR HIGHEST-CHARTING RELEASE EVER IN THE USA

GLOBAL CHART DOMINATION WITH #1 ALBUM SPOTS SO FAR IN 21 COUNTRIES

ARABIA, AUSTRIA, BRAZIL, BULGARIA, CANADA, CHILE, CROATIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, DENMARK, FRANCE, GERMANY, FINLAND, JAPAN, MEXICO, NEW ZEALAND, NORWAY, PORTUGAL, SPAIN, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, U.K. – AND MORE TO FOLLOW

Recent Billboard Magazine headline says it all: “Iron Maiden Slays Rivals…”

Iron Maiden have more than earned their status as one of the foremost contemporary and influential Rock bands in the World as they debut at #1 on sales charts in 21 countries to date with their 15th studio album, The Final Frontier. Released August 17, 2010, from UMe in the U.S. (released in the rest of the world through EMI), The Final Frontier commands the #4 position on the Billboard’s Top 200 Chart, making this their highest ever Billboard Chart entry in the U.S.

With their ever increasing popularity worldwide, based on their legion of loyal fans and the perpetual addition of new young fans, Iron Maiden are able to continually take their place on the uppermost reaches of the charts and fill stadiums and arenas all over the planet year after year.

In addition to their No. 1 spots on the charts in 21 countries to date, maiden are currently No. 2 in Australia, Belgium, Holland, No. 3 in Ireland, Poland and Turkey, No 4 in USA and No 5 in Singapore

The band reunited with longtime Maiden producer Kevin “Caveman” Shirley in early 2010 to record The Final Frontier at Compass Point Studios, Nassau, where they recorded the albums Piece Of Mind (’83), Powerslave (’84) and Somewhere In Time (’86) albums. Bruce Dickinson (vocals) , Steve Harris (bass), Nicko McBrain (drums) and Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers (guitars) are clearly the ultimate Iron Maiden lineup, and one that has become increasingly fearless and boldly creative.

"...the new Iron Maiden album--which is actually everything you might expect, bedecked with a fine, tasteful cover, and emerging in an era where it now has more meaning than ever, since Iron Maiden has become, almost by default, the Heavy Metal icons an entire generation must now strive to equal!" – Yahoo! Music

Thirty years after their eponymous debut album in April 1980 and with more than 80-million albums sold, Iron Maiden are more creatively vibrant, dynamic and relevant than ever. Having completed another North American tour in front of over 350,000 fans in 25 cities, creating a cutting edge video, “The Final Frontier“ produced by the award-winning production company Darkside Animation Films (“Lost in Space,” “Gladiator” and “Black Hawk Down”), and a mind-blowing new stage show, Maiden are in blistering form and ready to take their music into 2011 and beyond.

All chart positions confirmed to date are as follows -

No. 1 – Arabia, Austria, Brazil*, Bulgaria*, Canada, Chile**, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Finland, Japan+, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK,

No. 2 – Australia, Belgium, Holland

No. 3 – Ireland, Poland, Turkey*

No. 4 – USA

No. 5 - Singapore

Interview - Iron Maiden Illustrator Derek Riggs

When I was getting into Iron Maiden in high school, part of the band's appeal was the insanely over the top, gory artwork on the band's album covers and how it seemed to evolve over time and connect with the previous album's artwork. It was very clever and appealing to me, while also a bit morbid. Perfect for high school.

The first couple of albums were just crazy Eddie killing people in alleys. But around Piece of Mind, themes began to emerge. Lobotomized Eddie. Egyptian God Eddie. Terminator Eddie. I must have logged as many hours staring at the Powerslave artwork as I did studying sophomore English. More, probably.

Album covers like Sabbath's The Mob Rules had as big an impact but with less mystery. It was less about "oh, what does this weird symbol in the background mean" and more about "Jesus these guys are total devil worshippers."

Turns out that all of Maiden artwork until 2002's Fear of the Dark was done by a guy named Derek Riggs. Of course I knew that because Maiden put everyone who did anything for the band into its tour programs - another reason I thought/think the band is so cool - and Riggs was always in some weird photo.

But he had a falling out with the band's management and refused to do any more art for them, even signing over the rights to the images he had created over the years. He is a real artist's artist, this guy, and in this Metal Sucks interview with Derek Riggs, we get these nuggets:

I was always trying to make the albums flow from one to the next. There’s more than just a bunch of pictures. There’s a visual, symbolic language that’s shared between releases. [laughs] Of course, I made Maiden think that it was them that was doing that.

When I’m painting a cover, this is what’s going through my head. The cover for the CD or record is the front end, but what’s making the money for the band is the merchandise. Of course, in [the band members'] minds, they’re the equal of Mozart. But if you’re like the FBI and follow the money, you’ll see that the band is just a front for a very large merchandising operation. The band might not know enough to know this, but I know it. So you look at a cover and think, “That’s not going to make a good shirt

I was right on the border of this for Somewhere in Time. The artwork is good on the record to hold in your hands, but it almost doesn’t work on a t-shirt.

Really, I’ve done zombies. At this point, it’s like, “How do you want your zombie? Would you like him with a burning city behind him or with lightning? Do you want him boiled or fried?” [laughs]

It's a really solid interview - check out the whole thing.

New Iron Maiden Video Marries Alien with Raiders of the Lost Ark

I used to love Iron Maiden's videos back in the day because they would always focus on long shots of the band either playing live (or on a soundstage) or in the studio, donning headphones like the Flight of Icarus video.

I had not seen any of the band's latter video efforts until just this week, when I checked out the band's latest for the new song The Final Frontier. I have to agree with my good friend Pat that El Dorado is a better new song than The Final Frontier but I am just glad to get any new Maiden at all, so there.

The video is very, very high budget and it breaks from the old tradition in that you don't see the band at all in the video. In fact, it's almost a short movie with Maiden music playing in the background.

The beginning is almost like the Powerslave song Aces High set to film and thrown into the future. It's a very cool dogfight sequence. The rest is some kind of weird take on Alien and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but hey that can't be bad, right? And this is for sure the most bad-ass Eddie we have ever seen!

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think:


The Final Frontier - Director's Cut

Iron Maiden | MySpace Music Videos

Concert Review - Iron Maiden

Caught Iron Maiden last night in the second week of their Final Frontier tour. As expected, the band did mostly material from its last three albums, much to the chagrin of many Maiden fans based on Internet chatter. I too wish they had struck a better balance between all the various eras of the band, mainly because I did not know the bulk of the material performed.

The day before, I had put together an iPod playlist of the set list (I had to buy most of it on iTunes), and we listened to it in the car. Great stuff for the most part, but I like to have a better grasp on a band’s music before seeing it live. Especially when the average song length is seven or eight minutes.

But last night, people were into it! It seems for example that Fear of the Dark, a song I had never heard prior to the last tour, is a huge fan favorite. Same with Brave New World. Huh.

The band exploded onto the new outer-space themed stage set after an opening of Mars The Bringer of War by Holtz. The Wicker Man was first and it went on from there. Two things really struck me this time. Bruce Dickinson’s voice was in top form, and Dave Murray was totally on fire. He has always been my favorite Maiden gunslinger even though Adrian Smith might be technically better. But Murray was totally inspired. His leads blew me away and he has that unique tone where he uses the wah pedal only part way engaged so it has that washy sound. Awesome.

Steve Harris was manic and precise as usual, and Janik Gers annoyed me far less than the last two tours. Probably because he has a big role in these latter era songs, as he played on those albums. I really enjoyed the three-guitar interplay, actually. Whether it was a three part harmony or a layer of three totally different parts, it was really interesting. You just don’t see bands with three virtuoso guitarists who equally share the spotlight.

The place was packed all the way back to the lawn. Dickinson joked that Maiden must be getting the overspill from the cancelled Christina Aguilera tour. Ha ha. The set was high energy and if people were pissed at the set list they didn’t let on. People stood the entire time, fists in the air, and again people seemed to know these songs and sang along all night.

Aside from the five older tunes, my favorites were the new El Dorado, which absolutely kills live (and I got the solo order wrong in my review – it’s Smith, Murray, Gers!), and the two songs from A Matter of Life And Death. I wish they had done more from that CD, as I still think it’s one of their best post Seventh Son efforts.

Reviews of the tour have overall been positive, performance-wise. Meaning, people bitch about the set list but in the next breath say, “But Maiden was awesome as usual.”

I think it just depends on when you discovered the band. Before the song Blood Brothers (which Dickinson dedicated to Dio, by the way – very cool), Brucie asked how many people were seeing the band for the first time. A LOT of hands went up and there was a sense of torches being passed. But instead of a KISS concert where the same old torch gets handed off, with Maiden you get a whole new set of tunes to call your own.

Put it this way – one kid I talked to (the son of a friend) brought his Brave New World CD for Steve Harris to sign. He told me that Out Of A Silent Planet from that album is the best song Maiden has ever recorded. He was very adamant about this. I had never heard the song before and I barely knew the handful of songs Maiden would pull live from that album.

But I realized on my way home that to this kid, Brave New World is his Powerslave. Or if you are even older than me, his Killers. This is the CD he probably discovered Maiden with and who am I to say it’s no good? He was rightly stoked they were going to do four songs off of it, as I was stoked last time to hear so much from Powerslave.

It’s very, very cool that Maiden can provide so many different frames of reference for its multiple generations of fans.

We heard that after this short tour of the States there is a World Tour and the band would be back to the U.S. next year. Will I go again? Likely, yeah. And you know what? I have Brave New World stuck in my head and am enjoying discovering some ‘new’ Maiden! Mission accomplished.

Set List:

The Wicker Man
Ghost Of The Navigator
Wrathchild
El Dorado
Paschendale
The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
These Colours Don't Run
Blood Brothers
Wildest Dreams
No More Lies
Brave New World
Fear Of The Dark
Iron Maiden

Encore:
The Number of the Beast
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Running Free

Short video I took of Wrathchild:


As usual, my buddy Pat who knows Steve Harris from the early 80s got us all passes so we were able to say a quick hi to Steve and then I was able to wander a bit near the latter part of the show to take some close up photos. Here are a few of the better ones overall:

Music Review - New Iron Maiden Single

As I mentioned yesterday, Rush and Iron Maiden recently released digital singles in advance of their 2010 tours. I reviewed Rush's single here and today it's time for Iron Maiden's El Dorado, the single from the upcoming Final Frontier album.

First of all, I am seeing the band perform tonight so I am pretty fired up. The last two tours have leaned heavily on the classics, and now it's time for the U.S. to pay the price with mostly 2000-era Maiden. Yep, most of the songs I will see tonight are from the last three albums - Brave New World, Dance of Death and Matter of Life and Death. I love the latter album but don't really know the other two.

Fellow blogger Vince Neilstein did a solid job earlier this month laying out the debate over the pros and mostly cons of this move. He called the post-2000 material Iron Meh-den, which is pretty funny.

It's a hot topic in metal circles for sure. Me? I wish they would just do a little of everything instead of leaning towards "classic" or "modern." But I am just glad to see them at all.

OK the song. It's a tad under 7 minutes, and is pretty typical prog-metal from Maiden. I am always hoping for something as catchy as Two Minutes to Midnight or as epic as Rime of the Ancient Mariner, but those days are long gone. What we do have now is a triple guitar onslaught. It just occurred to me that poor Janik Gers had to suffer through the last two tours windmilling his way through songs he didn't play on on the albums. Hmm.

OK, El Dorado -- After a nicely noisy intro, we get that familiar Steve Harris gallop! (think The Trooper). Ripping triple guitar onslaught. Good Dickinson performance - he still has yet to phone it in. The guy always delivers. Song is a little repetitive through the second pre-chorus and the chorus is pretty decent. Air Raid Siren Dickinson emerges but a little strained on the high end. Usual complex Maiden center section leading to triple solos. I think it's Janik Gers, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith in that order. But we'll see tonight if I nailed that one or not. Out of the solos - more galloping, then another verse/pre-chorus/chorus. Overall it's a good tune. I like it.

And shit, they are giving it away - grab it and tell me what you think! You can get the song El Dorado from Maiden's Web site here.

My review of the last tour is here and here. I hope to post a review of tonight's show this week.

Iron Maiden - New Album and U.S. Tour

News from Classic Rock Magazine is that Iron Maiden has finished its new album, titled The Final Frontier - Eddie in space? Does William Shatner rap on the album? Time will tell.

But check this out, Tweeps -- the band will embark on a two month U.S. tour with Dream Theater. That would be a pretty mind bending lineup. And holy moly they are coming to my neck of the woods - White River Amphitheater in Auburn Washington on June 22. Chris - see you there?

Full tour itinerary and the usual hype and info can be found here.

Monty Python Meets Iron Maiden?

Watching the new six-part documentary Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) a couple of weeks ago, I was somewhat mystified as to the appearance of Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson as an interviewee.

My wife in fact commented, "What, did they just interview anyone who was available?" But on further research, Dickinson is a big Python fan, as are many big-time musicians. For example, from the documentary we learn that Pink Floyd helped the troupe finance the Holy Grail movie in 1975, and George Harrison did the same for Life of Brian a few years later.

What I didn't know is that one of the last things the late Graham Chapman from Python ever did was to appear in the fairly typical dumb video for Can I Play With Madness off of Maiden's 1988 album Seventh Son of A Seventh Son. Where in the hell was I? Anyway, here ya go:


Iron Maiden - Can I Play with Madness

Everyday I Write the Book | MySpace Video

Who Said Iron Maiden Never Had A Hit?

OK, so I admit I have been very negligent with my blog as of late. Work has been crazy, and I have more projects at home than time to complete them. So I apologize if I have not been posting as frequently.

But this should go towards making up for it. Someone with waaay too much time on their hands made an audio mashup of Iron Maiden and The Monkees and put it on YouTube. Prepare to die with your boots on, laughing...

DVD Review - Iron Maiden Flight 666

Despite the Iron Maiden Flight 666 filmmaker's contention that Iron Maiden is a private group who hasn't granted behind the scenes access to film crews, I feel like the band has released a number of excellent documentaries.

My favorite being Iron Maiden: The Early Days, and the Classic Album series episode on the making of the Number of the Beast.

But I have a new favorite, and (wait for it)...it's Iron Maiden Flight 666. This nearly two hour film documents the first leg of the band's 2008 worldwide tour bringing the rich Powerslave era show to 5 different continents over a month and a half via the band's plane, Ed Force One. Piloted by singer Bruce Dickinson.

There a few unique angles here. It is the first time any tour has combined the band, crew and gear on one vehicle (the plane) for travel. Usually the band and crew travel separately, mostly for logistical reasons.

And I am pretty sure it's the first time the lead singer flew the plane...

Putting the tour together this way enabled the band to visit countries it had never (or rarely) played in, like India, Costa Rica and Argentina. In the film, Dickinson says they told the booking guy to string together all the countries that the accountants have always said they couldn't play, because they were too out of the way and would therefore cost too much.

The story of how the tour went from a crazy idea to reality is really interesting.

But then there is the whole story of how fanatical the fans in these countries are. Especially India, Central and South America, who don't get a lot of big name touring bands rolling through. These fans go absolutely bugshit and the live scenes from these shows are unreal. A bonus DVD has a complete concert from the tour. But each song is filmed in a different country. People love their Maiden and it's an emotional watch.

There is some behind the scenes stuff too, like what the guys do on their rare days off (golf, tennis and soccer), and there are short segments on each band member, as told by their bandmates. And the obligatory, "Iron Maiden has sold more than 70 million albums with no radio or TV support, blah blah."

If you are a fan of Maiden, rock, or even just rock documentaries, this is a must-add to your collection.

Scream for me, Santiago!

Iron Maiden Movie to Run on VH1 Classic

I was bummed to see that the new Iron Maiden documentary Iron Maiden: Flight 666 was not scheduled to play in any Portland theaters. I resigned myself to buying the DVD whenever it comes out. But yesterday word spread around that the film will be aired on June 6 (of course) on VH1 Classic at midnight. I'll be setting the DVR for sure!

Some info on the film: The documentary takes viewers behind the scenes of the first leg of the band's Somewhere Back In Time World Tour, which kicked off February 8th, 2008 with the first of their 23 sold-out stadium concerts all over the world. The documentary has won the SXSW Festival award for Best Music Documentary.

The band has been marketing the movie via a number of channels (the band's fan club even has a Twitter account) and one is the film's YouTube channel. Here is a recent short clip I thought was kind of amusing and...well, different for a heavy metal movie:

Iron Maiden wins Brit Award for Best Live Act

I have never heard of the Brit Awards, but apparently they are a UK-based awards show where the winners are chosen by fan vote. Democracy in action.

According to ClassicRock.com, Iron Maiden beat out a bunch of no-names and Coldplay to win in the Best British Live Band category. Reports were that the audience seemed fairly bemused when Maiden won, as if they didn't even know who these guys were! D'oh!

The band could not be there to pick the award up because - shock - they are on the road somewhere. But they did put this amusing video together, which ran at the show:

Iron Maiden Tour Film Due in April

I do love Iron Maiden. While other bands of their era are chugging through the casino and state fair circuits, carting around numerous extra pounds, receding hairlines and tuning their songs down two whole steps so they can still sing their one or two hits, Iron Maiden is still putting on massive stage shows, releasing excellent new material and - well, still being RELEVANT!

Maiden has been alternating between touring to revisit its extensive back catalog with performing their latest albums end to end. Case in point - the band got on the Ozzfest bill a few years ago and did a short set of songs from the first four albums. Next tour, they played their new album "A Matter of Life and Death" end to end, pissing off fans who wanted to hear Number of the Beast.

Then on the last tour, called the "Somewhere Back in Time" tour, the band revisited its first six or so albums, bringing back epics like Powerslave and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in addition to the huge stage from the Powerslave tour. I reviewed that show here and here. It was truly epic.

If you missed that tour, you are in luck, as Maiden is releasing a film from the first part of that tour, on April 19.

A press release issued by the band says, with the usual hype:

Circumnavigating the globe, the band flew in a specially customised Boeing 757 airliner with their crew and 12 tons of music and stage equipment on board, playing 23 sold out stadium and arena shows in Asia, Australia and North, Central and South America in just 45 days. They played in 13 countries, also landing in Azerbaijan and Papua New Guinea en route for fuel stops, travelling 70,000km and performing to almost half a million fans – a schedule that was only made possible by having their own “magic carpet” enabling them to go where they wanted with all the key elements of band, crew and equipment on board one plane, which was christened Ed Force One. Even more remarkable was that lead singer and Airline Captain Bruce Dickinson was not only to perform 23 shows, but piloted the plane for much of the way.

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 is an honest and revealing portrait of one of the world’s most successful rock bands, a must see for their millions of fans around the world and anyone else with an interest in Rock Music and World Tours, giving an inspirational account of the chaotic and often humorous world of a band touring the four corners of the world in the most extraordinary way. Shot in High Definition, the movie will be screened in 2K digital cinema, with superb 5.1 surround sound, mixed by the bands producer Kevin ‘Caveman’ Shirley.

I don't think they have released the lineup of cinemas yet, but here is the trailer:



Epic, no?

Concert Review - Iron Maiden part two

The Iron Maiden performance at the White River Amphitheater on Monday was out of this world. The band was super tight, the set list was a dream and for a bunch of guys who are roughly 50 and older, they still run around like they are 23 and put on one of the most high energy, exhilarating shows on the tour circuit today.

From Aces High, the opener, to Hallowed Be Thy Name, the encore closer, we got the cream of the 80s Maiden crop, as this tour (called the Somewhere Back In Time Tour) focuses on the band's 80s heyday. All the way down to the massive, awesome 1985 Powerslave stage set, which has been augmented considerably.

That's not to say the band is riding on its past. The previous tour saw the band playing its new album A Matter of Life and Death end to end, which only left room for three (yes three) other songs. Fly by night fans were pissed but I was thrilled. Who takes that kind of a risk anymore? And by the way, the album is fantastic. If you dig Maiden, get it now. Might be their best since Seventh Son.

Back to Monday's show...

Thinking about my past Maiden shows (seen them eight times now), I usually focused on bassist and founder Steve Harris, as he is so dynamic and all over the place. This time around though, I mostly watched Dickinson.

First up, I was wondering if he could still hit the notes. And by far he still can. Seemed like on previous tours, he was losing a bit of his vocal top end. But the only place I heard him have a bit less power is in the power parts like the intro scream of Number of the Beast and the scream out of the center section of Rime of the Ancient Mariner. But for the most part, he can still deliver. The dude is in great shape vocally.

And he is still metal’s most enthusiastic cheerleader, but not in a cheesy way like Paul Stanley. He runs back and forth, whipping up the audience during guitar solos or instrumental sections. He’d leave the stage for longer breaks and then come bounding out in a costume or mask. His between song banter is actually pretty funny and he seems to be loving what he's doing. He just looks like he's having the time of his life, and it rubs off on the audience.

In The Trooper, he donned a Union Jack coat and waved an enormous tattered flag with bullet holes and burn marks.

In Rime of the Ancient Mariner he wore a long worn coat fitting for someone lost at sea (he didn't wear an albatross thankfully), and he also had different jackets and headgear for other songs.

With the thematic nature of many of the songs, the elaborate stage settings, and Dickinson taking on characters in costume, Maiden is almost turning into Heavy Metal Theater. This sets them apart from most other bands. It’s almost like Peter Gabriel era Genesis where Gabriel dressed in costume to deliver the songs live.

The stage was backed by a giant screen that depicted album covers or backgrounds like an Egyptian tomb. These backdrops were actually curtains, and they used five or six different ones that would roll out as needed.

For Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the entire overhead light rig was lowered to provide a claustrophobic "lost at sea" feel, and in the center slow instrumental section, the entire rig rocked gently back and forth, making the whole stage look like a boat lolling on the waves.

The backdrop for the Somewhere in Time album made the stage feel like a futuristic city.

Now, mind you, all was not perfect. I have a pretty major gripe in fact, regarding guitarist Janick Gers.

When guitarist Adrian Smith left the band, they replaced him with the very capable Gers. When Smith rejoined, they didn't fire Gers. They just turned into a three-guitar band. Very cool - on paper.

However, Gers' style is a bit more of 80s shred than I like, and live, the dude is totally distracting. Between his phony windmills, swinging his guitar around and posing a la Paul Stanley, I had to make an effort to ignore him. We all noticed how the other two guitarists stayed away from him and even Harris seemed to be trying to ignore him. Frankly, the guy is embarrassing. And of course the other two guitarists had to sacrifice some solos so he has something to do, as he was not on any of the albums they are playing from on this tour.

Having said this, in a lot of spots it was cool to have the three part guitar harmonies from the albums duplicated precisely. Specifically Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Revelations and The Trooper. But I didn’t really miss those parts live 21 years ago and I wouldn’t miss them now. Lose this joker.

But overall, the show made me realize how many truly great songs Iron Maiden has. They had a sweet run of six or seven really great albums and just picking the cream of that crop makes for a night of killer music. In fact, the songs they chose NOT to play say a lot – they didn’t do Flight of Icarus, The Prisoner, and nothing off of Killers and only one song from the first album.

I could have done without Can I Play With Madness, Fear of the Dark and even Heaven Can Wait (except I would not want to take away Pat and Mady’s big sing along moment) and would like to have heard some more Paul Di'Anno era material, but what are ya gonna do? Dickinson said the next step for the band is to put out another new album and hit the States again, so maybe we’ll get some of that next time.

All in all, Maiden is in fine form and hopefully this North American tour will show the band that the U.S. still loves Maiden and that they should play here more frequently (next time in Portland, guys!).

Set list is below and you can see all of my photos here.

-- Intro - Churchill's Speech
-- Aces High
-- 2 Minutes to Midnight
-- Revelations
-- The Trooper
-- Wasted Years
-- The Number of the Beast
-- Run to the Hills
-- Rime of the Ancient Mariner
-- Powerslave
-- Heaven Can Wait
-- Can I Play With Madness?
-- Fear of the Dark
-- Iron Maiden
-----------------------------
-- Moonchild
-- The Clairvoyant
-- Hallowed Be Thy Name

By the way, even though it is a bitch to get to, the White River is a great venue. Free parking, and we were out of the lot in 15 minutes. They let you bring in 'non professional' cameras. Of course, it's $8 for a can of Bud...

For part one of this review, which goes over our trip to the venue and some personal stories, go here.

Concert Review - Iron Maiden part one

I saw Iron Maiden last night at the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, Washington - about a three hour drive from Portland. I have decided to split this review into two parts as there were a few interesting side stories, which I will cover today. Tomorrow I will review the actual show.

So, the saga starts with my quest for tickets. When I heard about this tour, I was mighty excited and made a couple of posts here and here.

I have seen Iron Maiden more times than any other band - eight times including last night (rivaled at a close second by Rush seven times). Sounds extreme, I know, but this is over the course of more than 20 years for both bands.

I first saw Maiden on the Powerslave tour in 1985, and when I heard that they were bringing the whole Powerslave stage set on the road and were doing mostly songs from the Powerslave album and the two or three before and after it, I was pretty psyched and vowed to see this tour.

Apparantly, so did a lot of other geezers. The venue has an interesting seating scheme. The very front of the amphitheater is a fairly compact general admission standing-only section. Then there are blocks of assigned seats, and then general admission lawn. When the tickets went on sale, my goal was to get in that front section so I could get close to the stage like the old days.

But I screwed up and forgot about the on sale date until tickets had been available for about ten hours. But by then all I could get were lawn tickets. Argh. I bought three - one for me and two for my colorfield pals Mike and Dave.

Here is where things get good. colorfield's other guitar player, Pat, knows Maiden's bassist Steve Harris from way back. Very long story short, they became friends before Maiden's skyrocket to the top of 80s metal, and the two still play tennis whenever possible when the band is local.

This also means that Pat could possibly help us get better tickets. But the band was flying in and out of the show with very little time for he and Steve to hang out so this whole thing was TBD. But at least we had our crappy lawn tickets and were therefore "in the building. "

The big day arrived and Dave, Mike and I did the three hour drive. Pat had gone up early to try and catch Steve, and we hooked up at the venue. Pat was able to get passes for he and our buddy Mady who came up with Pat, but for whatever reason that was all that was left at will call.

We remained optimistic, as Pat was going to see Steve and we were hopeful we'd at least get better seats if not meet Steve. When we went to see Maiden at Ozzfest three years ago, the band got there really early, Pat and Steve had a match, and we got to meet him.

On the very likely chances that it would not happen this time, I gave Pat some stuff for Steve to sign if possible. Namely the photo of Steve and I from Ozzfest. In the meantime, we watched the opener, Lauren Harris (Steve's daughter) from the lawn. She was not specifically too good. I will leave it at that.

Meantime, Mike saw some dudes walking around with an Iron Maiden banner that depicted all of the albums to Somewhere in Time, dated 1987. He came back with the astounding news that he recognized the banner and in fact co-created it 21 years ago. One of the dudes toting this giant banner around the venue was buddy of Mike's from high school and indeed it was the same banner!

I had a cool meeting as well. If you think we were hardcore, driving three hours each way for this show, consider Chris La Tray, author of the Stumbling the Walk blog. He and his son drove eight hours (crossing a time zone) to get to the show. When he called to see where I was at, we were about 20 minutes out. He said, "We just got here. It looks like a heavy metal parking lot."

Chris had a recent cool encounter as well, when Ace Frehley played in Missoula, Montana and he was able to interview him for an article and blog post, and also meet Ace after the show. Chris and I had emailed about this and realized we'd both be at this Maiden show. We met very briefly to say hey and take the below snap. Bloggers unite!

So as Lauren Harris' set mercifully wound down, we pretty much resigned ourselves to the lawn. But lo and behold, Pat rang me up on my cell and said Steve was able to hook him up with comp tickets! So we crusied down to the 100 section just in time for UFO Doctor Doctor to start over the P.A. (Maiden always takes the stage right after this song).

I'll get into the details of the show tomorrow, but one other cool tidbit. Steve had Pat and Mady come onstage for the sing-along part of Heaven Can Wait, which I was able to get a couple of good photos of. Nothing like getting dragged onstage in front of 13,000 people to shout "Woh oh oh. Wo oh oh oh oh oh oh. Woh oh oh. Woh oh oh oh oh" a bunch of times. Or so I'd imagine. You'd have to ask Pat!

All in all, it was more than a concert - it was a great gathering with some meetings, some reunions, a lot of excitement and a great time overall. Got home at 3 AM and need to catch up on sleep but wow, what a blast. Big time shout out/kudos to Pat for making the good seats happen, and for getting Steve to sign my Ozzfest photo.

Part Two reviews the show, with a number of photos and a link to a slide show of all the snaps.