I thought I'd get one more Maiden post up here before suspending Beast-related blogging for a spell.
The band has released quite a few video albums over the years, but I'll just focus on those in my own meager collection, starting with
This is a collection of all of Maiden's official music videos, most of which feature the band in concert. Then there's "Two Minutes to Midnight," which is probably the best of the lot:
"Run to the Hills" is a memorable video, and I almost included it here. It intersperses footage of the band performing the song with footage from the silent-era film Uncovered Wagons, a decision neither approved nor endorsed by the band. I mention it mainly so I can segue into this improbable cover of the song by a Michael MacDonald impersonator:
"Visions" is a fun walk down memory lane. The CGI for the title menu screens is awful and takes a small eternity to finish. There are some fun hidden extras:
"The way to discover them is actually pretty simple. On the first disc, playing the sixth track ("The Trooper") 3 times – 666 – will lead you to an unreleased video of "Man On
The Edge". On the second disc, playing the sixth track ("Hallowed Be Thy Name") twice, then the fourth track (i.e.,
"Wasting Love") once – 664 – will unveil an interesting Camp Chaos * version
of "The Trooper". You don't even have to watch the videos entirely, but
simply press "next" to eventually go to the hidden bonus tracks.
Likewise, playing "Hallowed Be Thy Name" 3 times on the second disc will
lead you to the 666 door and you will hear Nicko saying "No! 664! The
bloke next door!" before being taken to the right place."
* Bob Cesca (founder of Camp Chaos Studios) later left animation for the more cartoonish world of online political punditry.
Next:
The first disc is a concert from the Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour... tour.
There are bizarre sequence of icebergs crashing into the ocean between some songs.
The second disc features some videos and The History of Iron Maiden, pt. 3. The first part of that is on Iron Maiden: The Early Years, and the second on the Live After Death DVD. I'm not sure if there's ever been a pt. 4, but pt. 3 only covers 1986 to 1988, so plenty left to cover - hope they get round to it.
Also included is 12 Wasted Years, a compressed version of Maiden's history from inception through the Seventh Son album. Steve and Dave revisit some of their early haunts like the Ruskin Arms and the Marquee.
Backstage at the Marquee.
Paul Di'Anno is interviewed and is a good sport about departing the band on the eve of their superstardom.
Promo for "Women in Uniform"
Bruce, before leaving to herd sheep or go deep-sea fishing in the Baltic or whatever activities one wears such a sweater for.
I quite like this shot of Derek Riggs.
Keith seems like a cool bloke from this and elsewhere, but keep this image in mind everytime you see Candace Swanepool or Adriana Lima in a Maiden shirt. It kind of blows my mind. How far we've come!
Just thought the name was funny, given his job.
Eddie, moments before Bruce lobotomizes him and the band batters his corpse with their guitars.
"You Are Number Six."
The month the McMillans bid Auf Weidersehen to Deutschland after 6 long years.
15 years after performing on P.I.T. the band released Rock in Rio (2001:)
My version is actually a bit different, featuring a pop-up photo that conveys the magnitude of the crowd. But I couldn't find a good image of it online, nor do I feel like digging the packaging out of storage to snap a picture of it.
Disc One is the concert, and disc two has some Day in the Life Of... type extras.
Eddie looks particularly demonic on these title screens.
The Rock in Rio event is a bit like the World Cup of metal, though it has never strictly been confined to just hard rock. In recent years, reflecting changes in taste perhaps, the artists have ranged from Shakira and Miley Cyrus to Slipknot and Rage Against the Machine.
At the Copa...
Copa-cabana!
Not in Brazil, obviously, but on the way.
On their day off, Janick and Steve go to see a Cup Final between Vasco da Gama, a Brazilian football club that uses Eddie as its mascot, and São Caetano.
They appear to have enjoyed themselves.
I know little about CR Vasco da Gama but naturally this Eddie connection makes them my favorite Brazilian team.
And finally, my personal favorite:
Produced, written and directed by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn
If you came to learn the inside scoop of this, you're out of luck, I'm afraid.
This documents the band's "Somewhere Back in Time" tour. As Bruce explains, the cost for doing this tour traditionally (rent two planes - as well as their own crews - for personnel and equipment) would have been too prohibitive, but by piling the everyone and everything onto one plane, operated by themselves, they were able to do it fairly inexpensively. And play places they'd never played previously. (To rapturous audiences.)
Steve brought his son (pictured) and three daughters along.
An Indiana Jones style air map is used throughout.
The lights of a thousand cellphones seem to have replaced cigarette lighters at concerts.
Sydney
Self-proclaimed "Iron Maiden Fan Number One." Challenge accepted.
From here they traveled to L.A. where Lita Ford, Lars Ulrich, and Tom Morello all showed up for the concert.
From L.A. to Mexico City.
Nicko and his wife undergo a shamanistic ceremony underneath the Pyramid of the Sun.
Nicko has got to be the happiest drummer on the planet. Always upbeat.
Things always get a little strange when Maiden heads to Brazil.
And this time is no exception.
This guy - a local priest - has 162 Maiden tattoos and builds his sermons around their lyrics.
CR Vasco De Gama joins the band on stage.
This young lady sings along with "Powerslave." Not uncommon during concerts, of course, it's just kind of funny to see her belting out "Enter the risen Osiris - risen agai-ayay-aaiiin!"
From Chile to New Jersey.
And from there to Toronto.
And that's all she wrote.
The music over the end credits is Monty Python's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." Nice touch - that's what always plays when the lights come up and the crowd files out at Maiden concerts.
~
I've had a blast revisiting all of this over the past few weeks and screencapping all the above.
Iron Maiden has amassed an impressive discography in their nearly 30 years together. If you're a Maiden fan, you've got to have all of it, naturally, but where do you start if you're new to the band or just casually curious?
Answer:
THE DOG STAR OMNIBUS GUIDE TO ESSENTIAL IRON MAIDEN
You are welcome, Planet Earth. Up the irons.
Before we begin, an honorable mention to one of the most iconic album covers of all time:
1981
Brutal. Brutally awesome.
Killers is a good album, to be sure, and "Wrathchild" is an absolute classic. If Maiden was any normal band, this would probably be my favorite of their songs. Can you believe it's my 32nd favorite? That makes it just ineligible for my forthcoming 31 Days of Maiden. I absolutely expected it to be among my top tracks. Yet after painstakingly making my way through their catalog and filling in all my spreadsheet cells and running the numbers, I have 31 songs ahead of it in my personal countdown.
I know! I'm as surprised as you are.
Anyway, good album, maybe even great, but not as essential as everything covered below. (If we were judging solely by covers, Killers deserves a Special Jury Prize for Audacity, at the very least.)
LIVE
5. Flight 666 - There will be a standalone blog for this one, so just a name-check for now, but the concert that comes with the documentary (from the "Somewhere Back in Time" tour) is a fantastic retrospective of classic Maiden. The band bristles at defining this tour/ concert as a "retrospective," or a traveling antiques show, but a chance for newer fans (of which there are legion) to experience the classic songs in concert. Fair enough.
You can probably do just as well, though with:
4.
2005
"Scream for me, Dortmund... scream for me, Dortmund!!"
Iron Maiden's tours and live albums follow a bit of a pattern. There are the "retro" tours, like Flight 666, and then there are the new-album tours. This is a new-album tour, specifically the tour they did in support of Dance of Death.
Are you surprised I didn't pick Rock in Rio, the new-album tour for Brave New World, which I think is a superior LP to Dance of Death? I know! Me, too! I solved this problem for myself by getting Death on the Road on CD and Rock in Rio on DVD.
Do I recommend this method for you? You're old enough now where you can make your own decisions.
Anyway, Dance of Death, as we shall see, is a Maiden offering I esteem quite highly, so hearing the live versions amidst the assortment of classics is quite fun.
3.
2002
This is a great glimpse into the end of the Di'anno years (Friday Rock Show Session, November 1979 / Reading Festival August 1980) the beginning of the Dickinson one (Reading Festival November 1982) and the classic line-up at the height of their 80s glory (Monsters of Rock, Donington, 1988.) The performances and song selections are both top notch.
Although they hated punk, there is an undeniable punk-edge to late-70s Maiden. I think it was just in the London air at the time. Di'Anno's voice was well-suited for this, even if I grew up preferring Bruce's version. (The lyrics are "Oh well! Wherever, wherever you are," but I've been singing it as "Oh well! WHAT-EVER! Wherever you yadda yadda" for years, and I don't intend to stop.)
2.
1985
I was trying to figure out if this was the first live album I ever owned, but that distinction may go to Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East. I can't recall for sure. At one point, though, when I only had something like ten cassettes and as many albums, total, Live After Death was the coolest thing I owned. Hell, it still might be.
Back cover (and I'm happy to see this included in this Top 10 gatefold sleeves list; Maiden doesn't always get its due for such things.)
Inner gatefold
The World Slavery Tour was the biggest in the band's history to that point (187 gigs over 331 days.) It was the first time they played the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil (to 300,000 people) and the first time any metal act toured behind the iron curtain (in Poland, Hungary, and the former Yugoslavia.) When it ended in mid-summer, the band took the rest of the year off to recover. As a result of their collective mental and physical exhaustion, all subsequent outings incorporated strategic blocks of days off and downtime. (Leading to all those amusing "day off" special features on the DVDs.)
1.
1982
Released as part of the Eddie's Archives box set, I'm not sure if this technically counts towards their "official" live releases, but for my money, this is the most interesting of them. It's a blistering set (recorded in 1982 at London's famed Hammersmith Odeon) that captures the band at a real crossroads between their first era and everything to come. Di'Anno had just left the band, and this was Bruce's trial by fire as Maiden vocalist. There's a different energy to his performance as a result; he's not quite sure how hard to hit, so he's hitting harder than he needs to. Which would be a bit much if he did it all the time, but it's nice to have here.
The real difference, though, is Clive Burr on drums. Nicko is the better of the two Maiden drummers, but Clive's style as evidenced here (and on the BBC Archives recordings) was perhaps more straight-forwardly aggressive. He gives an altogether different punch to the rhythm section. Some drummers (Anton Fig) play just behind the beat, some are dead on top of it (John Bonham), and others are a bit wild (Keith Moon.) Using this scale, Nicko is closer to Keith Moon, and Clive is closer to John Bonham. Every drummer I've named is great, so don't take this as a knock on anyone.
Bruce puts his own spin on the Di'Anno era songs (especially "Another Life") and the band just sounds great.
IN THE STUDIO
10.
1992
Be Quick or Be Dead / From Here to Eternity / Afraid to Shoot Strangers / Fear Is the Key / Childhood's End / Wasting Love / The Fugitive / Chains of Misery / The Apparition / Judas Be My Guide / Weekend Warrior / Fear of the Dark
I did not get this one when it came out. I was big into hippie and neo-hippie stuff at the time. But when I got back into Maiden after catching them live in 2000 and re-visiting metal in general after a decade spent away from it, I grew to appreciate it. Particularly the title track and "Afraid to Shoot Strangers."
9.
1995
Sign of the Cross / Lord of the Flies / Man on the Edge / Fortunes of War / Look for the Truth / The Aftermath / Judgment of Heaven / Blood on the World's Hands / The Edge of Darkness/ 2 a.m. / The Unbeliever
Bruce left the band after Fear of the Dark and Blaze Bayley * took over on vocals. Much closer to Paul Di'Annos' vocal range than Bruce's, his tenure with the band isn't as well regarded as it should be. At least this album, I should say. It's commonly called their "darkest" album on account of its lyrical outlook, moody song structures, and quieter production, as if the songs are coming from deep in the shadows. Steve wrote most of the tunes, and he was going through his divorce at the time. (It shows.)
* I initially misheard the new vocalist's name as "Blaze Blazeley," a name so 1000% metal I privately refer to him as "Blaze Blazeley" regardless. If I lapse into that and don't catch it to edit, that's why.
I can definitely sympathize with those who don't think much of it, as on the surface it sounds almost as if Maiden is unsure of itself. A far cry from "Where Eagles Dare," one might say. Regardless, some of Maiden's best songs are to be found here, and I think on account of that vulnerability. If I expanded my top 31 to, say, top 50, I'd have to include half the album's tracks, particularly "Look for the Truth," "The Unbeliever," and "Sign of the Cross."
Not to mention "Man on the Edge," which is, to my knowledge, the only song ever written about the movie Falling Down. It's a fun little tune and features the brilliantly awkward line "Once he built missiles, a nation's defense / now he can't even give birthday pres-ents." I love how they cram that rhyme in there! Too funny. The movie is not a personal favorite, but I love the fact that Blaze and Janick were so into it they wrote a song about it. The song has aged much better than the movie itself.
The other Blaze album, 1998's Virtual XI, is probably my least favorite Maiden album, but it features a song called "The Clansman," written by Steve after he apparently saw Braveheart. Blaze sings it pretty well, but Bruce kills it in concert. They performed the song when I saw them in 2000, as well as this album's "Sign of the Cross," leading to some interesting looks when I described the setlist to folks: They played The Clansman and then blew up a cross on stage... wait, no, not like THAT.
8.
1980
Prowler
/ Sanctuary / Remember Tomorrow / Running Free / Phantom of the Opera /
Transylvania / Strange World / Charlotte the Harlot / Iron Maiden
Ahh, the one that started it all. From here on out in our countdown, you won't find many duds. Each track is fairly well-represented in future live or compilation releases and deservedly so. I'll cover my favorites in the forthcoming 31 Days of Maiden, but special mention for "Prowler" and "Sanctuary," which were big favorites of mine, growing up.
And "Phantom of the Opera" is Maiden-by-numbers, in a good way. The way the riff and rhythm explodes should be on some kind of "Maiden Identifiers" app.
7.
2003
Wildest Dreams / Rainmaker / No More Lies / Montsegur / Dance of Death / Gates of Tomorrow / New Frontier / Paschendale / Face in the Sand / Age of Innocence / Journeyman
I was surprised as hell by this album. I had hopes it would be good, coming off the masterpiece that is 2000's Brave New World. But it turned out to be great. All of their 21st century material has been unreasonably solid, including their latest release, 2012's The Final Frontier, but this one is probably their last studio release to truly challenge their 80s work. (the so-called "classic era.")
Terrible cover, though.
"Wildest Dreams" came close to making my top 31, as did "No More Lies" and "Montsegur." My favorite is probably the title track, though:
They had ascended from He-el-l-l-l-llll...!! I can't get enough of this crap. And then the twin neo-Celtic leads? Please - just leave me here with my Maiden and let me jump up and down; I'll be along soon enough.
I laugh at this about myself - don't think this is said with any bravado. But when confounded by those who are emotionally moved by things like Katy Perry's "Roar," I can only cross-reference to things like this track and shrug. Takes all kinds.
6.
1986
Caught Somewhere in Time / Wasted Years / Sea of Madness / Heaven Can Wait / The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner / Stranger in a Strange Land / Deja-Vu / Alexander the Great
Where to start with this one? How about that cover? Here's the full gatefold.
There's an awful lot of in-jokes and self-referential stuff going on here, as this site exhaustively details. But my favorite bit is this from the news ticker above Dave's head:
Those of you who don't follow English Premier League football, know that this score is the clearest indication that this scene takes place in some fantasy world. Though if by some miracle the Hammers ever trounce the Gunners 7 to 3, my anguish as an Arsenal fan will definitely be lessened by realizing the Somewhere in Time back cover prophecy came true.
What an album. The weakest track here, ironically, is "Alexander the Great," which is still a pretty cool tune, just outclassed by the other tunes. (I'm forever amused by the way the song ends, which is basically like the band runs into the end of the album. "He died in Babylon!" WHAM.)
"Deja-Vu" doesn't have the best reputation among Maiden fans for some reason, but I love that track. And seeing the band perform "Heaven Can Wait" in concert is always a treat; it may be the best of their "soccer chant" songs, i.e. those tunes in their catalog that include a part for the audience to sing. (Whoah-oh-oh! Whoah-oh-whoah-oh-WHOAH-oh-oh!)
5.
1982
Invaders / Children of the Damned/ The Prisoner / 22 Acacia Avenue / Number of the Beast / Run to the Hills / Gangland / Total Eclipse (not included on original release) / Hallowed Be Thy Name
This could be the best Side Two of any album ever released. ("Beast" through "Hallowed.") Holy moley. Side One is no slouch, either, but not quite as best-songs-ever as Side Two.
(A side note, literally (ahem) - I miss discussing sides of albums; it was such a fun way to organize the material.)
I'm sure I wasn't the only kid who had never heard of The Prisoner until this album came out. And there was practically a 20 year gap between hearing about it and actually seeing it.
But I thank the band for introducing me to something that's been such a renewable source of epic contemplation over the years. And that's one of two songs they wrote about the show.
"22 Acacia Avenue" is a sequel to Iron Maiden's "Charlotte the Harlot." (I don't think there's ever been a third part.)
4.
1988
Moonchild / Infinite Dreams / Can I Play with Madness? / The Evil That Men Do / Seventh Son of a Seventh Son / The Prophecy / The Clairvoyant / Only the Good Die Young
If I ever want to remind myself what the exact thing I wanted to hear was in 1988, I need only put this on and listen to it start to finish. I listened to this so much I think it burned me out on Maiden for a good 12 years, actually. Every song was a favorite at one point, and I fully believed each and every time my mind was finally made up on the matter. I've narrowed it down to three, 28 years later, but "The Evil That Men Do" is strong on the bench:
Personally, I think League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century missed a great opportunity to bring Ed the Head into things via the moonchild business.
3.
2000
The Wicker Man / Ghost of the Navigator / Brave New World / Blood Brothers / The Mercenary / Dream of Mirrors / Fallen Angel / The Nomad / Out of the Silent Planet / Thin Line Between Love and Hate
In 1999, I got a job at a Prints Plus at the Rhode Island Mall. My boss, like me, had grown up a huge Iron Maiden fan, and we got to talking about them one day. Both of us hadn't listened to them in years, but we saw an advertisement for this album at the Tape World a few stores down. On an impulse, I went and bought it. (And paid something like $15 - officially the last time I paid full price for a cassette.) On first listen, we laughed at its Maiden-ness, instantly recognizable to both of us even after having been away for many years. Then we listened to it again. And again. And thus began Maiden, Phase II in my life.
As with the next two selections, it's difficult to discuss this one without going into specific commentary on specific songs, but since most are included in my list of personal faves and will thus be covered individually in the weeks to come, I'll hold off on that for now.
What an album.
2.
1983
Where Eagles Dare / Revelations / Flight of Icarus / Die With Your Boots On / The Trooper / Still Life / Quest for Fire / Sun and Steel / To Tame a Land
I don't know if I can say anything about these songs that isn't immediately self-evident upon hearing them. And as with Brave New World, most of the tracks here make my top 31, so I'll keep my remarks somewhat sparse. Start to finish awesome, and the post-"Trooper" songs on side two don't get the acclaim they deserve. Lyrically, Piece of Mind runs the gamut from WW2 to Greek mythology to the Crimean War to Dune to Neanderthals to the apocalypse. Musically, ditto. (Whatever that means!)
Fun fact: the backwards-message that begins "Still Life" is Nicko McBrain saying "Don' be meddlin' wit 'tings you no understand" in his best Idi Amin voice. It was done intentionally to mock the then-popular belief that metal bands were inserting Satanic messages onto their albums via backmasking.
As satirized at the time here in Bloom County.
1.
1984
Aces High / 2 Minutes to Midnight / Losfer Words (Big 'Orra) / Flash of the Blade / The Duellists / Back in the Village / Powerslave / Rime of the Ancient Mariner
When it comes to metal, it really doesn't get much - if at all - better than Iron Maiden. Maybe some vintage Metallica (maybe) maybe some Priest, maybe some Saxon. But as far as consistency, slugging power, and on-base-percentage, Maiden just buries everyone. And if Powerslave was the only thing they ever released, that would still be true.
Again, most songs covered individually later, yadda yadda, but "Losfer Words" is one that, like "Wrathchild," I was surprised to discover did not make my countdown, as I've been singing its praises for years:
The last song on side one, "The Duellists," is also very cool. Mick Wall, author of the authorized bio of the band, asks the asinine question, "Do we really need two songs about swordfighting on one album?" Answer: yes. Swordfight-song All The Things!!
But really, my answer is, only if it justifies its inclusion by rocking. And "The Duellists" does that. It's the lesser of the two swordfight songs, to be sure, but who cares?
Not only is this my favorite on account of the songs included but because it is so perfectly Maiden. Probably should be anyone's go-to when asked "So what is Maiden all about, then?" Ditto for Piece of Mind or Brave New World, but if I was absolutely forced to pick only one item from their catalog, I would reluctantly but confidently pick Powerslave.
~
I leave you with this cover of "Aces High" by the world's greatest all-female Maiden tribute band. (One of the only of their videos on YouTube that doesn't just zoom in on Courtney's boobs.)
I consider myself a fairly well-rounded person with a variety of interests. But if you went only from what I blog about, you'd be forgiven for thinking I'm preoccupied with only those things I read, listened to on a walkman, or watched on VHS in the 80s. I'm afraid this next series of blogs will not change that impression.
The first Iron Maiden album I remember coming out was Piece of Mind in 1983. My brother and his friends were all really into it, which meant I was always borrowing his copy, so I think my parents might have gotten me the cassette for Christmas to smooth over sibling relations. A lot of people think of Kraftwerk when they imagine the Autobahn, and while that's understandable, myself, I always think of Maiden, in particular Piece of Mind and Powerslave. Those were the cassettes usually in my walkman from '83 to when we left Germany in '86.
Unlike
practically every other band that hit it big in the 80s, Maiden still
tours and releases albums regularly. The albums might not sell as well
as they used to (although they still, amazingly, go to number one in
countries around the world,) but their tours are more successful than
ever. I'm happy for them that this is the case, but even more bizarrely, they still release music and imagery that captures my imagination all these years later. (As well as gets me moving. I twisted my knee shoveling out of Polar Vortex 2014 two weeks back and mildly re-aggravated it last night jumping up and down in my kitchen while listening to "Hallowed Be Thy Name." I've a friend who put himself in the hospital jumping around to Blur's "Song 2;" if such a thing ever happens to me, Maiden will undoubtedly be responsible.)
As far as the music goes, when it comes to whatever band of the heavy metal spectrum this sort of thing represents:
Maiden pretty much owns it. I imagine you'll know straight off whether this sort of thing is your cup of tea or not. I've found that if you didn't get into Maiden as a child, there's a fair amount of adult resistance to it; so it goes. They remind me of Kiss in this (and pretty much only this) regard. Once you're a Maiden fan, you tend to be of the "For Life" variety, but they have to take hold of your brain at an early age. Luckily for them (and for me, as it means I'm never without new Maiden material) each new generation seems to produce more or less the same amount of fans.
And the demographics are interesting to look at, too. Beyond my scope here, but it's an interesting sidebar to the whole Maiden phenomenon. A band one would reasonably assume would appeal only to a diminishing return of adolescents of the white-guy persuasion sells out arenas around the globe to boys and girls of all persuasions and pigmentations. Basically, their fan base is an ever-replenishing global juggernaut that turns out each and every year, radio play /celebrity-worship/ trends be damned.
I imagine they will be confusing non-Maiden fans until the day they hang up their cleats and epees.
As for me, what can I say? Maiden's high-energy mix of galloping rhythms, sudden structural changes, twin leads *, football-stadium-chants and neo-Celtic whimsy has appealed to me from the first time I heard it to the present day. The lyrics range from historical / literary epic to horror-dreamscape to songs about whatever movie Steve Harris saw on TV the night before.
And of course, behind and above it all, is Eddie, their mascot and talisman, who forever appeals to the comic books side of my brain.
*
When the classic line-up (Dickinson/ Harris/ McBrain/ Murray/ Smith) reformed for Brave New World, they opted not to
kick Janick Gers (the replacement for Adrian Smith, who left after Seventh Son of a Seventh Son) out of the band. So twenty-first century Maiden has three leads. This is the sort of detail that forever amuses me. I seriously hope they get Dennis Stratton (guitarist for the first few years of the band) back in the line-up at some point so they can claim the distinction of having four lead guitarists.
What is it about Maiden that allows them to repeatedly succeed where so many others have failed? I can't say for sure. But it has something to do with the band's loving what they do, still being excited to try new things within this strange paradigm they've created for themselves, a lack of rock star egos, and transparency. With Maiden, what you see is what you get, unapologetically.
Undoubtedly a great deal of their continued success is due to the efforts of Sanctuary Management, aka Rod Smallwood and Andy Taylor, shown here with Number of the Beast-era Bruce.
Says Andy (speaking to Mick Wall in the band-authorized bio Run to the Hills:)
"We made a pledge to the band (once the money started coming in after The Number of the Beast,) where we guaranteed them that no one was ever going to knock on their door again asking for a bill to be paid. We said, 'You'll never be on credit again. You'll never have a tax problem. Whatever you get, it will be yours to keep, and you'll never have a chance of losing it.' And that's how we've carried on. Nowadays, it's a much bigger situation (of course, but even if it weren't) that's all because of the careful planning Rod and I put into their money right from the word go. We like a laugh, but we don't fuck around."
All the more important in Britain where the tax situation for rock stars is so oppressive. (Why do you think so many of them end up moving once they get to a certain income level?) And all the more impressive considering how long these guys have been around and the financial fate of so many of their contemporaries. Granted, Andy's and Rod's job has been made easier by moderation in personal spending from the band members. (i.e. no Kiss-level shenanigans.) Which is not to say they haven't indulged themselves (and perfectly reasonably) along the way.
I just want to introduce the band today to those of you out there who don't know them. Future posts will rank the albums, one for the studio releases and one for the live ones, and Flight 666, and I will devote the month of March to "Thirty One Days of the Beast." A countdown of my favorites, aka the essential Maiden songs. (I just happen to have 31 favorites - what a coincidence! And I know this because I painstakingly ranked them all in Excel when I was bored after absorbing their last studio album, The Final Frontier.)
Hopefully, even if you're not a particular Maiden fan, you'll find something to entertain you in all of this, but if not, I guess we'll see you once I get this out of my system. There will likely be other blogs produced concurrently to all of the above, as well.
While Maiden is far more egalitarian in its inner chemistry than many other bands, its progenitor, undisputed leader, and principal songwriter is Steve Harris aka 'Arry.
Hailing from London's East End, specifically the Leyton district, Harris was scouted at an early age by West Ham United FC and invited to train with their under-18 squad when he was 14 years old. This is the dream of many a young lad, Brit or otherwise, and his friends thought he was crazy for opting not to pursue a career in the beautiful game. (Not so much his family, who were all Leyton Orient fans. Incidentally, when a friend of mine was visiting Chicago from London, he brought me a Leyton Orient kit - which I still have - for this very reason.)
Steve is one of two members of the current line-up who have been there from the very beginning. The other is Dave Murray.
Dave is a Tottenham fan, but don't hold that against him.
In addition to his long tenure as Maiden's premier vocalist and frontman, Bruce "Conan the Librarian" Dickinson is a commercial airline pilot, an author, a radio personality, and a fencing champion, once ranked 7th All-England.
Though not a football fan, he once flew Rangers FC (my favorite Scottish team) to Israel and back for a Cup.
A rather eccentric personality and general all-around fascinating dude.
His efforts as a screenwriter, however, have left a little to be desired. This movie is a hot mess, although the sequence where a resurrected Aleister Crowley terrorizes street punks to the strands of "The Wicker Man" is amusing, if only for how the song overpowers the dialogue and all other sound in the mix.
Next up is Adrian Smith, the second guitarist.
Avid angler. One of my favorite things about Maiden is how varied (and extensive) their extracurriculars are.
Adrian grew up a Man United fan but has identified himself as more of a Fulham fan as an adult. Some sites list his favorite club as Watford. If you're into football, this tells you that, at least footy-wise, he's not to be trusted.
Nicko McBrain is Maiden's drummer. He's probably the most "Americanized" of the group, meaning when asked who his favorite football club is, he answers "The Miami Dolphins."
Cheeky bastard.
Nicko was known as Mr. Excess in his younger days, given his astounding capacity for ales and lagers. But time has tamed his wild ways, and these days he makes a home in the States with his American wife. (The McBrain family has had a bit of a rough patch of late, and we here at the Omnibus send our best wishes.)
He's also given Paul McCartney a run for his money with some of his quotes in interviews, particularly this one when describing the band's first American tour: "We'd have a bit of taboo and a bit of yahoo and a little bit of livening up here and there, a bit of the old disco dust."
Nicko has always been one of my favorite rock personalities, mainly because his affection for a good time never eclipsed his personal health or responsibilities. As I get older, I'm increasingly impressed with those who maintain a life at the top of the metal heap without any of its attendant cliches (as fun as I find said cliches) or decimation of lifelong friendships/ relationships.
And plus, I mean his name's fricking McBrain. If that isn't ridiculously fun, I don't know what it is. And last but not least is Janick Gers, the third guitarist.
Outside of Ridley Scott, probably the world's most famous Hartlepool United fan. He's such a frequent presence on the Millhouse Terrace at Victoria Park on match-days that he gets yelled at by other fans when he misses games due to touring.
The description of this video by the original poster - and the look Bruce gives Jani - is hilarious.
These aren't the only people who have been in the band over the years, but I'll cover the others when I rank the albums.
