Iron Maiden News, Links, and Interviews

Vaenyr said:
Steve responding to "are you a racist?" with "Erm, well it depends... maybe?" is all kinds of insane lol. He manages to make some sensible points, but then doubles down on the bad stuff undoing the good stuff he pointed out.
As is the "metal isn't sexist, women prefer disco to find sexual partners" segment, what a wild thing to say. I suppose it does show how things have changes in half a century.

With this context it's not really suprising that he'd go on to write Age Of Innocence 30 years later.

Also, was/is it a common thing for printed interviews to type out the dialect like that or was that NME being petty and finding another avenue to antagonize metal musicians? Not too familiar with British press.
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You are probably not far from the mark on both counts. Writing in the style of the Times would sound really odd in either a tabloid or a music magazine. But also, yes, NME gets incredibly highbrow when it comes to dealing with metal and would jump at the chance to make someone like Steve Harris sound thick.
 
I am too bored and busy to read the whole interview, but he wouldn't be the first, nor the last to be a closeted racist.
The world of music, including the world of heavy metal is not so innocent or open minded as many of us, including myself, thought.
Then for 6-7 years I run my own webzine, got to know and meet quite a few people and realized that stupidity is everywhere. And that the record companies put pressure on press, independent or not, to keep certain things and opinions under lid, just so that certain musicians appear "clean" when they are not and they do not loose revenue. I have personal experience with that.
And just so we are clear. I am not saying Steve is a racist. I've never met him and I don't know him or his political ideas.
But from what I've read online it sounds like something I would expect from Bruce and not Steve.
 
Aggelos said:
I am too bored and busy to read the whole interview, but he wouldn't be the first, nor the last to be a closeted racist.
The world of music, including the world of heavy metal is not so innocent or open minded as many of us, including myself, thought.
Then for 6-7 years I run my own webzine, got to know and meet quite a few people and realized that stupidity is everywhere. And that the record companies put pressure on press, independent or not, to keep certain things and opinions under lid, just so that certain musicians appear "clean" when they are not and they do not loose revenue. I have personal experience with that.
And just so we are clear. I am not saying Steve is a racist. I've never met him and I don't know him or his political ideas.
But from what I've read online it sounds like something I would expect from Bruce and not Steve.
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I think Steve learnt to keep his opinions to himself after that NME interview... Once bitten, twice shy.
 
this is a good debate. i think both steve and bruce learned from their mistakes in time. on the other hand, people are complex machines. these are not very well educated but highly talented musicians dedicated most of their lives to music, to tours etc, starting with their teen years. So they have a luxury to be ignorant at some points. As long as they don't put any shit to their music or lyrics I'm fine. And Maiden always spread good messages with very well written songs through time. Starting with Afraid to Shoot Strangers they may have written twenty or so anti-war songs. Songs like Clansman are unexpected from a British nationalist. Bruce's speeches are also aware of the current thoughts, "men, women, anyone between...". (Except greek cunt haha) I think for Bruce, his trip to Sarajevo has changed a lot of his ideas.

And: NME was supporting punk at the time, look what happened to Johnny Rotten. He became a right wing weirdo.
 
I'd like to think that travelling the world, experiencing different cultures and particularly the immense love Maiden get in places like Middle and South America or Japan for example, could help in changing these problematic attitudes people like Steve likely grew up with. He was pretty young when that interview was conducted after all.

Ooooon the other hand there are plenty of musicians who have made those same experiences but still remained fuckwits. Stuff like Eric Clapton going on massively xenophobic rants while under the influence during a concert (I think it was cocaine, could've been booze too though, not sure). Or massive assholes like Ted Nugent or Jon Schaffer who make it seem as if they are hellbent on having some of the stupidest and most problematic opinions and beliefs.

Starblind said:
this is a good debate. i think both steve and bruce learned from their mistakes in time. on the other hand, people are complex machines. these are not very well educated but highly talented musicians dedicated most of their lives to music, to tours etc, starting with their teen years. So they have a luxury to be ignorant at some points. As long as they don't put any shit to their music or lyrics I'm fine. And Maiden always spread good messages with very well written songs through time. Starting with Afraid to Shoot Strangers they may have written twenty or so anti-war songs. Songs like Clansman are unexpected from a British nationalist. Bruce's speeches are also aware of the current thoughts, "men, women, anyone between...". (Except greek cunt haha) I think for Bruce, his trip to Sarajevo has changed a lot of his ideas.

And: NME was supporting punk at the time, look what happened to Johnny Rotten. He became a right wing weirdo.
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You raise some pretty good points. Hopefully it's not me being blinded by being a fan, but I'm much more likely to give the Maiden boys the benefit of the doubt about some past transgressions than I am with other musicians whose bigoted views are represented in their music as well. Not saying that Bruce or Steve are perfect by any means, they might be assholes, they might be great people. I wouldn't know, I'm not their friend. I do like that Maiden at least tries to portray themselves as inclusive, everyone being part of the same "metal family" and so on.

That said, as someone who is not British and doesn't have the nicest view of Churchill, Bruce's fascination with the man is certainly a bit weird to me.
 
I saw a YouTube video where Bruce where invited to a TV show in the 80's and I think the presenter was talking about the Top ten artist on the albums sales at that time and Bruce commenting and he made a bad joke about the Communards (the singer was from the other side of the street…some kind of joke) and it was not funny, just for himself.
 
It is a good debate. Steve thought the band would carry on for 10 years in the NME interview, he thought your 30s was old and meant retiring like in football... Clearly the views of a young man.

For extra context these areas of East London (Leyton for Steve, Clapton for Smith & Murray, Hackney for Nicko) are next to Newham (where I was born, same day as Killers was released!).

These areas very quickly became ethnically diverse, as the British Empire ended after 1945 and the Commonwealth was created. South Asians, Africans, Caribbean people and others came to work often as 'British Subjects' (not as immigrants). The white working class became defensive and there was serious racial tension. Also, the British public as a whole was just ignorant about their country's crumbling empire, and full integration of new communities can take a generation or two anyway, so it wasn't one side's fault. It was just a complex setting.

Also worth putting into perspective, it's not as if there was a race war in London at that time. There was real tension, some violence, and the departure of a lot of white families to other places like Essex. Just like Steve himself moved to Sheering with his Maiden millions. People learned to get along, as Steve says in that interview (even if they did so through gritted teeth).

These stories and settings are my earliest memories, long before I heard of Maiden, so I know some of where Maiden's east enders are coming from. (Bruce and Janick obviously from totally different areas, and Jan has a mixed European heritage himself)
 
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blabbermouth.net

IRON MAIDEN's ADRIAN SMITH On His Musical Relationship With BRUCE DICKINSON: 'He Is Really Easy To Write' Songs With

In a new interview with Made In Metal, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith was asked about his musical relationship with the band's singer, Bruce Dickinson. Adrian responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, even when Bruce first joined IRON MAIDEN in '82, I think it was, we'd...
blabbermouth.net blabbermouth.net

Adrian about writing with Bruce:
''And I've always written songs, so I used to play him riffs and stuff, and then we'd started writing songs. And that's our musical relationship. He'll always come to me and say, 'Oh, what have you got?', if we're doing a record. 'You got any riffs?' So I have riffs or even have melodies or a title for a song. And he's great. He is really easy to write with. He'll come up with something really quickly, and we write songs very quickly. That's the way he likes to do it. And he's a great singer. He's got a great range. When I'm on my own and getting ideas together, I can visualize him maybe singing over what I'm playing, so there's that side to it too. In the '90s when I was just doing my solo stuff, he came to me and said he wanted me to join his solo band. And I really liked the songs he was doing with Roy — I think it was 'Chemical Wedding', I love those songs. So I sort of threw my lot in with Bruce in the '90s and I had a great couple of years. I really enjoyed that. I learned a lot of stuff like from Roy. So, yeah, Bruce and I, we get on great, and we write, I think, some great music together''.

More from this interview:
The Maiden-esque harmony intro to SK's ''Muddy Water'' is his idea. More such stuff for Maiden again, Adrian.

He loves metal ballads. That's why they wrote ''Beyond The Pale''.

He recorded the SK album with his signature Jackson.

He said it's nice to have a signature style playing guitar.

The Prisoner was inspired by Black Sabbath's Neon Knights, that sort of driving riff - one of Adrian's all time favorite songs!

For him, Roy is like Yngwie. He learned a lot from him, like alternate picking. Incredible technique, he can't be like them. He practiced a lot with Bruce's solo band (which he has never done before with Maiden) to keep up with him.
 
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Kalata said:
He'll come up with something really quickly, and we write songs very quickly. That's the way he likes to do it.
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Thanks for sharing this.
From time to time I'd like to read "we took our time to record this song you know because we are not in a hurry, we have no pressure and we like to polish stuff and maybe reflect on what we did and rerecord parts that we though were great at the first place but definitely could be improved" anyway... one can dream ; )
 
Austrogoth said:
Thanks for sharing this.
From time to time I'd like to read "we took our time to record this song you know because we are not in a hurry, we have no pressure and we like to polish stuff and maybe reflect on what we did and rerecord parts that we though were great at the first place but definitely could be improved" anyway... one can dream ; )
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Agreed. But I suppose Adrian and Steve doesn't write (putting ideas is different) that quickly like Bruce. It would be atypical for them, or with Adrian is different with Maiden and solo. Writing songs together quickly is one thing, Bruce's preferred way of writing to be quick (why?) is another.
 
Austrogoth said:
Thanks for sharing this.
From time to time I'd like to read "we took our time to record this song you know because we are not in a hurry, we have no pressure and we like to polish stuff and maybe reflect on what we did and rerecord parts that we though were great at the first place but definitely could be improved" anyway... one can dream ; )
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I sort of agree, but at the same time I look at all the stuff they have written, and maybe they don’t really need more time.
 
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