It's hard to say if we'll get a DVD from the Maiden England tour

I think Asylum was one of the tours they missed, one of the better albums from that era though. About half of it is excellent and the rest is shit. I wouldn't mind seeing something from that tour.

I like how honest those dvds were. Mostly in the commentaries. They weren't afraid to admit their failures, especially in volume 2, you can tell there's a lot of regret there. Iron Maiden (and a lot of other bands) tend to gloss over that stuff.
 
I do not think they shot anything on the Asylum Tour, at least nothing pro shot. I saw the show, it was actually pretty good. The following tour (Crazy Nights) was about the worst show I ever saw, a very short setlist. I am not really that fond of Asylum, Crazy Nights, or Hot in the Shade ... I liked them a bit when they came out, but they have not held up well at all IMO.

I agree that the commentaries were good and fairly honest, they would have been better if Ace and Peter were on them. I will give Maiden credit for putting Dianno, Stratton, etc on their videos and seem to let them say what they want to say.
 
Ace (and maybe Peter) have comments in the booklets, I was disappointed that they weren't on the commentaries. Probably too much bad blood. Even the comments on the reunion tours were pretty negative, especially toward Peter.

I don't like Hot In The Shade either, but the concert from that tour is one of the best, with an awesome stage show too. Crazy Nights has some good moments. I'm really fond of Bruce's shredding on those albums. Hiring him was a good move, I wish he was still in the band.
 
Will get more into the DVD comparison with Maiden later on.

(For now an off-topic Kiss comment. In my not very humble opinion every post-The Elder album sucks. There are some good songs but all albums have more than one plain bad song. A while back I heard all albums because I thought a survivor was at hand, and I was shocked to hear how bad it all was. It has to do with my taste, naturally, but some songs were so different from others.. I was quite amazed. We could continue in the Kiss topic.)
 
Do not want to derail this too much into a Kiss thread, but post Elder you have

Creatures of the Nights which I think is solid, some call it great because they went back to being a more straight up rock band, but there are some duds on that album.

Lick it Up, pretty much the same comment as Creatures, but I think it is better

Animalize ... pretty much the same quality as Creatures

Asylum, Crazy Nights, Hot in The Shade ... a few good songs, but mostly crap (oddly the Asylum and Hot in the Shade tours were really good)

Revenge - another "return to form" album, I think really solid. It helped that Bob Ezrin produced

Carnival of Souls --- similar to the Elder in that it is an odd album for the band (kind of a grunge album), but has some good songs on it.

Psycho Circus -- a reunion album that is the anti-BNW ... just a mess with a few decent songs

Sonic Boom/Monster ... the two recent albums with Thayer as Ace and Singer as Peter ... a few okay songs, mostly crap.


So yeah, it is a real mixed bag post Elder ... you could take all the good songs off these 10 albums and end up with 4 good albums
 
What happened in the 80s with Kiss? Did they get caught up in the hair metal thing or what? Failing to hang on to the audience who were perhaps allured into heavier stuff at the time, Priest, Maiden, Metallica etc...The teenage kids of the 70s who were into them had grown up? Because on the paper the 80s should have been a pretty good decade for them with all the 80s extravaganza, big hair, arena metal happening at the time...

Never really listened to Kiss much. I was kinda crazy about Alive 2 when I was a kid and been around the Double Platinum album...
 
SixesAlltheway said:
What happened in the 80s with Kiss? Did they get caught up in the hair metal thing or what? Failing to hang on to the audience who were perhaps allured into heavier stuff at the time, Priest, Maiden, Metallica etc...The teenage kids of the 70s who were into them had grown up? Because on the paper the 80s should have been a pretty good decade for them with all the 80s extravaganza, big hair, arena metal happening at the time...

Never really listened to Kiss much. I was kinda crazy about Alive 2 when I was a kid and been around the Double Platinum album...
Click to expand...

In the early 80s (Dynasty and Unmasked), they went for a pop sound and marketed themselves as more of a band for kids (little kids) and lost credibility with hard rock fans. Almost overnight, you saw Kiss t-shirts replaced be Priest, Ozzy, Maiden, etc. Elder was a real low point for them for album sales, after that they pretty much followed the trends of the day (hard rock Creatures-Animalize, hair metal the next few albums, back to hard rock , a brief excursion to grunge, then the reunion). I think they are a classic case of a band that lost their musical bearings. I am glad Maiden never went down that route.
 
Thanks for explaining. Could you say more on how they marketed themselves as a band for little kids in the early 80s? That just sounds strange to me, although they always had a very young audience too.
 
I should say this "kids market" was probably 1979-1982 ... they stopped this when Creatures came out.

They went for the kiddie market a few ways
1) Lunch boxes, action figures, comic books, and various products aimed at the under 12 market
2) The Phantom of the Park movie, which was an ABC movie of the week. Incredibly cheesy and had kind of a Scooby Doo feel to it.
3) Their general image, they stopped swearing at concerts, less threatening costumes, downplayed drinking/drugs and tried to make their shows more family oriented.


During this period, probably one of the funniest moments in rock ever when Kiss went on the Tomorrow show with Tom Snyder (Ace kinda went away from the new image they were trying to project)

Pt 1

Pt 2
 
Haha Ace Frehley's laugh :lol: It is good to know that they don't take themselves very seriously. Laughing at their own look/stage antics etc...Only Simmons looks a little pissed about that fact.

But yeah I see what you mean! I always knew about the merchandise thing but for some reason thought it was something they had always done. I can definitely see how it would alienate older fans of the band. Speaking of that kind of marketing, Maiden management is no stranger to that, though I'm not sure how much they did in the 80s, perhaps very little, but they certainly do cater to young audiences today.
 
I think now is a little different, because both bands have been around so long. It is expected that parents that were into the band during their first run would show up with their kids. Maiden certainly has sold their share of Eddie merch, but I think they have kept it within reason. No Hello Kitty Eddies, Eddie Caskets, etc. I have heard Gene Simmons on many occasions say Kiss brand moreso than a band .. I do not think Maiden has ever taken that approach.

I think Ace leaving really hurt Kiss, he just oozes 70s coke induced rock. I think Simmons/Stanley got more into being celebrities whereas Ace was more of a rocker. Just look at the solo albums they released. Paul's was pop, Gene tried to get every celeb he could on it, Peter went Blues/Jazz .. but Ace's was straight up 70s guitar rock (with Fractured Mirror probably being the best musical thing that ever came out with the work Kiss on the cover).
 
Oh yeah, there is a world of difference between the amount of Kiss and Maiden merchandise, no doubt.

Wow yeah. There is definitely a lot of tension in that interview. Paul/Gene trying to keep it serious, while Ace is just taking the piss out of the whole situation, to the irritability of the others (mostly Gene it looks like) :D
 
Yeah, no amount of makeup could hide how pissed Gene was that Ace was breaking the image he was trying to present and stealing his thunder. The whole plumber thing cracks me up no matter how many times I see it.
 
I love that Tom Snyder interview. Seen it dozens of times and it never gets old.

bearfan said:
Revenge - another "return to form" album, I think really solid. It helped that Bob Ezrin produced
Psycho Circus -- a reunion album that is the anti-BNW ... just a mess with a few decent songs
Click to expand...
Revenge is my favorite KISS album. All of it is good. I actually like Psycho Circus, might be more of a nostalgia thing though, as it was my first kiss album along with Double Platinum.
 
In the US, Amazon.com is charging some pretty ridiculous pre-order prices on the DVD and CD.

$29.39 for the DVD

And a whopping $35.54 for the CD

Note that it marks both as being "Import." I wonder if that is impacting the price. I may be a big Maiden fan, and I'm excited for Maiden England, but I'm not paying $30 for the DVD and I'm sure as hell not paying $35 for a CD (and I wanted both; I'm not paying $65. I figured I'd have to pay for the in the range of <$35 for both, like $20 for the DVD and $15 for the CD).

Anyone have any speculations on if it will get cheaper after the actual release and/or if there's a different American online retailer that will sell me a CD for something more resembling what CDs usually cost?
 
It's because they aren't out yet. The prices will be normal when we get closer to release date. Amazon always does that
 
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