Recent content by Helmuth Von Moltke

Agreed the chances have gone up, that Bruce interview is the first time I’ve felt excited about Maiden future plans in a while. Strong feeling (hope?) we get some movement on this in 2026, don’t think they will wait for RFYL to be completely done.

Funnily enough, I more or less feel exactly the same way about these three. Lost in a Lost World has grown on me somewhat, I should add.

Mother of Mercy is one of my least favourite Maiden tunes, one of the few I dislike from the reunion era. Maiden by numbers, lyrics that seem leftover from the previous album, with an incomprehendible 'studio magic' chorus. Whereas Lightning Strikes twice has a brilliant show-stopping Janick...

There’s a celestial vibe across parts of each album, certainly in Dream of Mirrors. The cover art and colours also convey the feeling of dreams … so not a comparison across the board, but something of the vibe. They are also both fairly slickly produced maiden albums (as opposed to raw, more...

Good question. I’m glad for the excitement around the tour and it was a delight to be in the London stadium crown. Almost all the x50 shows I’ve seen have been the reunion era, so the highlights of the current show have already been the highlights of past tours (and I generally preferred how...

From my own perspective, seeing the band first time in 1998, I share your sentiments. This tour feels like the start of a long wave good bye to the band, whereas as recently as half a year ago, I actually still felt very excited and future focussed with the Future Past Tour. I’ve loved seeing...

SE Asia is a great base to catch Maiden from on the ‘global’ leg. I was fully Singapore based during Future Past last year and caught 4 of the Aussie shows. Brilliant experience.

Here's my contribution from BBC World Service yesterday, where I was allowed to suggest a personal interest topic for discussion. The BBC brought in music journalist Ian Windwood to speak to me and host Julian Woricker about Maiden. Starting from around 35 / 36 minutes...

Reflecting on the London show, I had a absolute blast (and at the Dive Bar beforehand). Rear standing but not far from the barrier. The band played a fantastic homecoming show, the atmosphere in the crowd was excitable. The steam rising from the emptying stadium as I walked away from it was a...

That may have been the Guardian review? Which was sneering as usual, the Telegraph review was very positive

I gave a big shout out to Maiden on BBC World Service this morning. I was the in-studio guest for 3 hours, and the BBC asked me beforehand if there was a non-world affairs story I'd like to talk about. They even brought in the music journalist Ian Winwood (who wrote the Telegraph review last...

Matter of the Beast was half baked. Donington video is good but I wasnt there, best thing was the bonus Brixton show in Sept 2007 that I attended. But it wasn't a very memorable show TBH and I don't recall it that well. Earls Court 2006 was better.

I saw x5 Legacy shows in 2018 and x7 Future Past shows across 2023-24. Seeing x2 Run For Your Lives shows and that seems about the right ratio for me.

The Covid pandemic messed up the album rhythm, hopefully not at the expense of 18. Had Senjutsu been released as expected in 2020 I really think we’d have another by now. As it stands, not only has Nicko retired but they lost 2 years of touring and then felt compelled to compete Legacy. Now...

My view is that when they include Blaze songs it’s not really maiden for the masses. So 1999 and 2018-19, there are Blaze songs in there which is only for the hardcore. Maybe 2008 and 2012 are the two closest setlist analogies to today ? Maiden for the masses, where you know every tune with...