19 years ago today

Wayne Bond said:
No way are those figures correct. The O2 is never over 30,000 capacity. According to what I’ve just googled both Earl’s Court and the O2 are a maximum 20,000 but that can be stretched I imagine. Just found this article from 2007 where metallica apparantly broke the attendance record with just over 22,000.

https://www.iq-mag.net/2017/10/metallica-smash-o2-attendance-record/#.Wv2FPxbTWaM
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Those figures are correct as they come from the official boxscore figures. The capacity at Earls Court for the Maiden shows in 2006 was 16,341 per show, with the first one being sold out and the second one not. The capacity at each O2 show in 2017 was over 17,200.

The Metallica record is a result of them playing a small stage in the middle of the general admission area. ;)
 
GhostofCain said:
I might be alone in thinking this, but Guns N'Roses are probably the most overrated hard rock band of all time. :D
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You are not alone. GNR is a multi-hit wonder who never actually put out an album that was worth listening to all the way through. Appetite For Destruction is a terribly uneven album with a few great songs on it, and I don't understand why so many people think the album itself is so great.
 
GNR have a few good songs, but most of them are meh. People keep telling me that "Night Train" and "Rocket Queen" are some of the best songs ever and I keep thinking "these people are fucking nuts".
 
Maiden did not want to tour the UK in 1999 because the UK had let them down during the Blaze years. "Fuck'em", they thought and toured elsewhere.

This could explain a big(ger) UK difference in venues and concert attendence between 1998 and 2000.

And yeah, some hermits (in the UK more than elsewhere in Europe?) might have found out late Bruce was back. Because these were the same hermits who let them down. They might have missed some magazines, did not care to look on the internet in the right direction for over a year. Played shitty music instead, hehe.

Damn I wish I could find concert attendences from old gigs.
 
Forostar said:
Maiden did not want to tour the UK in 1999 because the UK had let them down during the Blaze years. "Fuck'em", they thought and toured elsewhere.
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There are probably some British Iron Maiden fans who felt that Iron Maiden let them down by, in their opinion, releasing poor albums and putting on poor shows. It works both ways.
 
Forostar said:
Maiden did not want to tour the UK in 1999 because the UK had let them down during the Blaze years. "Fuck'em", they thought and toured elsewhere.
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They did not tour the UK in 1999 for tax reasons (at least that is what someone in the know let slip to a person I know...).
 
But relatively seen, the lack of appreciation and/or the harshness of the negative criticism must have been worse for Maiden in the UK than in the rest of the (at least the European) countries they did play in 1999.

They were hurt alright. I remember discussing this with @Welsh Phantom a while back. He felt let down by Maiden because they did not do the UK in 1999.
 
Forostar said:
But relatively seen, the lack of appreciation and/or the harshness of the negative criticism must have been worse for Maiden in the UK than in the rest of the (at least the European) countries they did play in 1999.
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The criticism was even worse in the USA and that did not stop them touring there in 1999 (they also obviously wanted to rebuild their status there).

Tax reasons after the bond agreement on future royalties prevented them from playing a gig in the UK in 1999.
 
Forostar said:
Ghost, you think tax conditions in 1999 were different from 1998 and 2000?
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No, but in the tax year concerned Maiden made the financial agreement on future royalties that suddenly gave them a lot of money.

I also seem to remember Arjen Lucassen mentioning that when he recorded Bruce for the Ayreon album he had to live outside the UK for some time for tax reasons.
 
Yes they obviously wanted to do that (re: USA). I am sure they also wanted to do better in the UK again but I've always thought they were more bitter about their treatment in their home country. And felt they must have thought the UK could have another year without Maiden as some form of 'punishment'. I deduced that from an interview with Steve. That was the general vibe back then.
 
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Forostar said:
Yes they obviously wanted to do that (re: USA). I am sure they also wanted to do better in the UK again but I've always thought they were more bitter about their treatment in their home country. And felt they they must have thought the UK could have another year without Maiden as some form of 'punishment'. I deduced that from an interview with Steve. That was the general vibe back then.
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See my reply above. ;)

If Steve was so resentful about some criticism not to play his home country therefore penalising the band's fans, then it shows he had been living in a ivory tower for too long and needed to grow up. However, I think his reasons might have been financial ones instead. :D
 
The tax stuff doesn't rule out that they were still bitter and not eager to play the UK in 1999. A year was needed for the band to come at peace again.
 
They seemed to extend that "punishment" all the way to 2014 then. One show at Twickenham for Somewhere Back in Time and four shows (two festivals, two London) for Maiden England. The first leg of The Book of Souls world tour was a different case as Bruce had cancer the year before of course. It was only for the second leg that they finally acknowledged they'd been ignoring the UK so much.
 
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