20 years ago this Sunday (10th February 1999)

GhostofCain

GhostofCain

Ancient Mariner
It was announced that Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith had re-joined Iron Maiden. Few would have imagined back then that the band would be as big as they are in 2019. :eek: :eek:

I have enjoyed these years immensely, from the new albums and subsequent tours to the history tours based on different periods of the band's history. I have been lucky enough to attend some amazing live shows following the reunion (31 and counting) and I rate the new albums they have recorded quite highly (AMOLAD and TBOS in particular). I cannot wait to see what they have up their sleeves once the current tour is over.

For these reasons, I would like to say "thank you Iron Maiden"! The end might be near, but you have made many people really happy. I am one of them. Up the Irons!

:notworthy::fencing::cheers: :edmetal:
 
Where does time fly.

Also, Maiden having the same line up for Two Decasdes:eek: Just look at the ides of march thread, Maiden used to have a different line up every two weeks LOL

I flew to the gig in Paris on that tour, in those days it was expensive enough to travel, I think the flights probably cost the equivalent of €300 and that was with heavily discounted student rates, but I made the effort not just because Bruce and Adrian were back but also you weren't sure how long it was going to last for.

I definitely didn't expect 5 studio albums (great ones at that) or that I'd see them a further 24 times since then.
 
The neat thing is that "nu maiden/reunion era maiden" is now just as long as their 80 and 90s eras combined. Brave New World and forward still all seem like new albums to me, but sadly it isn't true. Another neat thing is that I was born in 80, the year of Maiden's first album. My son was born in 2001, so his whole life has been predominantly the "reunion era."
 
When I started listening to Iron Maiden in the late 80's - early 90's they told me the heyday was long over. Soon enough, it was. Some pretty successfull tours celebrating the heydays of the early to mid-80's gave Maiden a new heyday. Or is it payday. Heyday payday.
 
When my brother really was into Iron Maiden (late 90s - early 2000s) they were about as uncool as you could get. He remembers it particularly being noticeable at school because very few people were interested in the band at the time. Funny how things change - these days I see countless of Maiden shirts out and about every summer and on a highly varied group of people. Back at the gig last year I was sat right next to some young teenagers who seemed well into it so it's not like they're wholly unpopular with the younger crowd either.
 
It's reverse for me. In that same period metal and alternative was widespread and there were at least a few people in every class in every high school in the city. Maiden wasn't looked down on, it had a godlike status even then, and everyone from punks to nu-metallers hang out together. That all has changed. Nowadays alternative of any form isn't present in the schools, kids are either defaulting to local mega-produced pop/folk, local hip-hop/techno/whatever acts have a certain following, the rock people are pretty much gone from the youth, yeah "dads" still have their bars and clubs and moto parties and all of it but metal and rock kids are "forced" to go out to pop/folk shit because they're unable to network with other metal/rock kids easily.

Around year 2000 we could gather a few hundred people on two days notice in a club just for the Maiden DJ party. Local bands were packing up the theaters and venues that go up to 2000 people. The mini-festivals like charity shows would draw like 4 thousand people to a sports hall. Nowadays there are still shows but the numbers are slashed by an order of magnitude.
 
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