23 years ago today

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 2022. :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 them again the next time they do a UK tour.

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.
 
If you'ld told me in 99 that we'd get another 23 years and counting, I'd have laughed in your face. I honestly thought at the time, given where Maiden were coming from, and the state of metal itself, a successful reunion tour and maybe a swansong album would be it.
 
I was on the way out to college, and popped into a newsagent and out of the corner of my eye spotted the latest issue of Kerrang....
 
I kind of always figured Bruce would come back at some point, but for me, the real huge news that day was that Adrian was also returning.

The last 23 years really have been a gift. Back in 1999 I figured we'd get a tour and maybe an album. Many tours and 6 albums later I could not be more grateful.
 
Bruce and Adrian coming back to make Maiden a 6 piece made things truly special for me. I feel very fortunate that my favorite metal band (and band in general) have endured and maintained a superstar status for 40+ years and continue to make awesome music.
 
I remember where I was. Sort of. I was wearing clothes and walking somewhere. And if I remember correctly I’d read the news on Iron Maiden Dot Com. Because I remember doing a triple take. Bruce back? ADRIAN back? What happened to Blaze? Ed Hunter is finally coming out? Keep in mind, this news was only a year after Virtual XI. I was sad for Blaze. I went to my friend’s house because he wanted my help moving some furniture. This was before my wealth of great muscles and strength and good looks had come to me so needless to say, I was annoyed. I kept going back to that page and reading it over and over again. My friend’s mom was making spaghetti. Wrestlemania that year featured The Rock and Stone Cold. Oh wait…that was my cousin, not friend. His mom was my aunt. That makes sense. She wasn’t a good cook. So I finished at their house and went back home and got back on my Packard Bell 486SX PC which I’d upgraded with an Overdrive Chip to make it a 486 DX4/100.
Sigh….memories…
 
chaosapiant said:
I remember where I was. Sort of. I was wearing clothes and walking somewhere. And if I remember correctly I’d read the news on Iron Maiden Dot Com. Because I remember doing a triple take. Bruce back? ADRIAN back? What happened to Blaze? Ed Hunter is finally coming out? Keep in mind, this news was only a year after Virtual XI. I was sad for Blaze. I went to my friend’s house because he wanted my help moving some furniture. This was before my wealth of great muscles and strength and good looks had come to me so needless to say, I was annoyed. I kept going back to that page and reading it over and over again. My friend’s mom was making spaghetti. Wrestlemania that year featured The Rock and Stone Cold. Oh wait…that was my cousin, not friend. His mom was my aunt. That makes sense. She wasn’t a good cook. So I finished at their house and went back home and got back on my Packard Bell 486SX PC which I’d upgraded with an Overdrive Chip to make it a 486 DX4/100.
Sigh….memories…
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I think I was wearing clothes that day, too. If I remember correctly…
 
I love this little tradition of yours where you make a new thread on this date.
It makes me happy.
And it makes me feel old.
It makes me happy to feel old in a particularly nice way.

I have no idea where I was on this date, but I also think I was wearing clothes. *tries to remember* Yep, February, definitely clothes.
When I started to listening to Maiden, Brave New World was already out. I remember people freaking out saying: "Bruce Dickinson is back!!!" and me asking myself "Who the fu** is Bruce Dickinson?!"
Two decades later, I would pay a lot for one of these shirts:

Bruce Memorabilia Pt1 026 (2).JPG
 
I remember in the lead up to the announcement there had been rumours that Blaze was out so there was plenty of speculation at the time. And given the animosity between Bruce and Steve detailed in Mick Wall's book I assumed they'd either get someone else or break up.

Imagine my surprise then.

I heard about it through a mate who saw the news on the IM site. Overjoyed is an understatement as we had both gotten into Maiden during the Blaze years and never thought we'd get the chance to see them with Bruce and Adrian. Anyway, within a few weeks we were booking our tickets to Paris at the De Bercy. 9/9/99. What a show.

 
I, uh, wasn't an Iron Maiden fan yet, so I can only imagine. I've been a fan for about 21 years now and I've never seen a lineup change. Imagine that! There were people who'd been an Iron Maiden fan longer than I have now in 1999 who had seen a billion trillion lineup changes, but the band has gotten through all those "musical differences" and "personality conflicts" - although I expect sometimes it gets heated amongst the guys.

Just very happy for this journey.
 
Spaldy said:
Anyway, within a few weeks we were booking our tickets to Paris at the De Bercy. 9/9/99. What a show.

Click to expand...

Same here, it had to be done, the funny thing is, as I said above, there was a kind of feeling of we better go and see it in case we don't get many more chances. Even when BNW came out I was still expecting it to get savaged by the press, and I never expected people younger then me to get into Maiden again.
 
I was pretty damn impressed by Maiden’s comeback. Like, it wasn’t a fad or a trend to like them for one album like, say, Priest on Angel of Retribution. They essentially just put themselves right back at the top and stayed there for two decades. Who else can say they’ve done that?
 
I remember the winter before, when Bruce was on tour with the Chemical Wedding album, I saw him live in Hannover with Adrian, and you could almost feel there was something going on, which summed up in the reunion. I was very happy I remember.
 
It was an exciting time for me as I’d recently got into metal, and the scene seemed so vibrant and alive to me with new bands, and then Iron Maiden rose like a phoenix, the old guard showing the undiminished power of metal. It made metal seem eternal and unaging to me.

I didn’t know any of the background or the drama, but I knew Iron Maiden were already legends and part of the mythology of metal and that the gods were alive and striding the stage once more. Seeing them on top of the pops a year later was very exciting for my teenage self
 
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