Favourite concert memories

Ascendingthethrone

Ascendingthethrone

Ancient Mariner
In anticipation for the new tour, I thought it would be good to crack out another generic thread to reflect on our favourite IM live memories. I have seen them on 7 tours. My first gig was Reading Festival 2005. I also saw them on both the 2018 and 2022 legs of the LOTB tour. Here are my top 5 memories

1. Phantom of the Opera at Reading 2005. I was four rows from the front at my first Maiden gig and I distinctly remember this song. It was incredible. Bruce’s ’Lets go jumping!’ is something that has stuck with me all these years later.

2. Moonchild on the Maiden England tour. I took my girlfriend (now wife) to see them at the O2. She is not a metal fan really at all, but her face when they came out was something I will always remember. She thought it was incredible when they came out with this song and the flames. I saw the song in 2008, but it was so much better as an opener.

3. The Red and the Black in 2017. I spent the first four minutes of the song thinking ‘Man, Bruce sounds strained’. Then the instrumental kicked in. I was completely blown away by the energy and musicianship. This performance completely changed my mind on this song and that is the only time this has happened lI’ve.

4. Book of Souls in 2017. This is my favourite IM song (obviously) and I was so chuffed to hear it live. I’ve mentioned it before on this forum that when Bruce sung the ‘Ascending the throne…’ section, I was a bit misty eyed. After all the scare and worry with his cancer, he was truly back!

5. Sign of the Cross in 2018 and 2022. I missed the DOD tour, so I had never heard any Blaze material live. It was great to hear The Clansman, but Sign of the Cross was on another level! The whole song was just spectacular. I loved the bit when the lights cut out in the chorus for a couple of beats and the cross was stood there illuminated. Goosebumps!

Honorary mention

The power cut at Earls Court in 2006!
 
Birmingham 2017. My first time seeing Maiden indoors, and not at a festival. I managed to get First to the Barrier, on Janick's side. I'll never forget being face to face with the band that got me into metal, and having Steve Harris point at me. I managed to get one of Janick's guitar picks, and one of Maiden's media team took a picture of me holding it, and I ended up on the inner sleeve of the Live Chapter.

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Pretty special gig that one was.
 
My absolutely memorable Maiden moment was when I met them all at their hotel and talked to all of them in Dublin, a few steps off Grafton St., the afternoon before their show, August 31 2005. Will never forget that and have my signed ticket in its special place. The funny thing was that the show itself under this circumstances seemed somehow unimportant. I've seen a few gigs before on that particular tour in 2005 (Prague, Leipzig, Bospop), and this one in Dubin was the last one to be on my schedule, so I was well familiar with it all, stage, setlist, everthing, and I stood there in the audience and went to myself like "Man, this feels so unreal. Here they are, and the same afternoon I met them and we spoke together".
 
Paris 1999, Ed Hunter tour. Bruce and Adrian's first European comeback show.

We travelled there on chartered fanclub tour busses that left from London. There wasn't a UK gig on that tour for some reason. There were people from as far as Brazil and the US on board.

We left at midnight and had a good laugh with the fellow IMFC members on the journey. Had a pint on the ferry at 5am and continued to the hotel in Paris.

Some of us got on the metro and spent the day wandering the city. Went up the Eiffel Tower. Then we got lost and almost didn't make it back in time for our bus to the gig. On the way there the bus AC broke down and we got stuck in rush hour Paris traffic so everyone continued to the venue on foot.

I'd never been in an arena before so my 17 year old mind was blown away at the scale of the De'Bercy. I lost my mates during Megadeth but we found each other again just in time to get down front for Doctor Doctor.

When Aces High kicked in and Bruce leapt to the stage, people were crying, including myself. The rest of the show was a blur or euphoria. Best concert I've ever been to and ever will.

On the bus back to the hotel everyone was going fucking nuts at how good it was, singing Maiden songs all night.

It was like one of those great summer experiences you remember having as a kid.
 
Spaldy said:
Paris 1999, Ed Hunter tour. Bruce and Adrian's first European comeback show.

We travelled there on chartered fanclub tour busses that left from London. There wasn't a UK gig on that tour for some reason. There were people from as far as Brazil and the US on board.
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They skipped the UK to avoid having to pay taxes after the massive amount of money they had received in February 1999 from selling the royalties to the back catalogue to investors.
 
My favourite memories are as follows:

- Leganes, Spain, Ed Hunter tour, 26/09/1999. I will never forget the massive roar of the audience when Bruce came on stage running like a maniac. He had clearly been missed! :lol:
- London, UK, A Matter of Life and Death, 22/12/2006. Although both gigs (end of the A Matter of Life and Death tour) were fantastic, the first gig was memorable for a couple of reasons: I bumped into Bruce in London earlier that day and Maiden entertained us for 30 minutes during a power cut. Other bands would have left the stage, but not Maiden. An extra special day. The Longest Day was a particular highlight of that show.
- Oslo, Norway, Somewhere Back in Time, 24/07/2008. I went to 4 gigs on that tour, with 3 of them in Scandinavia and this was the best one. In fact, I remember it as possibly the best Maiden performance I have ever witnessed, with Bruce in a fantastic mood.
- London, UK, Legacy of the Beast, 10/08/2018. Again both gigs were great, but I had a better view on the first night so I'll go with that one. I will never forget the audience belting out Flight of Icarus. Best moment of a brilliant gig and one of the highlights of the Maiden gigs I have been to.
 
Ascendingthethrone said:
5. Sign of the Cross in 2018 and 2022. I missed the DOD tour, so I had never heard any Blaze material live. It was great to hear The Clansman, but Sign of the Cross was on another level! The whole song was just spectacular. I loved the bit when the lights cut out in the chorus for a couple of beats and the cross was stood there illuminated. Goosebumps!
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You should go see Blaze live! His material is great, and theres always a few Maiden songs in there!
 
GhostofCain said:
My favourite memories are as follows:

- Leganes, Spain, Ed Hunter tour, 26/09/1999. I will never forget the massive roar of the audience when Bruce came on stage running like a maniac. He had clearly been missed! :lol:
- London, UK, A Matter of Life and Death, 22/12/2006. Although both gigs (end of the A Matter of Life and Death tour) were fantastic, the first gig was memorable for a couple of reasons: I bumped into Bruce in London earlier that day and Maiden entertained us for 30 minutes during a power cut. Other bands would have left the stage, but not Maiden. An extra special day. The Longest Day was a particular highlight of that show.
- Oslo, Norway, Somewhere Back in Time, 24/07/2008. I went to 4 gigs on that tour, with 3 of them in Scandinavia and this was the best one. In fact, I remember it as possibly the best Maiden performance I have ever witnessed, with Bruce in a fantastic mood.
- London, UK, Legacy of the Beast, 10/08/2018. Again both gigs were great, but I had a better view on the first night so I'll go with that one. I will never forget the audience belting out Flight of Icarus. Best moment of a brilliant gig and one of the highlights of the Maiden gigs I have been to.
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The Earl’s Court gig was so good! I loved hearing all of AMOLAD live.
 
Is this only for Maiden memories? If so, let me just mention two:

29.05.2005. - Chorzow, Poland (Eddie Rips Up Europe) tour - Murders in a Rou Morgue

You know that feeling when you're teen and you're obsessive about one thing and you just need to do that one thing "...and than I can die!!!" (I don't know what was about that, but apparently it's something teen. "I need to do this and then I can die". Or: "if I don't do this - I'll die!!!!" Why are people in their teenage years tie everything with death?!). Anywho, that was me with seeing Maiden live. After missing a couple of opportunities, it finally came as the announcement of Mystic festival. Group of us traveled for about 24 hours to Poland with a bus and I was the only one who wasn't even 18 at the time. Also, back to teenage years, I often kept this pessimistic view about everything, I don't know was it a self-defensive mechanism or what, but it was always: "better not get hyped much, it probably won't be as you imagine it. I bet they're much older and it won't be that exciting." I feasted on Rock in Rio for years at that time (Death on the Road wasn't out, so this was the latest video I had of them. Mind you, YouTube still wasn't a thing then).

After arriving at stadium first thing I saw was those two huge Eddie "Early Days" banners at the side of the stage and Primal Fear was on with their hit "Metal is Forever" What a way to start your first (big) metal festival!!!! Rest of the lineup had Behemoth, Kreator and Nightwish with Maiden as headliner. Ticket price for the whole festival was 100 Polish Zloty which translates about 22 euros or 24 dollars. Imagine those prices today! Had a couple of beers and had down to the pit, had my experiences in crowded area but this was something completely different. And then, first "Doctor, doctor" followed by intro tape from "Murders in the Rue Morgue".... I'm probably candidate for Alzheimer or some other disease but I believe as I'm alive I'll remember the moment when Nicko failed the drumroll and that "Killers" Eddie appeared in a big lighted triangle. To this day, that picture is etched in my brain! Then I noticed the band. Adrian was wearing some vest like in in Rio, Bruce was jumping over monitors, Janick prancing and Steve shooting his bass at the audience. Truly authentic, just as I saw on the DVD and just as I imagined (wished) it would be. At the point, I wasn't even aware how blessed I was with that setlist, I mean, I got Charlotte! (I must admit that I was one of those yelling "Fear of the Dark" but since it was my first gig, I think I deserve some slack).

After the gig, we went to some local pub for an after party. Huge group of Maiden fans discussing this and that and setlist and Bruce and some other minuscule details that I wasn't even aware of during the gig. I remember my thought that I mantra-ed for weeks before the gig "I just need to see Maiden live and than I could die." and chuckled how the though changed when I actually saw them live. It could be all summarized in one word and that word is: "MORE!". And I did saw them couple of more times, 11 times more to be precise. If discovering Brave New World in the early 2000s was one milestone in my music life, seeing them live was definitely another.

And funnily enough, when I see them for the 13th time, this spring in Ljubljana, it will be exactly 18 years since I saw them for the first time!
I never though this "Maiden phase" would have me invest for this long, but I'm definitely grateful for it.
 
GhostofCain said:
Oslo, Norway, Somewhere Back in Time, 24/07/2008. I went to 4 gigs on that tour, with 3 of them in Scandinavia and this was the best one. In fact, I remember it as possibly the best Maiden performance I have ever witnessed, with Bruce in a fantastic mood.
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Easily the best show I have been to.
 
Bruce Dickinson (with Adrian Smith) @ The Cabooze in Minneapolis, MN, 1997. Accident Of Birth tour. Tiny venue, the band was on fire, and they busted out "2 Minutes To Midnight", "Powerslave", and "The Prisoner" during the set. I also got to interview them on the tour bus, which was cool.

Iron Maiden @ Tweeter Center in Camden, NJ, 2006. Full AMOLAD set. The big tank failed to inflate at the end due to some power issue, but it was otherwise a very special show.

Iron Maiden @ Klipsch Music Center, Indianapolis, IN, 2012. Maiden England tour. Not the perfect set list, but I got to hear over half of the Seventh Son album live, which was great.

Iron Maiden @ Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN, 2019. Legacy Of The Beast tour. Great production value, nice career-spanning set list, strong performance.
 
first time seeing them in 2000. Was in 5th grade with my uncle. lol Favorite tour was SBIT. No decent camera phone back then (iPhones were ok then)

2016. First time getting FTTB and it was the first gig of the tour (a goal of mine since 2005) and gave the "friend" ticket to my uncle. He's a vintage headbanger
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2016. Caught Nicko during Christmas time setting up his new drum kit at the rib shack
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2017. Testing the VIP Trooper Party in Tampa. Also first time seeing Ghost (opener there)
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2020. Seeing Harris in a club environment this close (British Lion) on their first night of their tour right before covid came flooding in
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Thanks for sharing your favorite Iron Maiden concert memories. Reading Festival 2005 with "Phantom of the Opera" up close was mind-blowing. Maiden England tour at the O2 had your wife hooked with "Moonchild" and the flames. "The Red and the Black" instrumental blew you away in 2017. Hearing "Book of Souls" live after Bruce's battle with cancer was emotional. "Sign of the Cross" in 2018 and 2022 was simply spectacular. For live event production services, check out Santa Monica Live Event Production Services. Keep rockin' and creating incredible Iron Maiden memories!
 
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