Iron Maiden on Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (Tim Burgess TwitterListeningParty 9-7-2021)

The_7th_one

Ancient Mariner
I will try to emulate @Forostar with the Powerslave listening party
Maiden Seventh Son of a Seventh Son listening party twitter feed:

Moonchild
SH: You could pick 5 or 6 songs that could have opened the album. But Moonchild was the best choice without doubt. I thought it was perfect as an opener. Adrian came up with the riff and having the little bit tagged on front there set the scene

AS: I remember we had a lot of trouble with the intro to Moonchild! I had a demo of the song but we couldn't seem to recreate the feel of what was on there. In the end we just went with a sort of compromise

BD: Steve said he wanted to do an album around a Seventh Son and the mystical powers he might have. It grabbed my attention. His creation and the temptations that he would go through in his life... It’s a battle for his soul between good and evil

BD: Aleister Crowley wrote a novel called Moonchild. The process of incarnating a demon or soul into a body is called creating a homunculus. The idea is Lucifer helped create this thing in a mother’s womb and she gives birth to the Seventh Son


Infinite Dreams
SH: It wasn’t like every song had to be about it. Infinite Dreams isn’t totally in line. It could be but it didn’t have to be. We didn’t want it to be where you can’t write about anything else but we were trying to keep a thread going through it

In Feb '88 the band headed to Musicland Studios in Munich, built by synth pioneer Giorgio Moroder. Longtime Maiden producer Martin Birch was returning to the scene of a past triumph. He produced the seminal Rainbow Rising album there in 1976

BD: We were all knocked out that Rainbow Rising had been done there and some great Queen albums too. I was shocked by how tiny it was! Really low ceiling, tiny little control room. “They did it here!? Really?” But that’s genius of Martin

AS: The studio was in a hotel basement. There would be days where the routine was just working, then going back to your room, then back to studio without going outside. Queen did a lot there, and I remember trying out some of Brian May's amps

NM: All you had to do was jump out of bed into the lift and it would drop you off right outside the studio front door. Brilliant for those hazy mornings after a good lashing the night before

Can I Play with Madness
The video starred Monty Python member Graham Chapman in one of his final roles. DM: He came to one of our shows and we had a nice chat. He said he had been working on a video all day with plastic fake deer that kept falling over. Esoteric!

BD: We had a huge row because Adrian wasn’t sure about it. We rehearsed it and said how do we get out of this breakdown? We tried key changes and everything. And I said why don’t we just stop? So we have from nowhere an acapella CIPWM! It worked!

SH: We once went through a whole tour singing “Can I Play With Agnes” and no-one noticed…. Haha! We did it as a joke and not one person noticed. It was so funny

The Evil that Men do
BD: This is about our protagonist losing his virginity. Unfortunately he loses it to Lucifer who comes to him in the guise of a temptress woman. He basically gets date raped by Lucifer. What’s that going to do to your average adolescent brain?

JG: A fan favourite and live powerhouse. It’s hard to keep in the pocket as you tend to run away with it. The Maiden gallop does it, it’s hard to rein yourself in. Out of the trenches and at em and woe betide anyone who tries to hold you back!

The credits list Martin ‘Disappearing Armchair’ Birch. DM: I was showing him magic tricks in my hotel room. After making lots of drinks disappear he came up with the ultimate trick and made my chair disappear by throwing it out of the window!

DM: When the police showed up it was fortunate that they were Maiden fans. I showed them a few riffs and we had a little jam session in the room and everyone went home happy!

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
BD: When Steve played me Seventh Son, I was in Seventh Heaven. Wow! Something to really get your teeth into.

SH: It could be 4 or 5 songs, there are so many different parts in it. I didn’t realise it was as long as it was until afterwards. It felt like 6 or 7 minutes. It ended up being 10!

Derek Riggs once again provided the artwork. RS: We asked Derek to come up with something weird and conceptual for the cover and we then tried as much as possible to replicate that look and vibe in the show. I think it worked very successfully

A launch party was held at Schloss Schnellenburg. BD: It’s nice getting up and looking out of your turret window. People did that, flying everyone into a castle in the woods in the middle of nowhere. Steve was very fond of castles at the time!

They then embarked on an extensive world tour. JG: I remember being invited to a couple of gigs and being very impressed by how tight the band were sounding. There was an incredible excitement around the arena and the production looked amazing


JG: The audience were incredible, singing along with the band so loudly that at times it was hard to hear Bruce‘s voice over their roar. I remember it being an absolutely fantastic show.

Steve’s bass tech Michael Kenney took up live keyboard duties. SH: His nickname was the Count because he seemed to be up all night and sleep half the day. We thought dress him up and put him up top with a pipe organ and have a bit of fun with it

SH: “We even got some little bats on a wire and he was having fun with it as well. We got him his own dressing room with a star on the door and all that kind of stuff. It was quite funny really.” Michael has been Steve’s tech for over 40 years


The Prophecy
SH: It's our joke that Davey comes up with a song every three years! It sounded kind of medieval, a Wishbone Ash vibe which is right up my street. When he comes up with these pieces he comes to me and asks me to take it and do something with it

SH: He has riffs, melodies, guitar harmonies and things. Sometimes he doesn't know what direction he wants to take them in so he says ‘See where you want to go with it’. Then I'll play him what I've got, he grins and goes ‘Yeah!’

Tour support came from the likes of Megadeth and Guns N Roses. BD: I’d seen GNR at Portsmouth Guildhall and they were sensational. It was what I’d imagine it was like to see AC/DC with Bon when they first came over to England. It was immense

In the mid 80s Maiden signed an unlikely deal with Puma. AS: They gave us catalogues and said we could have anything. I was restrained: a couple of tracksuits, trainers and a Boris Becker racket. Some of the guys ordered the whole catalogue!

SH: Rod hated it! “You look like a bloody Puma factory”. Hahaha! BD: I find it quite endearing really. It just proves that we don’t give a fuck about fashion!


The Clairvoyant
The Clairvoyant was inspired by the death of British psychic Doris Stokes. SH: I read that she had passed away and I thought ‘I wonder if she foresaw her own death?’ I'm not the sort of person to go and see a clairvoyant. I'd rather not know!

The tour saw Maiden headline the legendary Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington for the first time. BD: Immense. The biggest. It will never be beaten. It wasn’t football’s coming home, it was Maiden’s coming home.

SH: It was an amazing achievement for us. Rod was saying ‘We’ve done 67,000 in advance’ and then we had 40,000 turn up on the day, so we ended up with 107,000.

RS: We were blown away that KISS agreed to be our special guests. We toured with them in 1980 and they were great. KISS rarely took to the stage before anyone even though at the time they didn’t use make up so Gene could show off his good looks!


Only the Good Die Young
SH: I wouldn't mind playing this one live at some point… I also think it's a true statement as well.



The tour was filmed for the Maiden England VHS release. SH: I wanted to do something more real, as if you gave ten fans a camcorder each and they captured the moments and the magic. That was the vibe that I wanted to get

In 2012 the band revisited the show, icebergs and all, for the Maiden England World Tour, which included another stop at Castle Donington in 2013, where a special Spitfire flypast of the stage was arranged to start the concert.

SH: It was amazing. Everyone was sort of blown away with it. Obviously we knew it was happening at a certain time and were waiting in anticipation. It was fantastic, it really was. But I didn’t expect it to be quite as low as that!

BD: I had to talk to the Spitfire pilot because there was some confusion about what he was actually going to do. We had a helicopter up there filming it. It was show stopping. We’ll have to go some way to beat it… but we have plans!

And that's a wrap! Goodnight from Eddie and the boys - Always look on the bright side of life :)

Oh there's just one more thing, sir. :D (I love the Colombo tv series)

15/07 ANNOUNCE

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A phone call has ruined the whole thing. Sorry!
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Janick was invited to visit a couple of shows during the ''Seventh Son'' tour:

''I remember being invited to a couple of gigs and being very impressed by how tight the band were sounding. There was an incredible excitement around the arena and the production looked amazing.''

Never knew that. Cool.

Edit: he was at the concert in Long Beach Arena in 1985, If I'm not mistaken.
 
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Steve wouldn't mind playing Only the Good Die Young! :eek:<3<3
I found this pretty awkward for him to say, he didn't say anything like that on the Powerslave listening party and also didn't say it talking about The Prophecy. Don't really think it's a hint but a little curious.
 
Rod Smallwood: We were blown away that KISS agreed to be our special guests. We toured with them in 1980 and they were great. KISS rarely took to the stage before anyone even though at the time they didn’t use make up so Gene could show off his good looks!
^ True.

The ''Seventh Son'' tour had some pretty big bands opening for Maiden.
 
AS: I remember we had a lot of trouble with the intro to Moonchild! I had a demo of the song but we couldn't seem to recreate the feel of what was on there. In the end we just went with a sort of compromise.
This is curious. The intro of ''Moonchild'' is done/captured fantastic in the album.
 
Well, perhaps he means that a part of the demo was used. Or that the demo was still better. I hope we get to hear that one day.
 
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