Iron Maiden Tour 2025 - Discussion

ShadowOfTheGods said:
Nicko is not dead. He's still playing more than 30 shows per year. His performances, even if they're not his bests, are good anyway.
Some of you guys are worrying more than Maiden themselves.
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I'm not sure if you're a musician, but I believe playing with Nicko has become challenging at this point. A prime example of this is the clip where Adrian becomes visibly frustrated during Wasted Years:
 
onurb said:
I think some people still thinking that nicko has 40ish yo. The old man is +70 now. And to do what he does at this age (and after a stroke) is remarkable. I dont think its fair all the heavy criticism he received since beginning of future past tour.

Lucky he has that british humor and takes all criticism with a smile.
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No one expects him to play like he did 30 years ago. As a musician, I've always found listening to Metallica frustrating because of Lars. I quickly moved on to Slayer and Megadeth, and I'm sure I would have enjoyed Metallica more if they had a technically proficient drummer. Iron Maiden, for example, had two of the best drummers in metal: Nicko and Clive. However, I'm growing increasingly frustrated with the situation.
 
efekåseo_suomi said:
-- I believe playing with Nicko has become challenging at this point. A prime example of this is the clip where Adrian becomes visibly frustrated during Wasted Years:
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This is a fair point. That particular clip is from the first show of the tour, though, which Adrian described as probably their "worst ever" (from the playing point of view); however, I think Nicko certainly improved his consistency a lot during the tour, although there certainly were a few such moments (for Adrian in particular) later on as well. In that regard, I'm still rather optimistic that Maiden won't be sounding too sloppy on the upcoming gigs, but we'll see.
 
efekåseo_suomi said:
I recently listened to some of Titanium Tart’s performances from last week. Before the news about the stroke emerged, people were commenting that The Trooper sounded really off. I was hoping it would improve in the 2024 performances, but it still sounds rough:


This version is almost as bad as the Bayley performance from the South American leg in 1996.

Additionally, Can I Play with Madness isn’t sounding great either:

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Before I click, I'm confused.

What was wrong with the drumming in the Bayley performances of The Trooper in 1995-1998? I'm aware there was a baritone vocalist up front being forced to sing out of his natural range but Nicko was still in his prime then and wasn't the problem..


Edit- having listened, yeah Nicko is way off in that video you shared. He was okay on it on the last tour other than missing fills. I'm happy with missing fills as long as he keeps the tempo and timing but here he sounds weirdly off
 
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efekåseo_suomi said:
I believe he is exceptional on a technical level. On a more personal level, I think the band would benefit from someone who understands the inner workings of Iron Maiden. Joe's father, Steve Lazarus (who, if I'm not mistaken, is Steve Harris's brother), ran the official fan club for about 20 years and directed some music videos in the '90s, including Futureal. Therefore, I’m confident Joe would fit right in. Although I'm not certain if Joe has ever worked as a tech for Maiden, I believe he is the drum tech for British Lion. Given Joe’s familiarity with how Maiden operates and his extensive experience playing nearly every Maiden song on his YouTube channel, he seems like the obvious choice.
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Why do you keep pushing for Lazarus. You're worse than me trying to force Futureal into a modern Maiden set.
 
onurb said:
Yes, a copy/paste drummer without charisma would be the most logical choice.
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Again, the band knows him very well, he's family iirc. He knows all the songs. He's not replacing Nicko he would be sitting in for him, doing a job. He doesn't need or should be required to exude "charisma". Who would you get if they indeed need to bring in a touring drummer?
 
efekåseo_suomi said:
I'm not sure if you're a musician, but I believe playing with Nicko has become challenging at this point. A prime example of this is the clip where Adrian becomes visibly frustrated during Wasted Years:
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I think people read too much into this clip. Think about the context of the gig. It was the first night of a tour where they are playing songs that haven’t been played for decades or ever in a live setting. Adrian was also in the spotlight for much of the show. He sounded nervous during the middle section of ATG. He was probably looking forward to playing Wasted Years (a song he can do in his sleep), and there was a mistake. I think most people would be frustrated if something they normally find easy goes wrong!
 
naranja said:
Edit- having listened, yeah Nicko is way off in that video you shared. He was okay on it on the last tour other than missing fills. I'm happy with missing fills as long as he keeps the tempo and timing but here he sounds weirdly off
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Is Trooper that different from last year's last shows? He needs to warm up, right. And that's a tough song for the encores. Maiden won't allow themselves to not sound good (enough) live.

 
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Kalata said:
Bruce's vocals are better than 3-4 years ago.
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100% agreed. I'd even go further... After listening to a ton of clips from TFP tour I think the last time he sounded noticeably better was the Maiden England Tour. In some tracks he sounds way less raspy (WOTW and Wasted Years are great examples). And let me say I was really concerned with Bruce's capability of still pulling off tracks like CSIT. The fact is he can still do it quite well.
 
naranja said:
What was wrong with the drumming in the Bayley performances of The Trooper in 1995-1998?
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Exactly... Nicko was top notch back then. And if it's a vocal issue this guy does quite a decent job. While sounding utterly different from Bruce, he seems to have a similar vocal range and so The Trooper and CIPWM singing sounds on key (something Blaze was unable to manage on The Trooper since it clearly exceeded his higher note limit).
 
Vaenyr said:
I was one of the people who was worried how CSIT would turn out when the tour was announced. I was afraid that they'd slow down the song quite a bit, which would've harmed it severely in my opinion. I'm glad that they went with a bit more simplified bass drum patterns and the post-chorus section being played straight, while the tempo was kept close to the original. I don't listen to Maiden to hear every single note of the album recreated live. The overall vibe is much more important and the chosen changes for CSIT nailed that. Yeah, it's different and it was weird to hear a section being so different compared to the album version we've been listening to for literal decades. I got used to it pretty quickly and it didn't affect my enjoyment when I heard it live in any way. If they had gone with a noticeably slower version it would've bothered me more.
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True. I must stress the section after the first chorus still sounds quite off putting to me but I feared the simplification of the bass drum would have a similar effect and would tarnish the experience - as it covers a considerable part of the song. Fortunately, it still sounds cool to me. If only Nicko could pull that snare pattern on the bridge... But it's decent as it is.
 
Next year's tour is either 50th anniversary tour or an epics tour. And the band has it planned. Bruce confirmed that when speaking about 2025 (however, it's still unclear if he mixed up 2024 and 2025 up as some info about 2025 was basically what is happening in 2024).
 
Iron Lurker said:
Again, the band knows him very well, he's family iirc. He knows all the songs. He's not replacing Nicko he would be sitting in for him, doing a job. He doesn't need or should be required to exude "charisma". Who would you get if they indeed need to bring in a touring drummer?
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They can do whatever they want, but IMO theres nothing special about this lazarus guy.
 
efekåseo_suomi said:
I'm not sure if you're a musician, but I believe playing with Nicko has become challenging at this point. A prime example of this is the clip where Adrian becomes visibly frustrated during Wasted Years:
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Adrian said that was their worst opening show ever also due to the technical problems they had.

If we judge by their performances on a opening night, then Nicko should've retired after messing up Murders in the Rue Morgue in 2005.
 
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