Is it worth joining the fanclub?

Forostar said:
@Brigantium there is a new FC boss and the fanzine was more interesting this time imo. Not that the predecessor did not do well, but I just really liked the stuff in the latest.
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That is correct. Laz (Steve’s brother-in-law) stopped being the FC boss last year. He has been replaced by Alexander Milas (Rod’s cycling buddy and former Metal Hammer editor).

The FC did improve a lot with Laz over the years. Things with Alexander Milas look like they are going to get better though (the mags look more like a professional mag yet they still keep that FC feel).
 
Midnight said:
That's a surprise; what do you find better about this place? (I'm not a member of the FC.)
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Poto got it spot on. I felt there was less community about it and more "Up the Irons, blood brothers, Maiden rule!" type posts that go nowhere. There are some regulars, though, including some who are regular visitors here :)

GhostofCain said:
That is correct. Laz (Steve’s brother-in-law) stopped being the FC boss last year. He has been replaced by Alexander Milas (Rod’s cycling buddy and former Metal Hammer editor).
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This says a lot! I had no idea who Laz actually was, but I'm also amused that the new FC boss is also a mate of Rod's. The whole Maiden camp is such a small and not exactly high gloss organisation.
 
Brigantium said:
This says a lot! I had no idea who Laz actually was, but I'm also amused that the new FC boss is also a mate of Rod's. The whole Maiden camp is such a small and not exactly high gloss organisation.
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Exactly. The fact that it has taken them more than 30 years since they became global superstars to find an excellent FOH engineer also says a lot about how they work and make decisions.
 
Brigantium said:
I dropped out of it a couple of years ago, I didn't feel I was getting much out of it. The magazines are glossy and nice enough to look at as collectable pieces, but they had a tendency to be formulaic, with too much content about the Maiden crew and various personas associated with the management of the band. There's some nice merch around and we were getting a FC tee with renewal each year, which was okay. The forum is a mixed bag, I find this place much better. Every now and then you get special opportunities, I guess, like first to the barrier, VIP stuff, very occasionally special trips.
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I think this best mirrors my own feelings towards the FC.

The more recent fanclub magazine are not very interesting and like Brigs says has a tendency to be very fomulaic.

I do *love* my old 90s, early 00's fanclub mags though and they're some of the merchandise/collectible stuff I've actually kept over the years because they tell the history of the band and are a great way to reminisce. I'm sure the more recent mags will have the same effect in x amount of years.
 
Poto said:
You're not. But what can you expect from people who are booking hotels and flights for this years tour.
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Poto said:
Two things

1. The FC forum isn't as user friendly as this one
2. The FC forum is.. A fanclub forum. Be critical and you'll get shot down
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And 3. This is really an English-speaking users' forum. I mean, the amount of slang, private jokes and silly remarks is really awfull, and you don't always feel like spending time to look for the meaning, just to realize you've made efforts to understand a silly remark.

As for your second point, the IMFC forum has the same tendency to blame Steve and Rod for everything that went wrong.
 
harrisdevot said:
and you don't always feel like spending time to look for the meaning, just to realize you've made efforts to understand a silly remark.
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I can't see why this is problematic, people do not obscure real info behind some banter. E.g if it says event X happened at date Y I don't see how some text around it makes it difficult to locate.

Some topical threads get slightly derailed when influx of new info is slow. Usually you can skim through posts to see if there's anything there matching your interest. There's no need to be pedant about it anyway because if it's important it won't stay on one post for long.
 
harrisdevot said:
And 3. This is really an English-speaking users' forum. I mean, the amount of slang, private jokes and silly remarks is really awfull, and you don't always feel like spending time to look for the meaning, just to realize you've made efforts to understand a silly remark.

As for your second point, the IMFC forum has the same tendency to blame Steve and Rod for everything that went wrong.
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I agree that some of the repetitive private jokes can be grating. You sometimes get the feeling of being in a chat rather than in a discussion forum and I think that has been exacerbated over the last 12 months with the lack of activity by the band.

Regarding FC members blaming Rod and Steve for anything that has gone wrong over the years, I would say they are a very small minority compared to the numbers that would drool over any crap with the name Iron Maiden on it.
 
GhostofCain said:
You sometimes get the feeling of being in a chat rather than in a discussion forum
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This! That said, there are some really well informed members, which can provide first hand stories and anecdotes. For instance, I was stunned to learn that Steve openly threatened Nicko to find another drummer.
 
harrisdevot said:
This! That said, there are some really well informed members, which can provide first hand stories and anecdotes. For instance, I was stunned to learn that Steve openly threatened Nicko to find another drummer.
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Do elaborate.
 
They had an argument and he lost his nerves, asking N. if he wanted him to find a new drummer.
At least, this is what a forum user said to know some guys from the crew told a few years ago without being contradicted.
 
Not from myself. Maybe someone else would be more specific (@GhostofCain who is much more regular contributor than me to both forums?). I just remember this and being stunned that the very idea of firing Nicko could be voiced.
 
harrisdevot said:
Not from myself. Maybe someone else would be more specific (@GhostofCain who is much more regular contributor than me to both forums?). I just remember this and being stunned that the very idea of firing Nicko could be voiced.
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I do not remember that specific remark about threatening to fire Nicko, but sometimes it is difficult to find the useful information among all the personal conversations.
 
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