Is the current Iron Maiden lineup band's "classic" lineup?

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  • Total voters
    43
Night Prowler said:
I think the reunion-era-haters will lean towards the latter
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As we all know, the first three reunion albums are low on my overall list, and I definitely think that the best Maiden was released in the '80s if we're looking at their entire work. That said, the classic lineup is definitely Bruce - Steve - Dave - Adrian - Janick - Nicko. It's literally no different than the other 'classic lineup', only with one extra guitarist. I voted yes.
 
Depends on how you define classic I guess, but I voted no only because Maiden still rely heavily on the legacy of that 83-88 period. Nothing against what they do now or Janick's contribution to the band, they've definitely put out some of their best material in the 21st century, but the lineup that will be best remembered after they retire is probably still going to be the 80's one.
 
The classic lineup, to me, would be the one without Janick. There are many bands that are more successful today without the classic lineup, Black Sabbath is one example. I would define it by the quality of the records the lineup recorded!
 
I think the "classic" lineup is generally considered to be the '80s one which made POM through to SS. But I think that what we have now is the definitive lineup, and that posterity will eventually come to regard this as the classic lineup, with the '80s POM-SS lineup coming to be regarded as just one of several transient stages on their way to "true greatness" - the more the current lineup achieves, the more this will be the case. We've never had it so good, folks ...
 
The thing about the 5-man team from POM through SSOASS is that this was the first stable lineup the band had for years and years, the first one that released more than one album, and the one that established Maiden on the international scene. Therefore it will always be considered the "classic" lineup.

You have bands that stayed together with the same lineup from start to end, and bands who changed members between every album, but regardless of that, every great band has an era that was considered their "classic" one, and it is usually defined by when they started creating what is seen as their best material. For Maiden, that was the 80s, even though the new material has gone down well.
 
The reunion line up is definitely the overall classic line-up. Firstly it contains all the members of the 83-89 line-up anyway and secondly the reunion line-up has been together the longest of any, produced more albums and arguably the band have been bigger and more in demand in the reunion era than at any other than me in their career.

Only a tiny minority of internet board dwellers would argue that the 83-89 line up is the classic line-up. These are usually in the 45+ age bracket and are seen at gigs or on Internet forums screaming about how the only albums that matter by the band were made in the 80's.
 
Wayne Bond said:
Only a tiny minority of internet board dwellers would argue that the 83-89 line up is the classic line-up. These are usually in the 45+ age bracket and are seen at gigs or on Internet forums screaming about how the only albums that matter by the band were made in the 80's.
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Those people are so annoying, especially when they try to take some sort of self-invented moral high ground because they've "been fans since 1983" or whatever - haven't exactly kept up since though, have they?
 
Wayne Bond said:
Only a tiny minority of internet board dwellers would argue that the 83-89 line up is the classic line-up.
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No.
Wayne Bond said:
These are usually in the 45+ age bracket and are seen at gigs or on Internet forums screaming about how the only albums that matter by the band were made in the 80's.
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No.
Dr. Eddies Wingman said:
The thing about the 5-man team from POM through SSOASS is that this was the first stable lineup the band had for years and years, the first one that released more than one album, and the one that established Maiden on the international scene. Therefore it will always be considered the "classic" lineup.

You have bands that stayed together with the same lineup from start to end, and bands who changed members between every album, but regardless of that, every great band has an era that was considered their "classic" one, and it is usually defined by when they started creating what is seen as their best material. For Maiden, that was the 80s, even though the new material has gone down well.
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Wayne Bond said:
Only a tiny minority of internet board dwellers would argue that the 83-89 line up is the classic line-up. These are usually in the 45+ age bracket and are seen at gigs or on Internet forums screaming about how the only albums that matter by the band were made in the 80's.
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This keeps coming up, yet nobody here is actually making that argument.
 
Regarding this post:
Dr. Eddies Wingman said:
The thing about the 5-man team from POM through SSOASS is that this was the first stable lineup the band had for years and years, the first one that released more than one album, and the one that established Maiden on the international scene. Therefore it will always be considered the "classic" lineup.

You have bands that stayed together with the same lineup from start to end, and bands who changed members between every album, but regardless of that, every great band has an era that was considered their "classic" one, and it is usually defined by when they started creating what is seen as their best material. For Maiden, that was the 80s, even though the new material has gone down well.
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In my honest opinion, yes, the '80s were Maiden's classic era, however, that's only song / album-wise. We're just talking about lineups here, and I honestly think that the current one is the 'classic' one. As someone else said, it's literally the '80s lineup, only with Janick added to the mix. Besides, this is also likely the band's final lineup, and whereas something like, say, Megadeth will forever be remembered for the 'Rust In Peace' lineup, Maiden's different because compared to Megadeth they haven't had that many lineup changes, and as I said, this is likely the final lineup and the one people in years to come will remember the most.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Oh no, I was further expanding on your comment about the moral high ground of "classics" fans, specifically the kind that believe their opinion has more worth because they started listening to the band way earlier.
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That's what I thought, hence the stream of extraneous punctuation :)

The supreme irony here though is that if they had lost interest and gone away (as a sensible person would in that circumstance) then we would respect them - it's only because they insist on sticking around boring the rest of us with their nonsense that they become an annoyance ... :grumble:
Forostar said:
No. 10 no voters, none made the silly arguments you mentioned. Perhaps one is in the 45+ age.
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No-one has said it here, (possibly because this is a serious fan forum :halo:) but they're all over Facebook and other forums with this sort of stuff. But you're right, we're probably a bit off topic having this particular rant here (I think @Wayne Bond , @MrKnickerbocker and I were just letting off a bit of steam so for my part in that - sorry!)

Opinion here seems to be split pretty evenly and seems to turn on the interpretation of "classic" in this context, and the significance of the '80's lineup being entirely contained in the current one - it's interesting to see how many different angles people have come up with on this.
 
It has to be the 83-89. Wingman said it well. They may well sell more now or play bigger venues but thats not the point. 83-89 came first and I think song/albums/tours/artwork/images from this period will be remembered longer and fonder and by more people than the reunion period thus making it the 'Classic' line up/period.
 
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