Janick joining Maiden

I do remember being quite upset by the news. I received a press release letter from the fan club. Think I still have it. Back in the Kieth Wilfort days.... Now I feel old ! Sure this has been said, not read all the posts, sorry. Saw them twice on this tour and Jan dropped straight in. More to the point, it was like Davy had woken up. A breath of fresh air in the band and a fine addition. :)
 
Having Janick as my favourite Iron Maiden-guitarplayer by far, I still get that his dancing around on stage does irritate some fans if it means that his playing is affected. But to his defense, Adrian Smith isn't a very clean or accurate player himself, even standing still. He may hit the right notes most of the time, but there's a lot of excessive string noise and unclean picking in there. I listened to isolated guitartracks from a 5,1 live mix on Youtube a few days ago, and while Janick's was surprisingly clean - Adrian's was a mess. People need to understand the difference between what they think they hear and what is actually there. A band-mix isn't the sum of individual parts - it is much more complicated than that. Adrian's tone doesn't cut through well, which means we don't really hear the nuances of his playing. Janick on the other hand has a tone that cuts like a hot knife through butter.

None of the guitarists in Iron Maiden are of virtuoso-class. They are three guitarists each with very distinct styles, and that in itself can be just as good. But if you're saying Janick doesn't have the ability to play the solos of Adrian, you don't understand much about music or guitarplaying. If there's anyone whose style is almost impossible to imitate in Iron Maiden, it's Gers. His fast runs aren't sloppy, sloppy be definition means that the player doesn't hit what he's intending. If you listen to Janick, he accurately recreates the same runs night after night. That's called style. Adrian's playing is very straight forward and simple. Murray falls in between those two, relying heavily on improvisation but still being pretty clean and easy to follow.

I will never get why people are mad at Janick for playing the solo on "Hallowed" still. Adrian's version wasn't very good in the first place. He can't solo well over something that fast and all his great soloing has been on slow or mid-tempo tracks. He commented on this himself in an interview I read.
 
nobody said that Janick is a bad player. I wouldn't call his style sloppy, he just seems a bit lazy in the creation department.

he might very well be a more accomplished player than Adrian but I can't think of a Janick solo that sticks in my brain, a solo you could whistle around. I could remember tens of Adrian and Dave solos but I can't think of one unforgetable Janick solo. and that is in the studio, live he just seems to be playing fast notes without any melodic line. on the other hand Adrian's solos are pretty nice even when he improvises over the original solo. Adrian's solos just work well with the actual song, while Janick, when he's playing Adrian's solos live sounds like he's from another movie. I remember watching Moonchild on YT when it was recorded for the first time in the Maiden England tour in 2009 or whenever it was. flawlessly played, and then here comes Janick with his solo, absolutely cut the flow of the song.

look, I understand that Adrian is more of a classic style of guitar player, while Janick is probably a more talented one from a playing pov, but that obviously doesn't matter.

edit: i remember actually the Wasting Love solo, that one is pretty nice, and surprisingly that's one of his slower solos. and I'm a big fan of shredders and fast solos btw...
 
I'm starting to notice that a lot of responses to criticism of Janick in this thread -and on the forum in general- seem to ignore the actual criticisms and respond to claims that were never made such as "Janick can't play" or "Janick doesn't have the ability to play Adrian's solos". There's no point in having a discussion if you're going to disregard one side's actual points.

By the way, Wasting Love is an interesting solo to mention because I revisited Fear of the Dark today and that particular solo probably stuck out more than anything else on the album. Fantastic playing.
 
Mosh said:
There's no point in having a discussion if you're going to disregard one side's actual points.
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I'm not sure of what the actual points are. Live music is a performance, and in that performance there's a lot of things included other than the actual playing of music. Janick is a professional performer as much as a professional musician. If dancing around and throwing his guitar is included in that performance, it's as important as playing the notes. The point about "worthy replacement" is all taste. It's no actual point, one way or the other. I'd much rather have Janick's take on supposed classic solos than an uninspired Adrian playing them. If he cared or thought those solos he has dropped was great, why would he let somebody else play them?

Janick introduces an unpredicable element to a band that has always been very predictable and stiff, no matter how energized the performances have been. Maiden without Janick is not one-tenth as much rock n roll.

cynick said:
he might very well be a more accomplished player than Adrian but I can't think of a Janick solo that sticks in my brain, a solo you could whistle around.
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How about "Blood Brothers", "Brave New World", "Fortunes of War", "Fear of the Dark" and "Gates of Tomorrow"?
 
Maturin said:
I'm not sure of what the actual points are.
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Well obviously I can only speak for myself but my point is this: Janick's often manic style of soloing is not something I'm a fan of. It's his style and that's fine, I don't ask that he changes that, however that doesn't make me like it anymore. I don't like his versions of solos originally played by Adrian because they lack the soulful and melodic quality that those original solos have. His solo might as well not be there, as it just comes off as noise to me and doesn't do anything for the song whereas Adrian's solos often added a new dynamic to the song. And I know Janick is capable of doing this himself because he has before on songs like Blood Brothers or even The Alchemist which features his manic style of soloing.

I'm not challenging his playing abilities at all. I just don't care for his style.
 
Ok. I'll weigh in on several things touched upon here.
First, I've been a fan since 82. First saw them live in 83.
Saw them on every tour through 88.

I was surprised when I heard Adrian was leaving, and curious what the new guy would be like.
From what I could tell on the album, and videos on MTV, he seemed like a pretty good fit.
Wasn't a huge fan of No Prayer though.
Don't know if it was the album, or my life changes, or a combination that explain that.
But I never once thought it was because of Janick.
This was the time when I was settling down and becoming a family man. Which meant not nearly enough time to listen to music anymore. And no time or money for concerts. After the 88 Maiden show, I would see another concert until Kiss reunited in '96. And wouldn't see Maiden again until 2000.
So, that whole 90's era of Maiden are just kind of a blur for me with nothing that really stood out other than the massive change when Bruce left. And that I didn't really care for Blaze era Maiden
I still bought every release when it came out. And I would listen to them several times in the car tape deck. But nothing grabbed me like it used to.

When BNW came out, it all changed back to being great again though.
I listened to that one non-stop and went to the show. I was lucky enough to get seats right in front of Janick.
And he blew me away. I loved his presence and antics.
And every time I've seen them since, my daughter and I always get on Janick's side whenever possible.

I've never been one to dissect the music. I don't have any clue as to who does what solo. Never did, and never really cared. I just knew I liked what I heard. And when I am seeing them live, I have no clue if anyone is 'sloppy' or if they miss notes. When I'm in the pit, banging my head, singing along and all the people around me are too, I'm not picking out individual notes. I'm too busy taking in the spectacle, enjoying the moment and just being swept up in it all.
The only time I ever noticed anything like that was back in 08. (still wish I would have gotten my recorder into that one). We got really close to the stage in the pit. And I could actually hear Janick's monitor quite clearly. Man, I heard stuff I never even realized was being played. There were a hell of a lot more notes in there than though. Some things were much more nuanced than I ever realized.

Now, I've always had something of a theory as to why Adrian doesn't play some of his old solos live, and it's not because the band 'lets' Janick do it to give him something to do. Anyone ever thought that maybe he doesn't want to play those solos anymore? It is possible, isn't it?
I remember reading an interview sometime around 03 during the Gimme Ed tour. Someone had asked Adrian about sharing the guitar work on the old classics. And he said something about it was kind of nice having more guys doing the work, so he had a bit more freedom on stage to just kind of enjoy things now (which was then)
And I did notice myself on the GMETID tour that Adrian did seem to be having a lot more fun. Moving around a lot more than he did 'back in the day'. Even goofing off a bit with Dave while Janick was soloing.
So, maybe Adrian likes the way things are divided up now. He still gets his time to shine, but he also gets some time to just kind of coast. Maybe it's one of the things that helped convince him to come back. That he wouldn't have to carry so much of a load during the live shows.
 
TAY666 said:
Now, I've always had something of a theory as to why Adrian doesn't play some of his old solos live, and it's not because the band 'lets' Janick do it to give him something to do. Anyone ever thought that maybe he doesn't want to play those solos anymore?
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I've probably said it before on this thread somewhere, but I think there's a conscious attempt to 'showcase' each guitarist to the audience, adding value to the audience's experience of seeing them live, rather than the decision being based on the preferences of band members alone. If you have what are essentially three lead guitarists, it makes sense to show them all off.
 
Maturin said:
Adrian Smith isn't a very clean or accurate player himself, even standing still. He may hit the right notes most of the time, but there's a lot of excessive string noise and unclean picking in there. I listened to isolated guitartracks from a 5,1 live mix on Youtube a few days ago, and while Janick's was surprisingly clean - Adrian's was a mess.
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I've been shocked myself by the isolated tracks of Rock in Rio 2001 when they surfaced. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing on Adrian's. Is this what your are referring to, or are there other stuff of this kind ?
I have never been a big fan of Janick's style (in fact, I love clean sound and Davey is an absolute master in that respect), but I think he is very underestimated as a songwriter. I hope Steve will use / has used more of his stuff this time.
 
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harrisdevot said:
I've been shocked myself by the isolated tracks of Rock in Rio 2001 when they surfaced. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing on Adrian's. Is this what your are referring to, or are there other stuff of this kind ?
I have never been a big fan of Janick's style (in fact, I love clean sound and Davey is an absolute master in that respect), but I think he is very underestimated as a songwriter. I hope Steve will use / has used more of his stuff this time.
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I am still baffled much of Dave's stuff never gets live play. "Deja Vu", "Fates Warning", "The Thin Line Between Love and hate" have never been played live and are awesome. His others have been dropped since the 80s. No "Still Life", no "Charlotte the Harlot" :oops:
 
Infinite Dreams was rehearsed and they decided to go with ATSS instead :facepalm: according to Rod Smallwood. Not sure why they decided not to do Still Life. Rod said they decided to drop Hallowed too and someone asked about Caught Somewhere in Time and the Rod said the band said they would never play it again because it sounds like sh*t live :facepalm: There was a whole thread on the Iron Maiden Fan club forum from someone who ran into Rod after the show in Atlanta on the second night of the tour in 2012.
 
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