Maiden England '88 + History Part 3 coming March 25th!

No. Back in the UK. His nephew - Ian Hills son - and I are former bandmates and brothers in arms. Just listening to 'Sinner' with a good red. Great times. :)
 
Robert Jones said:
Blaze should have sang in his register. When he does, he's pretty good. 'Live fast die fast' was great. I'm also sure that if Janick actually sat and learnt those parts he could do them more justice. They did none of these things and the result was, well... not good. As far as knowing Blaze and being mates, that might be relevant when looking for techs and t-shirt vendors. Not for frontmen.
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Absolutely, not tuning down Bruce era songs to Blaze's register basically killed half of their live performance while Blaze was in the band. I don't know if you heard any of his solo albums after he was fired from Maiden, but Silicon Messiah and Tenth Dimension (his first two solo albums) are truly great speed/heavy metal albums, and As Live As It Gets captured the band's ultra-tight live performance, after which the whole operation started falling apart, unfortunately for Blaze.

As for the Ed Huntour stage, I'd say it was the same smaller stage they used on TXF and VXI tours when everything had to be scaled back. And yes, it's amazing how things changed in less than two years as SixesAllTheWay pointed out!
 
SixesAlltheway said:
I guess, apart from being mates, that Steve saw some great front man abilities in Blaze with his energy on stage when Wolsbane opened for Maiden in the early 90s. But yeah something had to give, the fans were disappearing, the Virtual tour was just...not very happening. It is amazing how everything turned on a plate the instance Bruce and H came back...Maiden must have hit the right time pocket or the world was just waiting for it to happen or something :eek: They were the biggest metal band on the planet again.

Maiden and their success around Virtual and Maiden around Brave New World - World's apart. Yet, there's only like what 1½ - 2 years between those two constellations.
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I think it proves how many people felt about the band, the fact that once Buce and Adrian were back there was a resurgence in their popularity. I think changes in the music scene - in Britain, anyway - may have helped. The whole Britpop thing was fading by then. I was a huge fan of some of those bands like Radiohead, Mansun, Suede etc but the hype of Blur and Oasis was over and, at least from what I saw, people went back to rock a bit more. As for the US and elsewhere, I really don't know. The comments about the Edhuntour are very true. That certainly helped them. When I saw they were playing Powerslave and Aces High I was stoked. Could not believe it. Was gutted that they ignored the UK!
 
Mosh said:
Going back to the style of Maiden England. I'm glad it wasn't shot like Live After Death. LAD was shot like they were larger than life, arena rock super stars. Which was perfect for where they were at the time. Maiden England is more intimate; the stage looks smaller and the crowd doesn't look as large. It was like they were saying "this one's for the fans". They also wouldn't have been able to capture that with a festival audience, regardless of whether or not it was a better performance, which I still disagree with.
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I get why people like it. I love the setlist, the stage, everything! But pesonally, I think if you're entire 'thing' is conceptual rock, with huge monsters, big fuck off icebergs, great lighting and a frontman that gets every single person in a 15,000 capacity venue involved in the show, why make it intimate? If you want a fans perspective on what they can see, there are endless YouTube clips (I know they didn't have them in 1988) that are steadily improving in quality from camera phones etc. It could have been better. I like it but not as much as I perhaps used to. As for Donington, 107,000 people, most of whom are going mad for them?! "The best everning of our lives" as Bruce stated at the end of the set. Cameras there. Are you kidding? I really hope they get all that stuff together for some sort of release.
 
I had never really noticed that Maiden England was made as if it should have been from the audience perspective. Sure there are a lot of up close shots of the band from the first row but I didn't think much of it..Afterwards I can see what they mean now when they explain it on the DVD. Just never occurred to me before.
 
SixesAlltheway said:
I had never really noticed that Maiden England was made as if it should have been from the audience perspective. Sure there are a lot of up close shots of the band from the first row but I didn't think much of it..Afterwards I can see what they mean now when they explain it on the DVD. Just never occurred to me before.
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Same here, didn't really pay much attention to it. Death on the Road seemed much more like it was from a fan's perspective, purely because of the number of close-up shots from the audience and of the audience.
 
It really was awesome dvd! Its funny how i used to hate song Infinite dreams, but now i love it. I made a epic cover aswell, and you can watch it on youtube! : D

Iron Maiden - Infinite Dreams Cover *Both guitars* HD

UP THE IRONS FROM FINLAND!
 
Forostar said:
I wouldn't say it was more amusing but it indeed could have been more informative.

Nah, why do something twice? Then it'd be less unique.

This criticism fits better when it was uttered at the end of the eighties. Although: shall I complain that Only the Good Die Young wasn't on the setlist?

I think it could open up some eyes (again). The period was trashed by many, and I sincerely hope Maiden won't go too much in the defense. I hope they still stand by some decisions they did back then. At least I hope the band won't purely be negative about matters, and I wish they would also talk about some positive things.
Or else it's not only going to be painful for Blaze and Janick ("we missed Adrian" comments aren't cool when you are his replacement), who gave everything they had, but it can also do some pain to the fans from that time, who did like that era.

Perhaps it was a difficult period but also special. I hope Maiden still remembers those who did support them. It's never cool when a band gives in to negative criticism (in hindsight) especially not for people who found that period special, and who supported them. Let me speak for myself: I would find that painful.
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Yeah I'm interested in seeing a nice long doc about the whole 90's as well. I hope they include Blaze's comments on the matter, I'd also like to see how Adrian and Bruce remember that era, Steve and CO. possibly talking about Bruce's solo career and his "alliance" with Adrian during that time. Also how Janick felt about not only Bruce coming back but Adrian coming back as well. I know he was always friends with all of them including Adrian, but I'm sure fan's allegiance to "H" must have had an impact on him.

I remember reading a story from the Blaze era about how a fan threw a banner up on stage and Blaze held it up without looking at it, as it read "Adrian Smith" on it. It'd be interesting to hear how they handled all of that kind of stuff. Also being downsized from an arena/stadium act to a club act at least in the US. I have to say it WAS really cool seeing them in a small intimate club in Providence on the XF tour in 96.
 
The 90s documentary should be the most interesting of them all. So far everything has been smooth sailing, rise to stardom story of a young band from the East End who ends up headlining Donington Festival in 1988. Now they stump their toes for the first time and I hope the next installment of the History of" DVDs will provide us with answers to some of the plentiful compelling story lines from this era...We've got Adrian leaving, We've got Bruce leaving, we've got the audition of Blaze, the albums and tours with him, Blaze leaving (Will we finally get a real answer as to why he was sacked?!?!) Bruce rejoining. SO much interesting stuff that they've graciously avoided for the most part. I'm interested in seeing how they'll take it on! Surely it must be longer than 40 mins ;)
 
Yeah, the 90s should be a feature length film. I would hope (and think they will) give Blaze an opportunity to be in the documentary .. him accepting is another story (though I think he would). Paul's departure has been covered so many times and in pretty decent detail, but Blaze's really has not.
 
SixesAlltheway said:
The 90s documentary should be the most interesting of them all. So far everything has been smooth sailing, rise to stardom story of a young band from the East End who ends up headlining Donington Festival in 1988. Now they stump their toes for the first time and I hope the next installment of the History of" DVDs will provide us with answers to some of the plentiful compelling story lines from this era...We've got Adrian leaving, We've got Bruce leaving, we've got the audition of Blaze, the albums and tours with him, Blaze leaving (Will we finally get a real answer as to why he was sacked?!?!) Bruce rejoining. SO much interesting stuff that they've graciously avoided for the most part. I'm interested in seeing how they'll take it on! Surely it must be longer than 40 mins ;)
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Agreed on every account, I just hope they get it out within the next 1 or 2 years and not 5 or 6.
 
I would think that they'd fit all of the 90s into one release, I mean there's really no reason for them to talk about anything beyond the reunion in 99.
 
I don't see them splitting it up. They could easily tie a 1990 - 1994 "History of" DVD in with a re-release of Live at Donington 1992. But they don't have any Blaze live material to tie the years 1995 - 1999 in with...So I think they'll keep it together, but who knows?
 
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