Maiden England tour film

[GhostofCain]

Doesn't matter since they were played on the gig of "Maiden England", which this tour was bound to revisit.

The original press release mentioned basing the tour on the Maiden England video, with 2/3 of the set from it:

https://ironmaiden.com/news/article/maiden-on-the-charge

Comments vocalist Bruce Dickinson, “We have great fun playing the History of Maiden Tours because it gives us an opportunity between new albums to go out and play songs from our earlier catalogue. It’s always fantastic seeing the crowd reaction from a new generation of fans who have never experienced some of these tracks performed live before, and of course we know our longstanding fans will enjoy seeing the original Seventh Son Tour re-visited - with many other surprises! Our intention is to play about two thirds of the original track list of Maiden England (shown below*), including some songs we have not played live in a very,very long time, plus other favourites we just know the fans are going to want to hear!

And that is exactly what they did...

POTO didn't belong there in 2009 either.

The 2008 SBIT was originally going to cover both Life After Death and Maiden England.

To tie in with forthcoming 2008 releases on DVD of the classic “Live After Death” and “Maiden England” concert videos (more details coming soon) this tour, aptly entitled “Somewhere Back In Time,” will revisit the band’s history by focusing almost entirely on the ’80s in both choice of songs played and the stage set, which will be based around the legendary Egyptian production of the 1984-85 Powerslave tour. This will arguably be the most elaborate and spectacular show the band have ever presented, and will include some key elements of their Somewhere In Time tour of 1986/7, such as the cyborg Eddie.

They changed the plans after the success of the tour, postponing the release of the Maiden England DVD and removing the reference to that DVD on the tour press release, and for the 2009 leg they based the setlist more on LAD than in 2008.

 

[Deleted member 7164]

Yeah, I mean you're correct and everything but that's not how it was supposed to be. In 2004 they announced history tours, starting with the first one next year, and that one did exclusively first 4 albums. In 2007 they announced pyramids and shit, just before tour starts they start mentioning "Seventh Son era" and promo ads have Fear of the Dark playing as background music.

They realized they won't play stuff from SiT nor deep cuts from PS and they changed it into a generic 80s tour, just like ME2012.
Why wasn't history part 1 intermixed with other "eras" then?

 

[GhostofCain]

Yeah, I mean you're correct and everything but that's not how it was supposed to be. In 2004 they announced history tours, starting with the first one next year, and that one did exclusively first 4 albums. In 2007 they announced pyramids and shit, just before tour starts they start mentioning "Seventh Son era" and promo ads have Fear of the Dark playing as background music.

They realized they won't play stuff from SiT nor deep cuts from PS and they changed it into a generic 80s tour, just like ME2012.
Why wasn't history part 1 intermixed with other "eras" then?

I would say it again: in 2007 their plan was to tour the world in 2008 covering the 80s all the way to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. The stage set was going to be based on the seminal World Slavery Tour, adding bits from the 1986/1987 tour, but the setlist would also feature tracks off Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (Bruce and Steve came up with the set list backstage in Rome, during the A Matter of the Beast tour). The Maiden England DVD, part 3 of The History of Iron Maiden releases, was going to be released at some point in 2008, not long after the release of part 2 (i.e. Live After Death) and that is what the original press release said.

The massive success of Ed Force One and the SBIT tour make them change their original plans, add another leg in 2009 with more of a LAD flavour to it, and any mention to the Maiden England DVD was erased from the website, as its release was postponed until the end of the next album tour.

 

[Cat Milk Supreme]

Just because they stuck by what they said they would do in relation to the ME setlist doesn't make it any better of a setlist. Still should have played those other 4 songs, if at all possible. It would have been more historically accurate in terms of the ME release and better value for regular Maiden gig goers. The recent tour was called ME, not 7th Tour Revisited, after all.
Fair enough, they still did 7th Son and The Prisoner but when it comes to finding fault with the band (an inevitable consequence of a forum), this is any easy one to pick at. Its really the only setlist I find fault with.

 

[Lego]

Just because they stuck by what they said they would do in relation to the ME setlist doesn't make it any better of a setlist. Still should have played those other 4 songs, if at all possible. It would have been more historically accurate in terms of the ME release and better value for regular Maiden gig goers. The recent tour was called ME, not 7th Tour Revisited, after all.
Fair enough, they still did 7th Son and The Prisoner but when it comes to finding fault with the band (an inevitable consequence of a forum), this is any easy one to pick at. Its really the only setlist I find fault with.

Totally agreed. The entire execution of that tour seemed a bit phoned-in, especially the setlist and stage set. It’s a real shame it had to continue for three years.

I think the worst part is how close the setlist was to being absolutely amazing. Infinite Dreams and Killers or Still Life swapped out for a couple “hits” is all it would have taken.

 

[Poto]

I think the worst part is how close the setlist was to being absolutely amazing. Infinite Dreams and Killers or Still Life swapped out for a couple “hits” is all it would have taken.

Infinite Dreams instead of Afraid to Shoot Strangers (Afraid to Shoot Strangers could have been played on the last leg) and Hallowed Be Thy Name instead of Running Free and you've got one of the best setlists ever.

 

[Brigantium]

ATSS was a very nice addition, I thought. Infinite Dreams would be one I would be happy to swap it for, however.

 

[Wogmidget]

HCW in place of Phantom would've made sense, in terms of the tour theme, as well. Arguably Aces High could've been
replaced as first encore with NOTB, and the latter's spot filled with DWYBO or SIASL.

 

[Lego]

Infinite Dreams instead of Afraid to Shoot Strangers (Afraid to Shoot Strangers could have been played on the last leg) and Hallowed Be Thy Name instead of Running Free and you've got one of the best setlists ever.

Yup- and Aces High really had no business being in the set either. It would have been so easy! And if they had decided to go the adventurous route, we could have ended up with something even more spectacular, like this:

Spoiler

1. Moonchild
2. Can I Play With Madness
3. The Prisoner
4. 2 Minutes to Midnight
5. Infinite Dreams
6. The Evil That Men Do
7. Stranger In A Strange Land
8. The Trooper
9. Still Life
10. NOTB
11. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
12. The Clairvoyant
13. Fear of the Dark
14. Iron Maiden
15. Phantom of the Opera
    
16. Hallowed
17. Run To The Hills

 

[Wogmidget]

And if they had decided to go the adventurous route, we could have ended up with something even more spectacular, like this:

Spoiler

1. Moonchild
2. Can I Play With Madness
3. The Prisoner
4. 2 Minutes to Midnight
5. Infinite Dreams
6. The Evil That Men Do
7. Stranger In A Strange Land
8. The Trooper
9. Still Life
10. NOTB
11. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
12. The Clairvoyant
13. Fear of the Dark
14. Iron Maiden
15. Phantom of the Opera
    
16. Hallowed
17. Run To The Hills

Or this:

Spoiler

1. Moonchild
2. Can I Play with Madness?
3. The Prisoner
4. Killers
5. Infinite Dreams
6. Heaven Can Wait
7. The Trooper
8. The Number of the Beast
9. Stranger in a Strange Land
10. Wasted Years
11. Seventh Son
12. The Clairvoyant
13. Fear of the Dark
14. Iron Maiden

15. Caught Somewhere in Time
16. The Evil That Men Do
17. Prowler

(No Hallowed due to the rumoured Beckett-related legal shit in 2012)