Maiden's Most Successful Era

Maiden10_0

Maiden10_0

Nomad
Hello all,
I'm sitting here watching RIR '13, Rock Am Ring '14, and Maiden England '88.
As I've been doing so, I've been thinking about their career and how successful they are. As much as I love the newer albums they've put out including brave new world, it just feels to me that their golden era stopped with the 7th son album and tour.
I hate to keep comparing them to KISS, but KISS had arguably 8 good albums before they started to crack and dissolve.
I consider the time that Bruce left up until his return (like the kiss non make up years).
The cool thing about maiden is that they stayed together, have great chemistry and still put out exceptional albums. The only gimmick they use now IMHO is the history tours in between the scarce new albums because, they, like KISS, know where their bread and butter is, even though they drive us diehards nuts with the set lists sometimes. I'm not going to get in trouble with the spoiler thing but we know which songs I'm currently talking about!
I do think its genius to make an album, tour for it, play most new stuff and them come back with a nostalgia tour! It's fun for the fans, to revisit some of the older stuff as well as set designs. Any thoughts or gripes? What are your thoughts ? Which era is better? Everything up until 7th son, or when Bruce returned for the second go 'round? Have at it ! :)
 
It's heavily speculated that Maiden were at the peak of success during the Seventh Son tour back in '88, and that after Adrian left in 1990 was the point where Maiden started to slowly decline and which was finally topped off when Bruce left back in '93. Obviously they bounced back to up to the top again in '99 when Bruce & Adrian rejoined and their still the same to this very day in my opinion. I can understand why both Bruce & Adrian left when they did as they both wanted to express & do their own things musically which I think was a good thing and needed to be done - as after all a lot of Bruce's solo work is incredible, some of which stands out more than Maiden's stuff from the '90's.

The same goes for Adrian's stuff too, noticeable and particularly his '89 solo album Silver & Gold which I still regularly listen to (and is also underrated too may I add).

With regards to the history tours, I think it has been a good thing that they have done these as they are showing the newer generation of Maiden Fans what they toured with in the past as a good percentage of Maiden fans nowadays were not around for the best part of 25-30 years ago. However, I do think that some of the old classic's are generally overplayed and should be dropped for something different and unique.

Liam
 
I totally agree with all of your points. For me, they were just lethal during the Powerslave and SSOASS time period.

It's a shame because when Bruce left, I kind of stopped following them, although I think Janick was a great fill in, but for me, without Bruce, they lose that swagger, stage presence, and most importantly, voice! It wasn't until Rock In Rio/Brave New Worlds period that I got interested again and discovered the Blaze Bayley gems.... Sign of the cross being a standout!
I also love the fact that when they did reunite, they kept Janick. On the albums he adds another dynamic to their sound, but, I must admit, I do believe when he's onstage with them he's playing at least 75 percent "air guitar"! :p
 
I was too young at the time when Bruce left Maiden so I was not a fan of them back then (I got into Maiden in 1998 when I was only 9 lol!) but as the years have gone by and I have grew up a lot listening & learning all about Maiden, I do think at the end of the day that Blaze was not the guy for Maiden - but at the same time I feel that no one else to this day can fill Bruce's shoes for the job. I do like some of Blaze's stuff that he did with Maiden and I have a lot of respect for Blaze as a bloke and a vocalist, he did try his best with Maiden but at the end of the day and he even stated in a radio interview in 2008 with Bruce himself that he felt in himself at the very end that it wasn't working in Maiden and both him & Maiden mutually agreed on this so he left the band. Though at the time in late 1998 / early 1999, the media tried to solely blame Blaze for Maiden's dip in popularity & record sales which is partly true but another huge part which is true was the fact that during that time in the late 1990's, their was a a huge worldwide slump in record sales in general & heavy metal itself was at an all time low in public popularity.

It was only when Rod Smallwood got a load of grief from EMI in circa late 1998 about how Maiden's record sales were at an all time low that sparked him to speak to Steve after the band finished the Virtual XI tour about bringing Bruce back into the band. At the time Steve was hesitant about this and not only that - but Adrian at the time also didn't come into the equation. Bruce & Steve agreed to meet at Rod's house early in 1999 for a meeting and then after like 10 pints of beer down the local pub (haha, that is true would you believe!) that they then agreed for Bruce to rejoin the band. Apparently Bruce phoned up Adrian up straight afterwards to confirm this and asked if Adrian would like to rejoin as well to which he agreed.

I'm also glad that they kept Janick, as I do believe that he plays an important role with Maiden's guitars now on the newer material. It's interesting that you mentioned about Janick now playing 75% air guitar while on stage which has made me think - it has always made me wonder what guitar riffs he plays on stage while on the history tours & playing classic songs as I imagine these are hard to juggle around due to them songs originally being recorded & played with just two guitarists, do you think that he just plays as an extra rhythm guitarist for these classic songs? I noticed during one of the recent live performances of Seventh Son that he doesn't play a huge role in the guitar rhythm itself and that he plays an extra a few extra cords in various parts of the song.

Liam
 
As for Janick, and don't get me wrong, I love the guy, live onstage, he may just be playing close to Steve with the bass lines. On any songs from the Brave new world up to final frontier is where he is really utilized. I've noticed on the older tracks, (trooper comes to mind) that you'll notice him chugging the A chord while Palm muting the strings and his fret hand is either flipping under/over the neck of the guitar while using one finger or so to tap the frets. Which works okay because when he palm mutes the strings he can still give that trademark "maiden gallop" sound.
Being that the older, classic maiden songs have two part guitar harmonies, you can see when they play live that Dace and Adrian truly take over and handle the solos while Janick seems to be having a blast spinning, dancing, and playing a little bit if the rhythm! :D

I love Janick though because he really can play and he really shines on the newer stuff and live, even if he's not playing every note, he still gives them a great solid stage presence and energy that is infectious and is entertaining as hell to watch.
When I look back on the classic vids of Live After Death and Maiden England 88, as great and classic as they are, I'm like "where's Janick? Something's missing!" :confused:
 
IronLiam said:
It was only when Rod Smallwood got a load of grief from EMI in circa late 1998 about how Maiden's record sales were at an all time low that sparked him to speak to Steve after the band finished the Virtual XI tour about bringing Bruce back into the band. At the time Steve was hesitant about this and not only that - but Adrian at the time also didn't come into the equation. Bruce & Steve agreed to meet at Rod's house early in 1999 for a meeting and then after like 10 pints of beer down the local pub (haha, that is true would you believe!) that they then agreed for Bruce to rejoin the band. Apparently Bruce phoned up Adrian up straight afterwards to confirm this and asked if Adrian would like to rejoin as well to which he agreed.
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Where did you get such a detailed account of the whole process? Not that I doubt you, but I'd like to get a source I could refet to. I love tose kinds of details.
 
I have a question: in terms of album sales and concert attendance, aren't Iron Maiden actually at the height of their success right now?
 
Ehh, I don't know but I will just say that I think it is hard to compare now to the 80's or even the 90s's. You can't really compare concert attendance when they are doing festival shows now instead of their own + support band concert halls and venues before...and album sales in general have been dwindling the last many years. it is not the media that it was in the 80s and 90s. I suppose it will take less to reach a good chart position now than before.
 
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MrKnickerbocker said:
I have a question: in terms of album sales and concert attendance, aren't Iron Maiden actually at the height of their success right now?
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In some countries, yes. In many countries they have been playing for decades, not really. Plus many festivals put a cap on their attendance. Rock in Rio in 85 had 300,000-400,000 people at the Maiden show and in 2001, they were capped to 250,000. Now, RIR is capped at 77,000. They played to 88,000 in Sao Paulo last year after RIR being their biggest non-festival show ever. They also had 67,000 in Chile last year being another huge non-festival show. In the states, they are averaging 15,000-20,000 per show. South America was rarely visited during the 80s for them. Many of their first shows down there have been in the last 3 albums they made. This could be a huge factor in their concert attendance. On a side note, they normally ignored festivals back in the 80s so by playing more of them now, they may be having bigger tour attendances but it is tough to beat the World Slavery Tour
 
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