Moments you thought Maiden were ridiculous and embarrassing

GhostofCain said:
He didn’t. His second wife, the late Paddy Bowden, was American though.
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Didn’t he spend time in the early 90’s recording solo album and flying planes in the US while not touring with Maiden? At least it looked like that in his book
 
GhostofCain said:
- The scantily clad ladies that were on stage during The Number of the Beast on the first few shows of the Early Days tour. What were they trying to show with that?
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One of them was sitting next to me on the tram after the show when I went to my hotel in Prague. :) Was still dressed devlish - just like on stage ca. one hour earlier. :)
 
Sth2112 said:
Didn’t he spend time in the early 90’s recording solo album and flying planes in the US while not touring with Maiden? At least it looked like that in his book
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He took his first flying lessons whilst on holiday in the USA and he did record some stuff there, but most of the time he lived in the UK. A notable exception was some globetrotting in 1999/2000 (Arjen Lucassen mentioned this), allegedly trying to avoid getting a huge tax bill after they sold the royalties of the back catalogue to investors shortly before the reunion.

Edit: I think he holds dual British/American citizenship. At least that is what someone in the know posted some time ago on the official Fan Club forum.
 
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- Bruce's loud, blanket dismissals of everything he doesn't understand
- Bruce publically endorsing Brexit
- Flying the Union Jack during The Trooper
- Allowing Herve to continually degrade their iconic artwork

Confused by people citing walk-on Eddies and the like. Is a high tolerance for camp and silliness not a pre-requisite for being a Maiden fan?
 
riff said:
- Bruce's loud, blanket dismissals of everything he doesn't understand
- Bruce publically endorsing Brexit
- Flying the Union Jack during The Trooper
- Allowing Herve to continually degrade their iconic artwork

Confused by people citing walk-on Eddies and the like. Is a high tolerance for camp and silliness not a pre-requisite for being a Maiden fan?
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There is silliness and silliness. Some walk-on Eddies have been too ridiculous even for Maiden fans like us!

Herve has done some great stuff over the years. Other than that, I wholeheartedly agree with you.
 
GhostofCain said:
Iron Maiden’s show has always been between the sublime and the ridiculous, with its pantomime characteristics. When done well (e.g., World Slavery Tour), it is outstanding; other times it can be cringeworthy (some of the walk-on Eddies in the late 90s were frankly embarrassing). Either way, it is still somewhat charming to see pensioners playing a gig with a giant zombie behind whilst keeping straight faces.

Some other ridiculous/embarrassing things that come to mind are the following:

- Eddie’s fights with Bruce. The sword fight on the Legacy of the Beast tour was silly, the fight on the Future Past tour and associated banter is even worse.
- Eddie’s rude gestures to the audience. What’s the point?
- The scantily clad ladies that were on stage during The Number of the Beast on the first few shows of the Early Days tour. What were they trying to show with that? We can also mention the lady on stage during 22 Acacia Avenue on Beast Over Hammersmith. Very sexist, if you ask me, although Maiden are - thankfully - not as bad as most of their contemporaries.
- Some of the band’s stage outfits, with Bruce being the worst offender. In terms of ridiculousness, it might be difficult to top his “Let’s pretend I am a Spitfire pilot whilst wearing a frilly shirt from a 19th century aristocratic toff” for Aces High in 2022. At least in 2018/19 the song was opening the show and Bruce was not wearing that shirt.
- Most of Bruce’s recent rants. Moronic beyond belief.

If we were to discuss their recorded output, some B-sides are particularly cringeworthy (Black Bart Blues, Nodding Donkey Blues) and the least we say about the Listen with Nicko series, the better.
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Do you have no sense of humor whatsoever? At least 75% of what you said is just a little joke, prop or act that doesn't affect anything.
 
Bruce's rants for me, probably, in general. Thankfully, being from a non-English speaking country, every show I attended had a severe dearth thereof. Combined with the way he writes lyrics, he really comes across as someone who thinks he's much smarter than he really is.

I do find a lot of the imagery and mainly the Eddie obsession etc. to be cheesy and sometimes embarrassing. With Bruce's theatrics and outfits, they sometimes look like a band aimed primarily at children. But I guess that's a necessary evil and many people love it.

(and yes, I know I'm saying this as a power metal fan, but there is a significant difference in the type of silliness and naivety between the two, which I hope is universally perceivable)


Jer said:
Bruce supporting Brexit.
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riff said:
- Bruce publically endorsing Brexit
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I don't find a political position ridiculous and embarassing in a way that would be eo ipso evident, but I agree that in that context his complaints about the effects of Brexit some time later were definitely hilarious.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
Bruce's rants for me, probably, in general. Thankfully, being from a non-English speaking country, every show I attended had a severe dearth thereof. Combined with the way he writes lyrics, he really comes across as someone who thinks he's much smarter than he really is.

I do find a lot of the imagery and mainly the Eddie obsession etc. to be cheesy and sometimes embarrassing. With Bruce's theatrics and outfits, they sometimes look like a band aimed primarily at children. But I guess that's a necessary evil and many people love it.

(and yes, I know I'm saying this as a power metal fan, but there is a significant difference in the type of silliness and naivety between the two, which I hope is universally perceivable)





I don't find a political position ridiculous and embarassing in a way that would be eo ipso evident, but I agree that in that context his complaints about the effects of Brexit some time later were definitely hilarious.
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But I don't think anyone in the band takes the imagery and sets too seriously. They're obviously meant to be chuckle worthy at best and something nice to look at. Bruce just puts on a semi relevant hat and performs the song. That's not something to cringe at.

As for the politics stuff: I agree. I find the whole "he holds a political position I don't agree with, CRINGE" thing to be pretty embarrassing itself.
 
I normally do enjoy Bruce's rants, they're usually witty and funny. It's specifically the gender thing that bothers me. I remember one gig when he said something and then added something to the effect of "there used to be only boys and girls, now it's 100 different genders". It came out of nowhere, was unnecessary and just adds the ever so little drop of fuel to the fire.

You can still fuck girls Bruce, nobody's taking that away from you. Just leave other people be.
 
Perun said:
I normally do enjoy Bruce's rants, they're usually witty and funny. It's specifically the gender thing that bothers me. I remember one gig when he said something and then added something to the effect of "there used to be only boys and girls, now it's 100 different genders". It came out of nowhere, was unnecessary and just adds the ever so little drop of fuel to the fire.

You can still fuck girls Bruce, nobody's taking that away from you. Just leave other people be.
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I mean, he is over 60 years old. I don't think a lot of old people accept or even understand gender theory. Hell, I'm 31 and I can barely follow.
As long as he didn't say anything mean about any person or group, I wouldn't get worked up about it. Did he?
 
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