Moments you thought Maiden were ridiculous and embarrassing

linnane666 said:
Not to open up a can of worms or have a pop at anybody or where they come from..but their insistence on bringing out a British flag, Union Jack, in Ireland and N. Ireland is so far beyond embarrassing and cringe it borders on complete and utter stupidity. I've been to all gigs in Ireland and N. Ireland since '03 (which was a complete disaster when they did it), and fair enough things have eased off since..but all it takes is one drunk to set any kind of incident off.. (Belfast 2011 they scrapped the trooper as altogether as far as I recall). 2005 in the RDS Dublin as far as I remember there was no flag but Bruce ranted for ages about how they were doing the flag every visit after....The stupidity and arrogance ( i get they are rockstars) to not understand the history of waving that particular flag in Ireland and then to lecture, a crowd mainly full of Irish people about it, was and is an embarrassment. I'm not opening up an argument now, I love maiden and always will and am not an Irish republican shooting down Britain. I love both and life's too short for such nonsense. Plus, the climb like a monkey thing was by far the most embarrassing thing they've ever done :) peace out
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I can relate to most of your comment, but gotta say heavy disagree on the "climb like a monkey" part. The lyric itself is a genuine quote, and the movements, hats and bananas are just silly fun. I like that Maiden writes serious music, but don't take themselves seriously all the time. It's important to have some fun on the stage :p
 
I was there in Dublin in 2005 and don't remember any flag rant. Not doubting it, just don't remember it. Did it definitely happen? I remember Steve's pre amp blew up and there was a delay and Bruce said something like "will we jam?" and the guitar players started to do a thing, they got about 2 seconds in when Bruce called a halt to proceedings and entertained us by slapping that William Tell Overture thing on his face. I could have stabbed him right then, the fuckin tool. Total frontman syndrome, robbing us of organic live music so he could take the spotlight and slap himself in the face.

Anyway, flags. For some context, I'm from Northern Ireland and would probably consider myself an Irish Republican of some sort. I'm from that side of the fence anyway. Wouldn't be a fan of colonialism. I don't get hung up on these things and peace means more to me than Irish unity.

The flag waving during The Trooper never bothered me. I saw it as theatre and didn't expect Maiden to change the show due to their location. Flags are a sensitive and divisive issue in Northern Ireland in particular and I get why people booed in Dublin and I'm not sure I blame people for it but I couldn't give a fuck and didn't ever find it offensive.

It's about context. I knew it was part of the show and expected it to happen.

I wasn't there in Dublin in 2003 (when it was booed) but if I recall correctly from the audio, Bruce was surprised and apologetic after the song. Its a wonder to me that a man of his historical and military knowledge was surprised by the booing or that no one discussed it with them before the gig. Strange.

I respected them for dropping The Trooper in Belfast in 2010. Some may view that as rock star arrogance but I saw it as Maiden being Maiden and not wanting to compromise their show. Although it was probably just Bruce being a stubborn fuck.

I never analysed these things too deeply to see how i felt or if i should be offended, I just go with my gut feeling. I don't enjoy seeing large parts of this country festooned in British flags and flags are definitely used for intimidation purposes here but I never felt any offence seeing Bruce Bruce wave his flag during The Trooper.

I was proud of my people when I next saw the flag waved and not booed, some time after 2010. Glad they don't do it these days. Easier all round.
 
Agree with everything I'm not trying to start a scrap plus I'm far from offended by a piece of cloth.. but i just think its stupid from them and cringe and could have kicked off serious incident, nearly did in 03 ...know the audience and know the atmosphere of a place...he def did (what he thought) was a rousing speech re the flag in 05 in RDS and stuff like that goes down like a lead balloon in my book.. steves amp blew far earlier and bruce did the william tell thing with janick on his cheeks(which was hilarious tbf).. anyway .. was my thoughts.. up thre irons..ill go back to lurking!! :)

* re belfast in 2010.. bad gig in general..worst ive seeen them, saw em a week r 2 before in birmingham and they were on fire..during soundcheck the trooper backdrop was seen and got a few boos so sensibly they dropped it... but in my book they owe us a song! They shoudve played Emerald or Over the Hills and far Away ;)
 
riff said:
The Trooper wasn't played at all in 2010
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They got confused with 2011. Either way, better than Bruce who in 2011 thought 2 Minutes to Midnight was a song from 1982 (although he could have been thinking about Accept’s Flash Rocking Man).
 
linnane666 said:
Agree with everything I'm not trying to start a scrap

* re belfast in 2010.. bad gig in general..worst ive seeen them, saw em a week r 2 before in birmingham and they were on fire..during soundcheck the trooper backdrop was seen and got a few boos so sensibly they dropped it... but in my book they owe us a song! They shoudve played Emerald or Over the Hills and far Away ;)
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Ah of course, no scrap at all and I didn't intend any tone of belligerence in my previous reply none at all.

I enjoyed 2011 but I've loved every Maiden gig, I ain't no good at objective analysis after Doctor Doctor starts haha.

Fuckin right, Emerald woulda been a fantastic replacement
 
Cat Milk Supreme said:
I was there in Dublin in 2005 and don't remember any flag rant. Not doubting it, just don't remember it. Did it definitely happen? I remember Steve's pre amp blew up and there was a delay and Bruce said something like "will we jam?" and the guitar players started to do a thing, they got about 2 seconds in when Bruce called a halt to proceedings and entertained us by slapping that William Tell Overture thing on his face. I could have stabbed him right then, the fuckin tool. Total frontman syndrome, robbing us of organic live music so he could take the spotlight and slap himself in the face.

Anyway, flags. For some context, I'm from Northern Ireland and would probably consider myself an Irish Republican of some sort. I'm from that side of the fence anyway. Wouldn't be a fan of colonialism. I don't get hung up on these things and peace means more to me than Irish unity.

The flag waving during The Trooper never bothered me. I saw it as theatre and didn't expect Maiden to change the show due to their location. Flags are a sensitive and divisive issue in Northern Ireland in particular and I get why people booed in Dublin and I'm not sure I blame people for it but I couldn't give a fuck and didn't ever find it offensive.

It's about context. I knew it was part of the show and expected it to happen.

I wasn't there in Dublin in 2003 (when it was booed) but if I recall correctly from the audio, Bruce was surprised and apologetic after the song. Its a wonder to me that a man of his historical and military knowledge was surprised by the booing or that no one discussed it with them before the gig. Strange.

I respected them for dropping The Trooper in Belfast in 2010. Some may view that as rock star arrogance but I saw it as Maiden being Maiden and not wanting to compromise their show. Although it was probably just Bruce being a stubborn fuck.

I never analysed these things too deeply to see how i felt or if i should be offended, I just go with my gut feeling. I don't enjoy seeing large parts of this country festooned in British flags and flags are definitely used for intimidation purposes here but I never felt any offence seeing Bruce Bruce wave his flag during The Trooper.

I was proud of my people when I next saw the flag waved and not booed, some time after 2010. Glad they don't do it these days. Easier all round.
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There was a bit of a rant in the RDS alright, basically, saying they weren't going to wave it that day but will again in the future, plus he was miming waving a flag too during the song.

"It's about context. I knew it was part of the show and expected it to happen." - I think that was the issue in 2003, the flag had never been waved at any previous Dublin gig, neither had it really been a part of the set from about 85 until the reunion era, so for the mostly casual fan drifing back to Maiden in 2003 it was unexpected.

Again I think Maiden have been a bit stubborn about this issue too, there's a certain throwing a tantrum element to dropping the Trooper in 2011. I doubt Maiden play anywhere else on the tour where it explictly states not to wear any "football, gaa or rugby shirts" on the ticket.
 
srfc said:
Again I think Maiden have been a bit stubborn about this issue too, there's a certain throwing a tantrum element to dropping the Trooper in 2011. I doubt Maiden play anywhere else on the tour where it explictly states not to wear any "football, gaa or rugby shirts" on the ticket.
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It was Bruce's tantrum. He allegedly said "No flag? No song then" (at least this is what I was told by someone close to the road crew).

Funnily enough, he did not seem to have any problems not waving the Union Flag in China in 2016...
 
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GhostofCain said:
Funnily enough, he did not seem to have any problems not waving the Union Flag in China in 2016...
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I don’t recall Bruce not waiving the flag, good to hear that! :D
But for sure I recall Bruce being very careful not to curse during Shanghai show.
 
Ed Phones were truly embarrassing! I'm surprised they didn't get mentioned yet.

Anyway, some of their marketing ideas were ridiculous. For example, since the Trooper beer came out I always thought the metal & beer-clichee was a bit worn out. I for example don't drink any type of booze, and so it'd be only fair if they'd sell a proper Maiden tea or coffee blend for folks like me.
 
Dick Brucinson said:
Ed Phones were truly embarrassing! I'm surprised they didn't get mentioned yet.

Anyway, some of their marketing ideas were ridiculous. For example, since the Trooper beer came out I always thought the metal & beer-clichee was a bit worn out. I for example don't drink any type of booze, and so it'd be only fair if they'd sell a proper Maiden tea or coffee blend for folks like me.
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You’re in the minority I would guess. Makes much more sense to market Beer with heavy metal than coffee or tea lol.

Whilst beer and metal is a bit of a cliche I always gave Maiden a pass on the trooper beer and it variants as a) I actually thinks good beer and b) it doesn’t come across as any old beer with a maiden sticker slapped on the bottle.

I mean, it could all be a great marketing ploy but I’ve watch a few videos of Bruce talking about how he helped Robinsons come up with the beers and he’s a self confessed ale fan so it all seems quite legit to me.
 
AncientMariner_Essex said:
You’re in the minority I would guess. Makes much more sense to market Beer with heavy metal than coffee or tea lol.

Whilst beer and metal is a bit of a cliche I always gave Maiden a pass on the trooper beer and it variants as a) I actually thinks good beer and b) it doesn’t come across as any old beer with a maiden sticker slapped on the bottle.

I mean, it could all be a great marketing ploy but I’ve watch a few videos of Bruce talking about how he helped Robinsons come up with the beers and he’s a self confessed ale fan so it all seems quite legit to me.
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I would have agreed with you if it had been just beers with Robinsons. The whole “Trooper beer with any other brewers” that came later has ended up looking as a big marketing ploy (and quite disappointing as I, possibly naively, thought the whole Trooper beer was something special).
 
GhostofCain said:
I thought marketing them as “audiophile headphones” whilst being designed by someone who cannot produce an album for toffee was crazy. Needless to say, they were soon being sold at very discounted prices at HMV…
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Imagine they'd put out a STEVE HARRIS MADNESS MIC, for background vocalists.
Btw, I was really expecting them to put out welding goggles in their official supermarket. Or at least shades look alikes.
 
Was there ever a full discussion on this board about Ed Phones and what was wrong with them?
 
Perun said:
Was there ever a full discussion on this board about Ed Phones and what was wrong with them?
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I don't know if there was a discussion about, but the plot was something like cheap headphones with a Maiden stamp on it for a lot of money. I think a better investment is done by spending money on really good Sennheisers or even Neumanns and just have no Maiden logo on them.
 
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Dick Brucinson said:
I don't know if there was a discussion about, but the plot was something like cheap headphones with a Maiden stamp on it for a lot of money. I think a better investment is done by spending money on really good Sennheisers or even Neumanns and just have no Maiden logo on them.
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Ed Phones are reasonably good, but massively overpriced.
 
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