Nicko McBrain

Lovely to see Nicko in action. With TFP tour drum kit. His power and overall drumming isn't the same, but it still sounds more than good (impressive really) for his age and the unique groove is always there! Especially a song like Rime. Great to hear the fills and the foot work. He's maintained his 2024 level, even better methinks. He could have continued, damn. It seems when he is not on tour, his drumming is better. This is good for future recordings.

The setlist is curious:
The Number Of The Beast
No More Lies
The Clansman
Infinite Dreams
The Parchment
Stranger In A Strange Land
Darkest Hour
Wrathchild
Moonchild

Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Heaven Can Wait

His 2 favorites from SJ. 11 songs.

Awesome! Interesting set, even being shorter. Give us more live debuts, Nick! :) One more from SJ. Steve's rule is no more :lol:

More footage:

Maan, Parchment and Darkest Hour sounds great live. Also Nicko's tempo during Moonchild is there! Despite the overall playing of some parts being slower.

He also joked that if Maiden play Darkest Hour on next year's tour (odd to say it), he will know why. :lol:

He joked about Steve's rule and Simon's drum kit. ''Still the best looking one in the band''. :lol::)

A story: ''Darkest Hour'' was the last recorded song for SJ. During the recording of it, Adrian said to him that he played the song faster, but he needs the tempo from beginning. And Nicko said: ''this is Maiden, it needs to breathe''.
 
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Nicko McBrain having a better setlist than Iron Maiden does was not something I had on my 2025 bingo card.

The singer does NOTB better than Bruce ever did after 1982 too.

First KK’s Priest now Nicko’s Maiden!
 
So wonderful to see and hear Nicko back behind the kit! :applause:

He sounds great, even better than last year- clearly he's continuing to recover well! And what a setlist! If Maiden had been willing to cut back on their touring, I don't see any reason why he couldn't have continued to play live with them :(
 
So wonderful to see and hear Nicko back behind the kit! :applause:

He sounds great, even better than last year- clearly he's continuing to recover well! And what a setlist! If Maiden had been willing to cut back on their touring, I don't see any reason why he couldn't have continued to play live with them :(
I strongly suspect it has to do with flying. Bruce mentioned that Nicko almost ended up in a hospital and I doubt it was drumming.
 
Where did he mention that?
It's basically in the statement about his retirement from touring (that it's the touring, not the playing). Bruce also stated that Nicko almost ended up in a hospital multiple times durinf 2024. And it wasn't at the end of shows, as he always came out and greeted the audience. So, my reasonable guess is that it was the travelling, more specifically flying.

Would also explain why he didn't attend the London show.
 
It's basically in the statement about his retirement from touring (that it's the touring, not the playing). Bruce also stated that Nicko almost ended up in a hospital multiple times durinf 2024. And it wasn't at the end of shows, as he always came out and greeted the audience. So, my reasonable guess is that it was the travelling, more specifically flying.

Would also explain why he didn't attend the London show.
It seems that's also one of the reasons:


I'm not complaining about that at all. It was an incredible journey, one that if the good Lord said, 'Would you do it all again?', 'yes' would be the answer. My health — I had my health issues, which was one of the primary reasons as well that I decided to hang it up with the guys. And I wasn't doing the songs justice because of the handicap that I had. And it wasn't fair on everybody else either in the band. They supported me 100% through the 'The Future Past Tour', and that was fantastic. I couldn't have asked for a better bunch of brothers to support me through my darkest hour. Primarily, I was fed up with touring in terms of the travel and not having days to recoup my body.
I wasn't so much slowing down, although we did play the songs that… I got told off at rehearsals last year because I was playing the songs too fast, 'cause I'd been playing with TITANIUM TART before I went off and did the rehearsals in Australia with MAIDEN. And I actually got told off for playing too quick. So it wasn't a question of not being able to drive the band. It was just not being able to drive the band with the drum fills that I'd been used to playing for 42 years. So the question mark was raised about the performance side. And that's quite right…So that was part of the decision that I made.

Yeah, there was a second night in Sydney, Australia, where it was probably — personally, for me. I thought it was a really bad performance. And I remember saying to Bruce, walking back to the dressing room, or I think we did a runner, actually, we were walking back to the cars. I said, 'Oh, mate.' I said, 'I'm really struggling up there.' And he said, 'You looked like you were struggling, Nick.
 
^ that's quite telling in terms of tempo because songs like CSIT live recently he did perfectly fine with tempo wise. I didn't mind his performance of the faster songs like that at all. They just didn't have all the fills anymore. He kind of played it how he played on Virtual XI. That's not an insult, more like he played straight through them but at the appropriate speed.
 
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