OFFICIAL tour thread. SPOILERS inside!

Re: OFFICIAL tour thread. SPOILERS inside! ENTIRE Winnipeg show in 720p in bootlegs!

First of all, go Rod!

Donner said:
Saw the last show of the North American tour last night (and my personal 5 show Maiden tour as well for that matter) and had a blast.  I seriously think (and hope) that this band has another good 5-8 years in them at least.  You can tell that each and every one of the members loves performing.  I've seen Maiden now 24 times and continue to be astounded at how much better a live band they are than everyone else.  A true notch above.

And it was good to see the venue mostly full.  The DC area has been pretty bad this summer when it comes to concert attendance.  That bodes well for them coming back in 2011.  :edmetal:

Now THATS the right attitude! I'm sick of people whining that they didn't play RTTH because it was their first time.
 
Re: OFFICIAL tour thread. SPOILERS inside! ENTIRE Winnipeg show in 720p in bootlegs!

Has Rod done any more journals? If so could some one please post them here :).
 
Re: OFFICIAL tour thread. SPOILERS inside! ENTIRE Winnipeg show in 720p in bootlegs!

NY/NJ
Back to back shows in NJ and NY with all the guest list mayhem that comes with it. Everyone on band and crew seems to suddenly have about 20 news friends and various lost family members. Are we mad? I have said before that London, LA and NY are a right pain from this standpoint -- its where the "music biz" largely resides so every assistant of some guy at a label with whom you had a ten minute meeting with in 1922 is a long lost friend and ally who thinks they can ask for a free ticket -- and even crazier they think I may give them one instead of it going to the fans. Madness, but believe me it happens all the time. More time is spent by our team on guest lists and allocations in the week before than anything else, trying to work it out best for everyone and trying not to be (too) rude to some of the chancers out there!!! Family, real friends, people who have helped us over the years and those we deal with now are always of course welcome and taken care of but even on that basis it tends to be a lot in these cities.

That aside its always fantastic going to NY (we stay in Manhatten and travel in to the show in NJ) -- obviously we know it well having been there so often and have our favourite bars, pubs and restaurants to go to. Saw the World Cup Final in an English Pub -- couldn't believe how brutal the game was, I thought it was great.  Steve thought it was an awful game of football but said he "fully understood why I thought it was an enjoyable game"!! Anyway it gives a whole new meaning to Dutch clogs!

PNC is in New Jersey and at least this time our driver managed to find it ok -- last time they got lost on the way! We have played here a few times -- last time 2008 to about 12000 of you -- so I won't go into much detail, but this time it was sold out at 16,000. Of course being NJ the crowd is always tend to be good there . cracking show, get ready for the biggie!! Thanks everyone there.

And so to a Monday night in NYC and the legendary Garden, or Madison Square Garden to use its full name, the home of so very many great concert and sporting occasions and as much a part of NYC as the Empire State Building. Always a riot of an audience, and also a very knowledgeable audience usually and this was no exception with almost everyone I could see mouthing the words of every song. Sold out weeks ago the place was buzzing as it has been on each of the six big headline shows we have done there dating back to 1983 and the World Piece Tour when we were supported by Saxon and Fastway. And every one has been a total advance sell out -- but you just don't play the Garden unless you are confident you will sell it out. It's too prestigious (and too expensive!) to mess around with empty seats there!!

Bruce has been asking most nights how many people were seeing the band for the first time and we have been astonished by the number of hands up -- even after he asks for the second time, " No, really, HONESTLY , how many??" Now this I can understand in a lot of the Amphitheaters such as Toronto or PNC (or later Detroit and Chicago) where we have been playing to some 4000 or so more fans than last time, that is a lot of extra people to put their hands up. But in an arena like MSG there were about 14,000 there sold out this time and 14,000 sold out last time, there aren't any added seats since o8. Interesting. I have my own theories , what do you think??

As always the band are on fire here. I don't know what it is but MSG brings everything out of the band -- as the Village Voice duly noted in its review "IRON MAIDEN MURDER MADISON SQUARE GARDENS". Can't get much clearer than that can you. Of course the fans always drive the band on and they were terrific and definitely looked on average quite a bit younger than last time on SBIT  - which may be part of the answer to the question above. Maybe the SBIT tour brought more older fans out to hear the older "classics", which is all some (thankfully by no means all) wish to hear. More Run To The Hills, more Trooper, etc. Well thats fair enough but not ALL the time. We don't want the band getting bored playing the same stuff all the time -- it just wouldn't be Maiden anymore. So maybe some of these guys have stayed away and been replaced by the young fans who are growing up on the 2000s albums. Who knows, but as long as everyone has a great time (but dont bitch too much about not hearing Run To The Hills for the 99th time) its all fine by me.........

- Rod

Chicago
My wife Kathy, daughter Laura (17) and her friend Charlotte, and youngest boy Jake (13...sorry! nearly 14) flew in for the MSG show and to stay in NY a few days and then go to Chicago with me and then on family hols. So I didn't go to Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit much to Steve's surprise!) but all went well. We were a bit down on crowds in Pittsburgh, a bit under 9000, but the area is suffering as is Cleveland of course, where we had just under 10,000. Both getting a difficult time with the recession. We hope things improve for you guys in those areas. It's very much the same in the legendary industrial cities in the North of England -- manufacturing has gone and with it many, or even most, of the jobs. It is so tragic that a complete way of life for decades can just disappear like this. And a life on welfare benefits is no fit replacement for a job for any human being. Does global and corporate really come down to this?

Detroit is beset with similar problems but almost 12,000 fans turned out -- double the number last time (2005??) -- and apparently the show was killer even though Nicko had a couple of brain storms apparently!! Hope if you were there you didn't notice and if you did you should be honoured to have heard a totally absolutely brilliant and impeccable drummer make a very very very very occasional mistake (that a fiver Nick, OK??) And of course the best looking guy in the band (make it 50!!).

While all this was going on Kathy and I were touristing (at least between emails!) with the kids -- the Empire State building at night, which I have only seen in the day before, its even more amazing at night.  We went about midnight (and still long queues) after a brilliant real NY Italian meal in Little Italy -- I was waiting for Tony Soprano to walk in, and am sure some of the people there were Sopranos extras, or maybe the real thing! We saw West Side Story (yes really, but Gee Officer Krupke is a cool song if you think about it -- and how little has changed really) : a boat trip round the Statue of Liberty; a buggy ride in Central Park; Squeeze at Radio City Music Hall (reminding me of our multiple nights there in 1985) mainly because my daughter was at school with Chris Difford's daughter but they did write some fantastic songs like Up the Junction. Both these were admittedly a bit different to being on the desk at a Maiden show!!

So to Chicago. Firstly, apologies to our Chicago fans especially those core mutants amongst you -- for the first time in a while there was no event shirt. I own up completely -- there was supposed to be one but I was just not happy with our ideas (just how many times can we do gangsters!!!) and eventually gave it up. When you are a while away from a tour you are not entirely focussed city by city, more by regions, and also being so busy at the time it didn't seem to be a big deal. But a couple of days before the show I started to "see" the show and knew there would be some disappointment from the fans there so sorry guys if I let you down on this. Promise wont happen again, it is a long held Maiden Mutant (John and Jean and gang) tradition!!!  -- but I will need some help on research (though I do love gangster shit, don't we all -- unless you lived here in the 20's of course!!)

Reminds me of an anecdote from more mists of time -- 1982 and the Beast tour, supporting out good mates The Scorpions (great band, The Zoo is one of my all time favourites but I wish they wouldn't whistle - sorry Klaus!!) they invited us along to an after show party and it was in the middle of the country side miles from anywhere and Steve and I were left stranded there around 3am wondering how the hell we would get back to the hotel. A pick up screamed to a halt right in front of us -- "wow -- its Steve Harris (I wasn't famous then!!!!!) -- what are you guys doing? Need a lift" And yes we did -- we piled in and they took us right to our hotel. We were chatting and they told us they were Capones -- yes , really! - and as we looked doubtful the driver showed us his driving license. It was true. And there was a family get together that weekend of all the Capone clan who, it transpired, are an honest family embarrassed by the connection to Al who was, we were told, very much the black sheep of the family and gave them all a bad name -- even to that day! I will never forget that! we met a Capone!

The last couple of times here we played the arena so as a change and also for a bigger venue this time we played the First Midwest Amphitheater about 35 miles out of town. Last time in 08 we almost sold out the arena, about 12,000, and this time we had over 16,000 fans there to see us. And of course the mutants and all their mates were fantastic. Great show -- I know I keep saying this but if you were at any of these shows on the tour you will know it is true. Playing to audiences who are right with the band is always great and the guys always respond. Even my daughter -- who is of course a super cool  17 -- loved it!!

I am writing this in my hotel room the day after the show with views of the city from my window (though I really should be checking out the scene of the St Valentine's Massacre) as I want to catch up before going on a 10 day summer family holiday -- so this is the last diary til Europe. For those who have never been to Chicago you should -- it is a beautiful city with so much to do. Lots of great bars and restaurants, a massive musical heritage, a wonderful beach, a pier (just like Brighton where I now live!), zoo, aquarium, top sports teams. In the early days we would often play Milwaukee the night before and drive in after the show and I still remember clearly that the view of the skyline as you approached was always magnificent. Because the city in on the lake and is quite windy  - hence the name The Windy City -- there is little or no smog so the air is so much clearer than say NY and the lights of Downtown really do sparkle in this clarity.

It has been a remarkable tour -- we have been so very warmly received by you guys and even got some good reviews -- albeit with the odd cynicism and patronising comment thrown in of course!!  Some will never "get" Maiden and Metal - and at a time when there is so much media attention to it being a terrible summer for concerts with so many cancelled dates and poor attendances you guys have made this our best tour over here ever and one of the most enjoyable for sure. By the time we finish we will have played 23 arenas / amphitheatres to about 300,000 fans and a couple of great Canadian festivals to 100,000 more. Not bad for an English Metal Band who have been around for a while!! Keep the faith and see you all next time. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. And again, THANKS!!

Next one -- AUG 1 SONISPHERE KNEBWORTH, near London in the UK. Maybe see you there. Back home, it has to be a special show!!

- Rod
 
Re: OFFICIAL tour thread. SPOILERS inside! ENTIRE Winnipeg show in 720p in bootlegs!

Thanks atone mate! I was looking foward to a Canadian one but I guess Rod was to busy :p.
 
Re: OFFICIAL tour thread. SPOILERS inside! ENTIRE Winnipeg show in 720p in bootlegs!

Oh, no, there are also the Canadian ones, I just thought they were already posted.

Vancouver & Edmonton
We flew into Vancouver straight from the Seattle show, or rather Auburn as it's a bit outside Seattle, and the following day I took a seaplane to Victoria on Vancouver Island where my parents both live. They have been in Canada thirty odd years now which I guess makes me honorary Canadian. Of course great to see them. Stayed with them overnight then took the seaplane back to Vancouver in time for the show. Have to say I always enjoy the seaplane ride, and the views are stunning. Vancouver Island is a beautiful place and the weather was wonderful.

In Canada we will play all arenas except the outdoor Moulson Amphitheater in Toronto and festivals in Ottawa and Quebec. The reason for this is nothing sinister, simply that there are not really appropriate outdoor facilities available in these cities, the stadiums being a bit on the large size even for us here! And it's a nice change, we do enjoy playing arenas but often they are not quite big enough, which was certainly the case in Vancouver where 13,000 was sold out in advance. We haven't played at the GM palace, home of the Canucks Ice Hockey team, before as it's a fairly new , and superb, facility. Lots of rooms to hide away in. As I have said before though in Canada, Health and Safety (the Cleaners?!!) is even more overboard than the UK in my humble view, so there are about half the numbers on the standing floor as in Europe. As everyone likes to be near the stage it means few people behind the sound desk -- and we like our floor to be FULL. Maybe next time we will put seats on the floor behind the desk to avoid this empty space and maybe get more fans into the show.

But that is a minor point. The audience -- on average younger than America even -- were outstanding, the band were very happy and all went very well.

After the show we went on to Edmonton and a day off. We often fly after the show when there is a day off on tour so as to wake up in a place and have a full day there -- although to me its usually a full work day to keep up with everything, despite the fact that I have family in town. My sister Pam and husband Keith moved there from Huddersfield many moons ago and it was great to see them along with niece Nicki and nephew Scott and families. They of course all came to the show with a few friends so we had a few drinks before the show. We played Rexall Place again and again sold out about 13,000. Rexall is of course home of my hockey team, the Oilers, so its always a privilege to play there. The Canadian prairies must breed Rock fans as Alberta's two main cities, Edmonton and Calgary, always have terrific audiences. Very loud! But then Alberta is such a huge province that they are probably used to shouting! Again all went extremely well for everyone I think.

Reviews for both these shows (yes I do read them, of course!) were pretty good -- quite often newspapers don't quite "get" Maiden as I am sure you will have seen (a Dallas paper actually commented as lead to a review "slightly more interesting than seeing Spinal Tap for the 200th time " -- I guess that was a bit extreme!) But one comment caught my eye, I think from Vancouver, it said, talking about music fans in general, "no one quite likes Maiden" which I had never really thought about -- but I guess its true. We have our committed fans then there is the rest -- no one comes to our shows because its fashionable or to be seen or as part of a trend, they come for the music. Another comment recently, actually from Rick Roskin, our US agent, also struck me. He was saying that at a lot of metal shows there are a good proportion of the loud, drunk, aggressive types who feel that is how they should behave at metal shows but we just don't get that. At Maiden shows, he said, fans came for the music and actually listened. I thought this was a real compliment to all you fans out there. I don't get to a lot of other shows so wasn't particularly aware of this but I do know we never get any hassle or trouble at our shows, there is more of a feeling of community and a common appreciation of Metal the music not the clichés. I think this is part of the reason many "first generation" fans feel completely at ease bringing their young children with them (which is happening more and more) -- our fans respect and feel very at ease with each other. Anyway enough with the philosophising, and if I am correct, then thanks. We are always proud of our fans and don't need the "quite like" people or the loonies!

Getting back to the story! The day after I spent at a family BBQ catching up with family news and playing with my niece's terrific kids Jaime, 4, and Jordan, 18 months -- I had forgotten how therapeutic colouring books could be!! So I missed the Calgary show and then I flew into Toronto the next day to catch up on work. With this tour, the album coming up and organising 2011 its petty crazy right now, although the band always think I am sunbathing! So I missed Calgary, Saskatoon and Winnipeg but am told all went well. Typing this Thursday afternoon -- its Canada day here -- its about 5pm and hopefully I am going out tonight with the Banger team who did Flight 666 and all live here (inc my ex "visual man" and general good guy Dave Pattenden who used to do our screens and IMTV but moved to Toronto for love -- not just to get away from me!) So no doubt tomorrow will be a bad head day as I do have to teach these Canucks how to drink!! More in a few days after I have recovered!

- Rod

Toronto & Ottawa
So, following on from my last diary, I met up with the Banger Boys on the Monday evening for dinner and a few beers -- not too crazy as it happens as they had just flown back from Helsinki in Finland where they were working on a new project, which no doubt you will hear of in the near future. The trip included a delay of some 2 hours at the connection in Germany. All considering they did pretty well to get out with me! Its always fun to see Sam, Scott and Dave. Especially of course Dave as he worked with me for over 15 years, first as my assistant then moved on to cover a number of areas on Maiden with me, particularly all the recording, visuals, recently IMTV, screens at the shows etc. However he relocated to Toronto -- not to get away from me, but for a young lady he says! After all the stuff he did with Banger on Flight 666 they offered him a job so all worked out well.

We have spent time upgrading our screens at the shows with more cameras - 2 on Nicko, our Ed-cam and one out front from behind the drums in addition to the 2 front of stage and 2 on sound platform. With the size of many of the venues we play it seemed only fair to present a fuller show for those further back. our new man on this , Andy, spent most of his career on music TV, a lot of it live, so has the experience to edit live at a good pace, though still dependant of course on the quality of the cameramen who do vary from place to place. Andy also is now responsible for IMTV amongst other things so I hope you are enjoying the new episodes.

The rest of the time prior to the Toronto show as working to keep up with everything we have going on so by the time the show came  around I was very ready for human company and a great show. And so it was. The Molson Amphitheater is by the lake in a very scenic area. We were sold out at 16,000 and as always here a terrific audience. Needless to say we all had a good night out in the pub afterwards

The following day we flew up to Ottawa where we were playing the opening day of the Ottawa Blues Festival, which is in its 14th year I think they said. There are many music events spread over the 10 days or so the festival runs featuring all sorts of music and as you can tell not all of it is Blues anymore , though they do have some great Blues players appearing still. Google it if you are interested. Tickets are partly on a one concert only basis or you can buy tickets covering some or all of the events. We had over 20,000 turn out to see us which was spectacular considering we haven't played Ottowa  - incidentally the capital of Canada -- for many years and after the reaction we had we certainly won't leave it as long next time. This was arguably the best audience of the tour so far, very loud and active. They also gave us the "Maiden....Maiden" chants we hear so much around Europe and most of the world but has not caught on hardly at all in North America so this made us feel even more at home!!

After the show we moved on to Montreal to give us a full day off and prepare for Montreal and Quebec, two places that figure heavily in our history. More of that later..

Quebec & Montreal
Montreal and Quebec, two really beautiful cities with some of the best Metal and Maiden fans on the planet. I have talked about this a lot in previous diaries, our whole history of them being places we headlined small arenas when we were still a support band in America, places where Bruce has always done all his inter-song talking in French, somewhere that, even after 20 years of marriage you can recall just how beautiful the girls there are !! So, always, it was pleasure to return!

In the afternoon before the show I attended a playback of the new album arranged by EMI for about 30 media at a studio in Montreal. I daren't have a copy of the album on the road in case it get stolen/lost with baggage and ends out on the web (that would look good wouldn't it , manager responsible for premature release!!) so I was really looking forward to hearing the album again -- there really is so much to this album that the more you play it the more you get out of it!!

Which reminds me. I am catching up on this in NY and the video has just been put up on our website. Hope you all like it. The guys we did it with, Darkside, are a very creative company with many of the tech guys being big fans of the band. In fact the main guy, Andy, is an old pal of Steve's and we have been looking to do a project with them for some time so the new alien Eddie and space gave us the perfect opportunity and one right up their street. It was largely the passion and talent within the company that made the whole thing viable due to the amount of work involved and the time and budgets available. It says a lot for them that the whole process was relatively painless (and the band and I have strong points of view so that is unusual!) and came in on time and on budget. We all liked the idea of letting Eddie star and not to have the band in it at all for the first time ever (not even short live clips as in "Can I Play With Madness" or "Different World", or "cartoon" like "Wildest Dreams") -- the band sure as hell don't want to start miming for videos again, they always felt it was a bit ludicrous even in the days when there was no real alternative, and we never wanted to do ones where the band are "acting", it was never what we are about! So I do hope you all enjoy it as much as we all do. It's always good to do something a bit different.

Back to the point -- the playback went well, I also did a couple of interviews as the band weren't there then it was off to the show at the magnificent Bell Centre, one of the larger arenas in North America with around 14,500 packed in with our stage configuration, and sold out all but production holds weeks in advance. Bruce did pretty well as usual with his French and everything went just great.

Quebec was another festival -- the Quebec Summer Festival, which, like Ottawa , is run by the city. It is a huge event (google it) again, lasting over many days, with many different events and bands from us and Rush to Black Eye Peas and Arcade Fire to Rammstein. Ticketing is different here though, the city apparently sells about 150,000 tickets which give access to any of the concerts. It is held on the Plains of Abraham (General Wolfe and all that!!) and has an excellent staging and backstage layout -- very professionally done and great tech qualities and staging -- with a huge gradually rising area in front of stage leading to a hill at the back. Again we were the opening event and again just Maiden and Dream Theater, not a multi act festival day -- the term festival here applies to the two week event not the individual days which are all normal concerts. There is never an accurate number as people aren't counted on the way in -- if they have a festival ticket they simply get in to the park area of the festival -- but it was estimated that we had 75-80,000 in attendance, and looking out from the stage it was hard to see they could get many more in. On buying the ticket you get a badge for entry which has red flashing lights and from on stage it looked amazing -- and no doubt Andy will cover in his IMTV program of this - especially all those on the hill at the back because in the dark all you could see was thousands of small flashing red lights, quite a sight.

It was even more incredible to get such a huge turnout as the weather was dreadful. It rained all day and there were heavy thunderstorms late afternoon and, although the storms subsided, it continued to rain quite heavily throughout the concert. Maiden fans, however, don't get deterred by a bit of rain and this did not appear to affect the enthusiasm of the huge crowd one bit! A very memorable evening as it often is when we play here.

After the show we flew down to New York , which of course has many late bars for Janick to strut around...along with a few others!! And so ....next....to the Big Apple , the tour picking up more and more momentum as we go  along. More soon.

PS -- I think it was somewhere around here in the mists of time that England got knocked out of the World Cup by Germany, or maybe a bit before. Typically FIFA, besides supplying a beach ball instead of a proper football, decline to use any technology even though it is obviously required for the goal line. Too much tech interference is a pain, but surely on the goal line!! But although England didn't get awarded a perfectly good goal they never deserved at any stage to win even a tin of baked beans by their performances. Against Germany they seemed to give up and looked totally lacking energy and heart in the second half when they were trounced by what looked a really good young German team. Its tough to support your national team when some of the players are so unpleasant, you sort of want them to lose. And lose they did, with little heart and less style. (Bring on the rugby!!)

In the Killer Krew draw for the Cup I drew Brazil who sadly went out (we woz robbed!) , Steve had Germany (!!!!!!) , and ... Gaddsy drew Spain and Jan drew Holland!! The crew weren't happy that the band end had pulled pieces of paper out of their bag (at a cost of $20 each winner take all) with most of the best teams on them, after the crew had taken theirs too!! Dave had Ghana who truly were robbed by crass cheating (but, I guess, few would do the any different in that situation)  and, again, FIFA really should look at this.  Football's administration in many areas in appalling  - just look at it in England where they even built a magnificent sports stadium at Wembley with one of the worst playing surfaces on the planet! But l guess we have a team who deserve it!

But enough of this outrage! Bye for now

- Rod
 
Re: OFFICIAL tour thread. SPOILERS inside! ENTIRE Winnipeg show in 720p in bootlegs!

No problem! :ok:
 
Re: OFFICIAL tour thread. SPOILERS inside! ENTIRE Winnipeg show in 720p in bootlegs!

Don't know if anyone posted this here or not, and I'm not going to spoiler it as it happened 3 weeks ago, but here's the Madison Square Garden event shirt I got.  And no, I don't have extras for trade or sale so don't ask-

839.jpg


840.jpg
 
Re: OFFICIAL tour thread. SPOILERS inside! ENTIRE Winnipeg show in 720p in bootlegs!

Sonisphere:
Iron Maiden closed the Sonisphere festival for 2010 last night (August 1) with a spectacular headline show at the Knebworth event.

Frontman Bruce Dickinson took the opportunity to say that heavy metal should "rule the world" during his band's slot on the Apollo Stage, saying that if it was left to the mainstream media the music on show at the festival would be ignored.

"Today is like a special day, a celebration of everyone that likes heavy metal," he said from the stage. "If we left it up to the media and the BBC no-one would know about this music. If heavy metal bands ruled the world we'd be a lot better off. There would be more a lot more drinking and a lot more shagging and nursery rhymes would sound like this."

Playing against a star-lit backdrop and under a huge triangular lighting rig, the band played a set featuring songs mostly from their last three studio albums, 'Brave New World', 'Dance Of Death' and 'A Matter Of Life And Death'. A few older numbers, including 'Wrathchild', were also aired.

Iron Maiden played:

'The Wicker Man'
'Ghost Of The Navigator'
'Wrathchild'
'El Dorado'
'Dance Of Death'
'The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg'
'These Colours Don't Run'
'Blood Brothers'
'Wildest Dreams'
'No More Lies'
'Brave New World'
'Fear Of The Dark'
'Iron Maiden'
'The Number of the Beast'
'Hallowed Be Thy Name'
'Running Free'
 
It's a band with an acoustic guitar, xylophone and a sax doing Maiden songs (Wasted Years, Number of the Beast, Fear of the Dark, Run to the Hills).  Kinda cool actually. 
 
Entire MSG show on Youtube for Jeff:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dhmaiden2
For youtube links:
Copy and paste here to download them in your choice of video format. 1080p supported!
 
Back
Top