Alone I went with my car to the Belgium festival Pukkelpop, a two hour drive. I was alone but not lonely, because I had a nice friend called The Final Frontier in my car. It was the first time that I heard the whole album, without headphones and without interruption. A great experience and also slightly different. I realized that I start to like The Man Who Would Be King a bit more, everytime I listen to it, and I even had fun playing The Talisman, which has some great drumming indeed.
When I arrived, I became aware of some chaos. The lacking of parking places. Parking Pop was an appropriate name, because I spent the next half hour with finding a place. It was only 15.45 in the afternoon. But the festival was sold out for the first time in its existence. Guess why that was? Probably because Maiden played the festival for the first time. More about that aspect later.
There were fields for parking but they were already full at this early hour. Many people parked their cars at illegal spots, between the roads, and on several spots I can't find the English word for at this point. In the end I arrived at a village, which was about 20 minutes walking from the main entrance, and some local offered parking spots for 5 euro. I didn't want to risk Belgian bureaucracy and have a fine on my ass, so took the offer gladly, and saw I wasn't the only one. Behind the man's house were several cars on a grass field. Good to remember if I ever return.
Around 16.20 I got on the festival terrain. For me it was special because I never had been to huge festivals before which were no rock/metal festivals. This was a pop festival in the broadest sense. A lot of acts, with only one or two hardrocking acts. Many young people and there was a nice sun. It was very crowded.
First I decided to find the Main Stage where Maiden would play. I decided to hang around there and thus I saw only two other bands before Maiden hit the stage. The Cooks, which were very popular, and I must confess they were a good live band, with some catchy swinging tunes. After that came Blink 182, the band who mentioned Iron Maiden in their first hit, back in the nineties. I always had the idea that they made fun of Maiden in that song, so it was weird to see them on the same stage with Maiden, in fact "opening for" Maiden. I didn't like it. They were a bunch of childish morans. Several other people did like it though. There was one interesting moment when the drummer did a solo, while his kit (and he) were lifted in the air and spinned around. Also head down at some point.
Then it was only thirty minutes to go. I was suddenly getting excited. I really wanted them to begin. And when they started it was great. Bruce was so passoniate, very much into the gig. He was thrilled with the audience.
He said -after the thousands of people shouted Maiden non-stop- laughing: "Some people told me this was a pop festival. I think they were talking out of their arses."
This was pretty cool indeed. So many people seemed to be in them, and I tell you, they weren't metal fans only. There were way less Maiden shirts than normal, and I didn't see many people wth long hair. Not that every metalhad has long hair, but on a metalfestival you'll certainly see more.
The setlist worked well, like Nat, I even shouted along with one of the worst Maiden choruses ever, Wildest Dreams, but that was also when Steve walked near our side. When he (and others) get near and look at you, and encourage you to sing along, you can't help joining. I was pretty close to the stage, on the left side.
Bruce told the crowd that this was the biggest gig in Belgium ever (I forgot if he said 60-something thousand or 70-something thousand but it was huge indeed). Impressive was the way he introduced Blood Brothers. First he talked about the Maiden brotherhood, he welcomed new people to the family, and then switched to Ronnie and explained how important he was.
After the gig, which was from 20.30-22.30 still came another band, namely Placebo. I pitied any band who had to play after Maiden, because A: the gig was hard to beat. B: Many people left!
I was home around 01.30. Looking back at it, I am glad that I didn't miss this pretty special gig. For me the best gig since Waldrock 2003. Already looking forward to 2011 to witness The "real" Final Frontier tour.
I mean, the band spent a night out with crew, colleagues and friends and had their fair share of beer and booze? 
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