RUN FOR YOUR LIVES 2026

Objectively it is a great show. For those of us who have seen most or all tours since 1999 however, we've heard the reunion lineup play these songs already, so the 'wow' factor was a bit muted for me pesronally. But for the stadium crowds and casuals they want to attract, it is a well designed setlist.

I was more excited by Future Past, and I preferred Legacy as an all-career celebration, but I'm not alone among hardcore fans feeling that way. Doesn't mean to say there is anything objectively wrong with RFYL.
 
For me, its a setlist mashup of Ed Huntour, Early Days, Somewhere Back In Time and Maiden England ... that's just how the current setlist feels to me. With every song from RFYL played on one or several of these tours. If I didn't follow the band avidly and see 50 shows over the last 25 years, I'd maybe perceive the current set differently, but that's just me. The newest thing about the current tour are the screens and Simon, not song selection.
 
Helmuth Von Moltke said:
For me, its a setlist mashup of Ed Huntour, Early Days, Somewhere Back In Time and Maiden England ... that's just how the current setlist feels to me. With every song from RFYL played on one or several of these tours. If I didn't follow the band avidly and see 50 shows over the last 25 years, I'd maybe perceive the current set differently, but that's just me. The newest thing about the current tour are the screens and Simon, not song selection.
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There is a few songs that they dont usually play (last 25 years). Since reunion they have played all the songs they didnt play in the late 80s and 90s. I think there will be a deep cuts tour after this.
 
Helmuth Von Moltke said:
For me, its a setlist mashup of Ed Huntour, Early Days, Somewhere Back In Time and Maiden England ... that's just how the current setlist feels to me. With every song from RFYL played on one or several of these tours. If I didn't follow the band avidly and see 50 shows over the last 25 years, I'd maybe perceive the current set differently, but that's just me. The newest thing about the current tour are the screens and Simon, not song selection.
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It's basically a "best-of" of the various history/best-of tours. Great for casual fans, but not particularly exciting for me.

I had a great time hearing some stuff like SSOASS again, but I won't be attending the same show in 2026 again.
 
Vaenyr said:
It's basically a "best-of" of the various history/best-of tours. Great for casual fans, but not particularly exciting for me.

I had a great time hearing some stuff like SSOASS again, but I won't be attending the same show in 2026 again.
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Helmuth Von Moltke said:
Objectively it is a great show. For those of us who have seen most or all tours since 1999 however, we've heard the reunion lineup play these songs already, so the 'wow' factor was a bit muted for me pesronally. But for the stadium crowds and casuals they want to attract, it is a well designed setlist.
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Agreed. The overlap with the setlists of some previous tours was significant (12 of those songs were already played on the SBIT tour in 2008 and 11 on the Maiden England tour in 2013).

Helmuth Von Moltke said:
I was more excited by Future Past, and I preferred Legacy as an all-career celebration, but I'm not alone among hardcore fans feeling that way. Doesn't mean to say there is anything objectively wrong with RFYL.
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Legacy of the Beast is probably the best tour they have ever done, from the stage props to a set representing their 50 years of fantastic songs, not just the first third of their career.
 
srfc said:
By definition, a tour spanning 1980-92 is going to have a lot of overlap with other tours.
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That's obviously true, I hope no one expected Maiden to start busting out multiple never-before-played songs.

The larger point being made though, is that the overlap isn't simply with the various tours that happened in the '80s by virtue of only playing songs that have been played before. The overlap is with the various history/best-of tours (which of course overlap with the '80s tours and so on...). So it's a bit like passing through multiple filters and distilling the setlist largely to the absolute classics, the most popular of the favorites.

This might seem like a distinction without a differenence to some, but LotB is the interesting contrast, where the majority of the songs were classics and highlights spanning their career, but there were still a few curve balls and deep(ish) cuts here and there, like Icarus, the Blaze songs or FTGGOG.
 
There are curve balls and deep cuts, Murders and Killers, are total deep cuts, as are Rime and SSOASS, I've seen Maiden 36 times since 1993, and they've all only been on 1 tour since then. LOTB only had FOI that was played less than those in that time period.
 
Those tracks are rarities for sure. But Rime and SSOASS were the centerpieces of extensive 2 and 3 year history tours respectively. That's what we mean with "best-of of best-ofs"; these songs were played originally on their album tours (Rime survived until Somewhere on Tour funnily enough), then were brought back for their respective history tours. Now they're in the same setlist.

Note this is neither an inherently good nor bad thing. It's just an explanation for why this current tour might feel a bit underwhelming in song choices for some, especially when we consider how adventurous TFP ended up being.
 
srfc said:
There are curve balls and deep cuts, Murders and Killers, are total deep cuts, as are Rime and SSOASS, I've seen Maiden 36 times since 1993, and they've all only been on 1 tour since then. LOTB only had FOI that was played less than those in that time period.
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What about For the Greater Good of God and Where Eagles Dare? Those surely were played live fewer times than Rime of the Ancient Mariner or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son post-1993…
 
GhostofCain said:
What about For the Greater Good of God and Where Eagles Dare? Those surely were played live fewer times than Rime of the Ancient Mariner or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son post-1993…
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I might have fucked up remembering but WED was 93 and 05 I think and FTGGOG was 06 and 2010

EDIT: From @GhostofCain 's post I can tell he understood what I meant, but I realise in my first post I said on one tour, when I meant one other tour
 
srfc said:
I might have fucked up remembering but WED was 93 and 05 I think and FTGGOG was 06 and 2010

EDIT: From @GhostofCain 's post I can tell he understood what I meant, but I realise in my first post I said on one tour, when I meant one other tour
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In 2010 they went for Breeg and Colours from AMOLAD only.

Interesting to remind ourselves that WED was played in 93, 06 and 18... that's the kind of big return after many years for a beloved song. The big gaps make it such a treat for the fans.

Changing topic to Aces High, I am wondering now if Rod pushed for it on this tour because of the animation potential? In the latest FC magazine Steve has actually distanced himself from selecting a couple of unnamed tracks in RFYL -- he doesn't name them but says he thought they could have been rested. Bruce has also talked about where Aces High is positioned in the current set. I'm sure they weren't forced to open the encore with it, but my gut feeling tells me Rod drove the decision.
 
srfc said:
I might have fucked up remembering but WED was 93 and 05 I think and FTGGOG was 06 and 2010

EDIT: From @GhostofCain 's post I can tell he understood what I meant, but I realise in my first post I said on one tour, when I meant one other tour
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If we want to be anal, we can highlight that Where Eagles Dare was dropped from the selist during the 1993 tour and was not played in Dublin (I am assuming this is the show you went to; sorry if that was not the case). Definitely an unplayed rarity for you (and me) until 2005. :P
 
Helmuth Von Moltke said:
In 2010 they went for Breeg and Colours from AMOLAD only.

Interesting to remind ourselves that WED was played in 93, 06 and 18... that's the kind of big return after many years for a beloved song. The big gaps make it such a treat for the fans.

Changing topic to Aces High, I am wondering now if Rod pushed for it on this tour because of the animation potential? In the latest FC magazine Steve has actually distanced himself from selecting a couple of unnamed tracks in RFYL -- he doesn't name them but says he thought they could have been rested. Bruce has also talked about where Aces High is positioned in the current set. I'm sure they weren't forced to open the encore with it, but my gut feeling tells me Rod drove the decision.
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If that is the case, it beggars belief that the manager and not the musicians playing the song drove the decision based on some kind of stage set gimmick!
 
GhostofCain said:
If that is the case, it beggars belief that the manager and not the musicians playing the song drove the decision based on some kind of stage set gimmick!
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How much does Rod opinion affect on the setlist? I always thought it was a band thing or maybe steve and bruce and then the others. But i read here that Rod makes some setlist?
 
Fozzie said:
I find it really hard to believe that if Steve and or Bruce didn`t want to do Aces they would be forced to do it by Rod.It would have made absolutely no difference to ticket sales if they had dropped it.
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Yeah. I would have thought they could have told Rod: “We are not playing that song”, but it seems that after the lacklustre performances they are quite eager to blame him. “He is a Yorkshire man, he can take it” to (partially) quote them.
 
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