Setlist retirement poll

Should Maiden retire any of these from live shows?

  • Iron Maiden

    Votes: 20 23.3%

  • The Number of the Beast

    Votes: 13 15.1%

  • Hallowed Be Thy Name

    Votes: 6 7.0%

  • The Trooper

    Votes: 13 15.1%

  • Run to the Hills

    Votes: 12 14.0%

  • 2 Minutes to Midnight

    Votes: 18 20.9%

  • Sanctuary

    Votes: 38 44.2%

  • Wrathchild

    Votes: 40 46.5%

  • Fear of the Dark

    Votes: 23 26.7%

  • Running Free

    Votes: 30 34.9%

  • No — I wouldn’t want them to retire any of those

    Votes: 14 16.3%
  • Total voters
    86
I personally agree! But I can see why they might be concerned about the general public.
 
LooseCannon said:
The one time they did that (AMOLAD tour) it was rather poorly received by the general public.
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Jer said:
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Yet, on the next tour they did exactly that. Wouldn't be surprised if the audience reception on AMOLAD tour nudged them to play it a bit safer on SBIT. Oh, and Fear of the Dark, yes. They didn't repeat the same mistake as they did on Early Days tour.
 
There's nothing wrong with playing classics. Maiden has alternated album tour/classics tour pretty aggressively for awhile now:

Ed Huntour - 28 shows, classics
Brave New World - 81 shows, album
Give Me Ed Tour - 56 shows, classics
Dance of Death World Tour - 53 shows, album
Eddie Rips Up the World Tour - 45 shows, classics
AMOLAD Tour - 60 shows, album (includes A Matter of the Beast, 16 dates)
Somewhere Back in Time World Tour - 90 shows, classics
Final Frontier World Tour - 101 shows, album
Maiden England World Tour - 100 shows, classics
The Book of Souls World Tour - 117 shows, album
Legacy of the Beast World Tour - 77 shows (so far), classics

I mean...even in terms of number of shows, it's pretty right down the middle.
 
There is a difference between classics and staples. I'd argue that just about any song from the first 5 albums (at least the ones that have historically been played live) could be considered a classic by the "play classics" crowd. Retiring a staple like Running Free or Sanctuary or Wrathchild could make room for for underplayed songs that are equally classic (they just haven't been played so much) such as Killers, Prowler or Remember Tomorrow. Maybe they want to give The Trooper or Revelations a rest and swap in Die With Your Boots On or Still Life.

Maiden could also have been better about cultivating "new classics." There are few examples of 2000-era songs getting carried over from one tour to the next. Outside of a few songs from Brave New World (BNW, Wicker Man, Blood Bros) and the 2010 leg of the TFF tour, the "reunion" era songs have been one and done. El Dorado could have fit in quite well on the BOS tour, for example. I'd love to have The Talisman, Paschendale, or any of several BOS songs make it to the next album tour. What about Rainmaker?

As Loose Cannon showed above, the tours have been alternating to try give everyone what they want. The overlap between the BOS tour and LoTB tour is just 5 (or 4, depending on which leg) songs. This is an improvement over the SBIT/TFF (2011 legs only)/ME overlap. Maybe with a song "retirement" or a "rotating classics (staples)" mentality, the overlap on the next album tour could be even less.
 
Spambot said:
[..] I believe we probably saw Maiden more than once. This being said, it would be interesting to ..... [..]Now, image people seeing Maiden for the first time (who I believe are big majority at most of concerts) not hearing any of the songs listed here. It wouldn't be a full Maiden experience for them, would it?
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Perhaps not at first but it would not be long before they would cherish it as a very special gig. "Do you know what I witnessed at my first Maiden gig?". They would see such classics during another gig anyway. Let's not think that most first timers will see Maiden only once. I do not believe that. Nor would you, I think. Even if it would be the only time (because of some unexpected misfortune, e.g. health problems in band or the person in question themselves) then that could be hard at first (or not at all), but later it would be mightily appreciated.
 
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I voted for Sanctuary, Wrathchild and Running Free. They work well live, but in my humble opinion they are overplayed and not that great to begin with.

I wouldn't want any of the other songs off that list being retired from live shows (giving them a rest during a tour, as they have done, would be fine).
 
LooseCannon said:
The one time they did that (AMOLAD tour) it was rather poorly received by the general public.
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This has been exaggerated and might have been the case in North America, but I did not hear any complaints at both London shows and the audiences were quite into the new songs.

Brave move from the band showing how much they believed in their new material and one of my favourite Maiden tours of all time.
 
GhostofCain said:
This has been exaggerated and might have been the case in North America, but I did not hear any complaints at both London shows and the audiences were quite into the new songs.

Brave move from the band showing how much they believed in their new material and one of my favourite Maiden tours of all time.
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Oh I agree. I wish I had been able to see the tour.
 
"Running Free", "Wrathchild" and "The Trooper", though the latter will never be retired, since it has become a marketing ploy (it sells the namesake beer) to which not many people hardly ever pay close attention any more, a bit like "Iron Maiden".
 
Black Bart said:
"Running Free", "Wrathchild" and "The Trooper", though the latter will never be retired, since it has become a marketing ploy (it sells the namesake beer) to which not many people hardly ever pay close attention any more, a bit like "Iron Maiden".
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People still go mental with The Trooper.
 
GhostofCain said:
People still go mental with The Trooper.
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Well, I for one go mental with all the songs anytime I see them live "for real" (GMETID, DOTR, ME, LOTB...which is not that much). So since experiencing Maiden live consequently consists mainly in watching DVDs or listening to CDs in my case, I'm less impressed by some songs ("The Trooper" for example) when I am not actually there.
 
The thundering intro to The Trooper is always a highlight of any Maiden show for me. I agree it doesn't quite come across on the live albums though (that can be said for most of the "overplayed" songs).
 
GhostofCain said:
Sanctuary, Wrathchild and Running Free. They work well live
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I don't think they should play any of the Di'anno material anymore, even Phantom (Iron Maiden being an obvious exception). Looks like we agree here, even though for entirely different reasons. :bigsmile:
 
Magnus said:
I don't think they should play any of the Di'anno material anymore, even Phantom (Iron Maiden being an obvious exception). Looks like we agree here, even though for entirely different reasons. :bigsmile:
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To be honest, I prefer Phantom of the Opera and Remember Tomorrow with Bruce on vocals (the year 2005 renditions of the songs were great if you ask me). I would not mind hearing them live again, but not so much the other DiAnno era songs.
 
GhostofCain said:
To be honest, I prefer Phantom of the Opera and Remember Tomorrow with Bruce on vocals (the year 2005 renditions of the songs were great if you ask me).
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Yeah I know, or at least I thought so. Hence "for entirely different reasons".
 
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