Simon Dawson is the new drummer

I think it's weird all of this.
I think something might have happened during the rehearsals in Australia. Maybe Steve didn't want the issues of the first leg and he checked Nicko's playing and checked if he resolved his issues playing. and get a talk with him and the rest of the band and management and raise the Nicko's retire on the last gig of the tour. And he took the decision of bring his alt. band touring with them and check his drummer and tell him. Learn all the songs of the tour if something happens.

I think there are pictures taken by Rebecca in Sidney where Nicko is looking at horizon, smiling but with sadness in his eyes like that would be the last time to play there. It's like, ok. I'm going to spend some days alone with my wife reflecting and assimilating all this.

If this is the truth and Knowing all of this, I think the management fooled the fans launching the 2025 tour selling tickets knowing that Nicko wouldn't be there.
If Nicko took the decision the last week, well, it's absurd because he has been playing much better than the first leg and the first gigs of this leg. By the other hand If this were true. Steve, the management and the band could have taken his time and thinking about who could replace Nicko.
 
Poto said:
Apparently Nicko made his decision last week.
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That would be wow, but I wouldn't be surprised. Remember they said they wouldn't play songs Nicko can't play anymore, so the RFYL set could have been a little easier for him, although 80's material is not easy. And that would fit with the family talk within the band and the contracts already made for next year's dates. Maybe that's why they only mentioned 2025, who knows. That's a tough decision for Nicko (although it's the best for him), he's probably been thinking a lot about it. Probably the band as well, at least since the start of the tour last year. Let's also not forget the solo projects. But his playing this year was better than last.

If true, the new drummer decision is very rushed (it's not like the tour starts in a couple of months), but maybe he was always Steve's choice (Joe, second?). Also, I think it's very likely (even with Nicko) that after RFYL the idea for semi-retirement to come into play.
 
matic22 said:
It's very doubtful that this decision would get leaked outside the bandmembers-Rod-Andy circle to anyone.
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Why not? It happens. Plus this info is reaching us now, the tour dates for sale have already been announced.
matic22 said:
There is a reason why Nicko played the Titanium Tart shows in the summer... To see if he has improved and I think that he realized that he hasn't to the level he wished to.
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Doesn't Nicko always play these warm-up solo shows before Maiden's tours recently.
matic22 said:
And the summer rumours about 2 members wanting to retire now make more sense.
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Who's the 2nd one? Dave? I can understand Nicko, and it's tough for him that he can't play at his best form now, but Dave not so much. But yeah, many of years of touring. Semi-retirement is likely now.
 
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The_7th_one said:
I think it's weird all of this.
I think something might have happened during the rehearsals in Australia. Maybe Steve didn't want the issues of the first leg and he checked Nicko's playing and checked if he resolved his issues playing. and get a talk with him and the rest of the band and management and raise the Nicko's retire on the last gig of the tour. And he took the decision of bring his alt. band touring with them and check his drummer and tell him. Learn all the songs of the tour if something happens.

I think there are pictures taken by Rebecca in Sidney where Nicko is looking at horizon, smiling but with sadness in his eyes like that would be the last time to play there. It's like, ok. I'm going to spend some days alone with my wife reflecting and assimilating all this.
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Maybe the guys were drunk sometime in Sidney. They played "spin the bottle", and whoever the bottle ended up pointing to, was to retire. Maybe it first pointed to Steve, who in a fit of rage grabbed a ruler that was laying to the right of him (Steve had used it for some cool drawings a few minutes before), and used it to nudge the bottle to the person next to him. It turned out to be Nicko. And maybe H got so upset that he went to talk to Rebecca, who took it in stride and told Nicko they would have a romantic evening and forget about the stupid game. When Nicko and Rebecca then sometime later were going to take some classy photos, it just happened that Dave was making funny faces outside of the camera frame. Nicko was by this point a bit annoyed, because it wasn't the first time Dave had done this. In fact, one time when Rebecca was out on a date night with Nicko, and right when they were having a moment, Dave was there, making a face. Nicko didn't find it funny, because he was just going to tell Rebecca a joke of his, and Dave ruined it. Nicko carried a grudge ever since.

So when Dave did that face yet again, that fateful evening, Nicko couldn't bring himself to composure. So he stared into the horizing, politely smiling at Dave, right outside that frame, but with sadness in his eyes like it's the last time he'd let Dave get away with something like that.


(the point of this post is fanfiction speculation about emotions in pictures and maybes, is just pointless. It might have happened just as I wrote, but probably not)
 
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Kalata said:
Why not? It happens.

Doesn't Nicko always play these warm-up solo shows before Maiden's tours recently.

Who's the 2nd one? Dave? I can understand Nicko, and it's tough for him that he can't play at his best form now, but Dave not so much. But yeah, many of years of touring. Semi-retirement is likely now.
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1. Because of the Run For Your Lives sales. I am almost sure that they announced the tour early, so Nicko's touring retirement wouldn't interfere with ticket sales. They hid that as well as they could and they succeeded.

2. He does. But this year his playing during those shows wasn't great and I think that's when he made the decision as he didn't improve from 2022 much.

3. The Dave rumour that has ben circulating for years now.
 
The_7th_one said:
I think it's weird all of this.
I think something might have happened during the rehearsals in Australia. Maybe Steve didn't want the issues of the first leg and he checked Nicko's playing and checked if he resolved his issues playing. and get a talk with him and the rest of the band and management and raise the Nicko's retire on the last gig of the tour. And he took the decision of bring his alt. band touring with them and check his drummer and tell him. Learn all the songs of the tour if something happens.

I think there are pictures taken by Rebecca in Sidney where Nicko is looking at horizon, smiling but with sadness in his eyes like that would be the last time to play there. It's like, ok. I'm going to spend some days alone with my wife reflecting and assimilating all this.

If this is the truth and Knowing all of this, I think the management fooled the fans launching the 2025 tour selling tickets knowing that Nicko wouldn't be there.
If Nicko took the decision the last week, well, it's absurd because he has been playing much better than the first leg and the first gigs of this leg. By the other hand If this were true. Steve, the management and the band could have taken his time and thinking about who could replace Nicko.
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I think the decision was made in 2023. Nicko had a stroke, especially for the drummer, which is a kind of ultimate elimination. Only the miracle and hard work allowed him to finish the current tour without complications. There was no way he could continue his activity as a professional touring artist in the metal band playing physical roles as the drummers used to. I know it's so hard for long-term fans or Maiden nerds to see the band with Nicko who was beloved by a devoted part of the audience but for 95% of the concert-goers the drummer isn't as important as Bruce or Steve which always has been the face of Iron Maiden. Time goes on and on and Maiden vehicle must be unstoppable as ever.
 
I kind of wish they just did the RFYL tour with Nick. Just play all the songs he can still play, it's fine at this point, as long as he's at his 2024 level it's okay.

Having said that, if Maiden want to keep going for a few years, having a weakened member in the most physical job in the band is a problem so I do understand why he's going.
 
Yax said:
And they recruited Janick very swiftly too after H bowed out, when he was relatively unknown and there were loads of technical beasts that would have loved to been in the band. But look how well it turned out. Janick brings some of the best songs of the reunion era. Have a little faith!
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There's a difference between changing a band member 10 years after the first album and now, 50 years later. Besides, I don't think he will record in the studio, they rather not release any more albums. They have to go through the new tour since they've already announced it. Even if they semi-retire and release albums with sporadic live shows, would the band prefer to play new songs instead of the classics when they're not touring regularly.
And it's not about the person, I just can't accept any changes to Maiden's magical lineup since 1999. That's it. Even with Nicko's form now. 50 Years tour without him... I never thought they would do it, so considering they only mentioned 2025 in the press release (maybe because of the dates), there's a chance they really don't know what to do after that and just have obligations. But then again, Steve said recently that they don't plan to retire yet. After all, they knew that due to age and problems, Nicko couldn't continue (the drummer's job is the toughest) and after such a big change, they probably would want to do more tours, but only old material? That's not Maiden's style. We don't know behind-the-scenes stuff, so.
 
The final decision could have been made a week ago or months ago, but they must have had a plan ever since Nicko’s capabilities became uncertain (after the stroke). So it was a matter of following their idea of how to move forward.

However, if they all firmly believed Nicko would play in 2025 and there was no other plan, I don’t think they would announce the replacement right away. They could just say there will be a new drummer stepping in for the 2025 tour and announce him later.
 
Spaldy said:
I'm now convinced that there are some here who actively want the band to fail, based on what I've read. You won't see this much doom mongering outside of a MAGA convention.
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I think you'll see the same thing on any online forum/community, the people who are chronically online become parodies. But for the most part, I think people have generally been supportive of Nicko himself.
 
Well 24 hours later the news has sunk in a bit. I am willing to give Simon a go and what an amazing opportunity for him even if he does only if he does one tour.
 
daan said:
The final decision could have been made a week ago or months ago, but they must have had a plan ever since Nicko’s capabilities became uncertain (after the stroke). So it was a matter of following their idea of how to move forward.

However, if they all firmly believed Nicko would play in 2025 and there was no other plan, I don’t think they would announce the replacement right away. They could just say there will be a new drummer stepping in for the 2025 tour and announce him later.
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There must have been a plan B. Everything else would be totally unprofessional and irresponsible.

To be honest, I thought his playing would have improved more this year than it actually had compared to so soon after his stroke.
 
matic22 said:
Really? And they announced Dawson already?

I think the decision was made during the rehearsals in Perth at latest, but if this is true... Jesus, that's some turbo nepotism.
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Fuck the nepotism. If the guy is good and trustable, im ok with it.
 
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