The Future Past Tour 2024

Re: Dave retirement rumors - two things can be true at the same time. He could want to retire and still be enjoying himself in the moment on stage. We don’t know how much they enjoy the traveling/rehearsals/etc. I believe the rumors to the extent that keeping 6 elderly people on the same page regarding touring is going to be increasingly difficult as they get older. Considering Dave does not do any music outside of Maiden and he rarely writes songs, it would make sense that he is the least committed to it right now.

Imo part of why I don’t expect Future Past to get a third leg is that I don’t expect them to potentially end their career on a Setlist with deep cuts. I expect them to follow this up with a LOTB style nostalgia tour and that might be it (unless it’s a 3 year tour in which case it’ll definitely be it).

Whether they continue beyond that entirely depends on whether they are willing to continue without one or more members, because I really doubt Nicko has more than a couple more years in him. If they’re willing to tour without Nicko or potentially Dave, no reason they can’t squeeze out another decade. If they want to retire with this lineup, I expect a brief nostalgia tour in 2025 to wind things down. They’ve said they’re open to continuing Maiden as a studio act beyond that but I’m skeptical they would actually do it. Getting them to commit a few weeks to studio time doesn’t seem like the easiest thing.
 
Re: Dave retirement rumors - two things can be true at the same time. He could want to retire and still be enjoying himself in the moment on stage. We don’t know how much they enjoy the traveling/rehearsals/etc. I believe the rumors to the extent that keeping 6 elderly people on the same page regarding touring is going to be increasingly difficult as they get older. Considering Dave does not do any music outside of Maiden and he rarely writes songs, it would make sense that he is the least committed to it right now.

Imo part of why I don’t expect Future Past to get a third leg is that I don’t expect them to potentially end their career on a Setlist with deep cuts. I expect them to follow this up with a LOTB style nostalgia tour and that might be it (unless it’s a 3 year tour in which case it’ll definitely be it).

Whether they continue beyond that entirely depends on whether they are willing to continue without one or more members, because I really doubt Nicko has more than a couple more years in him. If they’re willing to tour without Nicko or potentially Dave, no reason they can’t squeeze out another decade. If they want to retire with this lineup, I expect a brief nostalgia tour in 2025 to wind things down. They’ve said they’re open to continuing Maiden as a studio act beyond that but I’m skeptical they would actually do it. Getting them to commit a few weeks to studio time doesn’t seem like the easiest thing.

I agree with most of what you have written. I do not see them continuing as a studio act though; the money is not on albums anymore.
 
Regarding them being a studio act: It's a lot easier to record an album than it is to tour. Money or not, it'd be a way for the band to semi-continue their career if they focused on studio over live work. Nicko would do just fine for another 10 years, since they can stop and get as many takes as they need. He doesn't need the same level of stamina for an album as he does alive show, and the lack of touring might give them band members the needed time off they need to recuperate and make some banging studio LPs. I'd rather them take that route than just bow out altogether. Besides, many of their very best songs were and never will be played live. Like Starblind or The Parchment or other songs I like.
 
I agree with most of what you have written. I do not see them continuing as a studio act though; the money is not on albums anymore.
Imo the biggest tell is how they handled the pandemic. They sat on Senjutsu because they didn’t want to release it until they could tour off it and they changed their mind on making a second album during lockdowns because of that. If they were interested in being a studio band, they could’ve released Senjutsu in 2020 as planned and then recorded a second album in 2021 to release and tour the following year(s). If they couldn’t get it together to record more when there was literally nothing else to do, I can’t see them doing it in any other circumstance if a tour isn’t part of it.

Edit: see also Bruce Dickinson. I am 100% convinced that Mandrake Project took as long as it did because Bruce was waiting for the opportunity for Maiden to skip a summer tour so he could tour on it. Same mindset as Maiden imo.
 
Iron Maiden's very likely not gonna continue as a studio act, however I dunno how the fuck you even would listen to this year's takes with all the knowledge you should have and think "they've only got a few years left in them". Other than the drums (and for good fucking reason I might add), TFP is the band as rock-solid as they've been since 2016.

Bruce is beyond top form. Steve is Steve and his fingers seemingly don't age. The guitarists are undoubtedly at their best, especially given Davey's seemingly found some new inspiration and after a few years of vagueness seems to be more interested in his instrument than ever before. Who the fuck would look at that and go "man their time is running out"? I thought that last year, when they were really checked out doing the contractual obligations LOTB tour. But not this year. No fucking way.
 
Setlist from Nicko's cover band (Titanium Tart) from today, according to ironmaiden.brasil Instagram:

1. CSIT
2. Stranger
3. Infinite Dreams
4. The Prisoner
5. To Tame a Land
6. Heaven Can Wait
7. Alexander
8. FOTD
9. Iron Maiden
10. Hell On Earth
11. The Trooper
______
12. Separate Ways
13. Don't Stop Believin'

Just for the record: remember that Nicko's cover band played Stranger and Alexander years ago and then after that it finally appeared on Maiden's setlist?

I'm not saying that Maiden is going to play Infinite Dreams and To Tame a Land on the next leg of The Future Past Tour, because we all know it is highly unlikely that they will change anything from the setlist.

However, thinking about tours in the future, it is interesting, isn't it? There's hope.

Does anyone know if Nicko has played Infinite Dreams and TTAL with his cover band before?
 
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Just for the record: remember that Nicko's cover band played Stranger and Alexander years ago and then after that it finally appeared on Maiden's setlist?

I thought the story was that Nicko told Steve that he wanted to play ATG with his band, but he wasn't allowed to because Maiden hadn't played it live yet. Which was probably a part of the impetus for it to be included in this year's set.
 
I thought the story was that Nicko told Steve that he wanted to play ATG with his band, but he wasn't allowed to because Maiden hadn't played it live yet. Which was probably a part of the impetus for it to be included in this year's set.

I think you are right about Alexander. I forgot about that, sorry. I am almost sure that Nicko played Stranger with his band before the tour, though.
 
Setlist from Nicko's cover band (Titanium Tart) from today, according to ironmaiden.brasil Instagram:

1. CSIT
2. Stranger
3. Infinite Dreams
4. The Prisoner
5. To Tame a Land
6. Heaven Can Wait
7. Alexander
8. FOTD
9. Iron Maiden
10. Hell On Earth
11. The Trooper
______
12. Separate Ways
13. Don't Stop Believin'

Just for the record: remember that Nicko's cover band played Stranger and Alexander years ago and then after that it finally appeared on Maiden's setlist?

I'm not saying that Maiden is going to play Infinite Dreams and To Tame a Land on the next leg of The Future Past Tour, because we all know it is highly unlikely that they will change anything from the setlist.

However, thinking about tours in the future, it is interesting, isn't it? There's hope.

Does anyone know if Nicko has played Infinite Dreams and TTAL with his cover band before?
I would love to hear Maiden play Infinite Dreams live again. It's one of my all time favorite Maiden songs.

Edit: Ohhh, missed To Tame a Land - would love for that to make it's way into the setlist again.
 
Setlist from Nicko's cover band (Titanium Tart) from today, according to ironmaiden.brasil Instagram:

1. CSIT
2. Stranger
3. Infinite Dreams
4. The Prisoner
5. To Tame a Land
6. Heaven Can Wait
7. Alexander
8. FOTD
9. Iron Maiden
10. Hell On Earth
11. The Trooper
______
12. Separate Ways
13. Don't Stop Believin'

Just for the record: remember that Nicko's cover band played Stranger and Alexander years ago and then after that it finally appeared on Maiden's setlist?

I'm not saying that Maiden is going to play Infinite Dreams and To Tame a Land on the next leg of The Future Past Tour, because we all know it is highly unlikely that they will change anything from the setlist.

However, thinking about tours in the future, it is interesting, isn't it? There's hope.

Does anyone know if Nicko has played Infinite Dreams and TTAL with his cover band before?
TTAL is new! He's played Infinite Dreams with them a few times in recent years, I think the first instance was at the 2021 Rock n Roll Ribs party.
 
Setlist from Nicko's cover band (Titanium Tart) from today, according to ironmaiden.brasil Instagram:

1. CSIT
2. Stranger
3. Infinite Dreams
4. The Prisoner
5. To Tame a Land
6. Heaven Can Wait
7. Alexander
8. FOTD
9. Iron Maiden
10. Hell On Earth
11. The Trooper
______
12. Separate Ways
13. Don't Stop Believin'

Just for the record: remember that Nicko's cover band played Stranger and Alexander years ago and then after that it finally appeared on Maiden's setlist?

I'm not saying that Maiden is going to play Infinite Dreams and To Tame a Land on the next leg of The Future Past Tour, because we all know it is highly unlikely that they will change anything from the setlist.

However, thinking about tours in the future, it is interesting, isn't it? There's hope.

Does anyone know if Nicko has played Infinite Dreams and TTAL with his cover band before?
To Tame A Land! Great! I would love to hear it. I love the melodies and Nicko's drumming on it. He plays it for the first time live in 40 years! To celebrate his first Maiden album POM I guess. He said it's a tricky song for him.

Both it and Infinite Dreams (they wanted to play it in 2012) are possible and very popular songs for the next tour (why not with Only The Good Die Young too!) - whether it be a new album tour, Hits tour, 50th anniv tour or a Deep cuts tour. They certainly won't use them for the current tour, or for a possible 3rd leg of it. And they're not easy songs for the whole band, we have to say.

 
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