The inevitable 1990s tour after Book of Souls Tour ends

Mosh said:
I think we will see that Donnington DVD next year and they'll co-op leg two of TBOS tour to help promote it.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be surprised if they released Donnington 1992 AND 2007 on the same DVD/Blu-ray, thus enabling them to spice up the setlist with a little early 90s (Afraid + BYDTSS + FOTD) and a little from AMOLAD (at least Breeg and Brighter).
 
I would love to see the documentary series continue, but I don't feel the need for a history tour.

Wayne Bond said:
Sadly, if they were to carry on with the history documentaries I can see part 4 being a quick 20min scan through the 90's leaving all the interesting stuff out. As much as I've loved the history documentaries they have declined in quality. Very disappointed with part 3. Not that it was shit but at 45 mins it was just too short.
Click to expand...

Part 3 was shit. The content was bland compared to the previous entries and that picture-in-picture interview style was obnoxious as hell.
 
The 90's will always be a special time for me as its when I first started to listen to hard rock and heavy metal. The first vinyl single I ever bought was from here to eternity

NPFTD was the current Maiden album when I first got into the band and fear of the dark was the first album I bought that I was looking forward to as a new release.

Plus the first live maiden experience was on the X-factor tour.

Personally for me fear of the dark and the X-factor are amoungst my favourite Maiden albums.

Despite my own personal feelings and experiences regarding the 90's era for maiden it is the most interesting and significant era. Not only was the hard rock and metal world changing but Maiden went through a hell of a lot of ups and downs. A lot of people talk about grunge was the death of traditional hard rock and metal in the 90's. Bullshit. Grunge was a major force but the early 90's also saw the rise of death metal. Obituary, morbid Angel, cannibal corpse and death from the US were either just starting or putting out there best albums in the early 90's. Then from the uk we had carcass, bolt thrower, napalm death, benediction and many more. There was also the doom/death movement which started in the uk with the holy trinity of anathema, paradise lost and my dying bride.

Europe also saw the rise of black metal in the 90's and by the mid 90's the Scandinavian melodic death metal boom was kicking off with in flames, children of bodom, dark tranquility and many more.

Back over in the US pantara and machine head were proving heavy bands can get mainstream recognition.

We also had the Nu metal phase kick off around the mid 90's.

The only thing grunge did was nick the front covers of the mainstream music press and was more present on mtv. Anyone who was into metal in the 90's knows it was still thriving and going strong. One of my other favourite bands, Dream theater broke out in the 90's and enjoyed healthy album sales.

The reason for my long winded commentary on the 90's above is that it was a fascinating and very significant decade for metal and heavy rock in general. Where does Maiden fit into all of this. Well up until Bruce left they were still the biggest and most influential metal band on the planet. Yeah Metallica were breaking records with the black album and becoming massive but maiden were still kings. It's only when Bruce left that people's attention went elsewhere. Maiden were still a big force as any metal fan who lived through the 90's will testify too.

Also don't forget all the young metal fans of the 80's were growing into adults and during the 90's I suspect a lot of maiden fans cut their hair, put on suits and got jobs, families and mortgages and music wasn't a major priority. Kids getting into metal in the 90's were jumping into the many other big scenes that had sprung up and not really giving maiden a chance. This is certainly why I believe maiden were relegated to places like the Brixton academy for gigs during the blaze years.

Bruce and Adrian coming back at the end of the 90's created such a buzz that many of the maiden fans who had moved away and grown up and gotten careers and families etc were drawn back in only this time they had kids to pass the torch too. This together with the massive press maiden were getting along with pretty much every major band of the time from every genre of rock citing maiden as one of their biggest influences got kids excited about maiden again so their fanbase grew to epic proportions and they became bigger than ever as the 00's rolled in.

I think people are too quick to dismiss the 90's for both metal and maiden. I personally love the decade and the 4 albums maiden released during this period.
 
Wayne Bond said:
The 90's will always be a special time for me as its when I first started to listen to hard rock and heavy metal. The first vinyl single I ever bought was from here to eternity

NPFTD was the current Maiden album when I first got into the band and fear of the dark was the first album I bought that I was looking forward to as a new release.

Plus the first live maiden experience was on the X-factor tour.

Personally for me fear of the dark and the X-factor are amoungst my favourite Maiden albums.

Despite my own personal feelings and experiences regarding the 90's era for maiden it is the most interesting and significant era. Not only was the hard rock and metal world changing but Maiden went through a hell of a lot of ups and downs. A lot of people talk about grunge was the death of traditional hard rock and metal in the 90's. Bullshit. Grunge was a major force but the early 90's also saw the rise of death metal. Obituary, morbid Angel, cannibal corpse and death from the US were either just starting or putting out there best albums in the early 90's. Then from the uk we had carcass, bolt thrower, napalm death, benediction and many more. There was also the doom/death movement which started in the uk with the holy trinity of anathema, paradise lost and my dying bride.

Europe also saw the rise of black metal in the 90's and by the mid 90's the Scandinavian melodic death metal boom was kicking off with in flames, children of bodom, dark tranquility and many more.

Back over in the US pantara and machine head were proving heavy bands can get mainstream recognition.

We also had the Nu metal phase kick off around the mid 90's.

The only thing grunge did was nick the front covers of the mainstream music press and was more present on mtv. Anyone who was into metal in the 90's knows it was still thriving and going strong. One of my other favourite bands, Dream theater broke out in the 90's and enjoyed healthy album sales.

The reason for my long winded commentary on the 90's above is that it was a fascinating and very significant decade for metal and heavy rock in general. Where does Maiden fit into all of this. Well up until Bruce left they were still the biggest and most influential metal band on the planet. Yeah Metallica were breaking records with the black album and becoming massive but maiden were still kings. It's only when Bruce left that people's attention went elsewhere. Maiden were still a big force as any metal fan who lived through the 90's will testify too.

Also don't forget all the young metal fans of the 80's were growing into adults and during the 90's I suspect a lot of maiden fans cut their hair, put on suits and got jobs, families and mortgages and music wasn't a major priority. Kids getting into metal in the 90's were jumping into the many other big scenes that had sprung up and not really giving maiden a chance. This is certainly why I believe maiden were relegated to places like the Brixton academy for gigs during the blaze years.

Bruce and Adrian coming back at the end of the 90's created such a buzz that many of the maiden fans who had moved away and grown up and gotten careers and families etc were drawn back in only this time they had kids to pass the torch too. This together with the massive press maiden were getting along with pretty much every major band of the time from every genre of rock citing maiden as one of their biggest influences got kids excited about maiden again so their fanbase grew to epic proportions and they became bigger than ever as the 00's rolled in.

I think people are too quick to dismiss the 90's for both metal and maiden. I personally love the decade and the 4 albums maiden released during this period.
Click to expand...
I cant agree more, actually. Metal continued but became more niche and specialists. Unless you went looking for it, it was barely visible
 
Brigantium said:
I cant agree more, actually. Metal continued but became more niche and specialists. Unless you went looking for it, it was barely visible
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say it was barely visible. Pantera and machine head were massive and sold millions of records and their videos were always on mtv. Plus mtv headbangers ball was flying the flag for metal every week. Kerrang became kerrap and shit but metal hammer, terrorizer and power play magazines were sold in every major newsagent and supermarket in the uk and many metal bands broke the top ten 10 singles and album charts in the uk.

look how big bands like Korn and slipknot were in the 90's.
 
I think it is really as simple as Maiden had run its course, new bands came in, "heavier" was the style and Maiden chased that a bit with BQoBD. You had the metal fans going the Metallica way, you had the rock fans going the grunge way and bands like Maiden (add Priest and a host of others) had no real place .. then add Bruce leaving and they really stood no chance in the market place beyond the really hardcore fans.
 
Mr Bond, you stated that in the UK Maiden were as big as ever in the early 90's. While this may be true, after A Real Live tour there popularity dropped considerably. Look at the size of venues they played on X Factour and VXI, much smaller. X Factour was my first live gig too and also love the album. That first gig was in a half full leisure centre in Belfast and after the experience Maiden never came to Ireland north of south until DoD tour.

So you could say that until 93 Maiden were still top dogs, possibly on the strength of the 80's output but after that (the majority of the decade) were nowhere near as big/popular in the UK or Ireland. Ok, they had several hit singles but surely the size of the venues they played says a lot about their popularity at that time.

I don't see a 90s History Tour as a feasible option but wouldn't mind a Donnington Collection DVD release with a decent 90's History Documentary. Part 3 was such a heap of shit, so lacking in insight compared to the previous efforts. And giving us 12 Wasted Years as an extra was a cop out, it was all covered in parts 1 & 2. A nice extra but it in no way made up for the shoddy Part 3.

And for the record, I would be front and centre for a 90's History Tour. I would finally get to find out if he actually was a saviour and whether or not he could actually save my life......(x 6000)
 
It depends what you mean by traditional metal, but younger rock/hard rock fans in the 80s went with bands like Ozzy, Maiden, Priest, etc their 90s counterparts went towards Pearl Jam, Nirvana, etc .. not all of course, but more. That is what was popular and "new" Maiden, Priest. etc was "old"


@Wayne Bond raised a good point as well that Maiden fans from the 80s were grown up starting families, starting careers, etc which is not always conducive to going to a metal show on a Tuesday night
 
The nineties formed me immensely as a metalhead. I became a Maiden fan in 1991, but also discovered most -if not all- subgenres and delved deeper into more than a few of them.

I did not ignore Grunge. Not at all. I liked quite a few bands and albums. I had a Nirvana ticket when Cobain shot himself through the head. I listened to stuff like e.g. Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and The Smashing Pumpkins (although that's not that Grungy).

I liked Grunge more than Korn, Slipknot and Nu metal.

I wonder if you, @Wayne Bond realize, or agree with the notion, that there were many metalheads who went to Grunge, and lots of them (especially in the US and UK) stopped being that interested in what Maiden did. I was still interested. You were. And some others on this forum (to be counted on one or two hands) were. But many were not. I guess it depends on the territory. But I certainly do not think that only the change of metal brought a change to Maiden's popularity (or traditional metal in general). Certainly Grunge had its share, didn't it?
 
Last edited:
Niall Kielt said:
I don't see a 90s History Tour as a feasible option but wouldn't mind a Donnington Collection DVD release with a decent 90's History Documentary. Part 3 was such a heap of shit, so lacking in insight compared to the previous efforts. And giving us 12 Wasted Years as an extra was a cop out, it was all covered in parts 1 & 2. A nice extra but it in no way made up for the shoddy Part 3.
Click to expand...
"Part 3" is becoming the new "Episode 1". ;)
 
I also really wonder how anxious the band is to revisit "the 90s". With maiden the "90s' are really from the end of the 7th Son Tour through Bruce and Adrian coming back

"Should revisit the early part of that where 2 key members left the band and our popularity started to wane or the latter half when we were playing shows to (at best) 25% of the size of what we used to and were selling far fewer albums"
 
"But we stuck to our guns, we worked hard, and are still proud of (most of) our output. Janick entered the band. A vital member. He kicked our arses and everybody in the band had more fun on stage."

Yes, it is a negative story, especially looking at USA and UK, but it is interesting to talk about it. It gives the band a certain amount of integrity if all eras are covered (rather than ignored).
 
Last edited:
Every band with any kind of longevity has had a down period in popularity (Stones might be an exception, but they are the Rolling Stones) .. Aerosmith, AC/DC. you name it .. the biggest names out there. That was "the 90s" for Maiden and I put that in quotes because they still did well in the early 90s. It does not seem an era they have much interest, looking at their set lists post BNW pretty much proves that point beyond FotD , ATSS on the ME tour, and LOTF on Death on the Road.I think they like the 80s and BNW-on better and the majority of fans like one (or both) of those eras better,

Personally, I would love to see some of the 90s stuff played again and would love a documentary on par with the Early Days DVD about it, but I do not see the tour at all happening nor such an in depth documentary about it. ... which is too bad, because their post 90s era is such a great comeback story that is even better when you see what level they fell off to popularity-wise by the end of the Virtual XI tour
 
Forostar said:
The nineties formed me immensely as a metalhead. I became a Maiden fan in 1991, but also discovered most -if not all- subgenres and delved deeper into more than a few of them.

I did not ignore Grunge. Not at all. I liked quite a few bands and albums. I had a Nirvana ticket when Cobain shot himself through the head. I listened to stuff like e.g. Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and The Smashing Pumpkins (although that's not that Grungy).

I liked Grunge more than Korn, Slipknot and Nu metal.

I wonder if you, @Wayne Bond realize, or agree with the notion, that there were many metalheads who went to Grunge, and lots of them (especially in the US and UK) stopped being that interested in what Maiden did. I was still interested. You were. And some others on this forum (to be counted on one or two hands) were. But many were not. I guess it depends on the territory. But I certainly do not think that only the change of metal brought a change to Maiden's popularity (or traditional metal in general). Certainly Grunge had its share, didn't it?
Click to expand...

I didn't ignore grunge either, had pearl jam albums and nirvana and Alice in chains albums amoungst others I just never stopped enjoying maiden. I even went through a britpop phase and enjoyed bands like oasis. To me good music is good music so whilst my tastes expanded I never left behind older bands whom I still liked.

The gigs I went to during the blaze years might have been smaller venues but they were packed to the rafters. I saw maiden twice at the Brixton academy and both times it was rammed.

I just think many of the older fans drifted away mainly due to growing up and getting responsibilities but when Bruce came back their was such a buzz that these fans dusted off their old t shirts and brought their kids along to experience maiden.

As I said before the 90's was a great decade with so many new bands and sub genres popping up that the kids had way more choice regarding metal and followed the flavour of the month. Maiden were still huge draws in other parts of Europe and South America.
 
bearfan said:
or the latter half when we were playing shows to (at best) 25% of the size of what we used to "
Click to expand...
That's an exageration. Maybe in the United States that was the case but they still played arenas or stadiums in countries like Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and even in Detroit ;):
Last summer, we played the same venue [in Detroit] to eight and a half thousand people, tonight we had over 10 thousand. It’s a difference, but not a huge one.”
Click to expand...
- Steve Harris, interviewed by Dave Ling, 1999. http://www.daveling.co.uk/doc-ironmaiden.htm
And I know that they sold out Johanneshov in Stockholm in 1998 (around 8 000 tickets) - the same place they always used to play in the 80's!

Sometimes when you hear people speak about this period you get the impression that there were never more than 1500- 2500 people in the audience, but that's not really the truth for every place.

Besides, I would like to see them play songs like Bring Your Daughter, Be Quick Or Be Dead and The Clansman again.
 
On the X Factor tour, they played Harpos's in Detroit .. holds less that 2K people

Virtual XI Tour they played a larger venue outside of Detroit which is what Steve mentioned, but the band list was Maiden, Dio, and WASP .. not a regular tour stop.

Most of the places they played in the US had similar capacities. I saw them on both Blaze tours, once in San Diego at a half full (at best) outdoor venue that holds 5K people and in LA at a place that held 2000 (tops) .. though they did hit that 2 nights.

In the 80s, they played arenas

I have no doubt they were still more popular in other areas of the world, but in the US, they were a non-entity in the Blaze years .. Neither album cracked the top 100 and they played small theaters/clubs on their regular tour stops.

Just look at where they were playing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X_Factour

The Vic in Chicago, I have seen a bunch of stuff there .. 1400 capacity. Seventh Son Tour, they played Rosemont .. capacity around 18,000 for concerts .. TBOS tour, they are playing United Center .. over 23,000 capacity for concerts
 
Well that's the US, the most fickle music fans in the world and where the most "play the classics" section of the fanbase resides. During the blaze years they were still playing arenas in South America and parts of Europe.

The US isn't the centre of the music universe so just because a band or artist isn't flavour of the month in the US doesn't mean they won't be popular and massive elsewhere.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top