Ullevi 2005: the overlooked masterpiece?

07-SMS:A1L

07-SMS:A1L

Trooper
For some context, there are a few tours from the 2000s that don't have corresponding live albums, the Early Days tour in 2005 and A Matter of Life and Death tour in 2006. For many, the former is considered one of the greatest tours in Iron Maiden's history. The setlist is absolutely unreal, and the band sounded like they were from another planet. Both tours have soundboard recordings circulating, thanks to Swedish public TV and radio. I can understand why the Globen P3 broadcast wasn’t officially released—it’s heavy on A Matter of Life and Death material (although I personally love every second of it). The Ullevi 2005 show is probably on of the best post reunion performances, yet it hasn’t been officially released, which is surprising. Despite the legendary status of the concert, it seems to have been overlooked in favor of other live recordings. It's classic after classic, the band is in top shape. And the crowd, my God.

 
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Perun said:
Hardly overlooked
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"Despite the legendary status of the concert, it seems to have been overlooked in favor of other live recordings." - obviously overlooked in the sense of official releases.

Perun said:
The most common and widespread bootleg out there. Maybe that's why it wasn't released officially.
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Must have been a great conversation over at the Maiden camp: "Oh wow this seems really popular among the fans. Let them enjoy the 720hp version with no bass for 10 years until some AI software can upgrade it."
 
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07-SMS:A1L said:
"Despite the legendary status of the concert, it seems to have been overlooked in favor of other live recordings." - obviously overlooked in the sense of official releases.


Must have been a great conversation over at the Maiden camp: "Oh wow this seems really popular among the fans. Let them enjoy the 720hp version with no bass for 10 years until some AI software can upgrade it."
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Wow, someone's cranky.
 
The funny part is that the live mix was done by Kevin Shirley from a mobile and it's still amateur hour, with Adrian's guitar basically being AWOL for most of the show. Compare and contrast to the Donington '07 mixes from the songs they released a few years ago and it's night and day, and yet that's by him too. The biggest issue with those is probably that the bass is way too loud but at least I can still hear all the guitarists.
 
There's tons and tons of stuff that should be in the Maiden vault, but I have always thought that Maiden considered bootleg concerts of significant quality to be part of the marketing strategy. I remember, very early on in the cell phone recording era, Steve encouraging people to take it. There's been multiple leaks over the years and never an Iron Maiden lawsuit to stop it. It's like they know they are great live, and think people will want to go. Ullevi is probably part of that strategy - peak early file sharing, during their return to prominence.
 
That was the first tour I saw Maiden on and therefore will always have a special place in my heart. This show is outrageous. Phantom of the Opera from this show is probably the best pro shot version out there.

Let’s go jumping!
 
I think it's generally considered one of their best shows, setlists and performances. Bootlegs in general. True and interesting (although there are some odd setlist omissions). IIRC, they had a plan to officially release stuff from the 2005 and 2007 (along with the rest new songs from 2006) tours. Maybe not because they released two live albums & videos from the previous 3 tours. One of my favorite performances. How to pick a favorite, almost all are great.

The live mix is better for once (better than Download 2007 live mix for sure), I'm really glad - the camera work could be better (ofc), but only Dave's guitar is loud and the rhythm guitar sound is bad. The whole band is crazy good here, but Bruce, Dave and Nicko are extra.
 
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I'm glad that a bootleg of that quality exists for a tour without an official release. I don't listen to it very often, since the early days are my least favorite era of the band and I don't much care for the setlist for the most part. The performances are phenomenal though.
 
Ruflux said:
The funny part is that the live mix was done by Kevin Shirley from a mobile and it's still amateur hour, with Adrian's guitar basically being AWOL for most of the show. Compare and contrast to the Donington '07 mixes from the songs they released a few years ago and it's night and day, and yet that's by him too. The biggest issue with those is probably that the bass is way too loud but at least I can still hear all the guitarists.
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It's there. It's pretty buried though. If it was louder in level, this would have probably been the penultimate Maiden live recording, save perhaps for RiR.
 
Yax said:
It's there. It's pretty buried though. If it was louder in level, this would have probably been the penultimate Maiden live recording, save perhaps for RiR.
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It's so ridiculously low at times that I genuinely have a hard time hearing it over the other two. Prowler's intro comes to mind in particular, it sounds ridiculous with the riff being completely buried under Davey's wah lead.
 
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