Ullevi 2005: the overlooked masterpiece?

Vaenyr said:
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.
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When you think about the songs they didn't played on the 2005 tour (probably influenced by the 2003 summer tour):

Killers
22AA
Icarus
Children
Prisoner
To Tame A Land

Only two of them were like mandatory, but now we can say that the set was fresh and something rare.
 
Kalata said:
When you think about the songs they didn't played on the 2005 tour (probably influenced by the 2003 summer tour):

Killers
22AA
Icarus
Children
Prisoner
To Tame A Land

Only two of them were like mandatory, but now we can say that the set was fresh and something rare.
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Oh, it's definitely fresh and rare. No arguments about that. I just prefer the material that followed so I don't return to that bootleg often.
 
LooseCannon said:
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.
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Yes. A good example of this was Wildest Dreams. They played it live on the small summer tour "Give Me Ed...Till I'm Dead" in 2003 well before it was officially released as a single later that year. The only way we could hear that song back then was to go to one of the shows, of course - or download or find an audio recording or a full bootleg that someone had recorded. Bruce also actively encouraged those recordings from the stage to spread news about the song and to hype up the upcoming album Dance of Death. No doubt a clever early internet marketing strategy in those wild early 00s internet days.
 
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For me Ullevi is the beginning of the live concert videos on the internet era. I remember when YouTube and Google Video were separate entities, YouTube had a 10 minute video length limit and Google Video did not, Ullevi 2005 on Google Video was one of the first full live concerts I remember watching online. You could even download it!

I think there are a few factors that went into the full video going unreleased, including what people have already said about Maiden using bootlegs as a marketing strategy. I believe the amount of daylight in the first quarter or so of the concert made a video release a nonstarter.

It also feels like Maiden didn't really see their nostalgia tours as major events back then. And even now, Flight 666 and Nights of the Dead are the only nostalgia tours since the reunion era that have been immortalized in a full length official release - with Nights of the Dead being a pretty halfhearted package that maybe was only released to fill a gap during COVID. At least back then it seemed like the release strategy was more along the lines of releasing live videos for the new album tours and an archival release in lieu of a live release from the nostalgia tour (obviously this got jumbled during the AMOLAD era, but otherwise each new album since the reunion has gotten an official live release with Senjutsu being TBD).
 
The Early Days tour was a tour to support the Early Days DVD, they weren't going to release another DVD of the live gig from the tour of a DVD, it would break the space time continuum.

Not everything Maiden do is a conspiracy against the fans.
 
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srfc said:
The Early Days tour was a tour to support the Early Days DVD, they weren't going to release another DVD of the live gig from the tour of a DVD, it would break the space time continuum.

Not everything Maiden do is a conspiracy against the fans.
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Yeah. I suppose it could also be a rights issue (wouldn't count on it though), or that the camera feeds weren't multitrack captured or whatever. There are countless possible factors that we just don't know about.
 
They obviously invested money into it with Shirley mixing and all, but I think Bruce straight-up commented on all the people viewing the show on their TVs at one point (and I know it was aired on TV in multiple countries) so it was definitely a way to advertise both the band and the Early Days DVD to audiences that don't necessarily go to Iron Maiden gigs. Especially in the Nordic countries where at that point in time, most people didn't exactly have a deluge of channels to choose from so a live gig on TV at prime time or close to it would've caught some eyes.
 
What a show, I have had a DVD copy since back then.

Where Eagles Dare and Phantom are masterpieces on that 2005 performance.

The Rock Im Ring from that tour is also high quality video but not as good as Ullevi.
 
Helmuth Von Moltke said:
What a show, I have had a DVD copy since back then.

Where Eagles Dare and Phantom are masterpieces on that 2005 performance.

The Rock Im Ring from that tour is also high quality video but not as good as Ullevi.
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Agreed. That being said, I much preferred the Somewhere Back in Time tour 3 years later. Better setlist as far as I am concerned and a much better stage show.
 
Perun said:
I mean, they released a DVD from a tour of a DVD reissue of a live album just afterwards.
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That was more a case of being tacked onto the Flight 666 documentary. It never would have been done off their own bat, and probably contributed to the kibosh on the AMOLAD DVD as well
 
srfc said:
That was more a case of being tacked onto the Flight 666 documentary. It never would have been done off their own bat, and probably contributed to the kibosh on the AMOLAD DVD as well
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That and the Death on the Road DVD only releasing in 2006, a year after the live album which itself was recorded in 2003 probably ate the AMOLAD DVD's release window. I do have to wonder what happened there since we have footage of Steve and Kevin Shirley mixing The Longest Day in 2008, but I always assumed they were targeting late 2007 initially since Donington was the big gig they were filming.
 
Ruflux said:
That and the Death on the Road DVD only releasing in 2006, a year after the live album which itself was recorded in 2003 probably ate the AMOLAD DVD's release window. I do have to wonder what happened there since we have footage of Steve and Kevin Shirley mixing The Longest Day in 2008, but I always assumed they were targeting late 2007 initially since Donington was the big gig they were filming.
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The word had always been that they ditched Donnington 2007 because there were so many flags in the crowd and they obscured the cameras.

I've always been a little sceptical of this and here's why....

Maiden would surely have been aware of the amount of flags that might turn up at Donnington. They would have known how to film around them or simply chose another gig to film. There were lots of flags in 1992.

I reckon the recordings/performances and/or crowd reaction weren't good enough. The AMOLAD songs were tricky enough in terms of timings and I reckon Steve just didn't think it was good enough for release. Or he didn't dig the setlist enough. Either way, I don't buy the flags thing. If the flag thing is actually true then it seems quite short sighted.
 
Cat Milk Supreme said:
The word had always been that they ditched Donnington 2007 because there were so many flags in the crowd and they obscured the cameras.
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First time I've heard this.

That Donington 2007 gig was average by Maiden's standards. What I was told is that the original plan was to release it with the 5 songs off AMOLAD that were not played as bonus tracks, but the project got shelved after Flight 666 took off (no pun intended).
 
Ruflux said:
That and the Death on the Road DVD only releasing in 2006, a year after the live album which itself was recorded in 2003 probably ate the AMOLAD DVD's release window. I do have to wonder what happened there since we have footage of Steve and Kevin Shirley mixing The Longest Day in 2008, but I always assumed they were targeting late 2007 initially since Donington was the big gig they were filming.
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Yeah, I think the main problem was Donington was a farce, a few fuck ups during the gig, and too many flags flying in the crowd as well. But the fact they got Kevin to mix it, means it was still advanced enough, and maybe the final decision to shelf it was because Sam Dunn was bringing out a documentary that would get them better exposure
 
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