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.
No doubt, Maiden had a feel for the future. Some atypical choices were made early-to-mid Reunion, like:
- no video release from TEH tour (probably not that odd), taking almost 2 full years break after BNW tour, 2 different tours in one year (2003; using a video compilation as an inspiration), releasing a live/video album from the 2003 tour in 2005/2006, planned releases from the 2005 (iirc) and 2007 tours (not releasing them), playing a whole new album live, Hits tour in 2010 instead of an album tour with again one new song in the set, proper album tour for 1 year (2011, like in 1998), doing a History tour for 3 years (also Seventh Son songs were part of SBIT tour's theme, despite the stage)...
I believe the amount of daylight in the first quarter or so of the concert made a video release a nonstarter.
Concert in daylight, agreed.
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. 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).
True. Which is odd, I mean the classics. Their plan for the 2007 release with the new songs from 2006 was great, but they didn't want (or because of SBIT tour, they knew which the fans woukd like better, but releasing both would have been good back then, right) to release a show from 2006, which is still wow and something unique. 2007 tour had TNOTB anniv written around it, so it was a big thing. But Download 07 show had some issues, not just the filming. I think the performances are good enough. Mixing stage means it was close to a release.
They obviously invested money into it with Shirley mixing and all...
Shirley also mixed Download 2013, iirc?
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
Maybe, but then there wouldn't have been any History/Hits tour with an official (video) release, which would be pretty weird.
I'd never heard this before, bummer if true. Is there a show from 2006 that we know Maiden recorded with the intention of sourcing these bonus tracks?
Since we have some live songs as B-sides from 2005 and 2006, I assume those shows were recorded. Aalborg was a live TV?
It seems pretty clear to me that the original intention of the Somewhere Back in Time tour was quite different from what it eventually became.
A show from the 80's/the classics (and Fear) with their most famous stage, no ME tour was planned, probably SBIT for 1 year like the previous History tour - or with more song changes. Not the SIT songs as we know. They could have done the same show but used a modern version of the 1986 stage - playing classics and because they didn't record it. Or SBIT for Powerslave and other old classics and 2012 for SIT/SSOASS.
but I'm still disappointed they didn't have the balls to do a 90's tour instead.
Agreed. That's probably why they didn't release DVD Part 4 when they were still a thing back then.
The ironic thing is that if they had planned to do a Seventh Son revival tour the entire time, they could have planned ahead better and kept more focus on Powerslave/Somewhere in Time and saved the Seventh Son deepcuts for later. Maybe tackle some of the Piece of Mind/TNOTB songs they missed on Early Days as well. At this point it doesn't matter since we got Future Past eventually anyway, although I would have liked to hear Caught Somewhere in Time in 2008.
Well said. But SIT wasn't a ''thing'' for them back then. Having 2 90's songs was also odd, despite one being rare. Btw, we could hear some of the interesting songs from ME tour this year, which would make the tour even less unique.
Yes, Fear of the Dark stuck out like a sore thumb!
It seems like the lack of Fear in 2005 was enough. Can't blame them. But for other songs.
It was a great tour, but it could have been better. They should have based it more on the DVD setlist to play some hidden gems (Still Life, Killers)...
I don't think they wanted that, the tour was like SBIT 2. Or to say - a different type of tour around one old album. Infinite Dreams was close to being played and it was a must (like Killers or Icarus in 2005). Still Life could return. To Tame A Land would have been perfect, but this song needs more theatrics.
They could have made ME tour special by playing
the whole concept album live. That was the chance. Still, it was a nice tour, but with some missed choices as for such tours.
Going back to the spirit of the opening post, since most seem to agree that the Ullevi show isn't that overlooked, what would be the lesser talked about bootleg that more Maidenfans should be aware of? For me, these are the bootlegs that seem to get a lot of attention either for being a great performance or some other reason:
1980 - Live at the Rainbow
1981 - Maiden Japan complete
1982 - NYC
1983 - Ipswich, and now that Munich soundboard
1984 - Hammersmith
1987 - Philly
1990 - Wembley
1996 - Whichever show had the guy that spit on Blaze
1999 - The first show of Ed Hunter
2001 - Any of the South American pro shots
2005 - Eggfest, Ullevi
2006 - Globen
2007 - Download
To add for the others:
2009 - Chile
2010 - New York, San Antonio
2013 - Stockholm?
2014 - Rock am Ring
2016 - ?
2018 - Stockholm
2022 - ?
