Was Somewhere Back in Time their best tour ever?

Yes or no?

  • Total voters
    27
I missed this tour, I was volunteering in Iceland for the duration of the European leg. Money was tight. I looked into the Oslo show but it would have blown half my budget so couldnt do it. Missing this tour is probably my biggest Maiden Regret. From footage Ive seen Id say SBiT or World Slavery Tour would be the best.

Tours Ive seen live...
X Factour
BNW
Early Days
AMOLAD
TFF both legs
TBOS

Out of these, its a toss up between BNW and Early Days. Fantastic sets and performances (as they all were) and the pure novelty of seeing the reunion line up. Early Days might just shade it.
 
You missed a lot more as well Niall. But we can blame Maiden for that, seeing how they ignored your area.
 
Aesthetics and set list wise, their best tours were World Slavery Tour (UK leg), Somewhere On Tour (Sea Of Madness included) and Seventh Tour Of A Seventh Tour (Maiden England).
 
I've always seen the history tours in the same light as re-recordings of albums. I liked the smaller tours (Iron Maiden tour and The X Factour) and the early shows (1976-79)!
 
The history tours have been really important - not just that they've let the band explore their back catalogue in more depth than they otherwise would, but they've kept the fans open to hearing new material on the album tours, knowing that the old favourites will be returning soon.

It's near impossible to rank the tours, but I'd put Maiden England over SBIT - the Seventh Son material is the band's strongest, and at least at the shows I saw, they were having more fun, and simply enjoying performing more than I've known before. The show I've probably enjoyed the most was A Matter of the Beast in Athens - the atmosphere was just off the scale, and all the new material great. Early Days gets a lot of points for the most unique setlist - I've seen every tour that's made the UK since No Prayer, and am pretty sure that will be the only time I'll ever get to hear Drifter and Rue Morgue. Looking back I find myself very impressed by the BNW tour, and can enjoy the recordings now perhaps more than I did at the time - It's certainly the time the band have had the most to prove, and they didn't compromise at all in the performances.

From the "before my time" list, it's Maiden England and World Slavery - between them, they pretty much defined what a rock show should mean, before I'd ever even been to one.
 
I can't really rank these all objectively, but of the tours I've been to, most assuredly yes. I still remember the parking lot, and the complete indifference to Lauren Harris, and my sense of anxiety when all of my thrash friends left trash everywhere. I met a girl I liked's older brother, and thought he was pretty cool, and we ended up becoming better friends than anything that manifested with that girl.

I don't think we missed a word singing along. It was truly the best show I've been to on the continent of my birth.

Best live recording? Probably Maiden England '88 for the setlist - though that Hallowed's pretty rough.
 
The World Slavery Tour in 1985 is my favourite.

First time I saw Maiden live, I was 16. Pre-internet days, months and months of anticipation and tension leading up to the gig exploded when Maiden blasted into Aces High.

31 years later, I was at The Book Of Souls with a good mate who was with me at WST, and his son. On the same night, i ran into an old girlfriend who had taken her daughter. The daughter didn't know a lot about Maiden before the show. She left the gig a fan.
Another convert! It was a memorable night.

Maiden shows are very special.
 
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