What is the Rarest Song you've seen Iron Maiden perform live?

I guess it's Futureal, Man on the Edge and Lord of the Flies in 99 and 2003.
 
srfc said:
Also, 104! fucking songs played 44 times or more, shows that the moans about Maiden's set lists are total bollocks.
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Well, out of those 104, the 10 most played songs were played 15511 times together, while all the rest amount to 21196 plays. That's just 36% more plays for a 840% larger song pool.
 
For me I guess the rarest song would be out of the silent planet. As far as I’m aware it was only ever played twice at the Shepherd’s Bush empire gigs in jan 2001 and then two more times at gigs in Argentina and Mexico a few days later, then it was dropped before rock in Rio and has never been played since.

So a grand of 4 times played and I was at one of the Shepherd’s Bush empire gigs.
 
AncientMariner_Essex said:
For me I guess the rarest song would be out of the silent planet. As far as I’m aware it was only ever played twice at the Shepherd’s Bush empire gigs in jan 2001 and then two more times at gigs in Argentina and Mexico a few days later, then it was dropped before rock in Rio and has never been played since.

So a grand of 4 times played and I was at one of the Shepherd’s Bush empire gigs.
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I’ve heard the live versions of this song and it didn’t quite click live. Maybe because it was the last song and Bruce was knackered.
 
Ascendingthethrone said:
I’ve heard the live versions of this song and it didn’t quite click live. Maybe because it was the last song and Bruce was knackered.
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Maybe they dropped it as, like you say it didn’t quite click live and was placed wrongly at the end of the set.

I always thought they only intended playing it for these gigs as a special one off anyway. If memory serves correctly the Shepherd’s Bush gigs were fan club only gigs and you could only get tickets through the fan club at the time. I mean Shepherd’s Bush empire is way way too small for a band like maiden, it would even have been too small for them during the blaze years let alone a band who were now back to headlining massive arenas and had only just played Earl’s Court!

The other two gigs I’m not sure about but suspect they may have been fan club gigs too and just a couple of warm ups for Rock in Rio.

That’s why I think they added the song as a special limited edition type thing and had no intention of adding it back to the set anyway after these 4 gigs.
 
Not sure if this counts since it wasn't the whole band performing it, but I did catch Bruce Dickinson playing Flash of the Blade (which he wrote himself) on his solo tour! So now that would be my rarest tune.
 
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Technically Senjutsu, since - unless I am miscalculating - it was played in less shows than Alexander.

I also used to know a guy who had been at Prague 2005, the only post-1980 show in which they played Charlotte the Harlot before dropping it off the setlist.
 
Looking at setlist statistics I guess Senjutsu and Stratego. Followed by The Talisman, When The Wild Wind Blows, Coming Home and Satellite 15... The Final Frontier.

Alexander The Great felt like a rare moment in Iron Maiden history though.
 
From the classics flight of icarus moonchild afraid to shoot stranger that i think it was played in 96 and 98 with blaze but we didnt see it sang by bruce til 2012? The weirdest would be thr journeyman and i think it was on the final enchore.
 
I have attended 4 Maiden shows:
1) 2003 - Gimme Ed - Paris
2) 2003 - Death on the Road - London
3) 2014 - Maiden England - Hellfest
4) 2018 - Legacy of the Beast - Hellfest

The rarest song I've witnessed must be "Journeyman", but also "Lord of the Flies" by Bruce (2) but if we take into account those that haven't been played in a long time, I'd add "22 Acacia Avenue", "Die With Your Boots On" and "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter" (1), all three of which haven't been played ever since that tour, I think.

If we want to stretch, "Sanctuary", which was a staple of Maiden's setlists roughly from its creation to when Bruce left, hasn't been played since the year I saw it live (2014).

EDIT checking setlist.com, THE rarest songs are:
- "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner", played once;
- "Jailbreak" (Thin Lizzy cover), played once at the Carts and Horses in '76 (that I didn't know before checking);
- "The Ides of March", played once, because the intro tape didn't roll;

- "Women in Uniform", played twice;
- "Back in the Village", played twice (the first two shows of the World Slavery Tour in Poland... though there is no convincing record of it);

-"Smoke on the Water" (Deep Purple cover), played three times;

- " Don't Look To The Eyes of a Stranger", played four times;
- "Out of the Silent Planet", played four times;
- "Tush" (ZZ Top cover), played four times;

- "Burning Ambition", played five times;

- "Invasion", played six times.

- "The Fallen Angel", played seven times.

All the other songs have been played multiple times, at least on one tour.
 
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very good question. I've been to every tour (except DoD) since Virtual 11 but can't see a really rare song...

Maybe: Educated Fool on Virtual 11, Lord of Light (or any of the five songs which didn't repeat on AMOTB tour) and die with your boots on on Give Me Ed? I don't know.
 
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