Which is Maiden's Cash Cow Tour

Mysterio

Invader
I was talking with some friends/acquaintances the last couple of weeks.  They all basically said when Maiden came into town they should have played more hits.

So I am wondering to you all in your most objective state of mind.  Which tour do you think will net Maiden more cash.  The Somewhere back in time tour or the Final Frontier tour.

Everyone was disappointed that they did not play the classics.  I think they could have played at least 5 classics.  Especially Run to the Hills.  Aces High, Can I play with Madness.

What do you all think?
 
I think Maiden makes a little more money in the US when they play older stuff, and a fuckton more money in Europe when they play new stuff. Europe has a far more diverse, evolving, and constant metal scene. Many of the members of the forum are European; I would consider them to be the more hardcore metalheads. If you've ever seen a picture of Perun, you know what I mean.

Personally, I could care less about the classics. The newer stuff has always been more interesting to me. Besides, if Maiden just did the stuff from 1982-88 over and over again, they'd be a cabaret act. I want them to be true to themselves...even if that means playing some songs I don't care for as much as others.
 
I think Maiden gets paid the same amount of money for every tour. From what I've heard from a source, their fee is around 250,000 euro per show (at least for smaller venues in Europe), which of course gets divided among the band members, road crew and the management staff and pays for their stage and equipment. Everything else is paid for by the organizer (lighting, p.a. system, the venue itself, security, etc.).

As for the crowd sizes, I really think that they attract more or less the same crowd on every tour. Maybe the SBIT had a slightly bigger attendance.
 
I think Maiden should ditch playing entire-historical tours altogether and return to being a "normal" band i.e. one that just plays mainly new material.

Its so refreshing to have a band that is still at the top of their game and willing to actually play their new material. Arguably the band is just as good as it was in the 80s, so why is it so hard for people to enjoy the new material? Why does it have to be classics all the time?

Personally I feel the gigs I go to are more special if they are the first time material is being played live. For example, many of the songs on the AMOLAD tour will probably never be played again - whereas The Trooper has been played every year to thousands (millions?) of people.

Artists are forever chained to their "classic" works by the public. Of course, this is a side-effect of being successful, not everything an artist does is going to be good. But even so, once an artist has achieved something incredibly popular, they are expected to repeat that same piece of art at the expense of brand new ideas. Its good to see some artists have the will to say no to the money (or at least, say no to the "fans") and actually promote their new material, despite the criticism.
 
First of all
They did play 5 classics on this tour

Second of all, I think the classic heavy shows get more attention, but it really depends on the area they are touring in.  The US seems mostly intent on hearing classic songs. 

I too wish they would just return to normal tours.  Instead of either/or classics/new, I'd like to see a nice 50/50 balance going forward.
 
Given that this isn't an album tour yet, 5 classics and 7-8 newer songs is just fine. They'll probably do another tour that has more classics eventually. I just get upset when I people see them want to turn into a cabaret act, which is not what the band wants.
 
I've seen them four times in the last 5 years, so I've seen them play some of everything and I'm pretty hopeful that they will play more (post-reunion) new material as it gets older.  BNW is 10 years old now and has become a very popular album as far as I can tell.
 
If classics means: songs I have seen a zillion times, I don't need to see them per se on the current tour.
I am not that much interested in 2000-2006 material either since I have seen it all before. Nothing wrong with seeing something again, but if I can make a choice (which is an utopia) it would be like this:

What's left? My ideal setlist of Maiden's continuation of TFF tour (when the album is out), in order of importance:

Let Maiden make a choice from
1) NO Fear of the Dark
2) songs from 2010 (e.g. 40-50% of the setlist)
3) dozens of less/never played songs from 1980-1998 (e.g. 30-40% of the setlist)
4) and a couple from 2000-2006 to feed the newbies (e.g. 10-30% of the setlist).
 
I think that you get the complaints from metal fans that they didn't play classics, whereas Maiden fans want to hear new stuff. Most metal fans are just fairweather fans of Maiden and only like the classic stuff (the guys who put down a new Maiden album before they hear it).
 
  Please don't remind me of Queensryche again, what an embarrassment that show looks like. Damn, and I used to love them.  Drag queens? please.  Anyway the set list for this tour was great, my favorite Maiden show in decades.    But I kind of am hoping that next years show will run the Final Frontier album in it's entirety, like the AMOLAD tour did.  That was outstanding.  I'm sorry if this doesn't sit well, but I loved hearing all those songs.  Then they mixed in a few classics at the end.  Out of the shadows, the longest day, the Legacy, were phenomenal live. Can't wait to hear Aisle of Avalon, the Talisman, etc. LIVE AND LOUD!!!
 
Ya, that would be SWEET if they decided to play all of TFF. Or at the very least. 8 songs from it instead of the usual 6 they do when supporting a new album.
 
i'd love to see TFF in its entirety. I hate the fact that every album has songs that we will never hear live like face in the sand and nomad.
 
And Alexander The Great, Invaders, Flash Of The Blade and many more. Come on Maiden! Do like Rush and pull some songs out of the vault.
True they did it a little with SBIT, but they need to do more of it.
 
How can you know if you want to hear TFF in it's entirety if you haven't heard it yet?

I absolutely guarantee they will never play a full new album on tour again.  That's fine with me, it makes the AMOLAD tour something really rare and special.

PLUS, TFF is a good 4 minutes longer, which would mean one fewer classic anyway.
 
If they would just vary their freaking set a little bit we wouldnt be having these endless discussions.

I am of the opinion that 5-6 classics are sufficient, but would be much better interspersed within the show. Leaving them to the end is a tacit admission that they are crowd pleasers over the newer stuff.

Second it's not an old vs. new song debate, what many of us want to hear are songs that are not beaten into the ground. I love The Trooper, but I'd rather hear Still Life at a show. It's great that some 2000-era stuff is getting played on this tour but wouldn't it be more fun to hear songs that haven't already appeared on a live album or two?
 
A good point is being made in this thread and the tour thread that I think bears repeating:

It wouldn't kill Maiden to play JUST ONE rarely played song each tour.  There'd be a lot less bitching.  The fact that Rod Smallwood not only acknowledges the complaints but defends their decision indicates that this isn't just an internet thing (as most forms of bitching are).
 
(The following has nothing to do with Maiden's current 2010 tour or any other tour which did not promote an album.)

When Maiden promoted a new album, they played since 1986:

1986-1987: 2 songs from 1984
1988: 1 (and a few times 2) song(s) from 1986
1990-1991: 1 (and a few times 2) song(s) from 1988
1992: mostly 2 (a few times 1) song(s) from 1990
1995-1996: 2 songs from 1992
1998: mostly 2 (a few times 3) songs from 1995
2000-2002: 1 song from 1998
2003-2004: 1 song from 2000
2006: 0 songs from 2003
2011: ? songs from 2006

So since 1986, Maiden has played 1 or 2 songs from the previous album (the VXI-tour was a logical exception with the new singer), and since Bruce's and Adrian's return we have seen a maximum of just 1 song from the previous album.

I wonder what will happen in 2011: 0/1/2 song(s) from AMOLAD?
 
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