Why wasn't the reunion an instant success in America?

fekso

fekso

Ancient Mariner
The Ed Hunter tour was a huge improvement in terms of attendance in Europe. But if you look at the venues in North America played in 1999, some of them were even smaller than the ones they did on Virtual XI World Tour (LA: Universal Amphitheatre with Blaze hold 6100, Greek Theatre with Bruce in 99 holds 5900).

In general most the venues holds less than 10 000. Was The Ed Hunter a lesser promoted tour intended to just get the band back and play some shows that weren't that heavily promoted? Or was Maiden not that popular at the time, despite the reunion? I was nine at the time, so I can't remember what was said in magazines and online.

Fun fact: I saw my second Maiden show during this tour. Orpheum Theatre in Boston, which only held 2700(!).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ed_Hunter_Tour
 
I think a big part of it was that "Heavy Metal" in the traditional sense just was not that popular in North America. Grunge was starting to wane, yes, but a lot of the popular heavier stuff was more Nu Metal oriented.
 
Lego said:
I think a big part of it was that "Heavy Metal" in the traditional sense just was not that popular in North America. Grunge was starting to wane, yes, but a lot of the popular heavier stuff was more Nu Metal oriented.
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So grunge was still affecting Maiden's popularity you say?
 
Partly generational change, too. The generation of people who loved Iron Maiden in the 1980s had grown up and started a career and stuff; the 1990s era of Maiden didn't capture kids growing up at that time, especially in the United States. So you have a lack of discretionary spending for the people who loved Maiden, and a missing generation with the youth level. Buzz started around the band again following the reunion, but it takes time for buzz to catch up to a crowd. I don't want to say Maiden had gone back to square 1 in the US, but they were certainly at square 2 or 3.
 
The Ed Hunter tour saw better attendances across North America than what they had with Blaze. That being said, their growth in the USA to become a bigger band there than at any point in their history has been a gradual process that skyrocketed after the SBIT tour.
 
You have to remember that social media barely existed back then. I remember when they had the vote on their website for the songs to play on the tour, but don't recall the tour being promoted much at all. I think I heard about it from a tiny ad in the back of the local weekly paper and thinking it would be cool to go to, but after their last 4 albums it wasn't a top priority. I never got a ticket and then the gig I would have gone to ended up getting cancelled anyway.
 
FTB said:
Why was Europe so different then?
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Europe was never fully consumed by either grunge or nu-metal, and the band had done better there than in the US during the 1990s. But let's not say Europe drove Maiden's success - it was their huge reaction in South America that did.
 
Whooten said:
You have to remember that social media barely existed back then. I remember when they had the vote on their website for the songs to play on the tour, but don't recall the tour being promoted much at all.
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The vote was for the soundtrack of the computer game...
 
It was kind of a weird era too - remember that this was before hits tours without a new album were a reoccurring thing.

I don't think an attendance boost occurred until after BNW actually came out and the entire reunion seemed real and long term.
 
they gained momentum in the early 2000s.... RIR proved they were still fire live, then Edward the great was a tour that kinda just happened but I don't remember it being advertised much. Dance of Death had a big tour but very few US dates (I missed it). Early Days tour I think put them back where they were in the 80s
 
This was the era of Limp Bizkit, Korn, and the Deftones. "Traditional metal" was still very much out of style in the late 90s, and Maiden was basically relegated to being an underground club/theater act in the States prior to the reunion.

I've said it before - Maiden were anonymous minnows in the States in the 90s. Bruce and Adrian would not change that equation overnight (though they certainly helped to get the ball rolling, but it took some time to re-establish the brand).
 
fekso said:
The Ed Hunter tour was a huge improvement in terms of attendance in Europe. But if you look at the venues in North America played in 1999, some of them were even smaller than the ones they did on Virtual XI World Tour (LA: Universal Amphitheatre with Blaze hold 6100, Greek Theatre with Bruce in 99 holds 5900).

In general most the venues holds less than 10 000. Was The Ed Hunter a lesser promoted tour intended to just get the band back and play some shows that weren't that heavily promoted? Or was Maiden not that popular at the time, despite the reunion? I was nine at the time, so I can't remember what was said in magazines and online.

Fun fact: I saw my second Maiden show during this tour. Orpheum Theatre in Boston, which only held 2700(!).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ed_Hunter_Tour
Click to expand...
Guess Maiden did not want to «waste» too much money touring America, I’m not surprised if they ended up losing money touring America between 1990-2003.
The 2005 run were their most successfull tour in America for many years, and probably pretty profitable compared to the nineties and early 2000, when they first played to half-full arenas with Bruce and theaters and clubs with Blaze. Doing Ozzfest put them back on the mainstream America metal market
 
It's easy to forget that Maiden's decline in the US was happening long before Blaze joined. It's very plausible that they would have been playing clubs in the late 90s even with Bruce in the band, although his departure definitely seemed to be a final nail in the coffin. I'd argue that it took until 2008 for them to be a strong force in America again. I saw them at one of the Ozzfest off dates in 2005. They did OK but when they came back to the same amphitheater in 2012 the place was packed and they clearly were ready for an upgraded venue. Now they play arenas when they come to town.
 
Sorry to bump an old thread, but this caught my eye and I just have to ask

Mosh said:
I'd argue that it took until 2008 for them to be a strong force in America again.
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Do you have any idea why that might be so? I suppose the first leg of the AMOLAD tour wasn't the reason ('cause from what I know the PlayClassics crowds were pretty vocal then) and off the top of my head I can't think of any significant change of the musical paradigm around that time that could have influenced this, but I admit that my memory might be spotty and I'm living over the pond, so something vital might be escaping me...

EDIT: I kinda doubt it was the result of 2005 Ozzfest, which didn't seem that succesful, at least according to Wiki

"At Iron Maiden's last Ozzfest performance, on 20 August 2005 at the Hyundai Pavilion at Glen Helen in San Bernardino, California, several negative events took place. During the first song, several members of the crowd, brought on by Sharon Osbourne, bombarded the British metal band Iron Maiden with eggs, bottle caps and ice after vocalist Bruce Dickinson allegedly ridiculed Ozzy's need for a teleprompter during his performances, as well as the Osbourne family's ventures into reality television (The Osbournes, Battle for Ozzfest).[12] During three of Iron Maiden's songs, the P.A. system was switched off, cutting power to Dickinson's microphone and then to all the band's instruments. During the concert, Bruce Dickinson can be heard accusing the festival's organizers of deliberately cutting off the band's power. On Iron Maiden's departure, Sharon Osbourne came on stage to make a few statements, telling the audience that she "absolutely loved Iron Maiden" but thought that Dickinson is a "prick."
 
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