Your First Maiden Gig

GhostofCain said:
Although I had been a fan of the band since 1991, I had to wait until 11th August 1996 to see the band live (I did not have the means to go and see them in 1992 and 1993 as I was still under 18 and with the band playing more than 100 miles from where I was living it was impossible for me attend the shows).

I was not too impressed with The X Factor and did not consider going to any of the 1995 shows, but Maiden were playing some C markets during the summer of 1996 and a guy (who later ended up playing bass in a band I did sing for!) decided to organise a coach trip to the show at Miajadas (Spain), a place with less than 10000 inhabitants. It was an excellent opportunity, so I decided to go with my better half. Maiden were playing a "football stadium", which in essence was a field with goals and a limited number of seats outside the village and were supported by a local band (Superstición), Dirty Deeds, and Helloween. Here is a picture of how the football stadium looks like from the road...

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On our way to MIajadas, the coach driver feel asleep at the wheel (literally) and we had an accident. We were helped by the lovely people of Valdemorales, the village where we nearly met death on the road, and had to wait for another coach to take us to Miajadas. In the meantime, the police came, breathalysed the driver, and found that he was over the legal limit! After a long wait, a replacement coach arrives and we tell the police that we are not travelling unless the new driver is breathalysed. Guess what? The new chap was also over the limit!! They had to call another driver who had the day off and came by car so he could then take us to Miajadas with the replacement coach.

I have fond memories of the show (after all it was my first time seeing the band and Blaze did a good job for the most part, although I think he butchered some classics). Nevertheless, as you can imagine, Maiden were not the ones who made the day one to remember!

Edit: I have found a low quality bootleg of the gig!

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Amazing story. Drunk drivers must be in jail. The field is awful and the band cache was very cheap in months. I’ve seen them in Madrid in 95 and it was sold out. The hype was high and they visited the city days after the release of the album. There was no YouTube in those days. I really enjoyed with the sound and I know Blaze wasn’t like Bruce, and likke it was my first time my eyes were for the rest of the band. But in 1996 they run a lot of gigs in the country. I didn’t watched them. I think they play 5 or 6 unusual places gaining more fans. They repeated support bands 2 years later ( with the infamous Mr. Taylor)
 
The_7th_one said:
Amazing story. Drunk drivers must be in jail. The field is awful and the band cache was very cheap in months. I’ve seen them in Madrid in 95 and it was sold out. The hype was high and they visited the city days after the release of the album. There was no YouTube in those days. I really enjoyed with the sound and I know Blaze wasn’t like Bruce, and likke it was my first time my eyes were for the rest of the band. But in 1996 they run a lot of gigs in the country. I didn’t watched them. I think they play 5 or 6 unusual places gaining more fans. They repeated support bands 2 years later ( with the infamous Mr. Taylor)
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I agree with you regarding drunk drivers. A few months after our accident I saw the drunk driver at the wheel of a school bus... :mad:

I also saw Maiden with Helloween as a support act in 1998 (by the way, Helloween wiped the floor with Maiden that night). Dirty Deeds could not play though; there was a massive thunderstorm the afternoon of the concert and the venue (a bullring) got flooded. Doors were opened much later than advertised and the price we had to pay was missing Dirty Deeds.

In those days when Maiden had hit rock bottom it was cheap to have the same touring package as all bands were part of the Sanctuary stable.
 
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GhostofCain said:
In those days when Maiden had hit rock bottom it was cheap to have the same touring package as all bands were part of the Sanctuary stable.
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No Virtual XI gig in Ireland, as the X Factor gigs in Dublin and Belfast had been in venues that much smaller bands play and were very poorly attended. I believe the Belfast one may have been the poorest attended gig in Europe since the pub days. There's never been two gigs in Dublin and Belfast since then, and they never played again until the Dance of Death tour.
 
Dublin, 1st December 2003.

I was 17 at the time. Walked into the venue during the support act (Funeral for a Friend…) and dislocated my knee. This had happened once before (and 6 times since) while playing football and I had to get an ambulance to take me to hospital to put it back in. This time it just went out for no apparent reason, I was just walking. I was in excruciating pain and thought I’d have to go to hospital and miss Maiden.

I’d had a few drinks before going to the gig, so I had a bit of Dutch courage and thought “I’m not missing this show”. So I decided to reset the kneecap myself.

Attempt 1 was not successful and luckily Funeral for a Friend drowned out my yells. Attempt 2 was successful. I had no idea if (like the last time this happened) I had done any further damage, so I didn’t dare put my weight on it. At that point my thinking was, I couldn’t be in the middle of the crowd when Maiden came on and I wasn’t going to go to the back, let’s get to the front and hold on to the barrier.

I was lucky that Funeral for a Friend were so shockingly crap that most of the crowd were still outside at the bar and I easily hopped through the crowd and got to the second row by the time they finished. And by the time Maiden came on I was at the barrier. I got talking to a few fans and a very large guy at the barrier allowed me to squeeze in so I could hold on to the barrier.

It was a great gig. I ended up on crutches for 2 weeks. Lol
 
Randalf said:
I keep repeating this in... well, pretty much every discussion here that has to do with Maiden gigs from the past 10 years or so and the setlists, but I say it again: even with all the general setlist complaints that I do address every now and then, I never believed that I'll get to hear so many of my biggest favourite tracks being played live.
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Hear, hear! If they had told me back in 1998 that I would get to hear so many fantastic gems from the 80s live, I would have thought they were pulling my leg!
 
June 11, 2008. Somewhere Back in Time, Chicago IL.

I'd been a fan since 2006. Being a teenager, I was a big fan of the Guitar Hero games. And "The Trooper" happened to be a song in GH2. I remember after playing it in the game, I was like "Damn, that was a really cool song", and so I went to my dad and asked him about Iron Maiden. As he grew up in the 70's and 80's, he was a big fan and I remember after asking him about them, he gave me his "Live After Death" CD. I probably listened to it dozens of times over the following weeks and months. Finally, my dad and I watched their Rock in Rio DVD. That concert changed my life. I was blown away at their musicianship and live performances. So begins a two-year period where I am obsessed with Iron Maiden and I delved into their entire discography.

So come summer 2008, 17-year-old me, not being well versed in concert going or a member of this forum or the fanclub yet, I discovered that Maiden was going to be playing in Chicago that June. This was maybe 3-4 weeks before the concert, sometime in May. I remember having to beg my mom (my dad didn't care) to let me go to Chicago to see them. The issue was, Chicago is a good 300+ miles away from where we live. My mom finally agrees, on the contingency that my adult sister goes to, so I wasn't alone. Understandable, like I said, I was only 17 at the time.

Not sure if ticketmaster was a thing yet in 2008 but we were oblivious to it if it was. So my sister and I actually went to a box office to get tickets. Because it was so close to the concert, the closest seats were pretty much in the nosebleed/upper sections. We got tickets, and come June 11 we travel the journey to Chicago. We got lost on the way to the Allstate Arena, with only about an hour before the show started. Had to stop in at a store and ask directions (this was just before the days of smartphones and we didn't have a GPS, haha, so we had printed out a "general" direction list from mapquest but got confused the closer we got to the Arena). We arrived at the arena with about 15-30 minutes to spare.

Lauren Harris was the opener. I did research in advance and knew she was Steve's daughter but I wasn't a fan of her music so it was pretty forgetful for me. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was very confused as to why the crowd started cheering and showing excitement to a song playing over the PA while they were changing the stage. I realize now that it must have been "Doctor Doctor". Sure enough, after the song ended, the lights went out and the crowd erupted in applause and shouting.

"Transylvania" was the opening video, and then boom, "Aces High". Watching the band jump out on stage to that song was an awe-inspiring moment for me, after having listened to and watched "Live After Death" countless times over the past two years. The entire concert was incredible. The atmosphere was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before, and the crowd was deafening in between the music. I have a vivid memory of all of the different backdrops they used for each song. I also remember a dim light illuminating the stage just enough that you could see "The Trooper" artwork being pulled out and the crowd lost it before the song even began playing. "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Powerslave" were the most impactful moments for me.

I remember being in a kind of daze when the concert was over. Adrenaline was sky high, and as we were walking out of the arena back to the parking lot, we came across a table still selling merch. I hadn't had a chance to look or browse beforehand, since we arrived so late and were more concerned with getting to our seats. But I ended up buying two tour shirts (and am kicking myself to this day for not getting one of the Chicago-specific 2008 shirts). I entered that arena a greenhorn, casual Iron Maiden fan, and I left an absolute fanatic.

While I have gotten much better seats and experiences, and even first to the barrier in a few of their concerts since then, that first time will always hold a special place in my heart.
 
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