Last week I went to music gig. Of itself that isn’t earth shattering news. Those who know me also know that I love my music but for reasons I can’t be bothered to go into here I never get to go to many gigs. In my time I have seen Queensryche, The Eagles, Eric Clapton, Edwin Starr and plenty of smaller bands. Last Thursday I got to see one of the bands I have wanted to see for probably the last 30 years, Iron Maiden.
The day started well with wonderful weather and as we arrived at the MEN in Manchester it continued to improve. The fans arrived and queued up quietly joking amongst each other. The atmosphere was friendly. My son was with me and this was his second gig. In the programme one of the band, Steve Harris I think, remarked that the band now had three generations of fans coming to their gigs and that we were all one big family. This was reflected in the faces in the lines waiting to go in. There were kids and pensioners and all forms of life in between waiting patiently. When stewards asked people to move, they moved without complaint or fuss. Not very heavy metal you might think.
A friend of mine recently attended the Sonisphere Festival at Knebworth and in his review of the event remarked that there had been no arrests throughout the whole festival whereas at other festivals arrests were not uncommon. The concourse outside the arena was a sea of black. There were no sidelong glances or snide comments about the way people dressed there was an air of acceptance.
The doors opened and we went through to the actual arena. The music playing whilst people waited was heavy metal unsurprisingly. Then at just before 7.30 the support band came on. Airbourne are likely to be one of the biggest stars in heavy metal and their first two albums have generally been well received with people arguing whether or not they are the new AC/DC or the new Rose Tattoo. Frankly I don’
t care the music is great. There are no frills and no airs and graces about Airbourne. The music isn’t subtle it is loud and it is fast.
The auditorium darkened and a cheer rose then silence fell as the theme from Terminator 2 started to play. Then the band emerged on stage and launched headlong into Raise the Flag. For a band who have only two albums of material they worked the crowds like seasoned professionals. In their 45 minute set they managed to demonstrate their ability, energy and at the same time show gratitude to the headliners to come. Iron Maiden have history of having support bands who turn out to be pretty damn good, anybody remember Guns N Roses? Airbourne played plenty of crowd pleasers Cheap Wine Cheaper Women, Diamond in the Rough, Blackjack, Too Much Too Young Too Fast. The two tracks which may become live anthems for them in the coming years, assuming they don’t burn out, are No Way But The Hard Way and Runnin’ Wild. The band were hugely enthusiastic and energetic and were very well received by the crowd.
The general feeling was that Maiden would have to go some to top that performance. Well they managed it.
The set launched with the UFO classic Doctor Doctor which made some of the fans near me very happy. Then the screens came to life and the band emerged on stage to a rapturous welcome from an expectant crowd. Many of the bands I grew up listening to seem to have developed a tendency to ignore the past success and explore new avenues musically. When they then go on tour they seem to struggle to understand why fans are disappointed. The simple reason is that you need to strike a balance between the classics and the new stuff. Iron Maiden did that in spades. Their previous tour had been the Somewhere Back In Time and was entirely classics which musically would have been brilliant. This time they chose to showcase some of their newer material.
Maiden are known for their driving anthemic rock but what I experienced was a masterclass in working the crowd. The band started with two tracks from the new album, Satellite 15…The Final Frontier and El Dorado and then launched into a classic, 2 Minutes to Midnight. The crowd were in ecstasy at this point this was what they wanted to hear. Then came to newer tracks The Talisman and Coming Home. They then slowed things down with the title track from the underrated Dance of Death album. Then like master puppeteers they changed the pace again and launched into The Trooper and the crowd responded loudly. They maintained the pace with The Wicker Man which is taken from Brave New World which was the first album with the current lineup and which relaunched their career.
Bruce Dickinson then 
stopped and had a chat with the fans and spoke of how they had had to cancel a gig in Tokyo because of the tsunami and earthquake and how they had played a gig in Indonesia to tens of thousands of Islamic Maiden fans. To the delight of the Scandinavian fans in the arena he pulled no punches about what he thought of the gunman in Norway. The band then sang what may become a bit of an anthem for them, Blood Brothers. They carried on into When The Wild Wind Blows. Then they left the fans with what they had been wanting all evening back to back classics. The Evil That Men Do from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son came first the crowd responded enthusiastically. Then came the stadium classic Fear of the Dark. Then into the band’s anthem Iron Maiden.
Then came the encores which started with Number of the Beast. Then came the track I had wanted to hear live Hallowed Be Thy Name. This track just shows what a range that Bruce has. Lastly came Running Free. This saw the emergence of the band’s mascot Eddie. I missed the finishing piece of music which was Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life which just seems to sum the band up. They are clearly enjoying what they do and what is more the fans are enjoying it again.
I had been waiting to see this band for the best part of 30 years and it was well worth the wait. I was treated to two bands led by two lead singers who if you were able to capture their energy you would be able to power a small city. My ribs took about a day to recover from Airbourne’s sonic assault and my voice and hearing took about the same to recover from Iron Maiden.
I saw two contrasting bands both of whom I would recommend that you see at least once before you shuffle off the mortal coil. I want to thank both bands for giving me a great night out.
