I mean, one of the first songs I ever heard that I actually *liked* was an Iron Maiden song, and if the first album I ever purchased wasn't Iron Maiden's "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son", the second album I purchased was.
Not to forget that this same album holds the record for "most times I've purchased a single album". (Once on cassette, and three times on CD, and no purchases were with the intent to give it away.)

I've listened to Iron Maiden since 1989, or so, and so have many of my friends - somewhat thanks to me.
But just because they were 'first' doesn't make them 'favourite' - merely 'prominant'. Very often it's easy to give too much credit to the people who do things first, rather than best.

After I fell in love with 7th Son, I went back through some of the collection. Number of the Beast was next, followed by Killers, and Iron Maiden (the self titled album). I then went and filled the gaps - Powerslave, Somewhere In Time, Live After Death, and so forth, in no particular order. Indeed, I didn't purchase these until MUCH later in life. I listened to them when my friends did, which was often enough already.
I did purchase No Prayer For The Dying on its release, and I found it somewhat boring, to be honest. So when Fear of the Dark was released, I let my friends buy it.

In 1992, Iron Maiden came to Australia off the back of that album. A lot of my friends bought expensive tickets and travelled five hours to get to the show. (And five hours back!) I couldn't afford it and wasn't able to go, but then, I wasn't entirely disappointed by that. I mean, my friends raved about that concert for years - literally - but I was OK with that. Even then, only three years after my introduction to metal, Iron Maiden was already fading. I loved Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, and perhaps also Number of the Beast; but overall, they never ever rated as a favourite band.

So when Iron Maiden returned to Australia, the same friends were very keen. Somewhere between 1992 and now, 2008, I realised that a lot of Iron Maiden's music was very repetitive. Somehow that worked in their earlier music, but annoyed me greatly in more recently released stuff. But as I listened to anything Maiden, I kept listening - and hearing - excessive repetition. Like I already said, sometimes that worked in their favour, but that only seemed true for earlier recordings.
For example, the Live in Rio DVD that my friend bought was not something I could have sat through a second time. Even in Dolby Surround.
Safe to say that I didn't jump out of my seat to get any tickets for the return concert.

My friends did!

Not too long ago, my friend advised me - with great regret - that he would be unable to attend the Maiden show. He, in particular, loved the 1992 show, and had followed them closely when Bruce returned to the band, and had bought all releases and judged them fairly on their merits. He even bought the compilation album even though he owned every album. But his overseas holiday travels had him leaving the day before the concert and he offered his ticket to me.

I figured this was one of those destiny moments when something I'm meant to do just falls in my lap, so I accepted the offer, and the agreed upon price was that I buy him a way cool shirt, as is our wont.
I asked Rachel if she wanted to go also, and she declined. She too wasn't *particularly* interested in the band as a whole, even though there are songs she likes.

So the day drew nearer. In fact, the day is/was today. And this morning, Rachel asked me if Lee (one of the other friends) still had any spare tickets. I called him, and as it turned out, his wife had hurt her back and couldn't go.
This was very unfortunate for her - she was greatly looking forward to the show. Very keen. But the ticket was going to waste, and so Rachel came along and we paid Lee for the value of the ticket. I'm sorry that my friend's wife missed the show.

I bought two shirts, stashed them in the car, and met up with the guys.

And then the show began. We found our seats without difficulty.

The first support act was actually the daughter of the bass guitarist, song writer and founder of Iron Maiden.
When we walked in five minutes before the doors were advertised to be open, she was already on stage playing. And not bad at all.
I'm gonna go check out her tunes after I write this blog.
Lauren Harris. Look her up.

The second support act was an Aussie band, the name of whom I am unsure. As I also am as to why they were chosen as the support act. I'm not saying they were of low calibre, but their style was greatly misplaced at a Maiden show. They were actually booed off stage, and didn't really deserve it. It was greatly amusing!

And then Maiden played.

Actually, at 9:10PM I figured the show wouldn't continue (begin?) for at least 20 mins, as things usually work by the half hour. So I made the executive decision to visit the lav. And would you believe it? The music blaring during the roadie's setup time smoothly rolled into a Maiden tune. An earlier song, with no lyrics. From the Killers album I believe. And I was at the loo, hearing the cheers of thousands of fans. I made my way back, to hear the intro to Aces High.
That's a great song, one I've always liked, and fitting for an intro song. I tried taking a few photos with my phone camera but I don't think they came out too well. I couldn't find a zoom function, and realised that I haven't really played with my phone much.
I later learned that I missed some video footage of Bruce flying (or landing?) their jumbo and the band signing stuff for airline staff. Darn!

The next song was another of my favourites, as Maiden goes, called Revelations. This was when I experimented with the video capture feature. But apparantly you have to press the 'record' button twice for it to work, so I missed most of that. I worked out by the second verse that it wasn't recording. So I got the guitar solo, and settled for that.

The next song the played was another classic, called The Trooper. I actually filmed this song in entirety, but only later through the song I discovered there was a zoom ability. So OK, I'm still quite a novice cameraman. I'm getting there ;)
And I wonder how it turned out. I kinda took this footage for my mate who couldn't be there. And also kinda cos I like experimenting with filming and photographing concerts.

The next song, "The Wasted Years", is one that never really was a favourite of mine. They played it well, to their credit, and I tapped along, but I didn't get into it like many other songs.
It was followed by the ultra-classic "Number of the Beast", though, which was when I began to attempt to sing along. I tried capturing it on my phone, but my battery was low, and it flatly refused to assist me further. And that pun was not intended! :D

Can I Play With Madness was the next enjoyable tune, but I kinda started daydreaming through the next three songs.
Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner - for me - is too long and tedious. There's nothing about it that catches my attention and holds it. Powerslave is ok, but again not one of my favourites, and Heaven Can Wait kinda bores me. Without the 'kinda'.

Maiden snapped me back into the show, though, when the entire roadie crew came on stage and started singing along to the backing vocal choruses. It was very amusing, and then the song ended soon enough after that I was focused again.

The next song was Run To The Hills, and I realised while singing that song that I was starting to go hoarse, so I backed off a little.
They followed up with Fear of the Dark, which was enjoyable, but not entirely enthralling, and their self titled song (from their self titled album) Iron Maiden - which has always been one of my favourite Maiden songs.

I didn't care that I was going hoarse. I didn't even care that I don't *truly* know all the lyrics to that song. I just loved singing along to a song I love.
After that, they left the stage, we did the standard cheering, they did the standard 'come back for the encore'.

They finished the night with Moonchild, The Clairvoyant and Hallowed Be Thy Name. These three are all great songs, and I enjoyed them greatly.
So what did I think, overall of the show? Did they rock? Or suck?

Iron Maiden rocked. And, honestly, we expected no less, did we?
No band can last 30 years without knowing how to provide excellent live entertainment.
The stage show was amazing. The set was amazing. The performance was excellent and energetic, with very few pauses. And when they did need to change their gear, Bruce covered it very well with amusing banter about anything he could think of. Whether it was the Aussie guy providing the fireworks "on demand" (which he didn't!), or the Australian airline QANTAS (which they had absolutely no requirement for, seeing as they own and fly their own self-branded jumbo!), or even just getting us to cheer, which seemed all too easy - for a change.

In fact, somewhere early in the set, we cheered for a solid 45 seconds or more. Not that I timed it - I didn't - but Bruce admitted that we'd done his work for him, because he was supposed to amuse us for the 45 seconds it took for them to change guitars, and he'd been given a standing ovation without having to do a bloody thing. It was certainly a highlight of the night. The band was genuinely appreciative of the fans' appreciation. But that's a topic for another blog - about Metal bands that tour Australia.

Speaking of highlights, another was during the song "Iron Maiden" where Eddie the Head made an appearance. If you've never seen a Maiden gig, and you dunno to what I am referring, you are missing out. They had a 15 foot characature of their mascot Eddie appear on stage. It walked out on stage, carrying a laser gun which it pointed at the crowd several times. It pretended to (or actually did?) bang on Janick's guitar several times before walking back and pretending to play someone else's. Meanwhile Janick managed to throw his guitar perhaps five metres into the air and catch it without a problem. Sorry for mixing my measurements there. (Feet and metres.)

This act was enthralling. And I have to say, that so many times there were so many things going on - either on the stage, or on the screens displaying the footage of one of their cameras (I think they had four?) or even stuff going on in the crowd.

Like the two guys actually dressed up as different versions of Eddie, one of whom was in the standing crowd and got a direct response from Bruce.
Something like "What are you doing out of your box? You're not due until later!"

Do you know, the only thing that wasn't enjoyable about this show was the ending. Yep. It ended. Would have loved at least another hour. And I *know* that they have enough quality songs to deliver that.

So we left, paid for parking, got to the car, and left in short order. It was all too easy, even with the 10,000 cars that must have been leaving at that time. And I started dreaming an old dream that I've had so many times while driving home. But that, too, is for another blog.

Eddie the Head, mascote do Iron Maiden, surgiu de uma idéia muito simples de um cenógrafo chamado Dave Beasly que gostava de usar sucata em seus trabalhos. A cenografia de Beasly recorria ao uso de aparelhos eletrodomésticos quebrados, partes da lataria de automóveis, chapas plásticas e metálicas, furadas e recortadas, lâmpadas,vidros, etc. De início, Eddie ainda não tinha nome e era apenas uma cabeça gigante, monstruosa e metálica, montada num canto do palco de um dos primeiros shows dos Iron Maiden. A peça havia sido construida por um aluno de uma escola de arte e Dave Beasly a instalou sobre um suporte metálico, fazendo com que ela parecesse animada, usando luzes e sangue falso, bombeando através dos orifícios da carranca. Nos espectáculos seguintes, o cenário mudava, porém a grande cabeça metálica estava sempre presente e cada vez com maior destaque.

Com o sucesso da cabeça, os fãs a nomearam Ed, A Cabeça por causa de uma antiga piada inglesa:

Eddie tinha nascido sem corpo, braços e pernas. Só tinha a cabeça. Mas tirando esse problema de nascimento seus pais o amavam muito. No seu décimo-sexto aniversário eles foram a um médico que lhes disse que poderia dar um corpo ao garoto. Os pais ficaram malucos com a novidade porque seu filho poderia finalmente ser uma pessoa normal. Eles voltaram para casa e falaram para Eddie: "Nós temos uma surpresa para você. É o melhor presente do mundo!" ao que Eddie diz: "Ah não, outra merda de boné!".

A aparência de Ed foi criada por Derek Riggs, no single Running Free, como um zumbi maligno e bem fino. Com o sucesso do personagem ele acabou sendo a capa do primeiro álbum da banda, Iron Maiden.

A partir dai Eddie acabou virando o mascote da banda, aparecendo em todos álbuns, shows e ganhando personalidade própria.

Confirmado! A EMI confirmou para o dia 2 de março, em São Paulo, e dia 5 de março, em POA, a notícia foi dada pelo ESTADÃO e pode ser lida no link http://www.estadao.com.br/arteelazer/not_art73704,0.htm