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Powerage5, can you briefly explain why you love Iron Maiden so fuckin' much?


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Guest Broskirose

Yeah I mean they're a pretty bad band.

But beyond them being a bad band, I get why some people like them, but I don't see how someone can like Iron them THAT much.

facepalm

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LOL. You can like a band, you can love a band, but whatever he has with Iron Maiden is beyond that -- I think.

There are people on this forum that are worse (better?) with GNR than he is with Iron Maiden.

I think it's good to have a hobby.

You think? I'm not sure about that. Name a few! :lol:

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Guest Satanisk_Slakt

have never let their fans down with the albums.

Their fans obviously aren't too picky when it comes to Maiden. They praise absolutely everything they put out. No matter how shitty it is.

It's a band that did some good albums in the 80's, but which produce extremely mediocre music ever since Fear of the Dark.

Great live though. If they ever do another Back In The Days tour, I'll go and see them again.

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have never let their fans down with the albums.

Their fans obviously aren't too picky when it comes to Maiden. They praise absolutely everything they put out. No matter how shitty it is.

It's a band that did some good albums in the 80's, but which produce extremely mediocre music ever since Fear of the Dark.

Great live though. If they ever do another Back In The Days tour, I'll go and see them again.

No, many Maiden fans agree that from 1988 until 2001 Maiden went downhill and that the two albums with Blaze Bayley on vocal are pretty bad, however since 2001 their albums have been very good.

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Yeah I mean they're a pretty bad band.

But beyond them being a bad band, I get why some people like them, but I don't see how someone can like them THAT much.

I'm no Maiden fan either, but do you just like hate every band that is remotely likeable?

Yes, I i don't like bands that are remotely like able.

I like bands that are entirely like able.

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Alright, here goes. Maiden have become so much more than a band to me. I know it gets cliche with a lot of the fanatics who go around saying "Maiden is my religion", but to me it is definitely a lifestyle. Ever since I first saw them in 2005, they were immediately my favorite band. I saw them 4 times between 2005 and 2008, and they were still my favorite band. I guess my crazy fanaticism started after seeing Flight 666 in theaters when it was released. I knew Maiden had a huge international following obviously from being a member of the Fan Club, but it never really occurred to me how special Maiden really was to so many people. The movie told the story of the hardships some people went through to see Maiden, especially in some of the Central and South American countries. Another aspect of the fans that the movie didn't represent so well was the massive following of people traveling internationally to see the band that had built up in the years prior to the movie's release.

Before I get into how they became so important to me, heres a little backstory on how the international thing started for their fanbase. The whole legion of fans traveling internationally to see countless shows each tour only started around 2005. Some people who were a bit crazier have been doing it longer (I know a few people that really started traveling for multiple shows around 1990), but a vast majority of the fans who do it now have sprung up more recently with Maiden's resurgence in popularity (And quality performances/stage show for that matter!). From what I can gather a lot of fans were really interested to catch a lot of shows on the Early Days Tour in '05, the first of the history tours where the band revisits a particular era and builds a stage show reminiscent of that period and bases the setlist on that era - the Early Days Tour for example was exclusively songs from the first 4 Maiden albums and included a lot of songs that hadn't been touched in 20 or more years. A lot of fans took that as an opportunity to see so many songs the band hadn't touched since they became fans, and in all likelihood would never touch again. Everyone had so much fun traveling and doing however many gigs instead of just their country's that they did it again in 2006, when the band played their A Matter Of Life And Death album in its entirety in a show that was really geared towards the diehard fans. This time even more fans hopped onboard with the traveling aspect, being that it was a first for Maiden to play an album in its entirety. 2007 again gave diehard fans a reason to travel when the band revamped the AMOLAD show to include less songs from that album and more classics - in a tour that took the band to several places they'd never played before, including India, United Arab Emirates, Greece, and Serbia. Again, fans really loved the idea of being able to see the band in places they'd never been before - and in the case of India and the UAE, places no internationally successful metal band had ever visited before.

But a majority of the fans who do international travel started in 2008, on the band's Somewhere Back In Time Tour - when the band played exclusively 80's songs (Other than the unpopular inclusion of Fear Of The Dark) and relied heavily on songs from Powerslave, Somewhere In Time, and Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. Fans wanted to see as many gigs as possible for various reasons. First of all, the tour was going to obviously include songs that hadn't been touched in a long time that were fan favorites. Others liked the idea of seeing Maiden in places they'd never played again (This time, several countries in Central and South America). Some just wanted to see as much of the tour as possible, with how groundbreaking the idea of touring by way of a Boeing 757 was. And others saw it as Maiden's last hurrah, given that the tours had been getting shorter and shorter since the reunion and with SBIT they came out and announced 90 dates in one year (Obviously, proven untrue in the years since!). A lot of fans self-admittedly went way over the top with this one (I know some people that saw as many as 30 gigs in 2008 and some people that spent upwards of USD $20,000 for that tour!), but all agreed that the experience of going all over the world and becoming great friends with people from all different walks of life was something so unique and incredible.

That sort of leads in to how I got involved in it all pretty well. Maiden used to despise touring in the US, something they've all openly admitted over the years. So in December 2009 when the Sonisphere Sweden lineup was announced - Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper, Iggy & The Stooges, Slayer, and Anthrax (Literally all some of my favorite bands of all time), I knew it was an experience too good to pass up. I wanted to do this international travel for a gig that I'd been hearing more and more about on the IMFC, just to be able to experience it once and say I did it. A few weeks later they announced the Maiden gig in Bergen, Norway, and I decided it made sense to add a headlining Maiden gig since I'd already be over there. Long story short - we changed our minds a few times over about whether or not to actually go - we decided to cancel the trip when Ronnie James Dio passed away, but decided to do it again when Anthrax announced Joey Belladonna would be returning. We were really on the fence again when it was announced Motley may have to cancel their European tour because of Vince Neil's DUI, but luckily that didn't end up being the case.

I was really surprised when Maiden announced their US dates for 2010 to precede the short European run in August, and I saw it as an opportunity to just go all out on Maiden gigs for one Summer like many other fans do every year. We decided on 5 North American dates - Toronto, Ottawa, New York, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. Once the tour started, we decided to stay clear of the setlist to keep the surprise at our first show of the tour - something we now swear by doing with Maiden. The thrill of getting to see Ghost Of The Navigator, These Colours Don't Run, Blood Brothers, etc. and not knowing before hand what they'd be playing is a feeling unlike anything at any gigs from any other band. All the shows in North America were a blast, and we knew Europe would be just as much fun. At the Pittsburgh gig we met the first members of our "Maiden family" (A term the FC uses to refer to their friends in real life that they like to travel/do gigs with) - a guy from Switzerland and a guy from Italy. We got talking about chicken wings somehow and decided we had to take them out to a great wing place after the gig. We got wings after the show, and had so much fun that we decided we had to meet up the next day before the Cleveland gig and all hang out on the barrier together. I never would have guessed at the time that the two of them would become two of my closest friends in the whole world. Sure enough, we met up for the Cleveland gig and had the most fun of the whole tour being on the barrier with people we now knew.

A short 2 and a half weeks after our last US gig for 2010, and we were off to Europe. We got in to Stockholm a couple days before Sonisphere, we didn't want to be jetlagged the day of the show (We've since come to learn that neither my mom nor I really ever get jetlagged). Sonisphere was an interesting mix of amazing and incredible. We barely got into the festival in time for Anthrax because we had a problem using one of the tickets. The staff were great though, rushing us through the process of getting a replacement ticket after hearing how far we'd traveled. Anthrax was really incredible, and finally seeing them live has indirectly led to our getting to be good friends with Joey Belladonna (But that's for another story :tongue2: ). It poured all day, which was a huge downer because we couldn't get ponchos until after the worst of it. The rain led to a subpar Alice performance (Still the worst Alice show we've seen!), and a superb Iggy & The Stooges set. Maiden were just absolutely on fire - seeing them play to a Swedish crowd is still one of my favorite Maiden moments to date. The whole crowd was really into it, and the band played with a sort of intensity I've rarely seen them reach since. Unfortunately, it got really cold as the evening went on, and we took off part way through the encore to beat traffic on the metro - still the only time we've left a Maiden gig early.

A few days later we took a bus trip we'd signed up for that was organized by a FC member. The trip was on 2 small party busses, and went from Oslo to Bergen along a scenic route through the mountains of Norway. The trip had 28 people, and I think 11 different countries were represented if I recall correctly. We met a lot of our close friends on that trip - other fans from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Canada to name a few. It was in all honesty one of the best days of my life so far. It was incredible getting to know other fans that were so passionate about this band and that loved to travel anywhere in the world to see them. Its strange, but you can talk to someone else that shares the love of the band on the same level as you for 5 minutes, and feel like you've known them for years. We also saw some amazing sights in Norway that we would have missed had we not taken the bus trip, so as tourists that was also really nice. Everyone agreed to meet up the next day to all hang out together at the gig. The Bergen gig was in the Bergenhus Festning, a viking fortress and is still today the greatest venue I've ever seen a show in. We all hung out at the gig and just had a great time, it was a really special thing getting to share such a special show with friends who we'd gotten to know so well over the last few days.

Getting to meet these fans that all do the traveling and go to so many gigs and knowing you'd never see them otherwise is primarily what fuels me to keep going to so many shows all over the world. Its such a unique thing having some of your best friends halfway around the world, but knowing that when its tour time you'll see each other and be able to catch up no matter where it is. After the 2010 leg of The Final Frontier Tour, I started making a bucket list of things I wanted to do Maiden-related - where I wanted to see gigs, how many gigs, etc. For me, the fans are the defining thing of my love for Maiden. They are a great band, but the fans, our now very close friends, are what keep us going to so many gigs. Its an experience you get with no other band, the Maiden fans really are like a family. Everyone knows everyone else and even though we have little quarrels here and there and we can get on each others' nerves at times, deep down we really truly love and care about each other. The day of the Tokyo earthquake last year was one of the most nerve-wracking days of my life - we had so many friends who were in Tokyo at the time for the Maiden gigs and its so hard knowing that many of your close friends are in such danger (Luckily, no one we know was hurt at all). You ask almost any Maiden fan who travels internationally, and they'll tell you their favorite Maiden song is Blood Brothers, because it is really an anthem for the Maiden family, its a song that became very special and incredibly relevant with how their fan base is.

Theres not much else to tell about why the band means so much to me. This year's tour was a real special one for us, as we never traveled to a gig alone - at all times in the 13 gigs we did we had at least one European friend with us in the car. It was so nice for us to be able to help out our friends when they came to the US after they've been so hospitable to us when we're in Europe. Over the course of the tour, we had Italians, Canadians, Germans, Swedes, Swiss, Scottish, and Israeli fans with us in the car. The Houston show last weekend was an extremely special show for me - the numerical goal I'd set for myself on my bucket list was to see Maiden 30 times before they retired. The Houston show was my 30th, and it felt so right to end such a special tour on such a special note.

I hope all of this will help you guys understand why this band is so special to me. This band is so much more than a band to me, it has really become a major ingredient in my life and I'm so thankful for all the amazing memories I have that this band are responsible for, and any future memories as well.

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have never let their fans down with the albums.

Their fans obviously aren't too picky when it comes to Maiden. They praise absolutely everything they put out. No matter how shitty it is.

It's a band that did some good albums in the 80's, but which produce extremely mediocre music ever since Fear of the Dark.

Great live though. If they ever do another Back In The Days tour, I'll go and see them again.

No, many Maiden fans agree that from 1988 until 2001 Maiden went downhill and that the two albums with Blaze Bayley on vocal are pretty bad, however since 2001 their albums have been very good.

the x factor with blaze is amazing but yeah 1990-1999(outside of x factor) were the bands dark period but in 2001 brave new world with the return of bruce is as great if not better than their 80s output and everything since has been good.

as for maiden fans,us maiden fans and metal fans in general are just more fanatical than most music fans, the love of bands and music becomes a part of you its weird i know but its true

Edited by bran
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