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FEATURE THE BEAST IS BACK! by Shelly Harris
First off, not taking
“anything for granted” is a major reason that Steve, the band’s
founder and Rock of Gibraltar, seems momentarily wound up and distracted
as we speak at 8pm on a show night.
Yes, even a band like
Maiden (that has been touring worldwide for over 25 years) still gets
the opening-night jitters, especially in the US, where the shows are not
always quite as predictable and completely over-the-top in terms of
audience response and turnout as they are in the rest of the world. In
most other countries the band routinely headline a lengthy series of
gigantic 100,000-plus festivals. (“Ah,
it’s crazy!” Steve admits at the outset. “We’re running a bit
late, we’re running a bit late! And
it’s the first show, and it’s just a bit mad!”)
But, most importantly,
Maiden’s prodigious work ethic, which has generated numerous year-long
tours over the decades – is also fueled, in part, by that same
perennial drive to prove themselves and deliver “110 percent” even
at a phase in their career when most other bands of their status might
be satisfied to rest on the laurels of 13 studio albums (not to mention
several live albums and DVDs, including 2002’s Rock
In Rio double-live album and the DVD of the event which went #1 in
Europe and Platinum in the US) and record sales of 50 million-plus.
While the band’s
official website www.ironmaiden.com
has announced that the current tour, in conjunction with the forthcoming
“Dance
of Death” tour, “Will herald a major change in how the band
tour in the future, as this will be the last long arena tour the band
will undertake..."
Steve himself
doesn’t seem especially firm on that, but he does promise to preview
the band’s new Dance of Death
CD for this scribe at Maiden’s August 10 Tweeter Center/Chicago gig,
so stay tuned! It ships on
September 9.
After this tour [the Dance
of Death phase ends in March], we decided to slow things down a
little bit. Instead of nine
months, we’ll probably go and do summer festivals and stuff like that
four or five months, because, if you play in the summer, it means you
can play a lot more outdoor shows, especially in Europe.
So, we can play one festival and mostly play to most everybody.
It just means it’s quality rather than quantity in a way, you
know? We’re not going to say we’re not going to do stuff at all
anymore, but we’re not getting any younger, and you just have to think
about these things. We’re still pretty fit, and mentally and
physically tough, but, you know, you can’t go on like that forever.
“We’re still going
to make albums,” he continues, “and we’re still going to tour,
we’re just not going to – maybe –
do as much of it. We’ve
toured our asses off, as you know, for over 25 years, and it comes to a
point where maybe you need to slow down a little, that’s all.
Slowing down a little to four or five months on the road, is
still probably more than a lot of people do anyway.
We’ve been successful world-wide, and, in a way, you kind of
get punished for your own success in some ways.
We don’t want to get burnt out -- ever.
We want to give 100 percent every night.
At the moment we are really enjoying it, but it does drain you,
and we just want to keep the forces up there, really.
We’ll just see what happens with this anyway.”
Prior to commencing
the current tour in Europe at the end of May, the band did have a rare
two year period off the road, but it was no vacation for Steve who, in
addition to co-producing Dance of Death with Kevin Shirley, also spent
six months in the studio working on the Rock
In Rio DVD and the newest [June] DVD, Visions
of The Beast, which includes a compilation of a whopping 31 videos.
With a running time in excess of 3 hours, it also includes many
promo clips never previously available, never-before-seen Camp Chaos
animated versions of six classic tracks, interactive menus and
discographies, and some special “hidden extras.” As Steve elaborates, “It basically goes
back to the first video we ever made, and the interface on it is really
good -- it’s like animated Eddie stuff, and all that, and I think for
people that have either been fans for a long time, or even for people
that are new to the band, it’s good, ‘cause it’s got a compilation
of all hits over the years.” That
the band even has over 30 promotional videos is a testament to the
strength and endurance of Maiden’s career. Steve also reckons
that the Rock In Rio DVD –
which he considers the band’s best live release thus far – is
“pretty amazing because it’s a live [headlining] show with 250
thousand people cheering them on.
“The show was really good, and we played well, and the 5.21 mix
sounds great,” he said. “It’s
also got a lot of documentary stuff on there, and interviews, and it’s
a just a really good package. I’m really quite pleased with it.” As far as the current
tour and what fans can expect at Tweeter Center –– “We’re
playing songs from all the albums, but there’s a couple of songs here
and there that we haven’t played for years, really.
‘Revelations’ and
stuff like that. There’s
one new song from the new album, too: ‘Wildest
Dreams.’” Inadvertently underscoring the band’s take-nothing-for-granted philosophy and their perpetual “prove-it-all-night” compulsion –– which is a motivation and mindset that has been a major key to their long-standing reputation as one of the very best live bands in the world –– Steve concludes, “Chicago has always been strong for us, but you never know ... We’ll see what happens; we’re never really sure how it’s going to go.” |
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“We
never take anything for granted,” murmurs Steve Harris, in that
familiar but thick-as-ever cockney accent coming down the phone line on
the very first night of Iron Maiden’s U.S. leg of the “Give
Me Ed ... ‘til I’m Dead” tour.