Seeing as there are about three threads on the go about Maiden I thought it'd be neater just to keep it all to one thread.

Here's a brilliant clip of Steve Harris falling over whilst playing Die With Your Boots On and Dickinson having to help him up, and some other amusing errors.

A bit of editing might have been a good idea.... 1hr 37mins!


A brief history of Iron Maiden.

1976 - 1981 Paul DiAnno and the boys build the foundations of one of the world's biggest ever bands.

1981 - 1984 DiAnno is replaced by Bruce 'Air Raid Siren' Dickinson and produce a string of classic albums.

1985 - Maiden release 'Live After Death', the most fawned over and overrated live album since 'Alive' (Alive II pisses on it).

1986 - Maiden return with their weakest album to date, although in the light of what is to come it will retrospectively be reassessed as the last great Maiden album.

1988 - Maiden release their first (but not last) shit single, which promptly hits the charts and somehow propels them further than ever into the mainstream. Maiden headline Donington for the first time, helpfully using Kiss (at their worst) to disguise the fact that they aren't as good as they used to be.

1989 - Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Not only is the new album weak as piss, the artwork and production are an embarrassment for a band of this stature.

1990 - Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter confirms that Maiden really have lost the fucking plot.

1992 - Another turgid disappointment of an album and a second Donington appearance, their first with annoying whirling buffoon Janick Gers in tow.

1993 - Bruce realises (a bit late) the ship is sinking and bails, leaving Harris to hunker down and steer the wounded ship Tony Iommi style through the 90's. Two awful albums follow before Blaze is jettisoned back to obscurity and Bruce (and Adrian) rejoin for a Kiss style payday bankarolla.

2000 - Maiden release their first new album with Bruce in 8 years, and shockingly it's actually their best since 1986! Way to go boys.

2003 - Despite a laughably shit cover, Dance of Death turns out okay too. Maiden continue to play to HUGE crowds the world over.

2006 - And then it all goes horribly wrong, A Matter of Life and Death divides opinion, with the right minded people among us holding it up as the drivelly toss it is, while some people (Richie HR for example) hailing it as a masterpiece. Which it isn't.

2010 - Another terrible album cover and possibly the most dreary, dull and just plain boring Maiden album to date, not helped by an intro that even UDO would dismiss as too cheesy. But still, Maiden fly the world playing to an estimated 296 million people every night. You can't argue with those ticket sales, they must be better than ever, huh?

So what album did Maiden release in 1989, Mali?

Too much balls in that post to waste time picking it apart

Iron Maiden - 5
Killers - 5
The Number Of The Beast - 5
Piece Of Mind - 5
Powerslave - 5
Live After Death - 5
Somewhere In Time - 3
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son - 3
No Prayer For The Dying - 2
Fear Of The Dark - 2
The X Factor - 2
Virtual XI - 2
Brave New World - 3
Rock In Rio - 3
Dance Of Death - 2
A Matter Of Life And Death - 2
The Final Frontier - 2

Iron Maiden - 5
Killers - 5
Number of the Beast - 5
Piece of Mind - 5
Powerslave - 5
Live After Death - 6
Somewhere In Time - 5
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - 5
Maiden England - 5
No Prayer For The Dying - 3
Fear Of The Dark - 3 (an album of 2 halves, the shit is really shit, but some grand tunes)
Brave New World - 5
Rock In Rio (if we're counting this) - 4
Dance Of Death - 4
Matter Of Life And Death - 4
Final Frontier - 4

There are only 13 studio albums.

I'm actually quite impressed with the way they reissued all the old VHS they released, in that they did them as additions on the new DVDs.

Early days and Live After Death have all the obscure stuff I used to have like Behind Iron Curtain, rather than releasing ten DVDs. I'm guessing the Maiden England reissue they will do after this tour will include Donnington '88 footage too, and the story so far interviews are pretty entertaining.

A week's ban for Mali please. I'm 100% serious.

Of all the things to lay at that album, it's definitely not the artwork. It's awesome.

That post by Mali is the most inaccurate and poorest post I have ever seen on any internet forum in the history of mankind, and I include the precursor to the internet forum: The Pub.

Iron Maiden - 5
Killers - 5
NOTB - 5
POM - 4
Powerslave - 4.5
SIT - 5
SSOASS - 5
NPFTD - 2
FOTD - 4
BNW - 4
DOD - 4
AMOLAD - 5
FF - 3

Hang yourself.

Somewhere In Time is not a 5 fist album, unless you are a fanboy or a revisionist cunt!

AMOLAD ismy favourite album. I listened to the 80s and 90s ones to death in my teens, so I generally only play the ones from the last decade now.

Bruce's voice is a lot better nowadays too. Some of the early stuff is verging on shouting a bit, I was quite surprised watching Live After Death again quite how rough he starts off Aces High.

I'd probably pitch it a 4. It's my least favourite 80s album.

As the album which got me into metal (Stranger in a Strange Land on The Chart Show, if you care) it has a place close to my heart. But regardless, listen to it now and it stands up far better for songs and production than a lot of their albums, and some of the lesser-regarded songs eg Loneliness of the long-distance Runner and Sea of madness, are some of my favourite Maiden tunes!

I've always been amazed that no one seemed to notice how badly Aces High is sung on LAD. It's the big opener on their big live album, yet it's the worst he's ever sounded. Compared to his assured, impassioned performance on Flight 666 it's like a state school choirboy undergoing puberty.

The version on the video is a different night to the one on the album I think, and everyone just remembers the album version, which listening to it now, isn't as bad.

Quite a lot of his live vocals in the 80s were quite shouty really, he's certainly improved.

I'm glad his on stage banter improved too, some of the waffling was just embarrassing on things like Beast over Hammersmith.

Yet he can't hit the high notes as well on the albums.