That live DVD of the Angel Of Retribution tour, Halford was shite on that. Ripper was great on the live albums.

Yeah, it's the live albums where Owens scores points for me, mostly. 98 Live Meltdown has the definitive version of Diamonds And Rust - I've never heard another vocalist go quite that high.

Halford was great when I last saw JP in 2011, but I got the DVD they did from the show in 2012 and he was sounding weaker on that, which didn't give me much confidence. If he's got it back now then that's great though.

These fucking abortions are the support for Maiden, then? No rush to get there so. Fucking bar will be crowded, though.

There are much worse bands out there than Shinedown too.

That's irrelevant really Stat. They're still well below the standard I would expect from a Maiden support.

Not really. Decent Maiden supports are a rarity.

Funeral For A Friend in Dublin on the Dance of Death tour, weren't it? Jesus, such shite.

Dunno, I haven't seen them since 1990. Lauren Harris sounded like a major low.

You going next week, Rob?

Saw her in 2009. Really, really shit.

Got my new Maiden tour shirt in the post the other day.
Very nice.
Off to see them in Nottingham next Thursday. It's my birthday the same day so I might just have to invest in another shirt.


As for Maiden supports (not festivals).
I've seen:

Killer Dwarfs - Fun for fifteen minutes. They played for 40.
The Almighty - Last minute replacements for Alice in Chains and were brilliant.
Funeral For a Friend - Bollocks
Trivium - Bollocks
Lauren Harris/Avenged Sevenfold/Within Temptation - Nepotistic bollocks/boring bollocks (which was a shame because I actually like them)/superb but nobody gave a fuck.
Airbourne - fantastic. Or at least they would have been if the sound had been even halfway decent.

Wolfsbane were enjoyable for ten mins. in 1990, but again - they played for about 40 mins. I wouldn't cross the road to watch them now.

Didn't they have My Dying Bride at some stage? Now that's a proper (if utterly inappropriate) support act.

I think she supported them at the Matter of Life & Death date in Dublin. There were some other godawful supports then too. Trivium as well I think.

No, I'm won't be going myself - too expensive, I don't like The Point at all and I have mixed feelings about nowadays Maiden too as you know. Have an awesome time though!

The only Maiden support I've ever bothered with was Anthrax, who were superb. Support acts are not the point at Maiden gigs.

I'm going to the O2 and I haven't even bothered to look who the support is.

They did. Harris was a big fan of their Angel And The Dark River album and requested them as support. Probably the only decent support act Maiden have had in 20 years.

I wonder if Harris' divorce influenced his opinion of MDB at that time? Considering he found an analogue for his own misery in the Vietnam war that wouldn't surprise me!

Best Maiden support for me was Anthrax, just after POT came out, outstanding.

Oh yeah. I forgot them. They were on The X Factour and were pretty good, if a strange choice of support.

(Quoting this here from 'Listening Now...')


Markhebb is correct; Loneliness is easily a 4 fister track. Considering the kind of shite Maiden have come out with with Blaze and on the Pre- Blaze 90s releases, claiming to hate that song the most is just ridiculous.

The verses are really tuneless on Loneliness. Wasted years is the only track approaching 4 fists on SIT.

1. Caught Somewhere In Time - 3 fists
2. Wasted Years - 4 fists
3. Sea Of Madness - 3 fists
4. Heaven Can Wait - 1 fist
5. The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner - 2 fists
6. Stranger In A Strange Land - 3 fists
7. Deja-Vu - 2 fists
8. Alexander The Great - 3 fists

You fucking mentalist.