For a late birthday present this year, I went to an Iron Maiden concert in Sheffield yesterday (18th December). What can I say? It was absolutely amazing.
After arriving spectacularly early – an hour before the doors first opened, and three hours before Iron Maiden were due to come on – due to clear roads all the way, I had to queue until the doors opened. Although it was cold, queuing wasn’t that bad, and entertainment could be derived from the frantic people going up and down the queues asking for spare tickets — the show had sold out completely before the end of March.
Once inside, I decided to splash out and get a T-shirt and an official tour programme. £30 later, I was all set (and rather annoyed at the overpricing, although not particularly surprised 
), and took my seat, right near the back of the second tier, at the end of the row on the left of the stage. The view wasn’t amazing, but you could certainly see everything. Due to the large queue for merchandise, I missed most of Lauren Harris (the first support act, and the daughter of Steve Harris, Maiden’s bassist), but what I heard sounded alright, although I’m sure some of the singing was lost in amplification.
After a quick stage change, Trivium came on, and thus began the most painful part of the night. Far from being a decent warm-up act before Maiden came on, they just annoyed me. They seemed to have taken the typical stance of bands from across the pond, in that it’s better the more noise you make. Thus, they hammered their guitars throughout the entire set, and screamed a lot. They demanded that a moshpit be formed, which was a bit stupid — while I’m fine with moshpits, it’s a bit childish to demand that one be formed; surely it’s up to the audience if they want to form a moshpit. It’ll be their bones which’ll be broken, after all.
Once Trivium had finally departed (good riddance) and another half-hour stage re-shuffle had progressed, the crowd was ready for some Maiden. After one of the roadies started a recording of “Doctor, Doctor”, I thought Maiden were coming on, as they had released a cover of UFO’s original song on their “Best of the B’Sides” album. However, I was wrong, and it emerged that it was the original which was being played.
Another couple of minutes later, and Iron Maiden really did come on. They immediately went into their first song, and this set the pace for the rest of the concert. I’m not going to go through each song, but rest assured they were all performed damned well, with Bruce Dickinson (lead singer) running around like a madman, Janick Gers (guitarist) throwing his guitar around, Steve Harris (bassist) bouncing up and down, and Dave Murray and Adrian Smith (both guitarists) doing their usual “relaxed, classy guitarist” act in unison.
The first set consisted only of songs from the latest album, and the subject of the tour: “A Matter of Life and Death”. The second set, however, was a collection of fan-favourite classic songs, such as “Fear of the Dark”, and the eponymous “Iron Maiden”. Near the end of the first set, they really showed off the ingenuity of the stage, by raising a giant tank turret from behind Nicko (the drummer), and surveying the audience with it. It was designed to tie in with the subject matter of the album and song (World War 2), and I suspect an explosion was supposed to come from the tank’s cannon, but it never happened. Undaunted, the band carried on, and part-way through the second set, a ten-foot tall Eddie (the band’s mascot) came on to the stage, and menaced members of the band. Eddie was kitted out in World War 2 combat gear, complete with four-foot gun, which Janick promptly tried to seize.
At the end of the second set, the crowd was almost in a frenzy, and couldn’t bear to let Maiden disappear. The cheering continued for at least five minutes after the band had left the stage, and I was up there yelling with the rest of them.
I would highly recommend an Iron Maiden concert to any person who listens to Iron Maiden songs, and perhaps any metal-head at all. The quality of the music can be taken as a given (although it might not be to certain people’s tastes), and the staging and general atmosphere can’t fail to impress either. I know I’m going again in future. Up the Irons!
