Rod's Diary - New York
Published: June 19, 2008


ROD'S DIARY - NEW YORK - JUNE 13 TO 18

Sat
in my hotel room in Manhattan wondering how i am going to catch up on
this diary. Last one was Vancouver nearly 2 weeks ago. It's been a bit
of a mad rush and tough to find the energy and the time to do these
right now. However i didn't go to the Philadelphia show last night and
am not going to Washington/Baltimore tonight as i just need to catch up
with a ton of stuff that has been hanging whilst we have been
travelling. I will rejoin everyone in Boston. So let's try to catch up
on the diary for a while today. I am going to start in NY as its fresh
in my mind and a lot happened. I can then go back to the previous shows.

We
arrived here straight from the show at Blossom near Cleveland, getting
to the hotel about 12.30. Dropped off the bags in the room and headed
for the bar to meet Bruce. It's NY City and bars stay open!! Ill
advisedly we stayed there til about 4.30am, talking about all manner of
things and having "a few" drinks. We even carried on after they closed
the bar at 4, and it was just as well they did.

So Friday became
a tough day with a late start. Cooped up in the room for most of the
day though I managed to catch up with a lot of stuff related to
Twickenham and the European Tour which is getting very close now. Had a
quiet recuperative evening -- watched the Lakers game, where they blew
a half time 24 point lead to lose the Celtics making it 3-1 Celtics
with 3 to play. Made a mental note that we would need a convenient TV
for game 5 on Sunday -- 9pm EST on the evening we play Madison Square
Gardens. Now there is a conflict of interest as we go on stage at 8!

Bruce with his BBC radio producer Ian Callaghan.
I
did get out for an hour or so to go along with Bruce to K Rock which is
not far from the hotel. Our old mate Ian Camfield from XFM in London is
now a NY jock at this prestigious station and has a drive time show
4-6pm six days a week. You can get some of it online as the interview
we did with Bruce with Ian was on there. Good interview as always with
Ian as he is so knowledgeable about and so into Metal, and of course
the key word -- enthusiastic. Important word that!!

After that
watched a movie, "Bank Job" with Jason Statham. Not bad, but not great
either. How can they expect us to believe you can drill a tunnel into a
bank two doors down under a restaurant and no one would hear the
jackhammer and if they did they would not connect the tunnelling to a
bank next door.

I have had regular trouble sleeping on this
part of the tour for some reason, usually it no problem -- must be all
the excitement! Same again tonight. However I was well aware that
England were playing the New Zealand All Blacks at 3am EST so got up to
watch it live on Sky Slingbox rather than watching the recording of it
later. Not a great England performance, the first of the new regime,
and we were convincingly beaten. Normally I would go on about this but
as we are so far behind l will spare you the gory details.

Needed
a good lie in Saturday then more work with cricket in the background on
the handy Slingbox again, the first One Day International (ODI) England
v New Zealand- England won convincingly. Some revenge on the Kiwis for
the rugby but it's not the same.

And of course the US Open
Golf is on live every day at present til about 9 EST -- but there is
already too much sport here for a metal diary so I will not comment
more til the end!!

Set off with Bruce for PNC NJ at about
2.30. As soon as we got going a massive storm started, severe lighting,
minimal visibility, chucking down with rain, the whole range. As we
passed through it I was hoping that it wouldn't be like that before or
during our show some 90 min drive away. Some hope!!

When we got
there after braving various traffic jams the weather was good and
continued to be for most of the day. Steve arrived just after us from
his soccer match. His team had come over again (last game San Paolo,
see diary from March) for a match but this time it was only a 2-2 draw.
"It was bloody hot" they all said. No excuse, 2-2 against USA when you
beat Brazil 7-0???!!!.

Steve with some of the team in strip.
We
have played the PNC a few times and it's a good shed venue generally.
We have 11,000 attending, not bad after we played to 14,000 in NJ just
3 months ago. And what an audience they proved to be. Literally about
20 min before we went on the heavens opened and the storm kicked in.
As I have said before, sheds are basically permanent stages with an
open sided roof covering anything from 4 to 10,000 seats. Here there
are about 6500, so about 4500 on the lawns. The staging area and power
are well protected from the rain and the seats are well covered. While
we were playing you could see the lighting in the sky visible below the
roof and the rain was torrential, although at least it as a very warm
evening. Looking out though no one on the lawn seemed to be leaving,
they were reacting just the same as if nothing was happening despite
being drowned. The following couple of days I met people who were there
on the lawn or knew someone who was and they all said the same -- no
one left, the atmosphere up there was fantastic and everyone had a
fine, albeit wet, time. The rain continued long after we came off too.

We
have to thank all you guys on the lawns for sticking with us in such
terrible conditions. True fans. The band really enjoyed the show and
had a really good onstage sound again and, watching form out front, l
thought the sound was very good there too.

We did the usual
runner to get away before the heavy traffic, and to get back to our bar
where we stayed with various friends from round here for an hour or so.
Then up mid am, got out of the hotel for a change to get some breakfast
then laptop humming for a bit before going to Madison Square Gardens
quite early. This is of course always a very big important show for
anyone. We first played the Garden in 1983, exactly 25 years ago, as
part of the World Piece Tour with Saxon and Fastway supporting (we
actually called this part of the tour the British Metal Onslaught and
had particularly chosen to take Brit bands out with us). The only
time I had been before then was for a live screening form Singapore or
somewhere round that region of Ali v Joe Bugner in about 1974 on my
first ever visit to America. (Bugner lost on points but just kept out
of Ali's way. Very boring, he just didn't fight, but Ali was at his
peak at that time).

Dave with pyro maniac Kevin.
I
think this is the fifth or maybe sixth time we have played MSG and they
have always been good occasions. It holds about 13,000 for our stage
configuration and has always sold out. It is a great arena to play with
good visibility from most of the seats. Despite all these appearances
we still haven't got our picture on the hallowed walls of fame
backstage, but maybe one day we will sit between Neil Diamond and Elton
John, although the latter has of course played MSG 60 bloody times and
at about ten times the ticket prices we allow our fans to be charged.

The
only thing I didn't like at the Garden for our show (besides to huge
costs involved to play there!) was the GA area. We agreed a half GA
floor, as you all know we like our fans standing, and that is the best
you can get there. However at the time we weren't informed that you can
only put 700 people in this pretty large space. Crazy. But after we
found out and tickets were on sale we couldn't do anything as the show
sold out so quickly again. Touring can really get very complicated as
there are so many things to watch out for and every show is different
but I missed this one!! I just took it for granted that half GA is what
it says and there would be 1200 or so in the area. I will know next
time. However it wasn't too bad as the audience in this "pit" area were
definitely up for the show so made up to some extent for lack of
numbers. It's very important to our shows that the interactivity and
interface between the band and audience is as "close" as possible and
we all try hard to achieve the best circumstances.

The infamous Dick Bell returns for the weekend.
Anyway
jumping the gun a bit. Arrived there about 3 I guess and first checked
out Rod's Room which is a hospitality room I have at big shows for my
business contacts and guests, like label people, agents , other
managers who want to come see the band (yes Vaughn, Kenny, Justin etc).
And the room was perfect -- 3 big plasma screens hanging form the
ceiling showing first the golf and then the basketball. I will not
incriminate myself by divulging how much time I spent in front of these
screens as opposed to production office, watching band etc. The
basketball didn't start til 9 so we were back in the room after the
show and then at our bar to see the Lakers win and keep the series
alive. I did watch a fair bit of golf though which of course I had to
so as to support Lee Westwood, an Englishman, who was in the final pair
with Tiger!! Sadly he just missed out on the playoff by one missing his
last put of the tournament by a couple of inches. Should still do his
confidence wonders though and a lot of golf is between the ears. Tiger
as always was beyond belief at times.
Another sportsman who is
totally beyond belief is Lance Armstrong, seven time consecutive winner
(1999 -2005) of the Tour de France, one of, if not THE most gruelling
sporting events imaginable. And he achieved this following severe
medical problems. In terms of human endurance and pure and simple will
power only Steve Redgrave comes close, rowing being an equally
exhaustive and totally draining sport. I am telling you this as it
appears that Lance is a Maiden fan along with current girlfriend Kate
Hudson. Both came along to the show and we put them on the mixing desk
for obvious reasons (well we wouldn't put them in the pit with you lot
would we!!??) where the NY press spotted them singing along to the
songs. They are both huge in the media here, though I didn't get the
impression from them that this was a big deal, so it was odd to see
Maiden in the gossip type columns due to the media interest it caused
by them attending. Must be tough to have to put up with this sort of
attention.

As many of you know -- and thanks to some of you for
your support -- most years I do a long distance charity bike ride, most
recently in Peru, and spend a lot of time in the saddle training,
though you wouldn't know it right now with the "road gut" I am carrying
(and have to do something about very soon!!) . Even in my minor way, I
know how hard it can be and what they do is way off the Richter scale
comparatively in terms of sheer stamina and endurance. In many ways it
is almost superhuman with the rigours they endure. So it was a real
pleasure to meet Lance after the show in my room and have a brief chat.
I should have got a photo but too shy/embarrassed to ask though I do
very much regret that now so hope he comes along again. I have few
heroes but he is certainly one of them. A very pleasant person too I
found. Most of the band went straight off after the show so missed
meeting them though Nicko and Davey came back after and met them both
though of course I think Nicko was more interested in the lovely Kate.

Maiden
get platinum award for sales of Live After Death DVD prior to MSG show
- Nick, Jan and Rod with Mike, their label boss, and Anthon from UME
and Lisa and Dave from Sony their distributors.
The
Trivium chaps were also there -- I forgot earlier they played with us
in NJ and did great -- along with 40 or 50 other friends, colleagues,
managers, artists, new friends from Fox and ABC news etc. a real NY
turnout. And all with the Lakers getting ahead of the Celtics on the
plasmas there so a fine evening.

I guess I should talk about the
show too. Well, as usual there, it went great etc and I think the crowd
had a great time. Except that the power blew out, towards the end of
Powerslave would you believe? After the 45 min experience of this at
Earls Court 2006 -- see diary -- the band and especially Bruce are not
at all phased by this and stayed and waited on stage showing off a few
football skills with a ball that appeared from nowhere. After about 10
min our crew had it back on and we were straight back into the set with
little momentum lost. Thanks to you fans there for your patience and
support.

Back to the bar, saw final part of the basketball with
Lakers taking it to Game 6 back in Boston. (I would mention that the
Lakers (14) and the Celtics (17) have won between them half of all the
Championships since they started 60 or so years ago.). A good day and a
good night with a bar full of friends.

Monday was a business
lunch and a recovery day watching Tiger v Rocco Mediate in the play off
for the US Open -- Tiger as always pulled it off though Mediate
surprisingly gave him a real run for his money (and a whole lot of it
at that!)

Tuesday did little but have meetings here in NY and
catch up on emails clearing a bit of space to get into this today --
and this piece has already gone on way too long!!! The show in Philly
last night apparently went ok though the audience was a bit
disappointing at a shade under 8000, much less than anywhere else. What
have we done wrong to you all in Philadelphia!!! Washington is
thankfully much better tonight.

One thing I did sadly do that
evening though was to watch the Lakers get totally hammered by the
Celtics to lose the series 4-2 and make the Celtics champs. Congrats to
Celtics who were magnificent especially in what they call here
DE-fence. Lakers never got going again after the first about 3 minutes,
or rather werent allowed to do so. It is tough to practically eliminate
a player of the stature of Kobe Bryant, but they did. I am not an
expert by a long way but even to me it looks like the Lakers need to a
new bench (which is not something you put your arse on!). A mate of
Nicko had tickets arranged for the 3 of us for game seven in Boston the
night before our show there. It is sad to miss it as I love going to
major sporting occasions. I have seen final playoffs before but never a
Game 7. There is always next year.

I will catch up soon as I can on Calgary/Edmonton, Regina/Winnipeg, Chicago/Cleveland.
Sorry not many pics -- too busy watching sport on TV!!!!

Rod's Diary - Chicago & Cleveland
Published: June 19, 2008

ROD'S DIARY - CHICAGO/CLEVLAND - JUNE 10-12

Chicago
Sun Times -- June 12 -- "Stella's Column" -- and I quote " CHICAGO
SCENES -- Iron Maiden, the Heavy Metal band, stopped by the jazzy Back
Room on Wednesday and gave an impromptu performance for the crowd that
included....." !!
Yes there is a story to this, just bear with me.

We
flew into Chicago in the early hours after the show in Winnipeg for a
well earned day off. While I was peering at the laptop a certain
drummer was off for a round of golf locally with some mates in the area
-- Nicko now has golf mates in every area you could find! A few beers
were had and then, unchanged, the party set off for the bright lights,
something which Chicago has an abundance of, and many more followed.
Jump a few hours to the Back Room bar where a very "happy" Nick decides
to join the band on stage and proceeds to give this "impromptu
performance", banging the hell out of the drums in the process.
Fortunately a certain pair of amigos under the aliases of Dave and Jan
happened coincidentally to be there, though a bit unusual not being
Irish but it was close to the hotel. Rescuing Nick they eventually got
him back to the hotel and when I asked what he played in the club the
following day Nicko gave me a very quizzical look. What songs, what
drumming??? Be warned, this is what happens when you play too much golf.


At
the same time I was in a nearby Irish Bar -- lots in Chicago -- in a
part of this wonderful city which was totally alive. Apparently in
Chicago it was ladies night with the girls getting free drinks so
everywhere was mobbed, so we could not get into any of the swish
restaurants with kerbside tables to watch the world go by as everywhere
was rammed. I was there with Thomas and Wolfgang who had flown in from
Germany to discuss some aspects of our appearance at the world's
biggest metal festival, Wachen, for which 75.000 tickets sold out some
time ago and we headline the first night. It was shepherds pie and beer
for us then. Not a late night though -- I was jaded after the great
Canadian Experience -- we will get to that later but the wrong way
round of course -- and they had just flown in from Germany having been
on the **** with Lars Ullrich and Biff Byford from Saxon, who Thomas
manages. Dangerous company indeed!!

The following day was work
then down to the show about 5. We have always had a close relationship
with Chicago for some reason and always play there on our US tours. I
don't think we ever missed it. A really great and lively city. In 1982
on the Beast on the Road tour we passed through 3 times as special
guests to Rainbow, then the Scorpions then Judas Priest. I recollect
calling the promoter when the third visit was proposed to ask if this
was a good idea, weren't the fans sick of us yet. Quite the contrary,
he responded, they can't get enough of you! Happy with that we played
there again. It was probably these regular visits back then that
cemented a special relationship with a number of fans there who became
known as the Chicago Mutants, though I can't recall why? Ugly bunch
(not you Joan!!) but not mutated in any way I could discover. There
guys would always show up at the first show of our US tours for years,
irrespective of where that was, and some still do. It's always great to
see them. Our 80's Chicago event shirts would often say "Chicago
Mutants Rule" or something equally great/sad! So always good to catch
up with some of the survivors here.

I didn't fancy the sheds
here so elected to play the All State Arena, formerly called Rosemount
Horizon, and a place we must have played over a dozen times. Really
good arena. And a great concert with a very enthusiastic crowd of
12,000.

We spent most of the next day in Chicago then flew to
an airport near Blossom Music Centre, another shed, but one with a real
difference. It's the home of the Philharmonic Orchestra and in fact
says so on the signs at the entrances. This is both good and bad, but
overall the good certainly overrode the bad.
Due to staging and
our size of show it was tough to fit so it limited pit due to thrusts.
Also the chains hanging the lights have to go through wooden stage
ceiling slats and to avoid damaging and eroding the wood the chains are
not allowed to go up and down so no moving lights, which makes the
Mariner experience especially a bit less spectacular. Also the load
bearing for hanging our PA is a bit less than normal so we couldn't put
as much PA in as we normally would. However for orchestra sound the
whole thing is constructed of wood so the onstage sound and acoustics
was fantastic and the band loved it and would like to carry the whole
structure around with them. Also the out-front sound I thought was
fantastic.


It
was a difficult show to produce due to the limitations and prior to the
show it was in my mind not to return there due to this but the attitude
of the band was eff the moving lights, give us this sound. They played
a blinder and the crowd was great again. I have been known to moan
about US audiences in the past but they are proving to be very very
into it on this tour so everyone is having a great time.

We also
go back a long way with Cleveland. When we started here we were very
fortunate to have plenty of bands we could support like Priest,
Scorpions, UFO, Rainbow, 38 Special etc which got us in front of many
more people than slogging round the clubs and really was essential to
us as with little of no media support it was essential that we played
to as many people as possible to turn them on to Maiden. Fortunately
for us it worked out. However we did play the famous Agora Club in
Cleveland and this was always a great place for us to visit. However in
more recent years industry has declined there similar to other very
blue collar areas which were the soul of Maiden back then, and to some
extent still are. Ticket sales generally are poor in this region due
to unemployment and a general lack of spare money so we were delighted
to have almost 10,000 turning out for us when many tours are avoiding
the market or have cancelled after poor initial sales. So thanks
Cleveland -- and also nearby Cincinnati- for showing up and giving us a
great response. And we love the sound in your venue.

After the show it was back the nearby airport to fly into NY and head for the hotel......and to that bar with Bruce!!
Ps
the Midwest was very bad for me personally. In 2 days I only won one
hand of brag while playing on the plane. Gaddsy and Ian are still
smiling. Revenge will be sweet!!

Rod - Edmonton v Calgary
Published: June 20, 2008

ROD'S DIARY - EDMONTON V CALGARY - JUN 5 -- 8

Yes I
do mean Edmonton v Calgary, not Edmonton / Calgary. If you were from
Alberta you would know why. I am not sure who booed loudest, Calgary
fans when Bruce mentioned Edmonton from on stage, or vice versa. Not
quite as loud as anywhere in Scandanavia against anywhere else in
Scandanavia, or Brazil and Argentina, but a bit more than London and
anywhere in England or LA and NY or Melbourne and Sydney. Bruce as you
know likes a wind up. Geographically "neighbouring" cities on the great
plains of Alberta, both are huge Metal towns. Both sold out within
hours of going on sale, but Calgary 15 min quicker, although Edmonton
(12,820) is a slightly larger hall than Calgary (11,719). And both
audiences were LOUD and fantastic and I dare not differentiate here
despite my strong relationship with Edmonton.

And
this is all before you get into the brutal hostilities over Hockey, The
Oilers v The Flames.... floods of blood on the ice!! Our venues and the
homes of these two great hockey franchises, are the Rexall Centre,
formerly Northlands Coliseum, and The Saddledome, named after the
saddle curve of the roof, an appropriate name for a stadium here, the
home of the infamous Calgary Stampede. Both are fantastic and
atmospheric places to play and steeped in major hockey history.

We flew into Calgary from Vancouver, played a great show to an even greater audience then flew on to Edmonton.

Rexall aka Northlands - home of The Oilers and Eddie for a night - Coliseum
My
sister, Pam, and husband, Keith, emigrated to Edmonton from
Huddersfield in the late 70's and my parents followed soon after once
my dad had retired from West Yorkshire Police. They particularly wanted
to be close to their, at that time, one very young granddaughter Nicki,
thus abandoning me to the parallel evils of London and The Music
Business!!! Nicki was soon to be joined by a brother Scot. My parents
coped with many freezing winters before giving up some 15 years ago and
heading for the warmer climes of Vancouver Island. As I was living in
LA in the 80's I would get up there quite often, and we would also tour
there almost annually as it was so great for metal up there.

One
of the famous aspects of this city is the West Edmonton Mall, reputably
the first real Mall anywhere in the World and bloody huge. It even has
submarines! We have to blame someone for starting Malls, so we may as
well blame Edmonton. So I know the Mall well, have visited Fort
Edmonton and almost once went on the annual raft race with Keith!! (The
bigger the raft the better so you can get more beers on -- speed is not
the sole aim) I won't get into the Oilers again (see Vancouver diary)
but they are still my favourite hockey team!! It is worth mentioning
though that after a fairly tough 90s Edmonton is thriving again and
expanding rapidly over the prairie. Why? One word. Oil! Well perhaps
others too but that's the big word apparently. Someone told me recently
USA gets 70% of its oil from Canada. Surely that is not true?? Any of
you know??

Gaddsy signs for some young fans!Before
the show some of the band caught up with interview links with Sam and
Scot for the documentary, while Nicko, Eddie, the crew and I
concentrated on filming Eddie's acceptance of UK metal mag Metal
Hammer's Icon Award. I won't go into this as you should have seen it on
our web news page but we are very proud of it. If a job is worth doing
its worth doing well I was always told. We always try as Team Maiden to
come up with something a bit different for the fans when we do things,
anything!! And preferably fun. Nicko of course got it in one which is
just as well as Eddie would have fallen over. One of the funny things
about this "shoot" was that I asked for flames to devour Nicko but got
a flash bomb. So when we first saw the final filmed piece there was the
flash then a split second later my plaintive voice going "It was
supposed to be a flame". Everyone cracked up -- very Spinal Tap!! As
you will also have seen Johnny B also shot Bruce on stage just before
the encores -- Bruce really had to shout to hear himself above the
crowd who were incredibly loud and really made it all work.The
next day I went round to Pam's home for beer and barbie with all the
family including Scot's girlfriend (getting married soon??) Angela and
Curtis, Nicky's husband, and in pride of place my great niece Jaime who
is nearly 2 and of course stole the show. It was great to relax for a
day with blood family for a change as opposed to the other lot I have
got entangled with. And they all really enjoyed the show the night
before which was good.

The following day we flew on to Regina but no doubt I will be back in Edmonton in the not too distant future.
So,
Edmonton and Calgary, or Calgary and Edmonton, I won't ask you to shake
hands but thanks to both of you for being terrific audiences. You
actually do have a lot in common, like it or not!!! <- So Nick really is a dummy!

Rod - Regina & Winnipeg
Published: June 23, 2008

ROD'S DIARY - REGINA -- WINNIPEG - JUNE 8 -9

It's
a long way from Edmonton to Winnipeg so we thought we would stop off at
Regina, Saskatchewan, even though the biggest venue there, Regina
Brandt Centre, only has a capacity of around 5000, which sold out
almost immediately. The Brandt Centre, formerly the Regina Agridome,
is an indoor arena in Regina. Built in 1977, it's the home arena for
the Western Hockey League's Regina Pats, and also hosts concerts,
rodeos, and the like. It replaced Regina Exhibition Stadium. The Brandt
Centre has hosted numerous Tim Hortons Briers and Scotties Tournament
of Hearts as well as the Memorial Cup. Musical acts such as Rush, Kiss,
Nickelback, Mötley Crüe, Three Days Grace, Seether, Avril Lavigne,
Velvet Revolver, Collective Soul, Heaven and Hell, Poison, Willie
Nelson, Bob Dylan, Cher, Neil Young, Iron Maiden, Snoop Dog, Van Halen,
Bon Jovi and many other acts have played the Brandt Centre. (nicked
from Wikipedia so probably all wrong!)

Although he venue is
relatively small for a tour like this as you can see a lot of big acts
have played there (plus Cirque de Soleil soon). It's rare for a venue
this size to stage so many big concerts and, with no disrespect to fans
there, this is largely due to the location and logistics in terms of
travelling and playing across Canada. We really enjoyed playing it, the
crowd were again terrific and the band do enjoy the intimacy of smaller
venues when they get a chance, and this was a very good place to play.

We
had flown in from Edmonton, checked into a hotel, did the show, stayed
overnight and then the following day flew into Winnipeg for the show
there, going straight to the show on arrival, playing, then on to
Chicago. Another sold out show here in Winnipeg, about 11,500, and
another fantastic Western Canada audience.
This whole run through
Western Canada, our first full tour there for many years, was a
tremendous experience. Not a ticket to be had anywhere, fantastic
audiences, lots of young fans, everything about it was very enjoyable.
Add to that the abundance of Irish pubs and our fondness for Canada
and our Canadian cousins (a bit like OZ in that way, sort of English
speaking (!) and an obsession with beer and sport, just not the same
weather!!) it all made for a wonderful week there. We will be back on
the next (new album) tour for sure. Thanks everyone for making us so
welcome.

There is one more thing I should mention here. As you
guys who attended these shows will know, we had a very cool Canada
Event shirt, painted by Herve, of Eddie as a hockey player in the red
shirt of Canada, which proved to be very popular. This was based on an
original 84-5 WST Canda shirt of Eddie in Oilers colours with the
number 999 on the front -- the Great Gretsky's number was 99! However
when Herve copied the red Canada shirt presumably from the web he also
included the Canada Hockey insignia on the chest and sleeve. And none
of us noticed, partly as we were probably carried away by how good it
looked and didn't check the detail sufficiently and partly because we
didn't know the insignia anyway!! We would NEVER consciously use other
people's copyrighted motifs. I spend enough time stopping people
ripping us off and hate pirates who rip off both the band and fans with
inferior crap. So this was VERY embarrassing. None of us -- not me, not
my team, not our merchandisers Bravado -- had picked up on this. We
were contacted by Dale at Canada Hockey but it was all very amicable.
They understood it was a genuine error and we withdrew the shirt from
Eddie's Megastore and tour sales. In Montreal you will find Eddie is
now in dark blue with a more apropriate 666 on his sleeve!! We agreed
with Dale to make a good contribution to a Charity related to young
hockey players which we will do once we have the details. Although I
don't think it was the logo that sold the shirts, more likely Eddie!!
And as this was a genuine error on our part, this is totally
reasonable as we did infringe their copyright. So this all means that
any of you who got the event shirt at the show or from our webstore
(without dates of course as is our policy now), before we were aware of
this, have something very unique which will NEVER be available again.
So take care of it!!

Rod - Boston & Montreal (and lots of pictures)
Published: June 23, 2008

ROD'S DIARY - BOSTON - JUNE 19 -- 20

Starting
this in the hotel room in Montreal on Saturday, it's about 3.30 local
time and will be off to the show at the Parc Jean - Drapeau soon but
want to get a start on this so I finish it tomorrow before we catch the
plane back to London. Just sent off the Winnipeg/Regina diary so have
finally caught up. It can be a hassle so I do hope there is someone out
there reading this! I also sorted out the pics for Boston already and
sent them in as there are quite a few this time as I tried to make up
for previous few days when l was "off tour". There may not be many
photos generally but hope you enjoy them, as they are after all quite
exclusive!! By the way the guys tell me that Washington was excellent
with one of the best crowds we have had here. About 10,000 and no
mishaps fortunately so if you were there thanks.

Bad start to today though, we lost to NZ at both cricket and rugby. But let's not get into that.
So
picking up again from where we left off in NY. Wednesday and Thursday
was work during the day but met up with friends both evenings. Some
told me that they had tried to get NY event shirts when they arrived
and checked every MSG merch stand but all had sold out. Apparently some
people were buying more than one l was later told when I checked it
out. In fact some were buying a lot more than one, I heard that one
particular individual bought SEVENTY and the Union vendors there let
them!!! Guess where they went - funnily enough a number went on sale on
eBay the next day at $80++ , whereas price at the show is standard
lower end price of $35. Apparently a lot of tours are now going with
$40+ Ts but we decided to hold lower for this tour to be fair to the
fans. As events are for that show only we do limit the amount we print
to some extent but still try to cater for demand. We only allow event
shirts with dates and venues to be bought at the show, anything in
Eddie's Megastore now does not have dates so as to differentiate with
fans who were actually there, which we think is fair. A lot of people
want these designs and some are so good, including NY, that it would be
a shame to limit them completely.

However its bad enough having
scalpers flogging our tickets at inflated prices and ripping off our
fans without some "fans" doing the same with event shirts so from now
on we will limit event shirt purchases to one only per person so more
true fans can get them. We would prefer greedy people who come to our
show and buy extra shirts just to sell at inflated prices not to bother
showing up in future as it's unfair to real fans who want but then
can't get them. We will also revise how many we print for certain shows
so more can get them if they so wish. Sorry if you weren't able to get
one this time round but as l said we are now making them available on
our site although without dates.

Friday - Bruce, Davey and I
took the plane up to Boston for the show at The Tweeter Centre. The
rest of the band went direct from Washington but Dave and Bruce wanted
to be in NY for the day off. Different plane again and a bigger one
with 4 seats together round a table so will be handy for the card
school that night when we make our final internal flight into Montreal.

We
got to the show about 5 on a lovely day but with forecasts for storms
later....again!! I took some time to take some pics for you guys and by
showtime the atmosphere was fantastic with around 11,500 fans ready for
it, even chanting for Eddie at one point and it's the first time l had
heard that for a while!. We had a few problems early in the show: its
quite a "bassy" stage so Steve was a bit predominant in Aces High but
Dougie soon sorted that out and did a very good job here yet again with
really good sound out front: then Nicko broke his snare drum so short
stop while Charlie fixed it: then the cartridge in Bruce's mike went,
and he has been using the same cartridge in this mike for 8 years he
later told me. We didn't really lose any momentum though but with
blowing the power at MSG too it would appear the band are having too
much fun and getting overly enthusiastic and blowing everything up -
power, mikes and drums!! These are all things that can happen even with
the best of crews and we have a great crew so normally go many gigs
without any mishaps but just now we seen to be getting more than our
fair share. Will have to ask the band to calm down a bit!!

About
20 min before we went on though the heavens opened again similar to
PNC, but again none of the fans, particularly the 5000 or so on the
lawns, seemed at all perturbed. It quietened down from a sur le net to a
steady drizzle after a while but not too bad. And the audience were
great, the band reckoning that the best USA audiences were San Antonio,
Washington and tonight in Boston. That is not to say the others weren't
really good, they all were, but will just have to raise their game a
tad!!
Off to Montreal show now ....................


.............Sunday
mid afternoon pick it up again with Musiqueplus on TV in the
background, not live concert but interviews and videos of artistes
appearing today. A bit surprised to see though that they also played
the whole of our concert at Ullevi Stadium Gothenburg from a few years
ago on Early Days tour. Looked great and I had all but forgotten what a
fantastic audience the Swedish were that day.

After the Boston
show we headed off to the airport and Montreal straight after the show
and drinks and cards were out immediately. This was the last trip on
the plane with everyone together so we doubled the stakes. I managed to
win one and for a change "lucky man" Gadd didn't win any. Nicko and I
are no longer speaking to Ian "King of the Prials" Day.

We
intended to hit the hotel bar as we were there by 1.30am after just a
45 min flight. Customs and immigration were very friendly and got some
autographs so unlike the palaver at airports normally we were
fortunate to be "processed" fairly quickly. Sadly though the hotel was
pretty poor, bar closed at 12, no minibars and it was a bit late to
arrange cabs to go into the bar area of the Old Town. A few grumbles
all round. Last show tomorrow so not such a bad thing.

So ends
what was our most successful USA tour for many years. Lots of people,
many young fans, and really good audiences, we all had a really good
time so thanks everyone there who came along to support us.
MANAGED TO GET SOME ENGLISH PAPERS IN NY - BLOODY LUXURY!!

Mail man.

An Independent man

Headless anonymous man caught reading nonsense!

DRESSING ROOM IN BOSTON BEFORE THE LAST USA SHOW







Tres Amigos even tie their shoe laces together, though I'm not sure what Bruce is doing!


Nicko's most important piece of kit!

LAST FLIGHT TOGETHER ON THIS LEG........


A drink to go with your KFC, sir?


The lovely Eva.



AND LAST CARD SCHOOL......

Gadd steals the big pot!

Can't be *that* funny

Bloody serious stuff, this.

More crap, wish I had longer sleeves.

Gadd caught on camera cheating again!

THE CREW

The sound team

and lighting team.

The lively Kat with her two minders.

Shit, is it really that loud?!?

It wasn't me, honest!!!

Now this is how you should stand on stage, says Squid.

Boomer with NY event shirt

Rod's Diary - Twickenham Pt 1
Published: July 10, 2008

TWICKENHAM STADIUM JULY 5 - part 1Sorry
no diary for a few days but as you can imagine it was insane last week
leading up to Twickenham and as I am still buzzing from the incredible
atmosphere of this show I am going to skip and cover this first while
still fresh then very soon backtrack to Italy, Spain and Paris.I
have sneaked off for a few days with my family for a short break (its
my only chance!!) missing the festivals in Portugal and Spain but
heading back for Stockholm and what promises to be an equally
incredible tour of the Nordic countries.We flew back from Paris
after the show on Wednesday and I stayed in town at Andy's flat to get
into the office early on Thursday to go through a myriad of final
arrangements for Twickenham and other outstanding issues. The guest
list alone was a nightmare of organisational nuances. Every friend the
band ever had wanted to be there and we always like to ensure all our
guests are looked after well backstage in true Maiden manner. Also you
have label, media, suppliers, everyone wants to be there. We ended up
with 3 hospitality areas, one for band guests only, one for mine and
Andy's plus EMI, media, etc and one for all those we couldn't fit in to
the first two. Val, Sharon and Hannah did a terrific job organising all
this with Mark Fuller and the Embassy team who did all the catering for
us.On Friday I took my eldest son Tom to the University of East
Anglia near Norwich as it looks like being a high choice of where he
may wish to study Natural Sciences in a couple of years. They select
their choices before taking A levels which he does next year having
taken his AS Levels this summer. Whoever in this tawdry government came
up with the bright idea of even more exams should be made to sit them
every day for 10 years. In my view a total waste of time and an exam
too many when kids should be learning, not learning by rote to pass an
unnecessary exam. But lets not get into this. Its 4 hours each way by
train but well worth it. The campus and the courses were excellent and
the open day was very well organised. Tom was pleased and it was great
to spend that much time together. It also took my mind off Twickenham
though the Blackberry never stopped buzzing, especially with ticket
requests .....sorry, a tad late!!!Now this story, Twickenham
story, goes back some way, back to almost a year ago when we were
planning the tour. Where were we going to play in the UK on this
monumental tour? I wanted to us to do our own show, not a festival this
time. We have recently played Donington and Reading/Leeds and it was
time to make a statement. But where to make it? Steve fancied Upton
Park, home of West Ham, but it's a bit small (about 30,000 for a
concert) and a bit out of the way, although we do hope to play there
some day before we finish. Wembley is ludicrously expensive for some
reason didn't seem to me that special, many people have played there,
along with a lot cynically extending their careers at charity shows
there. I do accept many weren't cynical and were being altruistic but
you could spot the ones after the main chance from a mile away,
Embarrassing!. Milton Keynes, no. I rather fancied Hyde Park but there
are overly severe sound restrictions and we just couldn't take a
chance, though to see the Maiden army in force around central London
would have been a joy to behold and I think many fans would agree with
me. But sadly not to be. As will have been obvious to anyone
reading these diaries I am a major rugby fan and must have attended
seventy or eighty matches at Twickenham and have had debentures for 12
years. The bands who played there these last few years were the elite,
the Stones, U2, Eagles (yes I know but credit where it is due) and only
a handful of concerts there ever starting about 5 years ago. And, now
fully completed, it is a truly magnificent stadium rebuilt largely (at
the beginning) by an amateur sport and more or less on budget, unlike
some places I could name!! I have had some of my most enjoyable and
memorable times (and some of the worst!) times in that stadium. It has
a wonderful atmosphere and a great view from all the seats as it sort
of goes straight up, not banked, so you are generally closer to the
stage than at many other stadiums. And of course we could use the
England dressing room!! But I never thought the local residents
would ever allow a Metal band, let alone Maiden, play there as they
would be concerned about noise levels and, clichéd as this may seen,
our Metal fans. To some extent the suburbs and middle classes still see
us as the great unwashed, drunks with a penchant for violence and
pissing on the lawns (like rugby fans generally then!!) So when Andy
Copping, our Live Nation promoter, and our exceptional agent John
Jackson of K2 (and our agent since the very beginning) suggested it I
thought they were mad. But it appears times have changed and they had
already checked and we would be allowed. For any concert in a
residential area, which Twickenham certainly is, you have to get
residents permission no matter who you are, so....THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH THE RESIDENTS OF TWICKENHAM!!

What
a result. I just could not believe we would be playing there and I just
knew it would be fantastic but I immediately started feeling the
pressure. This is it, Maiden at Twickenham, combining 2 of my greatest
joys. But then "what if..." creeps in to the back of the mind and to be
honest stayed there till about 10.15 pm Saturday night. All our team,
on and off the road, slaved over every detail to ensure this was a
memorable event for band and fans alike. Nothing was too much. Playing
"at home" is always tough as you really do want it to be great to show
off to friends, family, colleagues and the like, not just the fans, but
its only natural I guess.It is worth briefly mentioning what
happened when, in 2001, we applied to play at Earls Court Arena for the
first time and the residents were up in arms. ("we are not having this
type of person soiling our sidewalks!!") Believe it or not it was the
Met Police who eased their worries stating that Maiden and Metal fans
were there for the music, not trouble, and in fact behaved like 16,000
long lost friends at concerts, all in it together for the sheer thrill
of the experience. Or something like that anyway. We got permission and
after we played our fans got great plaudits from the residents and
businesses. So after that when we played a couple of nights there in
2006 it was not an issue. In some ways I think these central London
shows set the tone for us being able to play Twickenham as you guys had
proved to everyone that it is about the music, not the bullshit. In
many ways it is our fans attitude at our concerts that made Twickenham
possible. As I said I am on hols -- I have to get out with the
kids as it's the only few days I will really get with them for a few
weeks so please bear with me as I close for now but will continue
tomorrow -- this was such a big deal for us all it may take a while to
tell the full story so be patient pls.

- Rod

Rod's Diary - Twickenham Pt 2
Published: July 10, 2008


ROD'S DIARY TWICKENHAM STADIUM PART 2 -- THE PREP

Back
from the beach, lets get a bit more done before we go out. Lets look at
the prep that goes into a show if you want it to be as perfect as you
can. Its home, its London, and its Twickenham Stadium. We do our best
for all our shows under whatever circumstances allow but at home, as
our team is based there, it is generally feasible to do that little bit
more, although we do try to continue any additions through to any large
shows to follow. The band are always on form and committed irrespective
of how big the venue and the only thing that can really affect them
adversely is poor onstage sound or excessive heat (first Paris show for
the heat, for example, but more of that later) and outdoors onstage
sound tends to be more consistent as it is not "surrounded" by venue
walls. So all I can do to make it even better, along with the band and
crew, is to look at the detail and see if there is anywhere we can
perhaps improve even slightly to make it even more memorable. So here
are a few of the things we looked at to enhance the Twickenham
experience for you guys.
1
- I wanted the staging to make the fans gasp and increase anticipation
of the show to even higher levels when they entered the arena so we got
Hangman to design drapes to go along the both sides and top of the
stage and have to say it did look great. These made the stage look even
bigger. We also got side panels with art on to go each side of the
runways at about the same height. This obscures all the control gear
behind but makes the staging look even bigger and better. A detail but
worth the effort. Detail all counts, everything has to be considered to
enhace the overall effect for the fans and equally for our own
satisfaction of doing it right and the best we can. All the Maiden team
think this way or they really wouldn't last long!!

2 - Pyro --
for a show in a stadium this size lets triple it, we said, as much as
is safe anyway. Don't want to blow the band up half way through a tour!
So the gas jets were huge, more explosions and bigger in Mariner, etc.
everything at least one size up. We intend to repeat this at the really
big stadium shows like Gothenburg, Helsinki and others. During Number
to the Beast you can feel the fire on your face a hundred yards away.
On the night Kevin our pyro man did us proud and his timing was spot on
throughout.
3
-- Sound -- Dougie and his ML team went down and studied the stadium
well in advance. They eventually decided to use delays for the back of
the standing area and lower and middle tiers but to enhance the sound
for fans in the upper tiers they hung PA from the roof, something which
Twickenham (who were very cooperative throughout) allowed us to do.
Jumping ahead, reviews and comments on the sound have been exceptional
from people in all parts of the stadium so I definitely think our guys
got it right. It was loud and clear. As we hung from the roof the
delays did not need to be as large so that opened up seats at the back
and also standing room on the floor. Standing was about 16,000, but
could I think have been more as there was space at the side and back.
However there is a limit of how many people per square metre you are
allowed to have standing due to ...yes, you guessed it... elf n safety
(again!!). However for those who read comments in the Canada diaries
you may remember how relatively few we could have standing in those
arenas so a definite improvement on that. E 'n' S with various sound
and audience restrictions is gradually curtailing the real rock n roll
aspects of concerts and making them more and more sanitised. Of course
we want our fans safe, but at times it is truly over the top.
4
-- Lights - I really like the effect of the moving lights in the
"singing bits" towards the beginning and end of Fear of the Dark and
wanted to enhance that to really bring the stadium together and create
a very special atmosphere. So we put similar moving lights to those on
stage around the mixing and lighting platforms out front. The curfew at
Twickenham is 10.30 so, to allow for our full almost 2 hour set plus a
bit of "just in case" time, we went on at 8.15pm, a bit earlier than
normal which is generally 9 or 9.30. This happens a lot in the really
big stadiums when they are in residential areas as a courtesy to the
residents. But when we came to these dramatic points of audience
participation in FoD it was still a bit too light to have much of an
effect, though I hope some of you noticed it and appreciated the
thought and effort! We were going to continue this in the other
stadiums but dropped it as a lot of trouble and cost for little or no
effect (in Scandinavia it will be even lighter!!) Again a word about
our terrific crew, Rob did a fantastic job on the night, as usual, and
I thought the lights looked huge and spectacularly classy. You may have
noticed how different our lights look on this tour to most other bands
as there are so many "old fashioned" par cans which are not used much
in these days of moving lights. It was actually very difficult to find
sufficient as there are not so many still around. We think they look
great and were appropriate to the period of our music this tour was
covering, They are very similar to our original 84-85 lighting rig and
I think give a really mighty look, not as fast and twiddly as modern
moving lights but much more powerful looking.

5
-- Big Eddie, as we call him, the one who comes out on Iron Maiden, is
always a key point in our show and, lets face it, a lot of fun.
Everyone's face lights up when an effin huge tank or mummy comes out
right in front of them!! Our mummy on this tour would not fit in the
plane for the first leg so we first came across him at preproduction in
San Antonio, Texas, in mid May. I had seen him briefly at preproduction
in the UK in December when we put the first leg show together, but he
was in his case and as his face looked fine I assumed the rest of him
was. He was supposed to be exactly the same, just perhaps a bit bigger,
than the one on Live After Death. That was the brief. However he
wasn't, his arms were straight down with limp wrists. And he was too
ragged. We did everything we could in North America to look as good as
possible, shaking him, kicking him, you name it but it just wasn't as
good as it should and had to be. To be honest I found him a bit
embarrassing at times knowing what it should look like. It would have
been logistically very difficult to change any aspect of him during the
North America tour due to time and distance. However we intentionally
put the two back to back Bercy Paris shows in right before Twickenham
as this would allow us 2 days relatively nearby in a controlled
environment to make any last minute additions or changes, and also to
rehearse screens, as below. So the body was thickened, the arms changed
and the bandages more stuck down in the afternoon prior to the first
show and he looked much much better. Eddie was returned to his former
glory!!

6
-- Screens -- as you will have seen we had 2 huge clear daylight
screens for Twickenham. Bercy is a very intimate venue despite its
large 16,000 capacity and we don't normally use screens there but we
did for these two shows, bringing over from the UK the director and
cameramen to work with Dave to get acquainted with the show so that by
Twickenham they would know what shots to look for. I think this gave us
a far better chance of having an exciting show on the screens which,
for the fans further back, I think is very important

7 -- On the
way to the stadium I called in at a hardware store to pick up a hammer
and some 10 inch nails to hammer into Nicko's snare drum so it didn't
break down again as it did on the first couple of euro shows. Cant have
this happening again. Well actually I threatened Charlie, Nicko's drum
tech, with all sorts of mayhem if it did break down and it seemed to
have worked!!!

So that's just some of what went into the show
which I hope may be of interest to you. In part 3, which I will get to
as soon as I can, we can actually get to the day itself. Its still a
blur and so much happened but I will try to give you some insight of
what it was like from our end.

- Rod

Rod's Diary - Twickenham Pt 3
Published: July 14, 2008

ROD'S DIARY - TWICKENHAM PART 3 -- THE DAY

Up
at about 9 as had to chase down 2 cats and our dog to take them to the
kennels as we go all go away on Monday and I don't fancy having to get
up at this time tomorrow to take them!! They are used to it, as soon as
they see the cat baskets they start whinging and trying to get away and
hide! The dog fortunately is an easier proposition as it's ten times
the size and can't hide so easily. Takes about an hour to take them to
the kennels and back and I then have a good breakfast, check out the
sports news and walk up to Hove station. Delighted to see Hove Maiden
fans on the platform already, its only midday and doors at Twickenham
don't open til 3.30 so obviously a couple of beers along the way is
planned. Of course I know the pubs of Twickenham rather well after
having attended so many England rugby games there for more years than I
care to remember. My first game was England v Wales in about 1969, a
trip down with my college rugby team...of course in those days we lost.
(welshie says we still do) If I had a penny for every pint I had
consumed in and around Twickenham ....well, you can guess the rest!

Changed
trains at Clapham Junction and onto a platform crowded by fans. It
really was a similar atmosphere to a rugby crowd there, everyone seemed
to be in great spirits looking forward to a terrific "match" and a
definite feeling of anticipation in the air. Maiden fans are often
compared to football fans due to their dedication to the band, the way
they wear our "colours" and the fact that many follow the band around
many shows, home and away. I prefer to liken them to rugby fans for a
similar reason but I won't go into the other reasons as Steve would get
upset.

The walk through Twickenham to the ground is always a
pleasant one and fans were already making their way there in quite big
numbers -- it was about 2. I got stopped occasionally by fans who
recognised me and, as I was in no great rush, had a chat, took a pic.
Some had travelled many miles, including a couple from Brazil, and
generally if there is time I enjoy talking to the fans, it gives me a
first hand view of what they think and what they like.

The
weather was fine with blue skies and remained so all day, contrary to
the weather reports which had it down for 20% chance of rain.
Fortunately they were wrong as usual and the weather was perfect all
day. In retrospect we were very lucky as the weather was abysmal to
next few days.

I was glad to see there were no pirate
merchandisers on the route. We had employed security teams and lawyers
to seize their illegal goods and they were doing an excellent job. The
pirates sell cheap T-shirts and products, pirate our designs usually
badly, don't pay any tax or royalty and should be kicked off the
streets. I was not going to have Twickenham flooded by shit gear and,
as we take care of business, we were able to seize the goods of any
that showed up. Generally they charge the same price as official
product, yet, out of the price of official stuff, there is 17.5% VAT
and 20-30% concession fee to the venue to pay. The pirates of course
don't pay this, nor do they pay us a royalty so they make a big cash
margin off the backs of both the band and our unsuspecting fans.
Pirates make a huge margin ripping you off with low quality crap and we
have always made huge efforts to stop them, usually successfully. And
will continue to do so. Just don't buy stuff outside the gig unless its
obviously official, usually 2 washes and the shirt has had it. No
concern on quality, these guys.

I checked out our official merch
on the huge stands outside the West Entrance and it looked great. I am
particularly happy with the event shirt showing Eddie mowing down the
opposition with a rugby ball under his arm. This art for this was
conceived -- no, you wont guess who by -- last year soon after England
made the final of the world cup in Paris, losing to south Africa.
However we did beat mighty rivals Australia in the quarter final and
France in the semi so we had some appropriate figures left in Eddie's
wake. Originally I had Eddie -- painted of course by the excellent
Herve -- in England strip but thought it best, as it's a registered
design, to check with the RFU. I was able to make rapid contact through
a mate who works in sports managements, managing a lot of the All
Blacks, who forwarded it to them. Unfortunately, but as expected, the
RFU asked us not to use the England official strip as it sent out the
wrong message about the game. It is a bit fierce I guess! So we changed
it. Also the chap in blue -- which is the colour of the French strip --
originally bore a close resemblance to Chabal who plays for Sale and
France -- I think Herve must be a fan as this wasn't part of the brief!
But we thought it best to change that too. Even in generic strips I
still think this is a classic event shirt though and the fans seemed to
agree by the numbers wearing it. This can be bought soon --if not
already there -- in Eddie's Megastore but of course without the date as
is our policy now on event shirts as I explained earlier. I think the
back is a lot of fun too!

I
went round to the West Entrance so I came in the side of the dressing
rooms, production office etc and went for a wander round to check
everything out.

First went onto the pitch to check out the
staging and sound and light platforms. The stage looked fantastic with
the specially made drapes and all looked in good order. Went up on
stage and talked to our stage manager Bill who advised me all was in
good.shape The stadium looked amazing from on stage even though doors
weren't open yet. Looking out l was even more pleased we had chosen
this venue.

After
this it was on to the production office to see Ian, Jason and Kat to
make all was OK and on schedule which it was. Then to the band dressing
room and lounge. The dressing room was the England rugby one which I
have been in before on a tour of the stadium. At that time, during the
season, the names of the team were on plaques over each changing bay
but as it was out of season these had been removed. Leading off from
the dressing room is a bath area with 6 separate baths in two rows of
three -- should have taken some pics but my head was elsewhere. After a
rugby match these are filled with ice water and the players each spend
about ten minutes in them as it assists recovery from any knocks or
sprains. I offered this to the band later but perhaps understandably
they declined!

The band hospitality area we used was the gym and
as this is right next to the dressing rooms this was ideal for the band
to go in and out to see their mates. We had to move all the heavy
equipment -- I couldn't believe the size of some of the weights the
team chuck around, especially Andrew Sheridan our mighty prop.

From
there I checked the hospitality area for mine and Andy's guests, EMI,
media, business colleagues, promoters and agents etc. This was ERIC's
bar which was behind the west stand with an entrance close to the main
one for dressing rooms, gym etc so quite convenient. This is used by
the players and the walls are full of framed photographs of players
from the past, very interesting if you are into rugby.
We then
walked about 150m to the Carling Suite where all the guests we couldn't
fit into the gym and ERIC's had to go as there just wasn't enough space
for everyone in those two.

By this time it was about 4pm and the
crowds were coming in fast to get the best standing positions after
doors opened promptly at 3.30. There was definitely a very positive
vibe about the place which made me think it could be a very special
show. Again the atmosphere was almost celebratory. From here on til the
band went on I wandered around almost in suspended animation and
expectancy. I do get very nervous before a big show, not that I can
really do anything more. So do the band but that is good as that
nervous energy can really fire up the show. I talked to fans,
particularly when recognised on my wanders, spent time in ERIC's seeing
friends some of whom I hadn't seen for a while including old rugby
mates who have been coming to shows since the start. The band gradually
arrived. Janick was there first wandering round the stadium. None of
them had ever been to Twickenham before and all were suitably
impressed. I found Steve in the band lounge very flustered still trying
to get his guest list together -- there hadn't been much time before
with all the shows. Bruce was there quite early too and requested a
rugby ball to kick out -- he was in the right place to get one -- which
he did at the beginning of Aces High. Clive Burr arrived with his
helpers and I took him through to the band hospitality. It was good to
see him in good spirits.

I
had a couple of beers in Erics to settle the nerves -- medicinal you
know -- and really should have gone to catering to get a proper meal
but I just didn't feel like eating. Nervous anxiety strikes! Wish I had
later as by the end of the show I was totally exhausted. A burger in
ERIC's didn't help much. I do this too often at big shows and really
should have learned by now. You have to eat properly on tour!

The
rest of the band began arriving around 6.30, and good to see all in
good spirits. I didn't get chance to see all of any of the supports --
Lauren, Within Temptation and Avenged Sevenfold -- but caught bits of
each one and all seemed to go well. The thing I really noticed on all
of them was how good the sound was, a good omen for us later. Within
Temptation are a favourite of the band, especially Steve, and we like
to have them as support -- they are also playing Assen with us. I
managed to catch them later to say hello and have a chat. A7x are doing
a string of dates with us and will also support through Scandinavia. A
very good band and the guys are all impressed with them and happy with
the choice of them as main support on these dates. Nicko is quite
friendly with them having seen them before in the states -- he gets to
a lot of shows in Florida. I had left them some champagne in the
dressing room as a belated (they had already played Italy and Paris
with us) "welcome" to the tour but anyway Twickenham seemed an
appropriate place to do this.

By 8 the atmosphere was building
and everyone was taking up position, band, crew and fans alike. I had
earlier found a great spot just through the doors from the dressing
room, the tunnel through which the team enter the stadium. A nice
square piece of grass on which we arranged a temporary bar. And a great
view of stage and stadium alike. Everything and everyone was ready,
able and waiting -- would it come up to all our hopes and expectations??

Sorry
guys, this will have to be part 4 as I have to go out now. I am
supposed to be on hols (as Kathy keeps reminding me!!!) so next ...and
soon I promise -- will finally be the show!!!
- Rod

Rod's Diary - Stockholm
Published: July 19, 2008

ROD'S DIARY - STOCKHOLM JULY 16

Sat
in production office in Helsinki about an hour before we go on. Been a
hectic couple of days in Stockholm. A bit behind again but a couple of
days off soon so promise to catch up. Before final part on Twickenham
and first few shows I thought it best to get up to date.

Bruce,
H, Davey and Nicko were in the UK so we flew in together arriving in
Stockholm about 5. The gig was at the 32,000 capacity Stockholm Stadium
which is fairly central in the city. Stockholm has about a million
population out of Sweden's 9 million total and has always been a great
city for Maiden. We have played this stadium a couple of times before,
its almost Medieval looking with some fine towers by the stage, one
flying the Swedish flag and one the Union Jack -- nice thought from the
promoters. (Although I do sometimes wonder what this flag stands for
after the many actions and inactions of our government but lets not get
into this minefield). The city itself is quite beautiful. No high rise
buildings so its good to see a landscape with spires and domes which
you don't get much in major cities anymore. And it is built around
water with vast archipelagos not far away. Water, saunas and beer is a
way of life here. Like all of the Nordic territories people are very
friendly, very civilised, love their metal and definitely know how to
have fun. In the summer the daylight hours last hours from about 4am
til 10pm, and its never really dark. But of course it's the other way
round in the winter so you have to know how to make your own fun when
its so dark most of the time and of course cold. However the day of the
show was a wonderful bright day and although rain was forecast it never
arrived.

Lovely Stockholm
Along
with Ullevi this show sold out in just over 2 hours last November. It
is called the Maiden Religion here. We even get paparazzi who are cool
if you let them take a quick pick in exchange for leaving you alone.
Jan found this out when he went around the various pubs the night
before the show, followed by a couple of cameras. They seem fascinated
that such big "stars" here wish wander around the bars with no security
and not a care in the world. We just think its natural.

Following
Twickenham I thought this was another blinder of a show, and that may
be the right word as it didn't get dark til near the end of the show.
Even our blinders weren't very blinding. And all that money spent on
lights!! The screens were daylight screens of course so all the
audience got a great view and of course being so light the band got a
great view of the audience, who were of course as terrific as they
always are. The following morning I picked up the papers and had
someone translate and they were stellar with massive coverage, along
with pics of Jan in the pub of course.



The
following day Dave, Jan, Gaddsy and I went out of town to a friends
place. Barry was our merchandiser for many years and is a great mate.
He has an amazing house on the waterfront (his wife is Swedish) and we
went out there for beer and barbeque, ferried out there on a small
motor boat past some amazing scenery. Had a relaxing day in preparation
for big shows in Helsinki and Tempere. Dave even tried his hand at
fishing without much success, although we were later unreliably
informed that the rod he left on the quay with line hanging in the
water did catch a fish but after we had gone.

More later, show starts in 15 min!!







Ian looks for inspiration while Bruce checks the racing results.

Don't think these fans are dressed for catering, but it is Sweden.

Danger - crew at work!


Don't let him get me, says Shaun.


Waiting for Lauren.



Steve hides to watch Lauren.

Take out your earplugs then!

Two union flags and mum I'm on TV! View from the sound desk.




Ready and waiting.

Where's that bloody boat?


There it is!!!


Our chariot arrives


On the way.


Idyllic.



Look, no eyes!

Prepare to fish.

It's fun!


Sod the fish says Gaddsy, drink like 'em instead.


Dave, Gunnar, Jan, Barry and Gaddsy.



My arty bit.

A bit more art.

You work it out!

Rod's Diary - Twickenham Pt 4
Published: July 22, 2008


ROD'S DIARY - TWICKENHAM PART 4

It's
time......8.15....Doctor,Doctor by UFO, our cue tape, fades and the jet
engine kicks in, Transylvania starts and the intro movie from the first
leg of the tour plays. And then, as the Spitfires zoom loudly through
the PA with that wonderful right to left panning effect, the Churchill
speech kicks in and the whole stadium erupts. I think it was the
Guardian that said that the roar was greater than if England were
winning the Rugby World cup here. I was there in Sydney in 2003 and I
can tell you it was! What an incredible reception. This is a great
stadium for atmosphere as, with the recent building at the North end
the ground, it is now totally enclosed by those vertical high stands,
keeping all the sound inside the stadium, both the audience and the
band. The pyros exploded, band ran on followed by Bruce who kicked the
rugby ball out into the crowd, and a good kick it was too. Johnny W.
would have been proud! (ok, let not get carried away here -- ed)


With
the audience rampant it was an incredibly exciting start to the show.
To be honest the rest is a bit of a blur. I went up onto the stage
early in the set to see how the audience looked from up there and it
looked incredible. I do keep repeating it but it really is some stadium
and the whole vibe on stage was almost surreal. You really could see
the audience so well and of course going on so early it was still very
light so very easy to see everyone in the stadium.

I
was much too tense/excited/stressed/overwhelmed -- however you wish to
put it -- by what was to me one of the most important shows we have
ever done that I just couldn't settle anywhere to enjoy it, just
couldn't stop wandering around. I checked the sound at the back, at the
side, walked down the front, back to my spot for a beer, left it, back
to the mixing desk,,,,,, on and on. Must have walked miles. Looking
back I wish I could have just sat down and enjoyed and taken in the
fantastic atmosphere but I just couldn't !! Don't really remember it
that clearly. But I do know the show went off without a hitch, looked
great, mummy Eddie finally looked the biz, the pyro looked huge and, of
course, most importantly, the band played our of their skins. After all
these years though I am used to this. The more the pressure the more
this band delivers. The bigger it gets the better they are. Its just
sheer adrenalin and I guess nervous energy. I think all the really big
shows we have ever done -- like Donington 88, Rock in Rio 2001, you
name it -- have been truly fantastic performances by the band. The more
the pressure, the better they get. So to play like this at a massive
showcase gig (in my mind, the band rarely see things like that) like
this in your own back yard was so very satisfying. And the sound
everywhere I went was excellent, well done Doug and the ML team. I
didn't get up into the stands, just didn't have the energy, but
people I met later who were in various parts were highly complimentary
of how good and loud it sounded. For the sound team these accolades
made all the extensive preparatory work so very worthwhile.
I do
remember at the end of the show during Iron Maiden I was at the back in
the space behind all the towers and desks just taking in the atmosphere
when I was approached by five jubilant fans wanting pics taken with me.
No problem but I kept shouting to them, as they stood with backs to the
stage taking shots in turn, that they were missing Eddie and had to
make them stop so I could check him out before returning to the "photo
session"
I
recall talking to loads of fans briefly all day during my restless
travels around the stadium and the good humour and high spirits and
expectation of the fans was something I shall always remember. I think
everyone in that stadium that day had a really great time. Such a
joyful atmosphere brimming with the camaraderie of a shared experience.
It really was a microcosm of what it is all about for Maiden. Shared
experience, getting high to the music and that immense communal feel of
a big Maiden show. Throughout the set the audience was in fine voice,
no more so of course than in Fear of the Dark, even though it was only
just getting dark!! And, as darkness slowly crept over a wonderful
summer's day, if anything the atmosphere just got more and more intense
as the show drew to a close with a monumental Hallowed be thy Name.


After
the show I went straight back to the dressing room to see the guys.
Bruce had a huge grin on his face. They had the very best of times on
stage. The sound was really good up there and of course as I had seen
myself the audience and the stadium just looked spellbinding. Even H,
who is so hard to please, had a great time! They asked me what I
thought. I think I responded "yes, fine". It hadn't really sunk in and
anyway was what I thought representative of the people who really
mattered, the fans?
But
in retrospect it would seem that everyone in the stadium that we heard
anything from had a fantastic time, and if the huge response at the end
was anything to go by this was most definitely the case. Old hands
thought it possibly the best show they had ever seen us do. New ones
thought it was too!! Even the national broadsheet press, in between the
mandatory patronisation of band and fans alike, gave us splendid
reviews. The whole thing appears to have been a memorable and 110%
success, and, as a manager, that's all you can ask for. This was
certainly a day I shall always remember and fortunately I will be
reminded at least half a dozen times a year when I go to see England
play there, though I doubt I will get the same access "backstage"!!

Afterwards I
went back to ERICs bar to join family and friends and guests. All my
kids had brought a couple of friends each and I was very pleased that
they all loved it. This always matters! But the general sense from
everyone was great gig, great sound, great day so we all just
celebrated for a couple of hours. I had arranged a coach to bring up
and take back the "Hove contingent", about 35 of us. I got on the bus
truly exhausted and sat alone catnapping on the 90 min journey home.
Half awake, half savouring the day. And I slept well that night!

In
closing we would all like to thank all the fans who travelled from all
parts of the UK, and in some cases further afield, and gave us such
great support and such great memories. And as you all know, you are
VERY much part of the show!!! And thanks to Andy Copping and his team
at Live Nation and John Jackson and all at K2 for getting us to
Twickenham and to all my team and all our Killer Krew for making it all
work!!


PS
- Don't really remember now but must have been a long lie in and a
quiet day on the Sunday after Twickenham. Totally drained after a busy
couple of weeks following our return from the North American leg of the
tour. Had to catch up with a bit of work though, largely personal
stuff I hadn't had chance to deal with, and then packed for a bit of
holiday. I was away for about a week, though of course my family stayed
away longer and are still there!! I had to get back for the stadium
shows in the Nordics, and I certainly did not wish to miss these. While
away the band played a couple of festivals in Portugal and Spain which
went well. Festivals as I said before about Graspop are pretty
straightforward so I don't really need to be there, and quite often you
don't get much of a record company presence due to location etc. We
were due to play a second Spanish Festival in Zaragoza but heavy storms
the night before badly damaged staging and equipment and the promoter
was unable to fix everything in time for any of the three days of the
fest to run, although we did send our crew and equipment up there in
the morning in case something could be done. Hopefully our fans in
Zaragoza can catch us next time round as the promoter was unable to
rearrange anything.

Rod's Diary - Filling some gaps, Montreal to Twickenham via Italy and France and of course Hove
Published: July 22, 2008

So lets catch up. At least the first bit anyway...

We
flew back from Montreal on June 22 arriving early hours of 23rd of
course. Car home and boy was it good to be home and see the family.
It's a long time 5 weeks, and I could swear Jake had grown a couple
more inches!! We had a quiet day. They hadn't broken up from school yet
but as exams were finished some were around which was great, and the
rest home at a reasonable time. Caught up on all the recent activities
and everyone was looking forward to Twickenham and going on holiday a
couple of days later. A quiet evening, an early night as feeling a bit
lagged. Tuesday was a catch up day on personal stuff -- and opening all
that mail -- then Wednesday back into London to the office for meetings
with my team plus various meets with agents and promoters, EMI etc to
catch up on as much as possible. In the evening was a party at the Roof
Top Gardens in Kensington, a fantastic place for a party. It was a
lawyer mate whose company was celebrating 25 years in the business and
a great turnout for them. Kathy was in London with a couple of the kids
going to the theatre so I had a car pick them up in the West End and
then pick me up from the party -- though of course Kathy called in for
a while -- then we all went home together in the car. Thursday was more
catch up work in my home office and then Friday we were off again, this
time Italy. The plane was going from Luton so had a couple of hour rail
journey up there but not too bad.

We arrived at the show in
Bologna latish afternoon in plenty of time to go on at about 9.30. We
have played Gods of Metal a couple of times before and, although
backstage is a bit primitive compared to the larger festivals, its
always a good vibe and of course the Italian audiences are always
terrific. See past diaries, last time in the arena in Milan they put
out a higher dB level than the band. There were around 25,000 so made
quite a racket. All went well, all the production worked fine which is
always pleasing at a first show when you change continents. The only
minor mishap was that Nicko's snare broke after 3 songs. Its an old
snare and his favourite as it has a great snappy sound to it. Charlie
fixed it, for now anyway. It happened again in Paris, was the reason
for my comment on 10 inch nails in the Twickenham part 2 diary, and
happened again last night in Tempere. We obviously need more ten inch
nails! Or Nick sadly may need a new snare, but its hard to part with
an old loved friend.

We flew back to Luton after the show, so it
was quite a long drive back to Hove and I was by now pretty knackered
and tried to kip on the back seat. A lie in Saturday, some rugby on TV
(start of Tri Nations, Kiwis v Springbox, Kiwis won a close game just
about deservedly) and in the evening a good friends birthday party
which was a good chance to see and catch up with a lot of friends from
our area. They know how to have a good time in Hove so it went on til
the early hours -- not quite what I needed all things considered -- but
you have to keep up with the pace and it was an excellent bash!!

Sunday
lay in and then the forgotten luxury of Sunday papers at home! Followed
by some work and then in the evening we took the kids out for a curry
-- they all of course like curry!! I didn't go to the show in Belgium,
Graspop. We played it in 05 and 07 and I figured the guys could manage
perfectly well without me and I needed the break as I knew the party
would be a good one! It went very well I hear with their biggest crowd
there yet on the Sunday, 35,000. Graspop is a very established and
well run festival and the crowd there have a great time.

It was
Kathy's birthday on the Tuesday July 1 and originally we planned to go
to Paris together for the show there. However with things to take care
of at home she suggested we go to London instead for the day and
could I miss the Paris show, the band owed me a day off for her
birthday. It was rather tough to explain that no I couldn't really do
that as we had the modifications to make to Eddie (Twick diary pt 2)
and I really had to be there to supervise it. Thankfully I am blessed
with an understanding wife and we went to London for the day on Monday,
an afternoon of birthday shopping in the west end followed by good food
and wine and a stay in a nice hotel. All but the shopping was great --
it had to be the hottest day of the year to walk around Oxford St and
the rest. We had fun though and it was great to spend time together
away from the kids for a change!!

So the following morning Kathy
set off back to Hove and I was on the way to Waterloo to catch the
Eurostar to Paris, going straight to Bercy to arrive by 3pm to check
out our modified mummy Eddie. It is the first time we have played two
nights at Bercy since the late eighties and both were sold out, about
33,000 in total. Also by placing them right before Twickenham we had a
chance to make any last minute adjustments to the show before
Twickenham and for the screens team to get some practise as I mentioned
before. Bercy is an excellent venue to see a band with really good
sight lines and despite its huge capacity it still seems quite
intimate. We had given Eddie new arms and a tidy up and we were all
much happier with him after the improvements. Has to be right doesn't
it??!! Everything went well, both shows were terrific -- the second if
anything even a bit better audience wise than the first, which is
surprising as this was added after the first one was close to sell out
so you would expect this to be the newer fans. After the first show
most of us went to the usual nearby bar and partied with team, family,
friends and fans and after the second show we flew home. Andy was also
in Paris and came back on the plane with us and we took the car into
London and stayed at his flat. The next couple of days -- meetings in
town Thurs and going to UEA with Tom on Friday, were covered in
Twickenham diary part one so I wont repeat so I guess filling the gaps
takes us to going on stage at Twickenham which I guess is part 4 of
Twickenham Tale so I will leave this for now and continue with that
tomorrow.

- Rod

Rod's Diary - Finland
Published: July 22, 2008

A
BIG two days in Finland. Last time here on the Matter of Life and Death
Tour in late '06 we played two nights at the Hartwell Arena and one in
Tampere, all sold out to about 30,000 total. This time it's the Olympic
Stadium in Helsinki and Risto Juvonen Stadium in Tampere. Last
November, Helsinki sold out 43,000 even faster than Sweden, in a touch
under 2 hours, and the stadium in Tempere, about 75 min drive from
Helsinki, was quickly added and this also sold out well in advance,
29,000 tickets. I find this quite incredible. That's a total of 72,000
fans over the two shows, well over twice what we have ever played to
before on tour here. A bit of Google research reveals the following:

Written for Virtual Finland by Arvo Peltonen, Professor,
Centre for Tourism Studies, University of Joensuu;
21 November 2002
Finland's
population of five million has adapted to life under peripheral
conditions in northern Europe. Finns make up 35% of the world's
population north of latitude 60ºN. Finland is sparsely populated, with
only 17 people per km². The Finns form a distinct linguistic and ethnic
group; the original Finno-Ugric population bearing features from both
eastern and western Europe. Finland is an interface between east and
west. Today, the country is one of Europe's most prosperous.

Helsinki
has approx 10% of the population, about half a million. So, as I noted
at the time when we went on sale, pro rata population size to London,
selling out the Olympic Stadium in less than 2 hours was the equivalent
of selling out 14 Wembley Stadiums before breakfast nine months in
advance. Quite astounding. Then to sell out so many in nearby Tampere
was even more remarkable. That's about one in every seventy inhabitants
of the whole country in total attending the two shows. Now that doesn't
sound that much on paper but it's the equivalent of playing to almost a
million people in two shows in the UK. Or about 5 million in the USA.
Even in Sweden we will "only" play to about 87,000 on the two shows out
of a population of about 9 million -- say one in a hundred. Does that
indicate that Finland is the hottest metal country on the whole planet?
They certainly have had their share of really good (and very heavy!!)
metal bands coming out of there in recent years. Most people you meet
appreciate rock, heavy rock and metal, much much more than pop. What a
great country. We should all move here, although it is the same in
Sweden and Norway. You hear metal everywhere, on the radio, in the
shops, what a great change to the namby pamby shit assaulting our ears
at every turn in the UK!!! They would probably bar many UK "artistes"
from even entering the Nordic countries.

Before
And
so, after a refreshing day in the countryside the day before, I went
down to the Hotel Lobby with a definite spring in my step looking
forward to more fantastic shows today and tomorrow. But there he
was........Nicko!! Or rather wasn't. Besides being a great metal
country Sweden is also a great golf country (Jasper Parnervik's family
were all at the show in Stockholm) and of course Nicko as usual has
plenty of golf buddies, particularly here. Also you may have heard,
accurately, that alcohol is also highly popular in Sweden. So you mix
Nicko, golf, Swedish mates and alcohol and what do you get. A very
fucked up drummer is the answer and I swear I have rarely seen him much
worse in a morning, could hardly talk let alone walk. It took a lot for
me not to include a pic I took for this diary (yes, Nick, a bank
transfer of the funds will do nicely). None of the band were too
alarmed though, I guess we have seen this a few times ( err..Chicago,
for one), and they just said it was fine, he always plays well when he
is like this!! I bloody hope so with a sold out stadium tonight!! We
managed to get him on the plane and he was soon fast asleep. Short trip
to Helsinki then got him to hotel and bed for a few hours. When he got
the show he was coherent though a bit sheepish, but boy did he play. I
thought it was one of our most exciting shows on the tour. He may have
started a bit tentative but he was soon in full flow. If the truth be
known he tends to play a bit on the fast side when in this state, but
personally I like that, a bit of extra edge. The band is a bit split,
some like the added chaos and edge, some like a more controlled power.
Believe me a Maiden show is never the same night to night. There is
often a small change in tempo. Many rock bands are probably the same.
Besides something like this, when "extraneous circumstances" change the
equation, a really great audience can also increase the excitement
level on stage and this can increase the tempo. Some of our regular
travelling fans have noted this. And who would want it the same every
night anyway.

During
And
this was some show. As I said before over half the huge audience in
this magnificent stadium can never have seen us before, but you could
not tell who they were. Everyone was fully into it from the word go,
arms aloft and singing most every word. It was a glorious evening
although I did pay Rob our lighting guy half wages as it was so light,
even at the end of the show at about 10.30pm!! All in all a great
experience and special show.

After... not bad and still light
The
following day I had lunch with our promoter Thomas Johansson, EMA
Telstar/Live Nation at a very fine Italian in the centre of Helsinki. I
commented before on what a beautiful city I thought Stockholm was and
in many ways Helsinki is similar. Few high rise buildings, wonderful
city scape, squares and Gardens and the omnipresent Nordic water! I
wish I had taken my camera along to take a few pics for you guys as it
was again great weather and some picturesque views. You should all make
a visit to the Nordics, some of the best scenery in the World and also
some of the very best hosts and hostesses!

We sampled some
excellent wines and lunch and then picked up our bags at the hotel and
headed off for Tampere, a relatively short drive to the stadium there.
Again I was taken aback by the audience reception of the band. Just as
in Helsinki it was impossible to tell the new fans who had never been
to one of our shows from the rest, everyone was equally engaged in the
show. Well, perhaps some to the previous tour shirts would be a
giveaway, but many by then were already wearing the Nordic tour shirt
with Eddie as Thor!!! A Viking Eddie is most popular in these regions
and I think Eddie must certainly have some Viking blood in him so very
appropriate.

After
the show we flew into Trondheim and Steve, Jan, Dave, Ian and myself
got off to head to the hotel while Adrian went off to the wilderness to
find himself some salmon and Bruce and Nicko took the plane on to the
UK for a couple of days. Bruce of course has to pick up Bruce Air and a
couple of hundred fans for the Trondheim trip. I will pick it up from
here later and hopefully fill in those past gaps for you.