od's Diary - Norway
Published: July 25, 2008


ROD'S DIARY - NORWAY PART 1

We
flew into Trondheim from Helsinki, landing about 12.30am -- of course
still fairly light this far north. About a 45 min drive into the town
with magnificent views across the fiords. I suppose it was the
equivalent of dusk at that time and the sun setting over the water at
that time of night was quite surreal for us "southerners"!

Trondheim
is pretty quiet and the hotel didn't even have any room service on
Sunday, the first of 2 days "off" we had there. I was still feeling the
effect of the fine wines to some extent so elected for a quiet day! Got
up in time for breakfast -- and un-rock n roll 10 am finish to it so
that was quite an achievement itself considering -- and had a walk
around the town and then back to my room to plug in Sky Slingbox to
have a lazy day watching sport -- and what a day it was to do this as
there were FOUR major events going on that day.

Firstly I had
recorded the Australian v South Africa Tri Nations Test from earlier
that morning and what a game it was. Very close with Australia coming
out marginally ahead, worthwhile but to me unexpected winners.
Then
of course there was the second Test cricket England v South Africa. But
we were getting a right old hammering with Prince and De Villiers
scoring big centuries for SA then taking a couple of our wickets for
just 50 or so. This was on all day from noon to about 7.30 local time.
Then in the afternoon and the German Grand Prix from Hockenheim, the
track where we have played a couple of times at Rock am Ring, the big
German Festival. Hamilton drove magnificently to effectively win the
race twice after being held up mid race by a safety car following a
crash. A fantastic victory taking him to no 1 in the driver's league
for the first time this year.
And last but not least was the British
Open golf won in fine style by Irishman Padraig Harrington by 4
strokes, a tremendous performance over four days of wind and rain. In
fact the conditions were so bad that about 6 former champions,
including Sandy Lyle, actually gave up!! Now Nicko would never do that
-- under any circumstances!!

The next day was back to work
catching up on diaries and other stuff all day and evening. More work
next day, and the last day of England's losing performance in the
second test on Slingbox, then to the show in the evening at about 5pm.
This was at the Lerkendal Stadium which is a very fine smaller football
stadium with a capaCITY for a concert of about 24,000 which sold out on
the day. Trondheim is not a big place and fans came in from all over
Northern Norway, plus of course 200 or so from Britain and further
afield via Bruce Air. They all appeared to be having a good time and it
was also good to see Captain John who was to fly the plane back to
Gatwick after the show so Bruce could relax, have a few beers and sit
in the back and talk to the fans on board.

Not being a big
football fan I am not fully up to speed on the Lerkendal football team
but I was told they are apparently quite wealthy and tend to always win
the Norway League, which puts them into the Chamions League, being a
part of which of course makes the club a lot of cash, although they
apparently don't usually progress to far against the likes of Man U,
Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter and AC Milan, Barcelona and the rest!. With
this cash they can buy more and better players so win the Norway League
again and get lots of cash again in the Champions League. I don't
really know if this is a true representation but football is like that
-- the rich get richer and dominate even more -- just look at the UK
with the almost unassailable big four of Manchester Utd, Chelsea,
Arsenal and Liverpool. Just like life I suppose. But its not very
sporting when a smaller club no longer has much of a shot at the title
and the riches that this brings with it with European Football. Anyway,
right or wrong, they have a very nice stadium here.



Ed Force One copilot Cap'n John drops in to see us.


Steve and family.


Rod's Diary - Norway
Published: July 25, 2008


Anyway
the show once again went great and the Norway fans continued the fine
tradition of terrific Nordic audiences -- thanks guys. It was of course
light all the way through so Rob got half wages again!!
After the
show it was back to the airport for the hour flight to Oslo, the
capital of Norway. It was a bit weird at the airport where they had
everyone and their baggage heavily scrutinised . A bit surprising
really to go to such an extent in a small place like here for an
internal flight with a group of people travelling together in a private
jet!! But everyone put up with it in reasonably good humour although it
did take some time.

See, no weapons!


Nor me!
When
we got to Oslo it was about a 45 min drive to the hotel and we all
checked in and headed for the bar. We have a terrific hotel here and my
room is quite different -- its called the Opera Suite and I thought I
was hallucinating when I walked in and saw ballgowns in cases on the
lounge walls and ballet slippers on the bedroom wall. Yes really, I
jest not -- see the pics. I am not sure who Ingrid Bjoner is as I am
not too well acquainted with Norwegian Opera but she must have been a
big star here and must have looked wonderful in the gowns! I cant
google it either to find out as the wireless is not working in my room
which is a major pain and pretty poor in a fine hotel like this -- I
will have to connect to send you this at the show later.

Ingrid Bjoner's dress.

After
checking my eyes in the mirror to make sure I wasn't hallucinating I
joined our promoter Tor, who flew down with us, plus Steve, Jan, H, Ian
and Gaddsy in the bar which being considerate souls at this hotel they
had kept open for us. And a great bar it was on the top floor with 2
roof terraces and a fantastic view over the neon lit city. And they
were still quite busy up there. Everyone was still quite "up" after
another good show so we spent a couple of hours there til eventually
calling it a night at about 4am



Rod's Diary - Norway
Published: July 25, 2008


After
a good lie in the next day -- an "off" day -- I set up to work having
to go to a different room annoyingly to get connected. Then around late
pm I set of for a walk round Oslo, remembering my camera this time so
here are a few pics of another splendid Nordic city, again a fine
skyline not interrupted by high rise buildings and a wonderful harbour
front walk with restaurants and bars along the front. It was a
beautiful day and everywhere was packed, pretty well every seat outside
taken at every restaurant and bar. There are already quite a number of
Maiden shirts on view as the fans start to congregate for the show the
next day -- or rather today as it is now. I managed to buy a couple of
today's English papers and sat out in the sun for a while reading them
alongside the water. Later I met up with a Hove mate Mike Weatherley
and a colleague Gudman as he was out here on business and tying in with
the show here. Mike has been mentioned before -- he is the one who went
to a Maiden show in Debrecen Hungary for his honeymoon, amongst many
other trips to shows around Europe. A big metal and Maiden fan and also
the Tory candidate for Hove (Tory and metal is certainly no longer
mutually exclusive -- Simon Kirby the candidate for Brighton is also a
serious metal fan who is coming on a Metal trip with Mike to Prague for
our show there. There were even a couple of MPs apparently at our Earls
Court shows a couple of years ago. Metal truly is for everyone
nowadays!! Maybe one day we will get World Peace!!!)
In
the evening I went out with Tor for dinner along with an interesting
friend of his Therese who works with bands here and is also involved
with various government initiatives in support of local music. I
persuaded them to go for a curry as I was having withdrawal symptons
from the World's best cuisine -- the hotel suggested Mother India and
gave us directions, saying it was quite close. It wasn't. it was a good
40 min walk and in a fairly naff part of the city. It didn't look very
promising but we gave it a shot and were rewarded with some very good
curry. After we took a walk back into the city centre and took a table
outside at one of the garden bars. It was still quite warm and a very
pleasant evening and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc went down very well.

I
am typing this just before I go off to the Oslo show, its Thursday, but
more about that later. I did some work this morning then went down to
the harbour again armed with today's papers to get some lunch. Healthy
stuff, salad and pasta! There were by now loads of fans filling the
bars along the street outside the hotel and the harbour front. That is
one of the great things about stadium shows. They take over the town
for a day, unless of course the place is huge like London! As I type
now I can hear Run to the Hills drifting in from one of the bars. Most
of them are by now -- 5pm -- playing Maiden and will no doubt into the
early hours. Although you do of course get many local fans at stadium
shows, you also get a lot from much further afield and as they arrive
into the city usually in the colours there is a really good feeling of
celebration and anticipation. Like a major sporting event the fans make
a whole day -- or two or three days!! -- of it. You see groups walking
down the street with rucksacs to carry what they need. But unlike the
rugby fans I am most aware of, nearly all maybe enjoy a beer or two
but I very rarely see any pissed and have never seen any making
trouble. They are there to enjoy the concert.....and then have more
beers after!!! But then you guys know all this!! It's a big part of the
reason why these cities really welcome us. They see a great trade in
their bars, hotels and shops but rarely any trouble. And a great
atmoshphere is generated before and after the show. But more of this
from Gothenburg, where the atmosphere is incredible as its quite a
small place, population 200,000 approx, so, when 55,000 Maiden fans
descend on it, it is quite a sight. I will try to take plenty of pics
there the next couple of days to give you some idea.

Anyway time to shower -- its been another hot day -- then off to the show. More later.


Rod's Diary - Norway
Published: July 25, 2008

Rod's Diary - Norway II with a bit of Gothenburg thrown in
Published: July 28, 2008

ROD'S DIARY - NORWAY PART 2 (with a bit of Gothenburg thrown in!)

Arrived
at the stadium with hordes of fans already outside and in, about 25,000
in all. Not sure what the stadium is used for but it was good for a
show as most people were standing with very low stands around the
edges. Went backstage and saw the guys. Jan had been wandering round
the city as usual with his camera, as had Dave. Nicko and Bruce had
flown back in from the UK. Steve and H had been playing football for
the Maiden XI against a local side. The pitch was next to the Valhalla
indoor stadium where we played last time here and apparently it was a
cracking game with the opposition coming from behind twice to get a 2-2
draw. Last time round this team beat us easily, but they did have about
9 ex-pros, some of them Internationals. This time it was a bit more
even. We had Stig inge Bjornebye, ex- Liverpool, and Eric Thorsredt,
ex-Spurs, plus Steve's son George who is a very useful player like his
dad!!

The
show was a blinder, even better than Trondheim and on a par with
Helsinki. Tremendous audience and the sound was terrific. It's easier
to get a great sound when the stands are low as there is less "slap
back". The band had a great time with a good onstage sound and Bruce in
particular was on top form with some hilarious onstage banter about
crane drivers getting the best jobs and a free view (he nearby crane
moved at that point so the craneman may well have heard this), the
band's origins as a non-drinking, non swearing jazz band until Nicko
came along, and a mis-intro to Ancient Mariner which was amusingly
handled. He was obviously having great fun. The humour was soon
forgotten though with blinding performances of Mariner and Powerslave,
which to me have been the highlight of the set all along. Sheer power.
Fear of the Dark of course got everyone singing though it was still not
dark which once again saved us half of Rob's wages!

And again it
was hard to believe that the majority of the audience had never seen us
and again it was all ages. Everyone was fully participating in the show
and seemed to know most of the words. During the show I had noticed
some very young kids crushed up against the barrier round the sound
desk hardly able to see but mouthing all the words and obviously very
excited so I got them up on the mixing desk for a better view. Well,
you have to let the youngsters see Eddie properly don't you!!


My new pals


Rod's Diary - Norway II with a bit of Gothenburg thrown in
Published: July 28, 2008


It
must have been a great night around the bars and clubs of Oslo that
night but after the show we took the longish drive to the airport,
boarded and headed for Gothenburg. Everyone very happy with the show
again and settled down for their choice of a celebratory drink. When we
got to the hotel we found that the bar had closed at 1am (very
unhospitable and very un-Swedish) so off to the room, not knowing that
Jan and Dave had other plans heading to the nearest Irish pub til the
early hours!

Celebrating another fine show


It
had been a terrific few days in Norway and we had felt very welcome --
thanks everyone. Last time here we played two shows in Oslo and Bergen
to a total of 22,000, the time before just 2 Oslo Spektrums to about
14,000 in total. This time about 48,000!!!! And by the way the
population of Norway is about 4.7 million so again about one in a
hundred of the population turned out to see us -- about the same
proportion as Sweden!!
I am writing this late in the day on our
day off in Gothenburg. Another beautiful hot day. A bit of a lie in,
some work then a wander around the town. Another scenic city with
canals running through it. I went along to the station to pick up an
English newspaper then went into one of the cobbled pedestrian areas
lined with restaurants and bars, all with many tables outside, to grab
some lunch. The Maiden faithful are already starting to gather for the
big event tomorrow. Most bars were already playing Maiden and you had
Phantom competing with Madness at full throttle. Heaven for us fans and
many were enjoying a quiet beer warming up for action.

I am
going back out now for a wander and a few beers. Last time we played
here at Ullevi in 2005 we flew home for some reason after the show and
missed all the action around the town, which apparently was amazing
with fans thronged in the bars singing out the lyrics to our songs
which were blasting out from everywhere you went. It really is
something as I said in yesterday's diary. Everyone should try at some
point to come to the show here, Gothenburg really does become
Maidenville for a couple of days and the atmosphere everywhere is quite
remarkable. Metal and Maiden fans truly take over the whole town centre
for a day or so. In fact a Kerrang review of 2005 said "If Rod
Smallwood was God the whole world would be like Gothenburg on Maiden
day!" Well, just how good would that be. Everyone having fun, no
bullshit, plenty of revellry and camaraderie. Yes I love it, who
wouldn't??!! I'm off now for more of the same!! And very much looking
forward to tomorrow.







Yes the pubs take plenty of advantage to get the fans in for a good time!

Rod's Diary - Gothenburg part 2
Published: July 31, 2008

ROD'S DIARY -- GOTHENBURG 2

As I
wandered around the city centre one last time just before going to the
show and feeling the general anticipation of the fans I was wondering
and hoping we would live up to the great expectation. I should not have
worried, it would be a truly incredible show, one of our best ever
and I don't say that lightly.

After
a quick beer amidst our fans I headed to Ullevi to meet up with firstly
John McMurtrie who we brought over specially to capture the event for
posterity. We went through the shots we were looking for (some of which
are included here but there will be more live stuff as usual in the
photo section on this site). We then headed into a rapidly filling
stadium -- of course the front 100 rows of standing were in place
almost immediately with fans having queued for hours to run down to the
front -- and climbed up the back terraces opposite the stage and onto
the roof of the stadium. There is a small platform up there presumably
for TV cameras at the football matches but it suited our purposes
perfectly. Our IMTV crew came with us for footage and for the price of
a couple of beers I did an interview with them up there. It was a
fantastic sight even at that time of day. Johnny did a lot of filming
into the huge audience. So 56,445 in fact officially, plus guests etc
of course, our biggest of the tour so far and the biggest stadium show
we are doing this year, with only Wacken being more people.
Then it
was the usual painful couple of hours waiting to get started, wandering
around filling in time (and making sure I ate properly this time!!)
chatting to the band, crew, promoters, record co and various guests and
having a quick peek at Lauren and Avenged, and appreciating how good
the sound was. It remained that way and I thought our sound there was
not just good it was GREAT. This is a fine stadium for sound and as I
have mentioned before, this along with the band performance and how
exhilarating the audience are remain the three key ingredients to a
great show.
Our film and photo team on the roof







Just before we were due on I managed to get through the
throng to the mixing desk with our promoters, Thomas and Tor, settling
ourselves down with a few bottles of good wine (yes wine, I know, I am
really a beer man but as I said Ihave to start somewhere getting some
pounds off!!). Chants of Maiden Maiden rang out and there was even a
tentative Mexican wave, which improved dramatically later as the arms
followed Bruce's finger. A roar went up when Doctor Doctor started,
everyone seeming to know its our cue tape, and of course for
Transylvania and the start of the show. Once again everything worked
well, the dry ice being perfect for Mariner and obliterating all of the
band at times! Bruce had brought along his own special effect -- a
parrot on his shoulder for the mid section of Mariner and the fog
cleared nicely for it. The Maiden chants were up loud and clear between
all the first few songs with the walls of people on the sides of the
stadium in almost perpetual motion reminiscent of Brazil. A 110%
terrific audience -- thanks to all of you for making this a spectacular
day for us. Again looking at the sheer number of people we played to in
Sweden it was hard to identify the 15-20,000 or so who hadn't seen us
before. I can tell you Iwas a very happy camper watching and hearing
all this from my own perch behind Dougie on the desk. And full marks to
you Dougie for another majestic performance on your desk! We had also
been able to go on a bit later here, at 9.15, than the other Nordic
shows so this time it did get dark about halfway through the set (and
Rob got paid in full!) which really does make a difference to the drama
of the show -- it's a shame we couldn't go on later in the other
stadiums up here but they were largely in residential areas so laws are
laws sadly. Hopefully next time all the local residents will buy
tickets so there is no-one at home and we can go on later and get more
darkness.







After
the show we took over the Dubliners Pub for an after show bash,
inviting along Avenged and Lauren's band for a bit of a (nearly) end of
tour party as Avenged leave us soon. It has worked very well them
supporting us here and I do hope they really get a boost in the Nordics
as they were very good indeed and really good guys to have along for a
while. Of course Lauren and her band are with us until the end but we
still let them have their share of the alcohol on offer. The place got
pretty rammed and I don't know where some to "our guests" came from but
that is often the case!! And it was bloody hot.

After a
while I headed back and was stopped by some fans who had found some
posters of the front pages of one of the next days newspaper. MAGISKT
MAIDEN it said. What a great end to a day to remember for a long
while!!!

Rod's Diary - Horsens
Published: July 31, 2008

ROD'S DIARY - HORSENS

I
was up at a reasonable time and headed out to pick up an English paper
and the local ones at the Station and walked over to the Dubliners to
get a fine Irish Breakfast, with lots of coffee!! I wanted to check the
reviews and although I couldn't understand them the coverage was
incredible. National and local papers gave us lots of space, not only
the concert, which was given top marks by every one I saw, but also the
football, the party, in fact everything we had done in our couple of
days in Gothenburg. We sure seemed to have been busy but then we do
like to enjoy the great places we are able to visit and play. And the
paparazzi were out in force to document it all for us! Thanks guys.
GT, a big national paper, committed the full cover (including 5 bees
for top rating!!) and a further EIGHT pages to Maiden, 2 for the
football match, 2 for the show, 2 for our audience and 2 for the party
and other "social events"!! Can you imagine that sort of coverage by
a major British Sunday Newspaper for a concert or the visit of any
band? Now I don't understand any of the Nordic languages and as they
are not Latin based like say French or Spanish (I studied Latin at
school!) It is very difficult for me to understand but the pics looked
great and the words I could vaguely understand all looked very
positive. Varldsbast? Perfekt? I think we should thank the Nordic
journalists for being so generous. Perhaps it's the strong beer up
there!!

Headline news!!


Sadly leaving Sweden.
Mid
afternoon it was down to the lobby to head off to the airport to fly to
Horsens. This is a very small town in the south of Denmark but due to
its location gets a lot of big concerts, even the Stones I think. Our
stage was set up in a big flat carpark but was far better than that
sounds. We have never done that well in Denmark for some reason so only
had a crowd of about 13,000 but as often happens they made up for the
lack of size with plenty of noise, so thanks everyone.

I
talked to our promoter Fleming before the show and he said he had done
everything he could to get more people along including a quite
innovative piece of promotion -- a container on its end filled with 25
tons of sand to keep it stable with the show details on the side and
placed by a motorway with apparently 74,000 (yes that exact!) cars
passing every day. Sadly this didn't tempt more Danes to come and see
us!

A bit of a come down after the fantasic successes of the
previous few days and the number of people we played to, but this has
never concerned the band, they gave it everything anyway and I don't
think anyone in the audience would have seen it differently. So a
smaller, but still very good, end to our Nordic journey, ten days or so
that we will remember for a long time.

After the show most of us
headed straight back to the airport and back home. A couple of days
off, then on to the mighty Wacken festival and 70,000 or so committed
headbangers at this the European Metal Festival of the year. But more
of this later.

Rod's Diary - Wacken
Published: August 6, 2008

ROD'S DIARY - WACKEN

Wacken
is a village with a population of under 2000 about an hour's drive out
of Hamburg in Northern Germany. Here was born (I wont say when!) a
couple of illustrious gentlemen, Thomas Jensen and Holger Hubner,
lifelong friends who both grew up to be big metal fans. Not getting
enough metal in their home village they decided 19 years ago to start
their own festival, which they called simply Wacken. Going bust a
couple of times did not deter them, they just rethought it and ploughed
on regardless driven by a love of the music. Along the way Thomas
married Sheree and enlisted her very able support, and this year they
added our old mate Wolgang Rott to the team, someone who is very
familiar to us having been our PR in Germany for many years at CMM.

Yours truly with Thomas and Wolfgang


Dave and Nicko pose with Thomas and Sheree
I
first visited the festival when I had Helloween playing there, sometime
in the early nineties, I think, and I was blown away. They had 3
stages, but, unlike most festivals which would have a large stage for
the main acts and two smaller for the others, all 3 stages were
headline size! It was most obviously a festival run by metal fans for
metal fans, and all the organisational detail appeared top notch. There
were probably about 15,000 or so fans there then. Initially in 1989
about 800 fans attended, growing to around 15,000 or so in the 90's,
40,000 in 2005, 60,000 in 2006 and now, on it's 19th birthday, 70,000.
Is there no end??!! And its and still run by Thomas, Holger and Sheree,
quite a remarkable achievement.

Wacken metal warriors
We
have been hoping to play there for many years but our European schedule
tended to be in late May, June and early July which made it difficult
as the festival is always at the very end of July and beginning of
August, but this year for a number of reasons we are touring a bit
later so we jumped at the chance of playing and in fact we agreed terms
straight after Wacken 07 and announced it with tickets going on sale
immediately in mid August 2007. With the first 10,000 tickets selling
within 36 hours of the announcement and the fastest sell out ever in
its history, the capacity was increased to bring it up to a huge
70,000, with fans coming into this major metal event from not only all
parts of Germany but also many parts of the World. There are few hotels
in a place the size of Wacken so everyone camps for this 3 day event, a
massive undertaking organisationally with all the required facilities
for such an astronomical number of campers!

What a pleasant backstage area


Classy backstage catering


Drink responsibly... at Wacken?The
village itself was of course initially concerned over an invasion of
even a few hundred or so metal heads, but quickly the community
realised the nature of the fans would not be troublesome, they were
there for the music and the metal community spirit (and a few beers no
doubt) and soon the fans were welcomed to this small village with open
arms, especially I would think by bar and shop owners!! More recently
the German media has paid a lot of attention to this massive annual
event giving the festival great prestige there
For fuller details of the history of Wacken and this years line up go to www.wacken.com

I get to meet the lovely Doro Pesch

We
were delayed getting there so I missed out on seeing the other bands
but as soon as you arrive you get the spirit of the event. Organised
backsage to the utmost detail it really is a great set up and the ariel
shot included here shows the sheer scale of the event with thousands of
tents surrounding the two main stages, the Black and True Metal stages,
and two smaller, the Party stage and the Wacken Evolution Tent.



On
arrival I caught up with Thomas and Wofgang, did a couple of news
interviews about Wacken and saw a variety of old friends. Thomas and
Holger had also arranged some special placques for the band and myself
to commerate out appearance here at Wacken. When time to go on we took
the long walk through a field to the stage. Out front was a sea of
marquees and people, with screens and PA relaying our performace to
every cormer of the site, and the view from on stage was breathtaking.
I watched from initially the pit, where a continuous stream of fans
were helped over the front of stage barriers, and then from onstage.
And thanks all you fans there for a magnificent reaction!! The show
went off without a hitch and the band are playing just great.

Backstage games The team get busyAfterwards
the band headed straight back to the Hamburg Hotel bar but I delayed an
hour or so for a few beers with everyone and eventually got back to the
bar to find most still there.
A great event and a great day. Thanks Wacken!! It was an honour!!





Ps
- I didn't got to Greece or Bucharest as it was Jake's 12th Birthday
yesterday and I wanted to spend some time with my family before they go
back to school so sorry no diary for these 2 shows, but the band tell
me that both were terrific shows with tremendous audiences. We go to
Warsaw on Thursday so more soon after that.

Wilson goes to Twickenham
Published: August 14, 2008

Report from Wilson Chiu, winner of last years 'Name The Plane competition'.Out
of hundreds of entries suggesting names for the specially adapted 757
comissioned to take Maiden, their crew and their equipment on the first
leg of SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME TOUR, there were 16 fan club members who
nominated 'ED FORCE ONE'. Bruce and Rod selected Wilson for his
tiebreaking line "Timeless, inspirational, continually evolving, but
always true to themselves, camaraderie that survives the evil that men
do!"**************I
would like to say a few words about the brilliant day my wife and I had
at Twickenham and to thank everyone at the FC and IM offices for
arranging my other Name The Plane prizes.

Since Bruce and Rod
announced that my entry was chosen for the name of the Iron Maiden
plane, I have gradually been receiving my prizes, first the leather
SBIT tour crew jacket turned up followed by a signed photo of the band
standing in front of Ed Force One which looked awesome. These are
already very special items but I had been looking forward to the
Twickenham gig especially. Still an active player, one of my other
passions in life is rugby and I usually get to Twickenham a few times a
year to support as many of the England home games as possible. So the
journey to the Twickenham was a familiar ritual, except the tens of
thousands of supporters heading towards the stadium are not usually in
Iron Maiden colours.

Once at the stadium, we met up with Mary
from the IM office who gave us our tickets and wristbands. We had a
look around and caught Lauren Harris's set before Mary took us to the
ERIC's bar, which you will have seen from Rod's tour diary is the
hospitality area for his guests. The setting was a bit overwhelming as
there were countless photos of past England internationals and other
rugby memorabilia. Then I realised ERIC stood for England Rugby
International's Club - not an area of Twickenham I would normally be
able to visit on a match day! We had a few drinks and Mary introduced
us to Rod. We had a quick chat, although Rod was very friendly it was
clearly a busy time so we let him get back to entertaining his guests.
We also met Andy and Val who both took time to chat briefly.

It
was almost showtime so Mary took us to one of the two front of house
tents. Rob the lighting director was doing final checks on the consoles
and there were also a couple of video camera operators. Then came the
Churchill speech intro and the show started.
It
was a surreal experience as we were in the middle of stadium along with
tens of thousands of ecstatic Maiden fans, but we were cocooned in
relatively calmness enjoying the best sound with a great view of the
stage. Rod was overseeing proceedings elsewhere, when we met earlier he
said we were welcome to join him if we wished. But we were already
pretty awe struck by the ocassion so we just stayed put and enjoyed a
great show.

It was a unique and memorable day. And it is
wonderful to know that by naming Ed Force One we played a very small
part in the amazing and ever evolving Iron Maiden story. I would like
to say thanks again to everyone involved for my prizes with a special
mention goes to Mary for looking after us on the day. And finally a
huge thanks to Bruce and Rod for the competition, and to the band for
everything Maiden!