Last weekend, me and my lovely wife went to see Iron Maiden at the AO Arena in Manchester as part of their The Future Past Tour.
The very first concert I ever went to was in 1983, and the band was Iron Maiden. It was the first date on their UK tour to promote the Piece of Mind album. The line up of the band is exactly the same 40 years later, with the addition of a third guitarist, Janick Gers.
With the release of a new album I made the effort to secure tickets, no mean feat as fan club members had bought almost everything. It had been five years since Iron Maiden had appeared in Manchester.
With so many albums and quality songs to chose from, the band had decided to focus on their newest album, Senjutsu, and the oft overlooked classic, Somewhere in Time.
We arrived in Manchester with plenty of time, found our hotel, enjoyed a meal in a noisy restaurant and then had a number of interesting beers at the Brew Dog pub, which was playing non-stop Iron Maiden classics. The pub was also full of people wearing Iron Maiden T-shirts, with me wearing my Achtung Bono shirt from Half Man Half Biscuit.
At the venue I ran into a problem, namely using the Ticket Master App to display our digital tickets. I don’t use Google Play Wallet, and had to rely on 5G, which wasn’t working with so many other people all trying to display their tickets. Eventually, after walking away from the venue I managed to obtain enough reception to find my tickets. Into the arena, which was also fairly stressful as it was so busy. We ignored the merchandise stands and didn’t buy a drink, instead going straight to our seats.
With the delay in getting inside, we’d missed the support act. I’d never heard of them so I wasn’t too fussed.
Anyway, we had a very good view of the stage from where we were sitting.
There was an almighty roar when the band came on stage. I won’t bore you with all of the details, but on the whole the choice of songs was good. There were a couple of duds, and some classics weren’t played, namely Running Free, Run to the Hills, Hallowed be thy Name, Powerslave and Two Minutes to Midnight, to name a few of my favourites.
However, they did play The Prisoner, Stranger in a Strange Land and Wasted Years, all classic songs that they haven’t played live for many years.
Minus points were we forgot to bring ear plugs, not so much from the band, but the noise from the crowd was overwhelming at times.
What about the band? Bruce Dickinson runs around the stage like a man half his age, and his voice is still amazing. Steve Harris and Nicko McBrain hold it together, while Adrian Smith looks like a proper rock guitarist. Dave Murray, on the other hand, looks like a geography teacher who’s been given a pair of ill fitting leather trousers and been told that his name was pulled out of a hat to be the guitarist for this tour. Very unfair as he is a very talented guitarist and has been in the band since almost it’s inception. Janick Gers knows that the band doesn’t need three guitarists and that he is superfluous, and because of that he appears to much around most of the time.
Anyway, it was a fantastic night, apart from Ticket Master App. Bruce stated that they will be back in Manchester soon, and I intent to be there again.
The following day was almost as exciting, as we picked up our new puppy, Gordon, on the way home. He is a very lively puppy and will probably feature in my blogs for many years to come.
Beards and Triathlons 
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