Iron Maiden
M.E.N. Arena, Manchester
Thursday 28 July 2011

I must admit to being a little disappointed on a number of fronts. This is the third time I have seen Iron Maiden (see 09.12.03  and 14.12.06) so they move into a very select position, alongside Rush in particular, and it is against them that they are found wanting.

The big disappointment is that of being "short changed". They have a wealth of material from just over thirty years of activity, but they played for less than two hours - for the price of the ticket alone I expected more, and Rush - the true professionals - well, they played for at least TWICE as long.

The sound quality was also half as good as Rush - distinctly tinny, much muddier and indistinct instrumentation, and perhaps most unforgivable, a quite high proportion of bum notes. After the much self publicized seventy plus concerts on this tour already, they should be performing like a well oiled machine. Maybe some of this was due to my circumstances, being sat on the next to back row, so I'll give some allowance. My positioning definitely had an impact with my other gripe - I was exactly side on - thus combined with the distance aspect, the "spectacular stage show" largely passed me by - if indeed it was spectacular.

I shouldn't moan too much though, because there was a lot of good stuff, particularly the material from the new album "The Final Frontier". The show started with the title track, as I suspected it might: the long brooding discordant introduction (presumably a recording) presages a sudden explosive full tilt drive into the song - I think this is one of the all time great moments in the whole of rock music, and that's saying something. "Coming Home" is a majestic slow burning power ballad that perfectly describes the times, and there is absolutely no mush or sentimentality. "The Wild Winds" is another modern classic, a marvellous eleven minutes long on the album and is probably their best effort yet at the Prog rock/ metal synthesis that has become their trademark. There was an excellent selection of slightly lesser known material from more recent albums, in particular "Dance of Death". They didn't make the sane mistake as last time in playing every single track from the new album, thereby giving the opportunity to play more classics: "The Number of the Beast" and "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and others were played, but I can't understand why they didn't play Run To The Hills. It's the song that made their name, and it's like Judas Priest not playing Breaking the Law - it’s only a three minute track, and there was ample time to play it at the end - to miss it out just seemed mean and spiteful - although in this day and age it’s possible that it might upset the politically correct brigade, as per Kiss with Strutter. The other good thing where Iron Maiden score heavily is Bruce Dickinson's rapport with the audience. He probably won't like me saying this, but he's definitely taken many a leaf out of Phil Collins' book as a cheeky cockney chappie. There was no extended diatribe this time, but he took the opportunity on a number of occasions to give us the benefit of his thoughts, rather like a London cabbie, and always amusing.

To some extent I felt they were plainly going through the motions. After more than seventy concerts this year it would be hard not to. Having paid a lot of money for the ticket though I think that they should be on longer - and that it should sound better. I'll continue to go though as long as the line-up doesn't start deteriorating into a karaoke outfit like a number of others.