COME ON YOU IRONS!

Right, so I'm off to see Maiden tonight at the NIA in Birmingham. I've been reliably informed by Bahamut that this is an awesome show, as he caught their descent through the UK, as they hit Manchester on Wednesday. I'm expecting a subtle blend of their classics (Number of the Beast, Iron Maiden, Powerslave, The Trooper etc), with their new material from their latest album (Satellite 15 - The Final Frontier, El Dorado, When the Wild Wind Blows)

I've got a decision to make in which Maiden T-Shirt stays in the car while I hit the gig - I'll probably keep the Flight 666 shirt in reserve, while using the Nordic Frontier T-Shirt for the majority of the gig, with the UK Frontier T-Shirt that I'll buy tonight halfway through the gig, as I really start to sweat.

All of the band that I applied to join (Shadow of Intent) will be there, most of them in the pit. Not wanting to get any more bruises, as I get plenty from cricket, I'll be happy to stay in the seated areas, though I doubt we'll be using the seats much.

Sure, it's going to be a weird experience, as I'm going with my ex-girlfriend (I got her a ticket as an Xmas present), but with her best friend and boyfriend (drummer from aforementioned band), we should be able to worship at the altar of Harris, Dickinson, McBrain, Smith, Gers and Murray.

IRON MAIDEN'S GONNA GET YOU!

***EDIT***

Okay, I've had about 48 hours to recover and get my fluid levels back up, my voice vaguely normal and reminisce about what happened. We got there at about 6, when the doors opened, despite saying on our way into Birmingham that "it's only Airbourne, we're not missing anything". We found our way to seats, programme in hand and got ready, taking in the spectacle. 24 Marshall Amps and a tiny drumkit in front of the banner for Airbourne was what greeted us. The wait was getting bad, as we were excited and just didn't want to do anything but get on with the show. Dead centre seats, facing the stage, meant we had a near perfect view of the stage, about half a mile away from us, due west.

Spending time dicking about with my camera and Andrea's phone, we pinpointed out friends in the pit - we chickened out and paid for seating, not really expecting them to be used after the lights went out... and the stage was filled with six of my heroes.

So, the lights went down for the first time and on come Airbourne. Yes Bahamut, I know they sound a lot like AC/DC, except for one main thing - I can understand Brian Johnson's lyrics. Joel O'Keefe stepped to the mic and through the racket of bass drums, backing guitars and a Motorhead theory of "everything louder than everything else", he belted us with a few strings of Australian machine gun fire of encouragement. Rather than whipping us into a frenzy, he whipped us into confusion.

Anyway, I'd rather not dwell on that. They got off the stage, I started to get really excited and passed a little more time with watching the crowd, chatting away and more importantly, saving my voice for the inevitable.

The strains of Doctor Doctor, by UFO signalled the start of the main event and the crowd started to get angsty, as the huge black curtain rushed forward. As the four minutes seemed like four hours, we waited patiently, wiping sweat from palms of hands and the Bass-synth kicked in, signalling the start of Satellite 15 - The Final Frontier. The video supplement only helped to set the scene for the massive rush of emotion, screams, applause and music, as we launched into the set proper.

This show is where we see how good the album Final Frontier is. They played five songs from the new material (Final Frontier, El Dorado, The Talisman, Coming Home and their 11 minute epic When the Wild Wind Blows) Not one of these felt out of place, though I might have personally chosen other songs in the mix, we ended up with a very good set.

Setlist:

Satellite 15 - The Final Frontier
El Dorado
2 Minutes to Midnight
The Talisman
Coming Home
Dance of Death
The Trooper
The Wicker Man
When The Wild Wind Blows
The Evil That Men Do
Fear Of The Dark
Iron Maiden

Of course, we were naturally rather fucked by the end of all of this. Summoning up untold supplies of energy, we bellowed out lungs out for more. They answered out prayers and six gods amongst men strode back onto the stage, delivering a fitting salvo of three more tunes to sate the masses one last time:

The Number Of The Beast
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Running Free.

On reflection, seeing Janick dancing around a merry jig at the start of Wild Wind, with a post-apocalyptic city scape as his back drop just cracked me up. The part when Bruce spotted five Santa Claus wannabes in the pit was great - they got what they wanted, to go with their sauna trip. I bet they were fucked after the day was done.

Afterwards, we retreated, watching a circle dance in the pit expand to "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life", before waving goodbye to to tour crew, driving the gear to Cardiff for the gig on Monday night. No sign of the six, who were probably grabbing a pizza and heading to the bar for a beer or two.

Thanks guys, one more thing that means I can now die a happy man.

Here's Adrian Smith, Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris (and Nicko McBrain) performing either The Talisman of Coming Home... I forget which. We did get over 300 photos of this gig though. Thanks Bex.