Iron Maiden - Nottingham Review

Considering the amount of hard rock and heavy metal shows that I have been to over the years, and the fact that I have have seen some bands a significant number of times live, it may surprise some to learn that, prior to last night, I had only seen Iron Maiden live before once. Whilst the band are not always the heaviest touring when it comes to the UK, as they often seem to focus much more heavily on the US market than their home market (although nowhere near as egregiously as Judas Priest still does), I have certainly had more than one opportunity to see Iron Maiden live. I am not sure why I passed up on previous tours, but I finally rectified the wrong of not seeing Iron Maiden in 2017 when I caught them in Birmingham as part of the touring cycle for The Book of Souls. Despite the setlist being heavily weighted in favour of the 2015 release, I enjoyed the show a lot. I listened to The Book of Souls quite a lot around that time anyway, and generally like it when bands heavily promote their latest release live. I decided not to go and see the band on their last UK tour, which was more of a greatest hits affair, largely as I think that I already had a lot planned around the time when the shows were due to take place. Big arena shows are never the cheapest either, so it is not always possible to do everything - and I think I was also less interested in a more greatest hits-orientated set. Iron Maiden are a band whom I generally think have some great deep cuts - and their most famous songs are ones which you just cannot escape when any kind of hard rock and metal music is being played in public. As such, I would much rather see a more themed set or one that pushes a new album heavily than a set that relies on the same old standards. As such, then, when the band's latest tour was announced last year and it was revealed to have both a theme and support a new album I was all in. Whilst 2021's Senjutsu is not my favourite of Iron Maiden's recent releases, it certainly has its share of strong material, and the fact that the tour was also going to shine a light on 1986's Somewhere in Time, an album which has often been overlooked by the band over the years, the setlist promised to include some interesting deep cuts alongside some real fan-favourites. Of all the UK shows, Nottingham seemed to make the most sense - despite none of the shows falling that conveniently day-wise. I ended up tying the Nottingham show into a wider trip which included a gig in London, too, so it made for a few nice days away. The Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham is always a good place to go to, too. It is probably my favourite of the UK's indoor arenas - and the sound is generally very good there. Many of the country's big sheds have issues, but the Nottingham one has always produced good memories - and it was good to return there after a couple of years. As expected, I was sat pretty far back - but the venue is such that views of the stage are good wherever you end up sitting.

Before Iron Maiden took to the stage, though, the growing crowd was treated to a pretty lengthy set from Germany's Lord of the Lost. Prior to yesterday, Lord of the Lost were a name that I had heard periodically over the years - and I was also aware that they represented Germany in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. I did not know much else about them, so I went into their set with an open mind and actually ended up enjoying quite a lot of it. Lord of the Lost's sound mixes the catchier end of industrial metal (think Rob Zombie) with some more melodic gothic rock topes and a good dose of pop. As such, their sound is surprisingly varied - and they mixed heavier moments with some pretty big choruses during their time on stage. Frontman Chris Harms generally sung clean, with a rich deepness which brought The 69 Eyes to mind at times, but he also utilised harsh vocals from time-to-time - which other members of the band also contributed to to create big walls of more aggressive vocals. This stopped the band from being overly melodic, but there were still plenty of hooks to be found - particularly on those songs which were more keyboard driven. Gared Dirge (guitar/keyboards/percussion/vocals) certainly kept himself busy throughout the band's set - and those songs which shone the most featured his keyboard talents. The synth work throughout the set was excellent, with lots of AOR-esque synth stabs and melodies which helped to temper some of the more hard-driving riffs and barked vocals. What struck me the most, though, was just how 'together' the band sounded despite the disparate influences. It is fair to say that Lord of the Lost certainly have a distinct sound, which was evident after just a couple of numbers, but they still managed to keep things relatively fresh throughout by shifting focus somewhat - and the overall heaviness tended to rise and fall as the set moved on. I like industrial music, but I am generally pretty picky as to which industrial acts I listen to. I tend to prefer the more melodic end of the genre, and Lord of the Lost had enough of that upbeat attitude to appeal to me. This, combined with some obvious extreme metal influences, made for an enjoyable set which passed by pretty quickly. Some of the songs lacked the big hooks of some of the others, but, at their best, Lord of the Lost impressed - and they actually seemed to go down quite well with Iron Maiden's fans, whom are often hostile to anyone who supports their heroes. Perhaps the crowd were just happy to not have a band featuring the son of one of Iron Maiden's members on the bill this time - but I also think that Lord of the Lost's infectious material and strong stage presence also played a big part in their warm reception.

Despite the decent showing from Lord of the Lost, it was of course Iron Maiden that the capacity crowd was in town to see - and when the familiar strains of UFO's Doctor Doctor started to play over the venue's PA the place went wild. Sci-fi music in keeping with the themes of Somewhere in Time then filled the hall - so it was fitting that two songs from that album were played first. Caught Somewhere in Time, which had not been played live by the band since the original Somewhere in Time tour, opened the show in fine fashion - and it was clear from the off that the crowd were in for a treat. The band's live sound mix was excellent, and frontman Bruce Dickinson was on top form. He does sometimes struggle a bit these days, but he was excellent throughout the whole of the Nottingham show - and prowled the stage in his usual manner, looking like some kind of sci-fi cowboy early on. The more muscular Stranger in a Strange Land followed, and the crowd were in raptures. The song is another relatively rarely-played number, and hearing the crowd shout the chorus back at Dickinson was a powerful moment. A trilogy of numbers from Senjutsu then brought the set into the modern day. Adrian Smith (guitar/vocals) led the somewhat southern rock-tinged The Writing on the Wall, before the driving drums of Nicko McBrain propelled the relatively snappy Days of Future Past - which Dickinson later remarked had been named after The Moody Blues' song of the same name. Perhaps the highlight of this part of the show for me, though, was The Time Machine. I would not have called it one of my favourite cuts from Senjutsu previously, but it came across really well live. Songwriter Janick Gers (guitar) set the tone with a gentle acoustic guitar intro, before the mid-paced track stormed along with another powerful Dickinson vocal and plenty of guitar firepower from all three of the band's guitarists - with Gers unsurprisingly dominating. At this point, five songs into the set, only two albums had been featured, so the band then chose to branch out slightly and brought out The Prisoner - which has always been a long-time favourite Iron Maiden song of mine. Live the song felt somewhat looser than on the album, but it worked well and the chorus turned out to be another shout-along moment whilst clips from the eponymous TV series played out on the screens behind the band. This punchier number then gave way to the lengthy epic Death of the Celts - which was the first of three longer-form tracks included in the set. Of the three longer songs on Senjutsu, it is my favourite - and it was another that came across well live. The folky guitar melodies throughout injected plenty of Celtic vibes, and there was a lot more soloing - particularly this time from Dave Murray (guitar). Steve Harris (bass guitar/vocals) also made his presence felt early on with some acoustic bass playing during the atmospheric intro.

It was then time for another diversion into an album not being specifically featured on the tour, so it was turn for Can I Play with Madness to get an airing. The relatively poppy song is not always a favourite of die-hard fans, but I have always liked it - and it was a fun addition to a set which could have gotten quite bogged down had it not been so well structured. Can I Play With Madness acted as a bit of a kick of energy following the more meandering previous song - and set up the final third or so of the main set perfectly. Returning to Somewhere in Time, the faster-paced Heaven Can Wait was another big favourite. I have always liked the song, but it came alive on stage - and it featured a walk-on from band mascot Eddie who had a gun fight with Dickinson to the delight of the crowd. The tour's big surprise then followed in the form of Alexander the Great - which is song that die-hard fans of the band have been begging them to play live for years. Prior to this tour, the song had never been played live - and it looked as it if it would go un-played, but the band finally dusted it off for this themed tour. In truth, it has never really been a personal favourite of mine (if I could choose which rarely-played early epic to include it would have been To Tame a Land), but the song has reached legendary status in the band's fanbase so it was great to hear it pulled out of the vaults - and I imagine that there were many in attendance that were extremely pleased to hear it. It felt like a real event, and the song came across well live - with lots of great soloing from Smith. With much of the main set either being newly-played on this tour or rarely played in recent years, it was then left to two standards to close out the main set. The ever-present Fear of the Dark was received as warmly as ever, with plenty more singing from the crowd, before the band's self-titled song brought the main set to a raucous close. The punky energy of Iron Maiden always seems to get the crowd going, and it is another that elicits plenty of rowdy shouting-along. It also saw another appearance from Eddie, this time in samurai garb, where he duelled with Gers as the main set came to a close. There was, of course, time for a few more, though, and the three-song encore kicked off with one last epic in Hell on Earth. It was the last of the Senjutsu cuts played, and it was probably the only one that did not truly grab me. It has never been one of my favourites from the album, but I think that it has become a bit of a fan-favourite. It was still good to hear it live, despite it not being a personal favourite, but the rest of the encore was more on safe ground with the rollocking The Trooper eliciting a strong rection from the crowd - with the wordless vocal hooks filling the arena as the thousands in attendance latched onto it. It was left to one last cut from Somewhere in Time in Wasted Years to bring the show to a close - and the anthemic track perfectly wrapped the action up (as it had in 2017, too, actually) as the band took their bows to huge cheers. The setlist was:

Caught Somewhere in Time

Stranger in a Strange Land

The Writing on the Wall

Days of Future Past

The Time Machine

The Prisoner

Death of the Celts

Can I Play with Madness

Heaven Can Wait

Alexander the Great

Fear of the Dark

Iron Maiden

-

Hell on Earth

The Trooper

Wasted Years

As much as I really enjoyed the 2017 show I attended on The Book of Souls touring cycle, which also had a strong setlist, I think that last night topped it. The band were really on fire, and the Senjutsu cuts chosen really came alive on stage. I liked the focus on Somewhere in Time, too. I have always enjoyed that album a lot, and quite a few of the songs played from it had either never been played live or had not been played live for a number of years. It made the set feel special, even for someone like me who had only seen the band live once before. There were only four songs played yesterday which were played in 2017, too, which I always like when it comes to setlist construction. It is funny to think that I have now seen the band live twice and have never seen them do Run to the Hills and Hallowed Be Thy Name - but, in truth, I would have rather have seen the two interesting setlists that I have now seen than a more generic greatest hits-type set anyway.