ARE IRON MAIDEN ONE OF THE BIGGEST BANDS ON THE PLANET?
Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 3:40pm by Vince Neilstein
It’s a conversation I find myself having often with my non-metal friends (including the infamous “metalgf” of Prague Rock notoriety), and it usually goes something like this:
Friend: How about that Bruce Springsteen? Can’t believe he sold out all those arenas so quickly!
Me: Yeah, pretty amazing. Only a handful of bands ever get to that level. Iron Maiden is even bigger, and they can do it worldwide.
Friend: What?? Iron Maiden?? (shocked). Didn’t they like, die in the ’80s or something?
Me: Uh, no, actually they continue to release quality material and can sell out stadiums across the world on a whim.
The conversation then devolves into me trying to convince them of Maiden’s relevance and them not believing me. Well here’s the proof — Iron Maiden just sold 5,000 tickets in less than 12 hours to a show in Costa Rica — COSTA FUCKING RICA. Multiple that by a London, New York, Paris, Mexico City, Melbourne, Tokyo.. yeah, you get the point. Ticketwise, Maiden is right up there in music’s elite: Rolling Stones, U2, Shania Twain, Bon Jovi… Iron Maiden. Fuck all the naysayers.
-VN
based on my unfortunate personal experience, your friend definitely sounds like a cookie-cutter hipster deuchebag, Vince
Your non-metal friends must not be into grammar either.
Ok, i’m from Colombia and Maiden is playing feb 28. Obviously everybody is buying a ticket because Maiden is what 30 years old? That covers a huge population of metalheads that have been waiting this concert. I mean: Maiden was a really first “metal band” for a lot of people…
And also because no band visits Colombia or costa rica… They all do that fuckin’ ABC: Argentina, Brazil and Chile. And yep, that’s the South American leg of the tour…
/I’ve got the ticket…
I have to disagree. Iron Maiden are metal’s elite, but are laughable and irrelevant to 99% of the world.
they’re gonna play at my city (Porto Alegre, Brasil) next March. the line to buy the tickets started in the night before and all the tickets were sold too.
@tiagón:
They started to sell the tickets online “2 Minutes To Midnight”…
I love Maiden despite them kind of releasing the same album the past two or three tries.
And why in the hell did they keep Janick Gers when Adrian Smith came back to the band? He’s a Dave Murray clone.
Nothing tops Maiden when you’re really fucked and you need to use your drunken castrato voice. I agree with Sammy, Janick Gers is a pity play—but three guitars is kind of cool.
In various parts of the world, Maiden still commands respect – but here in America, they have trouble selling out arenas. As as witnessed on their last run through the States, some arenas were reconfigured to move the stage up due to the lack of sales.
Metallica (love them or hate them) is a more appropriate example of a band that can fill stadiums on multiple dates in Europe, do a summer run of stadiums in the States, followed by a 18 month arena tour.
If you take into consideration the fact that they never get played on radio or MTV, and mainstream media NEVER talks about them, the success that Iron Maiden continues to have is astonishing. Not only are they playing to their biggest crowds ever, but most important their records still sell (A Matter of life and Death is a million plus seler worlwide, which in 2007 is A LOT). Iron maiden=biggest heavy metal band of all times.
What about Iron maiden before Dickinson?
No comment on that huh?
yes yes yes, I have this conversation every time I bring up maiden, cause in NYC, almost no one listens to proper metal.
But, I’ve been to every tour that’s come locally over the last 8 years. The last one was a disappointment and I took a bunch of non-metal first timers. But when maiden plays the stuff people want to hear, it’s amazing.
Helsinki july 18th. Any takers?