I'm not picking on you TK but that is some straight Spinal Tap stuff. In fact, it is rumored that Sabbath and Maiden were part of the inspiration for the movie.

I think there are two arguments going on here. One side it seems may have not given their actual music a fair shake and the other can't see why others may view them as lampoon-ish.

the kids in my middle school who only wore one t-shirt per week usually supported four bands: The Misfits, Iron Maiden, Metallica and GnR

I'm not picking on you TK but that is some straight Spinal Tap stuff. In fact, it is rumored that Sabbath and Maiden were part of the inspiration for the movie.

I think there are two arguments going on here. One side it seems may have not given their actual music a fair shake and the other can't see why others may view them as lampoon-ish.

My exposure to Maiden came early. My bro had Run to the Hills on vinyl. I like the melodic-metal spectrum they mine, but I really don't ever need to another Maiden song, and I don't believe I have even heard that one since I was like 10.

Not my cup of tea, as they say.

GnR yes has "only one" awesome album, but how many groups emerge fully formed and unleash a 10 song tour-de-force that is still completely relevant 20 years later?

So, in essence, Maiden = Meh/ GnR =

Thanks.

I'd tried to find another picture/better link, but fuck it.

I don't think there's any question that Iron Maiden was one of the biggest influences on the Spinal Tap movie. I mean, I took Spinal Tap as being Iron Maiden with Led Zeppelin lyrics.

From onstage last night (March 14th) at a packed Izod Center New Jersey, Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson announced the second and final US leg of their eagerly anticipated "SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME -- WORLD TOUR 08". Tickets for Iron Maiden’s current dates at the Los Angeles Forum and New Jersey’s Izod Centre having sold out months in advance, the band are delighted to announce they are coming back for more major USA concerts this summer which will take them to a number of cities they have not played in many years along with a return to the New York area at PNC Bank Arts Center,NJ, on June 14th and Madison Square Gardens on 15th June.

Tickets for these shows will go on sale to the public soon as listed below.

A special pre-sale will be made available exclusively to members of the Iron Maiden fan club.

SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME -- WORLD TOUR 08’ USA TOUR DATES:

USA May 21, 2008 San Antonio, TX Verizon Wireless
USA May 22, 2008 Houston, TX Woodlands
USA May 25, 2008 Albuquerque, NM Journal Pavilion
USA May 26, 2008 Phoenix, AZ Cricket Pavilion
USA May 28, 2008 Concord, CA Concord
USA May 30, 2008 Los Angeles, CA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
USA May 31, 2008 Los Angeles, CA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
USA June 2, 2008 Seattle, WA White River Amphitheater
USA June 11, 2008 Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena
USA June 12, 2008 Cuyahoga Falls, OH Blossom Music Center
USA June 14, 2008 Holmdel, NJ PNC Bank Arts Center
USA June 15, 2008 New York, NY Madison Square Gardens
USA June 17, 2008 Camden, NJ Susquehanna Bank Centre
USA June 18, 2008 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion
USA June 20, 2008 Mansfield, MA Tweeter Center for The Peforming Arts

The "SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME -- WORLD TOUR 08" was inspired by Maiden’s recently released DVD, LIVE AFTER DEATH (New Door Records/Ume). Filmed and recorded over four spectacular nights at Long Beach Arena on the "Powerslave Tour" in 1985, this has long been a benchmark for rock concert videos and live albums, and the CD remains one of the biggest-selling live albums ever with sales in excess of six million worldwide. With the video having been largely unavailable for many years, the fans’ massive interest in this legendary concert continues to this day with the DVD debuting at No. 1 on charts around the world (including The UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and Finland), as well as No 2 on the Billboard USA Chart and in Canada.

This tour revisits the band’s history by focusing almost entirely on their classic 80’s period in both choice of songs played and the stage set, which is based around the legendary Egyptian Production of that ’Powerslave Tour’ as portrayed on the Live After Death DVD. This will arguably be the most elaborate and spectacular show the band have ever presented. Furthermore the band intends to bring along for this summer leg of the tour the colossal mummy of Eddie, as featured on the Live After Death DVD, along with various other elements of the show that would not fit on their 757 on the first leg of this tour, which included the shows at the Forum and Izod Centre.
Says vocalist Bruce Dickinson ; "For this summer tour we will be able to bring along all of Eddie’s toys which we couldn’t get on our plane during this first leg. We are all having a great time on this tour and really can’t believe the excitement it is creating around the world and the huge numbers of people who are turning out to see us. It makes for a really very exciting time for all of us, fans and band alike"

’Maiden Mania’ has been gripping countries around the world as tickets for the 2008 World Tour flew out of box offices everywhere when they went on sale. On the first leg in Feb/Mar alone, tickets in Sao Paulo, Brazil, at the 42,000 capacity Palmeiras Stadium sold out in just a week ; Mexico City’s 22,000 capacity Sports Arena sold out in a record-breaking four days leading to the show being moved to the 52,000 Foro Sol Stadium; a first ever visit to Colombia, where first day ticket sales were the biggest for any music event there ever, saw the Simon Bolivar Stadium in Bogota sell out the 30,000 original capacity in 10 days and being been extended to 50,000; 14,000 capacity arenas in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, sold out in less than half an hour with second shows being added in both cities and the band playing to 70,000 fans there; 25,000 fans in each of Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica quickly snapped up all available tickets.

The story continues in North America where shows in major arenas in LA, New York, Toronto sold out weeks in advance; and in the summer, when Maiden take the show around the stadiums of Europe, 125,000 tickets were sold in just over 2 hours last November for three stadium shows in Sweden and Finland!

Being able to tour the Southern Hemisphere in such a concentrated way is all due to the band taking their own plane -- along with their entire 50-man crew, 12 tons of equipment and stage set -- around the world with Astraeus Airline Captain Bruce Dickinson at the helm. As The Age in Australia reports:

"Some bands achieve such colossal levels of success that they get to ride in their own jet. But very few actually fly the damn things themselves. British heavy metal kings Iron Maiden have taken the DIY ethos to a new level -- albeit with a much bigger budget than most heavy metal bands -- when singer Bruce Dickinson flew his band into the country this week in a specially refitted Boeing 757."

Do you knobs also have an opinion on Ratt vs. Cinderella?

Do you knobs also have an opinion on Ratt vs. Cinderella?

Night Songs is better than Out of the Cellar.

Well, David St.Hubbins is CLEARLY based on Mick Jagger.

Mojo Magazine (December 1994): Ian Gillan, you briefly joined Black Sabbath in 1983, tell us about the infamous Born Again tour that provided such valuable inspiration for Spinal Tap?

Ian Gillan: We were up at a company called LSD (Light and Sound Design) in Birmingham, and the lighting engineer asked if anyone had any ideas for a stage set. Geezer Butler suggested Stonehenge. "How do you envisage it, Geezer?" asked the engineer. "Life size, of course," replied Geezer. So they built a life-size Stonehenge. We hired the Birmingham NEC to rehearse in and they couldn't get these bloody things in there. We opened in Montreal and Don Arden had hired Maple Leaf ice hockey stadium for a week, so they shipped the set over there and could still only get a few of those damn stones up, one each side of the stage, one behind the drums and two cross-pieces. The album was called Born Again and had the most vile cover I've ever seen, a new-born baby painted red with yellow finger nails and two little yellow horns sticking out of his head.

Now, I've not been able to remember a single word of any of the Sabbath songs, I don't know why but they won't go into my head. So I did myself a prompt book and wrote out the first lines of each song. I don't normally use monitors but I had two wedges put at the front of the stage just to hide my book, and I'd practices turning the pages with my foot at home in the kitchen. No problem. On the last day of the rehearsal we're wondering what this dwarf is doing hanging around backstage. When we do the dress rehearsal the dwarf emerges in a red leotard, long yellow finger nails and little yellow horns. He's going to be the baby.

Then we hear this horrendous screaming sound — they've recorded a baby's scream and flanged it—and suddenly; we see this dwarf crawling across the top of Stonehenge, then he stands up as the baby's scream fades away and falls backwards off this 30 foot fibreglass replica of Stonehenge onto a big pile of mattresses. Then dong, dong — bells start toiling and all the roadies come across the front of the stage in monk's cowls, at which point War Pigs starts up. By now we can see the kids are either in stitches or wincing in horror.

After spending 40 grand a day to achieve all this, someone had economised by not actually trying out the dry ice in the afternoon run through. So as I stride confidently towards my prompt book, not even knowing the first word of the song, I'm suddenly shocked to see a chest-high cloud of dry ice is berating me to the front of the stage. So there I am after this big opening, kneeling down, swatting the air and trying to read me line, popping my head above this cloud every now and then. Someone shouted "It's Ronnie Dio!"

Encore:

14. The Number Of the Beast
15. Hallowed Be Thy Name
16. Running Free