Iron Maiden

Another one ticked off the list of “Artists I want to see before I (or they!) die”. I’m not a massive fan of Iron Maiden, but they’re a band I’ve always quite fancied seeing “in the flesh”. And it seems I am not alone, as Leeds Arena had a capacity crowd last night. According to their website, that equates to 13,500 people. There was no issue getting there from our hotel - just follow all the people wearing Iron Maiden t-shirts. We were very much in the minority, in our plain shirts. I did think about visiting the merch stand but, at £40 a pop for just a t-shirt, I paid homage to the city we were in and adopted the good old Yorkshire policy of keeping my wallet firmly closed.
The support band were Lord of the Lost. They’ve toured with Maiden around Europe previously but I suspect, like me, you’ve never heard of them. But you may well have seen them on the telly, as they represented Germany in this years Eurovision Song Contest. Though they did finish last, just behind the U.K. Actually not too bad if you like a bit of Goth, Camp, Heavy Metal! They certainly went down well with the crowd on the floor.
Iron Maiden were excellent. More new tunes than old favourites, but all played superbly with plenty of pyrotechnics and effects. We even had several appearances from Eddie, in a variety of guises. Definitely worth going to and a great night out, though I’m not sure I’d go again unless they did some sort of farewell/greatest hits tour.
And I did give in and buy a t-shirt in the end. But not from the official outlet. Twenty quid from one of the blokes outside the arena seemed better value and it’s hard to tell the difference. Fits well and seems pretty well made, so win-win all round. Well, apart from Iron Maiden’s coffers obviously, but I reckon they got enough from ticket sales to keep them in the rock star lifestyle!
Today has been spent strolling leisurely around Leeds before catching the train back to Lancaster this afternoon. Having done well over 10,000 steps on each of the last two days, it’s going to definitely be feet up in front of the telly tonight!