PART 1: The Booking Stress
November 16th 2019
About 9 days ago, Iron Maiden announced their 2020 tour. We decided from the start that if it was more LOTB we would be taking it easier this year, so we could go bananas in 2021 for the new album tour. Well, it is more LOTB. We are not taking it as easy as I planned, but that’s okay. I thought I would just be doing Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg before the tour was announced, and keep it to that but…we would already be in Europe when the Berlin show is happening! And alllllll of my friends are going to Barcelona (and it’s possibly the last show) so I just HAVE to do that one… and Lisbon! That’s too close to Barcelona, so have to do that one. So “taking it easy” turned into four shows. Normally I’d be totally cool and excited about it but next year brings big changes, James and I are really trying to pursue our side projects more full time in the coming months. So it’s been a whole roller coaster of emotions trying to be excited for the trips while also trying to be adults about it so we can thrive taking on our aspirations. So I am hoping to look back on this nervously typed out entry to the next journal with a “What was I worried about!!” attitude, happy and excited for what next year holds.
PART 2: The Virus
March 3rd, 2020
Well, I didn’t plan on making another entry until we were leaving for day one of our trip, but recent events have been causing chaos. The lovely headlines about the Coronavirus have been worrying folks around the forum for a while and people are wondering if part of most of the tour is going to be cancelled. E-mail sent out by ICT to those on the Japan FC trip said Maiden currently has no plans to cancel and wont unless government restricts it. So…fun times!! But that’s all months away still. So let us hope I am here to write to you about our amazing time on day one of our trip!! Until next time!
March 18th 2020
Coronavirus is a pandemic, and is spreading everywhere. Have no idea if we will be going at all. They just postponed the Australian tour until further notice today due to the travel bans and all of that, and said they would keep us posted on what happens. That’s kind of the least of everyone’s worries right now, since everyone’s getting temporarily laid off of their jobs due to quarantines and shutdowns. Not looking fantastic. So yeah. Cheerful!
Til next time?
Perhaps…not
April 25th 2020
Well folks, there’s no tour this year. Most dates have been postponed, some outright cancelled. I hope to hit the same dates next year. Berlin is my only cancelled show so far but the rest of them are going to go, no doubt.
Until then.
June 2nd 2020
I write to you from my couch, watching “En Vivo!”, and being sentimental. And….Ah, what would have been 2 and a half weeks ’til takeoff…shit!! I’m here cause I never wrote that the tour has been fully postponed to 2021. Europe anyways. We added Bologna and Antwerp to our itinerary. There’s whispers and lore of a US tour for a unheard of new album after this tour, in the fall of 2021. If that is the case, we may have to chop out Berlin and Gothenburg from our plans. Which really sucks, as I was looking forward to those two venues more than any. But we’d like to hit 12 or so shows if the US tour is big enough. But, we’ll see. There is no basis for the statement that they’d tour other than something the Israeli promoter said to someone. If it was a short run I think we’ll keep Berlin and Gothenburg.
Hopefully next year can be better for everyone in every way. I suppose I’ll talk to you then. Until that time, I hope to come back to you with better news in a better world!
September 30th, 2020
Since my last entry the virus has re entered the news in an annoying way. But, I am also in a better place mentally than I was 3 months ago. Not sure if the summer tour will go ahead but crossing my fingers. At least we can hope things will return by fall. Rock in Rio announced dates for next year and Maiden is rumored to be playing.
May 13th, 2021
Well dang, it’s been a while. Rio got postponed a year a while ago, and the summer tour for this year has been postponed to next year.
From about a year ago this time? Things are looking so much better than that as of now. I have a lot of confidence in the tour next year and we’ve even added and re-added some shows. Currently as it stands, we are doing Berlin, Gothenburg, Frankfurt, Warsaw, Barcelona and Lisbon. There’s a gap between dates and we are also hoping to hit one more within it. We will now be spending a month in Europe, and will be visiting at least 5 new countries that I have yet to visit. It’s all very exciting and I cannot wait to come back to my favorite thing with new found excitement (could I possibly be more excited to see them than I was before? Yeah, apparently!) So, until then or until I hear of another show to hit, bye!
PART 3:…Salvation at Last?
December 1st, 2021
What an interesting day. Did not expect to wake up to an announcement of a U.S tour in September/October of next year…wow! This morning some people on the forum were talking about an image posted on the ticketing website for the show in Moscow. It was an official image of LOTB Trooper Eddie fighting Senjutsu Eddie. The talk was about how this tour was gonna include both LOTB and Senjutsu elements, and then BAM! U.S tour announcement, and what looks like the remaining European dates. My head has been spinning all day, I just want to ride this high into eternity. This brought the question though…what about the tickets we bought for Europe?? First we thought get rid of Lisbon….still seemed like a bit much… Ok….only Gothenburg and Croatia as the first show? I’d still need a lot of days off for that. I’m planning to leave my current job next year, but if I can work and save ’til the U.S tour that would be fantastic. We also want to see James family so the trip over for Croatia has to be at least a week, which we will mostly spend visiting them. As much as I want to see all these countries and finally do some travelling (and as emotionally attached as I am to my Gothenburg tickets…), We decided we need to pass on Europe, take for the first night of the tour. If they are coming to the USA we can make our dollar stretch so much further. If Europe was the only place they’d tour, then hell yes! Not more than one or two in a US tour year. Next year (2023) will hopefully be our big year of adventure, so it can wait. I want Iron Maiden back in our lives.
WITH THAT SAID… currently looking to do Zagreb, El Paso, Austin, Anaheim (possibly with an added second show) Tulsa, Toronto, Hamilton, Worcester, Belmont Park (NY), DC, Greensboro and Tampa. More to be added? Maybe. Ottawa might be convenient. But that is TBD. Have much more confidence in this tour than the European tour so this actually feels real. I feel like I can plan and expect to see these shows and its awesome.
Until next time….
Part 4: It’s Happening.
May 2nd, 2022
I chose not to believe Europe was happening for a while. Probably up to a month ago. Now, it has arrived like a freight train and I don’t even know what to do with myself. We leave next Friday, the 13th (spooky!) to go to the UK for a week. Then… it’s off to Croatia. To see our “long lost” friends again. To take flag photos again. To spend hours buzzing with excitement in line again. To get the shivers and the shakes when Doctor Doctor echoes around the arena again. To have Steve Harris gun us down again. To see (a possible new) Eddie again. To have post show merriment again. All of it. Every damn bit of that wonderful, specific magic that comes with an Iron Maiden concert. I can wholeheartedly say, we are so lucky to get this back in our lives again after such an incredibly strange past couple of years.
See you on departure day, and Up the Irons!
May 21st, 2022
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is finally here. After 950 days and 0 Iron Maiden shows, the Spitfire is starting up its engine again.
For the past week James and I have been spending time with his family in the south of England, before jetting off today, to Zagreb. On the way to the UK it felt like we were just doing a trip to see family, but now that everyone has started to migrate into Croatia, I have shifted completely into Maiden mode. It has been so long with so many disappointments in between, that this just felt like some far off event we would never reach. Never mind that though. The time is here! And per usual, I’m nauseous as ever due to the excitement. We had our last breakfast with family and headed off to Heathrow airport this morning. Luckily, we saw several IMFC members who would be joining us on the same flight. Matt, Rory and Glenn, who may I say are all good guys. It was great to catch up a bit before boarding.
The plan was to go to Bikers Beer Factory. I had my name on a list and everything. When I got there, it was packed, and two friends who had tried to get in said they had no more wristbands to give. I took that as no one else could fit, and we were all way too hungry to wait around and find out, so we left. Come to find out from some friends, they came back with more and if your name was on the list you’d go to the front of the line. Huge bummer as I wanted to see everyone but, it is what it is now! We joined our friends for dinner and a catch up which was a great time as well. With an early morning ahead, we went to bed shortly after.
May 22nd, 2022
So, the day has finally arrived. We woke up at 6 a.m, met our friends in the hotel lobby after we got ready and headed down to the venue. When we arrived there, we found a few of our friends who had been waiting there since 4 a.m. Maniacs, all of them.
It was so incredible to spend time with everyone again, the way we always had before. It’s something I won’t take for granted ever again – not that I did before – I now just have a new found appreciation for being able to go do this. I made a banner which I brought along, that reads “We Fokkin’ Missed You Boys” and had a lot of people in the queue sign it. I didn’t intend to throw it on stage but a lot of people asked if I would and wrote messages to the boys, so I decided I would if the timing was right. We laughed, reminisced and speculated. We shared food and drinks and never ran out of things to talk about. The day honestly flew by much faster than other shows we have done long waits for.
We wondered who would be handling FTTB this year as it has changed from time to time. Around 4:30 p.m a new gentleman, who we had never seen before, came by to check out the situation. I did not catch his name unfortunately, but he was very kind to us! He explained we would be going in 45 minutes early, and put in a holding area before being lead to the floor. Great! That’s always nice as there’s time to buy merch, use the toilets for the last time and buy water. With that fact, I drank the rest of my water early and we waited for him to return. About 5 p.m he returned, we all got our I.D cards checked against the list, and ushered into the waiting area.
Merch: check!
Toilets: check!
Water: ….nope!
They had the concessions blocked off. Would be a mistake on my part as I crashed from dehydration around the encore. Tensions were really building about 10 minutes before doors. John McMurtrie came in and took photos of the fans which got the energy up more than it already was. A really cool security guard, who’s name I also did not get, came back to the doors we waited at, asked us not to run or push, and lead us down. It was a bit strange as the floor was sort if taped off into a small corridor like space, leading to one spot on the rail. I was intending to head for Janick’s side, since I had about 4 separate people tell me how rough the shows in Croatia were, and Janick’s side is a safe bet a lot of the time. Well, my friend lifted the tape to go to that side and about 20 others rushed that way so I just grabbed the first spot I saw….shit!! James and I got damn near front and center. Not the best place for avoiding crush but it wasn’t like we were going to leave! My friend Sonia from Spain ended up next to me, which was great, and I really enjoyed seeing the show with her. The waiting began and luckily people stayed relaxed and gave everyone some space, even during the opening band. Speaking of: Lord of the Lost. This would be my only time seeing them this tour and they were entertaining enough. Not a band I am interested in, but they weren’t hard to get through. Killswitch Engage has been my most difficult Maiden opener, and I’d much rather have these guys. James was trying to spot what was different in the set. We could see there wasn’t really a war “realm”, and sort of a cloudy drapery in the back. He also spotted a bit of the riser covers and saw some brick print that wasn’t there before. His bet of the opening song was Senjutsu – and he would end up being correct.
On to the show: Wow. I think tonight was hands down the most powerful “Doctor Doctor” I have experienced at any Maiden show. It felt like the whole floor was clapping and cheering and singing along with all the power we had. When those last notes hit and the lights went down, it got electric. Inflatables and props came up. Cover drapes came down. We spotted a giant drum over Nicko’s set: TUM. TUM TUM TUM – with each beat, it lit up. The boys arrived on stage with the first notes of Senjutsu, on a stage themed after Japanese architecture. Roofing tiles were on the risers, a temple was raised behind the drum kit, and inflatable towers were off to each side. It was an incredible sight and a joy to finally get to see after hearing about how cool Nicko thought it was. They played the first three songs of the set, and I must say, for the opening night? They were damn near perfect. In fact they probably were perfect but I don’t want to make that claim fully as it was a lot to take in! You could see Bruce looking for the crowd reaction during “The Writing on the Wall”, as that song seems to be his big labor of love with the music video, Belshazzar’s Feast and all of that. Adrian’s solos on Senjutsu and TWOTW were just outstanding. I was looking forward to the latter one most of all, but the first one absolutely ripped on an equal level. The whole setlist threw us for a loop. The entire time I felt like I was in some surreal dream, and that’s the setlist my brain came up with. They broke so many rules: from bringing Eddie out on the first song, to playing the Trooper in the encore – and then doing a second encore with Aces High to close the set. Many of my predictions were wrong, I was honestly very sad that “2 Minutes to Midnight” didn’t get played, as it’s one of my favorite live songs. I ran out of steam around Iron Maiden, it was so hot and I was so sweaty and dehydrated. So I took a little break from going too nuts, and saved all that for “Run to the Hills” and “Aces High”. They weren’t surprising anyone when we saw the cables going down behind the stage during Run to the Hills! That only meant one thing, especially when Rod had mentioned using the Spitfire again, paired with the fact that it hadn’t shown up yet. Mixed feelings on that: I will return to you all with a solid answer on that in September. After the music ended and they came out to toss picks and wristbands, I threw the banner I made up by Adrian, and thankfully he took it, and held it up to the crowd. Proud fan moment!! Sonia got a very nice photo for me, below.
After the crush of people going after picks and wristbands settled down, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” came on the monitors, and merriment ensued. It’s back. It’s all back and it’s just like it always was. I couldn’t be happier. We did the usual and took a massive group flag photo, gave hugs and made our way out. Luckily the concessions were still serving, and we got the tastiest water that has ever hit my lips. Outside the venue was a madhouse, so we decided to make the walk to Bikers Beer Factory to see if anything was going on. It was pretty dead when we got there, though Vintage Industrial Bar was heaving. Some of our friends arrived there and we had a laugh because they got a taxi, but arrived after we did. No food was being served, so we made a run for a McDonalds before it closed, rode back to the hotel and crashed out at 2 a.m.
May 23rd, 2022
Why did we agree to get up at 8 a.m to have breakfast with friends. Ugh…my legs, my head! We begrudgingly got out of our beds, and made ourselves halfway presentable before heading down to the hotel restaurant to have food with Chris and Kenny. We had to see Chris off as he had to leave in the late morning, and had some amazing “post show” chit chat while we ate. After we bid him farewell, Kenny took us around Zagreb. He was there for a few days already and knew some cool stuff to show us that he had seen. So thanks to him, I saw a lot more than I anticipated! We stopped for beers and coffee, and went to a place called “The French Taco”, which was something very strange and unlike I had ever had before. It seemed like a crepe, filled with fries, meat, cheese and sauces. James and Kenny had cheese and sausage on top of the ones they picked too.
When 3 p.m rolled around, Matt and Nik met us at our hotel so we could ride to the airport together. We were on the same flight so it made sense. They enjoyed beers in the lobby, and we had some good banter before heading off. The flight went smooth, a little late but as long as we arrived that’s what matters. Made our way back to the hotel and crashed out again.
May 24th, 2022
Not the news I wanted to wake up to. I set my alarm for 9 a.m, but got up early to get some water. Checking my phone, I got a notification from Icelandair saying our flight had been delayed to 9 p.m. Oh no! I thought. We won’t get back to Florida until like 1 a.m! Oh, but it wasn’t that flight. It was the flight from Heathrow to Keflavik. And they kept our Keflavik flight to Florida the same, leaving at 5 p.m. Shit. We need to call them. Ah, my phone won’t work with their numbers! Brilliant. The nice gentleman at the front desk let us use his phone but we sat on hold for ages and our time was being wasted. We hung up and just decided to go to the desk at Heathrow to try to figure it out. I was totally not prepared for something like this: My luggage was a mess as I assumed I’d have time to re-pack, if we got home a day later I’d have to find somewhere new to get a covid test and pay another $50 for that, scrambled thinking of everyone I would need to contact. All that combined with total exhaustion from 10 solid days of activities with no breaks had me a bit worse for wear. But we got lucky. We got to the desk, she said they booked us onto a direct Virgin Atlantic flight, that also landed 5 hours earlier than the flight we had booked. I didn’t celebrate until the ticket got scanned through security, and thankfully it all went well. It was honestly worth a the stress and running around Heathrow trying to figure it out. Unlike Icelandair, food and any type of drink is included in the airfare. So I got just a wee bit drunk, watched some of my favorite shows, ate well and had a whole section of the plane to ourselves. A great end to the trip, that could have turned out very bumpy. I am thankful to be home but am going to be feeling the blues badly tomorrow at work. It’s a good thing there isn’t another 950 day wait – just a little over 3 months and we will be back to it in El Paso!
Onwards and upwards.
One Strange Believer 