Up The Irons / Emily Barker
Much to my chagrin, I missed Iron Maiden at Twickenham on Saturday last. I had been supposed to be at ZOO8 Festival and so had written off the idea of going or getting a ticket. However, as most people know, that festival didn't exactly go to plan and so I ended up not only being free, but actually being in Twickenham, where I could hear the strains of "Two Minutes To Midnight" ("Sing it!") over the early evening breeze.
It's well documented that Maiden are one of my favourite bands, certainly my first love musically. They inspire a special kind of devotion (they're either your favourite band or you're not really a fan.. seriously). Walking through Twickenham both before and after the gig (I met up with some friends from the gig afterwards, who tortured me by reeling off the killer setlist) I felt pretty immersed in Maiden culture, despite not actually making it into the stadium. And it made me feel better about the world, for once. The great thing about Maiden is that they've never been hip; wearing their T-shirts can't be retro, because there was never an era when that look was cool. They've always been outsiders, underdogs, not justout of fashion but consciously against it. So when 55,000 desperately uncool people (mostly men, sure) gather in a stadium wearing T-shirts painted with zombies to shout along to songs about the Crimean War and a prog-rock reworking of poems by Coleridge, I look at NME features on some dreadful bunch of teenagers playing thinly-disguised Jam covers to a few hundred even-younger teenagers somewhere in Shoreditch, and I relax a little.
News: Festival season T-shirts are still available here. The amazing Emily Barker is now confirmed as opening act for the October tour dates. The world is at peace.
It's well documented that Maiden are one of my favourite bands, certainly my first love musically. They inspire a special kind of devotion (they're either your favourite band or you're not really a fan.. seriously). Walking through Twickenham both before and after the gig (I met up with some friends from the gig afterwards, who tortured me by reeling off the killer setlist) I felt pretty immersed in Maiden culture, despite not actually making it into the stadium. And it made me feel better about the world, for once. The great thing about Maiden is that they've never been hip; wearing their T-shirts can't be retro, because there was never an era when that look was cool. They've always been outsiders, underdogs, not justout of fashion but consciously against it. So when 55,000 desperately uncool people (mostly men, sure) gather in a stadium wearing T-shirts painted with zombies to shout along to songs about the Crimean War and a prog-rock reworking of poems by Coleridge, I look at NME features on some dreadful bunch of teenagers playing thinly-disguised Jam covers to a few hundred even-younger teenagers somewhere in Shoreditch, and I relax a little.
News: Festival season T-shirts are still available here. The amazing Emily Barker is now confirmed as opening act for the October tour dates. The world is at peace.
posted by frank at 9:13 AM
4 Comments:
Maiden was the tits!!! Lots of old, fat, drunk men in Maiden t-shirts shouting along and generally being best friends with each other.
'Aces High'
'2 Minutes To Midnight'
'Revelations'
'The Trooper'
'Wasted Years'
'The Number Of The Beast'
'Rime Of The Ancient Mariner'
'Powerslave'
'Heaven Can Wait'
'Run To The Hills'
'Fear Of The Dark'
'Iron Maiden'
'Moonchild'
'The Clairvoyant'
'Hallowed Be Thy Name'
Francis F**Ked The Kids?
Hi Frank
Missed out on waving your Union Flag along to The Trooper? That'll be karma for Zoo8, then.
It seems, shambles though some of it was, that everyone who played is getting paid.
Praised you to my mates before hand- come and see this guy, he's different, songs with a conscience, leftie, 4real, levelling the land and all that...
Surely you could have risked coming down for a solo spot with just your guitar?
Sam Isaac (with band) bigged you up and apologised eloquently on your behalf then watched half his (your) audience walk off during the first song - must be a depressing sight for any artist. I'd say you owe him a pint!
It appears that when taking a chance for your fans you're a bit of a Conservative.
OK, I'm attempting humour and to wind you up a bit here but, less meek shuffling and more rock'n'roll next time please
Yours
a slightly disillusioned fan
"And most all, yeah, I won't show up".
:-)
It'd be nice to leave some kind of contact when making bold public statements like this, so I could reply privately. Here will have to do. I've apologized and am trying to put together a replacement Kent show, butthe basic fact that I'm not rich enough to risk stuff like that remains. People walking off when Sam (a good friend) played is a shame but not my fault - he got the slot on my recommendation anyway. As for my politics, I fucking wish everyone would stop making lazy assumptions about what I believe in. I've been writing songs about how I'm not a leftist for four albums now. Pay attention at the back. And, for that matter, mind your own business. I'm a musician - like me for my music, not for the politics you choose to project onto me.
Hey Frank,
I don't really care about the Zoo8 kerfuffle but find it hard to swallow that you say "like me for my music, not for the politics projected onto me". I can see why you are annoyed about false projections but with some of your lyrical content being so explicitly political "thatcher fucked the kids", is it not right fans like you for what you may represent to them politically, which they may sometimes misjudge. I like you for your music which I would describe as songs driven by evocative, sometimes political lyrics.
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