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Saw them at Reading Festival last night and fuck me backwards (which is impossible, thereby proving the argument I'm about to make) if they're not the Greatest Live Band In The World At The Moment (of course, please don't take that literally, I'm just enthusing because I haven't quite come down yet and my neck still hurts).
I used to be well into Maiden when I was about 14 (as did many other youths in the late 80s who didn't quite 'fit in', I expect) but went right off when they did 'Bring Your Daughter ... To The Slaughter' (which I still think sucks donkeys) - I suppose what I'm getting at is that I much prefer the older stuff. Ooh let's say ... 'Iron Maiden' up to 'Piece Of Mind'. Imagine my orgasmic joy, then, when the festival programme proclaimed that they were only going to be playing songs from those first four albums. Gawd, I nearly 'ad an accident, I did.
Anyway, to cut a short story shorter, me and my mate Claire (who hadn't seen them before) went absolutely nuts in the periphery of the main crowd, where sensible people were eating jacket potatoes and perhaps nodding their heads occasionally. Yes, my friends, there was full-on figure-eight headbanging; James Brown-style falling to the knees in quasi-religious prostration; I sang along to every lyric I could remember (then coughed); by christ, there was even air guitar. And proper air guitar, none of your 'wiggling your fingers in a vaguely self-conscious manner' nonsense. We looked like twats, but this is my point, I think - we genuinely, honestly DIDN'T CARE. Thus the transcendent power of Metal touches us all, if we truly believe. Sigh.
Right, I'm off to Virgin to take advantage of that '5 Maiden CDs for £30' offer because my dozen or so LPs need retiring. Onward! |
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