Metal-Is 2000: Iron Maiden
IRON MAIDEN - Bruce Dickinson
25 Dec 2000 


Bruce Dickinson looks back over the release of 'Brave New World' and the 'Metal 2000' tour.

JANUARY - FINISHING OFF 'BRAVE NEW WORLD'

We were sat on our arses, really, because Steve (Harris) was doing his major diddling thing, moving things around in computers with Kevin (Shirley) the producer, so we'd be going in on a day-to-day basis and having a listen to what they'd moved - and half the time we couldn't tell the difference, so me and Jan (Gers) just went down the pub! We were just waiting, really; I couldn't wait to get stuck in to touring.

FEBRUARY/MARCH - PROMOTION

Those months were just completely mad. I went round the world twice, doing press and promo, in the space of about three and a half weeks. It was just running around, doing loads and loads of press. At the end of February/beginning of March, we had to go over to America and do the video shoot and press and the album cut, and it was all an unholy rush. I started on the West Coast of America and went to Australia, Japan, all through Europe for a week, back to America, all the way round America, finishing on the West Coast, and then back in Europe doing more stuff.

APRIL - MUSIC REHEARSALS

I finally landed in Antwerp and we got on with the music rehearsals and that was really enjoyable, because every bugger left us alone, with the exception of nipping off to do 'Top Of The Pops' in Germany, and we just got on with playing music. 'Top Of The Pops' in Germany was really good, because it wasn't like doing English 'Top Of The Pops'. First of all, they weren't bothered about volume restrictions; secondly, they had a pyromaniac there, who was letting off gas bombs everywhere, which was pretty cool, and we could just do what we wanted. They shot it with four cameras and did a pretty decent edit of it, so we actually looked like a rock band and not like a pop band.

MAY - PRODUCTION REHEARSALS

In January and February, we were still having big discussions on the album cover and things were being redesigned, and after that, it was just a question of hoping that we didn't get stuck with a three inch version of Stonehenge when we showed up to see it! We'd all seen models and pictures of it, but the first time you actually see it is the first time you have to go through the detailed bits, like you find out somebody's designed a set of steps that you can't actually climb and if I leap about on stage with this post in this position, I shall no longer be able to have any children, so could we move the post please?! But in general, they're little piddly things that a hacksaw can remove.

JUNE - EUROPEAN TOUR

We were pretty confident musically, and it was just a question of getting out there and doing it again and getting used to the set, because that was very unusual. It was almost an anti-set in one sense, in that it contained probably fewer Iron Maiden hits than any other set that the band's played for donkeys' years, particularly given the size of the audience and all the rest of it, so it was quite a formidable thing. It was actually very hard work as the bloke fronting the band, trying to sustain things, especially if the audience wasn't hugely familiar with the album, which of course at that point in the tour, they weren't, although it got better as we went along. It's all old news about not playing in England in 1999, but doing Earls Court was a nerve-wracking show and it was a difficult set again, because people there hadn't seen us on the, as it were, 'best of' tour and they weren't getting a 'best of' set, although I think some people turned up with the impression that that's what they were going to get. Nevertheless, I thought that we managed to come out of that very well. I think that on balance, it's better for the career of the band in the future that it did a more difficult set that impressed people who were really into the band, rather than doing just a crowd-pleasing set.

JULY - JANICK GERS INJURED FALLING FROM THE STAGE IN MANNHEIM

We had to cancel a week of shows because of Janick's accident. That was dreadful. I really thought he'd hurt himself much more than he had done. He hurt himself pretty badly, but when I looked at him, it was real butcher's shop time. He was covered in blood - he looked like one of those guys you see that gets dragged out of a pub after a bomb's gone off, it was that awful. It was towards the end, so we did a couple more songs and then left the stage, but everybody was pretty shaken up by it. His entire body was black (afterwards), and it took weeks for that to go. I don't think he looked right for several weeks after that. He was a bit yellow and a bit fragile, but he was doing a really good job, going for it, and we had to tell him to stop on a couple of occasions, because we thought he was going to hurt himself again.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER - US TOUR

Then we landed in America, where it was 50/50 every night whether you were going to get an audience of forty-somethings where the last thing they'd heard was 'Piece Of Mind' or whether you were going to get an audience who had all bought 'Brave New World' and were all really into it. It was surprising, some of the places, like L.A. for example, where we'd played the Greek Theatre on the previous tour and we'd all gone away mumbling, "What a pleasant little bourgeois crowd!" and how we hated it and yet, playing the Universal Amphitheatre - which I was suspicious of, because I don't like places with nice plush seating - the place was amazing. It was like a big club and everybody was rocking away and it was really, really good. In fact, the whole West Coast was very, very good. Obviously, New York was good and Madison Square Garden went down really, really well. I expected we would sell out Madison Square Garden fairly quickly, but 'quickly' for me was a couple of days; two hours was very unexpected!

I enjoyed pretty much all the gigs. I know that we weren't all 100 per cent delirious about one or two of the reactions from the - how can we put it? - older crowd, who were a bit placid, shall we say? But I think that's just the nature of the beast. I think they probably enjoyed it and I don't think that's any justification for going around excessively whinging about things. They all turned up, they all paid, they all went away happy. You can't have Sao Paulo, 50,000 people, every night!

OCTOBER - JAPANESE TOUR

Japan was massively successful. It was the most number of shows we've done there for a very, very long time. The record is the most successful record Maiden's had there for ages and I love going to Japan anyway; I do like it over there. We all had terrible jetlag; for some reason, we all suffered from it appallingly this time, but nevertheless, it was great. The evil thing about it is, you get second wind around midnight and you stay up 'til eight in the morning and you feel no pain - or shame! After the first gig, I felt so dog tired, I fell asleep on the train on the way home, went back to my room, had a shower and was ready for bed, so I thought, 'I'll read a book' - and that's exactly what I did! I finished the book at eight o'clock in the morning! Then I shut the curtains, excluded the daylight and went to bed, thinking I'd wake up at one o'clock, I'd have five hours' sleep and I'd feel shitty, but I'd get myself back on track. I woke up at five o'clock in the afternoon - I'd slept for nine hours through the day and I felt great! I thought, 'This is wrong, it's dark outside and I've just woken up.' I thought I'd knacker myself out and try to put the whole day into three hours, so I went down the gym and walked out, had a shower, went down to the bar around ten o'clock, and there's Rod (Smallwood) and Nicko (McBrain). I thought I'd have a couple of sakes and go to bed - didn't work! Four o'clock in the morning, there we are, yahooing out in some bloody night club. I did go to bed, Nicko stayed up - the next day he was wrecked, wrecked! The Titanic had got nothing on him! So Japan is a wonderful place, but it's bloody dangerous!

NOVEMBER - UK SHOWS

I was really looking forward to those and I enjoyed them all thoroughly, and then we did the German show (in Essen, to replace one cancelled due to Janick's accident) and again, that was really good fun. We couldn't get the whole show in, because of the restrictions on the design of the venue, but it's such a fantastic venue and it always has a great sound and a great vibe. And then doing Athens to finish up the year, we couldn't really have wished for a better show. It was superb, the audience were brilliant, a really, really great night.

DECEMBER - OFF THE ROAD

I did this thing with Rob (Halford) and Geoff (Tate) the other night (guesting at Halford's London show) and I'm going to L.A. to do some songwriting with Roy Z. There's plans for a couple of things next year. I hope to be able to fit in one decent sized project next year without it completely taking over my life and similarly, the following year, I think I'll probably have a solo album out, but again, I'd like to keep it so that it's a couple of months of intense activity and then it's writing and recording a new Maiden album. I think that's plenty to be going on with - quality rather than quantity, definitely!