(1993)
Steve, Dave, Bruce, Janick, Nicko
1. The Number of the Beast (Harris)
2. The Trooper (Harris)
3. Prowler (Harris)
4. Transylvania (Harris)
5. Remember Tomorrow (Harris/Di'Anno)
6. Where Eagles Dare (Harris)
7. Sanctuary (Harris/Di'Anno/Murray)
8. Running Free (Harris)
9. Run to the Hills (Harris)
10. 2 Minutes to Midnight (Smith/Dickinson)
11. Iron Maiden (Harris)
12. Hallowed Be Thy Name (Harris)
Disc 2 (A Real Live One):
1. Be Quick or Be Dead (Dickinson/Gers)
2. From Here to Eternity (Harris)
3. Can I Play With Madness (Smith/Dickinson/Harris)
4. Wasting Love (Dickinson/Gers)
5. Tailgunner (Harris/Dickinson)
6. The Evil That Men Do (Smith/Dickinson/Harris)
7. Afraid to Shoot Strangers (Harris)
8. Bring Your Daughter... To the Slaughter (Dickinson)
9. Heaven Can Wait (Harris)
10. The Clairvoyant (Harris)
11. Fear of the Dark (Harris)
There's not really much I can say about the album, to be honest. Most of what I will say will be negative though.
For starters, the crowd noise is really lud on the mix, which is a little off-putting. The actual recordings and performances themselves are fairly good, but nowhere near Maiden's best, with the mix being even more muddy than Live At Donnington. Which brings me to another point... the setlist here is damn-near excatly the same as Live At Donnington. In fact, the only differences are the addition of Prowler, Transylvania, remember Tomorrow and Where Eagles Dare on the first disc. Now I know this was the setlist for the tour, so it can't really be helped, but it is very annoying, and the album would have been much better if it simpy was the No Prayer on the Road tour, with the four above songs from the Real Live Tour and the excellent recording of Fear of the Dark as well.
I mean, basically, I had two reasons buyng this album: 1. I wanted the live recordings of Prowler, Transylvania, Remember Tomorrow and Where Eagles Dare, 2. I wanted to complete the picture of Eddie on teh sleeves of all the remasters and 3. it's Maiden.
Another rather alarming thing is that out of the nine songs on the debut album, a shocking 6 of them were played. A bit much, eh? Worse still, all but two of the songs on the first disc are solo efforst by Steve... now, there's nothing wrong with any of these songs; most are all Maiden classics. But there are plenty of great (read better) songs not just written by Steve which are all too often forgotten when Maiden tour.
More bad points: Where Eagles Dare has been shorted by over a minute, which is a shame, and Bruce really does mess up Remember Tomorrow quite badly, although it's not terrible.
So... good things about the live album?
- Bruce talks in French for a bit before a great version of the beautiful Wasting Love.
- Bruce says "Whatever the problem is, Clint Eastwood's gonna fix it" before Where Eagles Dare, which is really fucking cool.
- At the end of Bring Your Daughter, Bruce says something like "Ow I'm coming to get'cha Helsinki FUCK!", which made me laugh. The pointless fuck part, I mean.
- In Sanctuary, Bruce is really funny when introducing the band.
- In Heaven Can Wait, Bruce mumbles something during the "whoas oh ohs" in Heaven Can wait, which is sort of amusing.
- The way Transylvania flows into Remenmber Tomorrow is well cool (as opposed to Strange World).
- "War is bullshit" -- damn right, Bruce.
- The recording of Fear of the Dark is awesome.
- On The Evil That Men Do, Bruce sounds absolutely perfect, which is kind of strange, considering that he ain't that great in most of these live recordings.
- Tailgunner is always great live.
And that's about it. The worst live Maiden album, but still pretty cool. Just make sure it's the last of the remasters you buy, and that you don't pay that much for it. It's nice, but not really spectacular.
Oh well. Shit happens.