THE IRON MAIDEN EXPERIENCE

Pappu, me , jk with the tickets

Last week can be termed as one of the most rocking one of my life..After having two days of pure fun at NIT Calicut's Raagam '07, we headed straight to Banglore to watch the concert of our lifetime..to watch the uncrowned kings of heavy metal in action.. to watch none other than IRON MAIDEN... It was a sort of get together of the who's who of the Trivandrum headbangers club.. let me compile a list of the metalheads from TVM who attended the show.. first of all, the 'Rage' band..Nithin chettan, mithun chettan, abi chettan, pramod chettan...then, Raja, Nikhil, JK, Pappu and Kishore chettan from K.OS...Govindan chettan from old 'transmigration', Vivek, Chippu and Alex from 'Soulburn', metal fans bhasi chettan, sono chettan, subin chettan, Rohan, sreejith and finally rohith and me representing 'Stoneage'..

take a look at the lighting equipments

with the superfans from Germany

Me and k.os guys set out to the palace grounds at morning 10am itself. Even the autorickshaw drivers in banglore seemed to know 'iron maiden' and they easily recognised that we were heading to the concert venue. As we reached there, lots of young guys and gals were already pouring in. The site of IRON MAIDEN LIVE on the arch leading to the ground really pumped up my spirits. We walked in and was greeted by the awesome sight of a sea of black shirts outside the grounds and most of the shirts had the words 'iron maiden' written on it. Some weirdo guys and gals with equally weird haircuts and dressups were roaming around there. Many of them carried beer cans. As expected, some were busy smoking the 'stuff'. It was only 11am now. The gates won't open in another 4 hours. And the guys who were having our tickets were still to arrive. We sat around there savouring the multi cultural, multi lingual but still united rock crowd who had gathered there. Am sure there were atleast a dozen people representing each state in India.


As we sat around there munching some water melon, a van carrying police men passed by. And the agressive crowd raised up their middle finger in unison and sang some slogans which cannot be written here. Already, big queues were gathering in front of both the 900rs and 1500rs entry points. Atlast at 2, all the guys arrived. We posed for pics holding the tickets in our hands. Then, we queued up for the final push to the stadium. The impatient crowd were banging on the metal panels and chanting 'maiden , maiden'...and finally the gates opened at 2 30 pm...The ticket guy checked our tickets and was collecting it back. I was not ready to part with that prized possession. I showed it to him and ran away with it. I could hear him calling from my back but i dint turn back. We all ran straight to the front. And all of us went mad because we were so close to the stage. The first 30 minutes were really mad as lots of pushing and swearing were happening. We were struck by the sheer elegance of the stage. The number of lighting equipments dangling from the top were just mind blowing. After many rounds of slogan shouting, the crowd settled down. As we roamed around there, we met 3 superfans of maiden from Germany. They had the SPF[Superfan] badges and lots of Maiden stuff on their dresses. According to them, there are only 40 people all around the world with this special pass. These people follow the band wherever they go. We spend sometime talking with them. As we walked around, we could see smoke enveloping the whole stadium. Cigarettes and the 'other stuff' were being smoked freely all around.

The proceedings started around 5 30 pm with this year's campus rock idol winners F**k The Name[FTN] taking the centrestage. And the poor guys were not given the full output, which was preserved to be unleashed during the maiden show. So, inspite of being really good, they were booed down. Lots of F words were heard from all around. This day would rank as the one in which i heard the maxmum number of F words. After FTN, Parikrama came on stage. Their popularity out here was guaged by the loud cheers that greeted them. They played 8 of their original songs of which my favorite was 'but it rained'. The violinist and the lead guitarist stole the show. The vocalist made some unnecessary remarks at the end which were really in bad taste. He used the F word to describe the critics of the band. That was going a little too far. Then, it was time for Lauren Harris, daughter of Steve Harris, and her girl band to perform. Less said about the show, the better. Barring the old spirited lady behind the drums, it was a load of crap, the biggest crap being the Zakk wylde imitating guitarist.

OK, now enough is enough..sorry to all the maiden fans out here for boring you with such a long intro. The Edd Fest '07 really started at 10 minutes past 8 'O' Clock. There was no warning. There was this rumour going over many months that the show is scheduled at 12 am. So we never expected this to happen so fast. All through the opening shows of FTN, Parikrama and Lauren, we were looking behind the stage to catch a glimpse of the maiden guys and we were successful a couple of times. We were waiting impatiently for their arrival on stage..And they did arrive! Like an unannounced storm, they came on stage sending the whole crowd into frenzy. All of us were still screaming out of disbelief. The thought that am watching Iron Maiden in flesh and blood, right before my eyes, sent a chill down my spines. Dickinson was in full form as he sang 'Different world' from the new album ''A matter of life and death''. The album artwork that was dispalyed in the background was awesome. The lighting was innovative. Next up, they played some more songs from the new album..'Brighter than a thousand suns', 'For the greater good of god', ''these colours don't run'' and 'the reincarnation of benjamin breeg'. Nicko McBrain was thumping behind the mammoth drumkit and he could be seen only from the screen. The rest of them were their energetic self, setting the stage ablaze. Bruce Dickinson's voice was still the old air raid siren sound, with no evident changes. Seems like guitarists never age..All of them, Janick Gers, Steve Harris, Adrian Smith and Dave Murray looked less than 30 years of age. But truth is that the band itself is more than 30 years old.

More surprises were in store for us. The biggest of them came during the song ''Iron Maiden''. We saw something rising up from behind the stage. Oh god..It was a full scale model of a military tank. First, it was side view. Then it turned with the big barrel facing the audience. The whole stadium roared. Then came the song ''evil that men do''. This time, it was eddy himself, who surprised us. The mammoth eddy walked in and probed the audience with a binocular. After some spirited calls of ''scream for me banglore'' from Bruce, came the icing on the Maiden cake. ''Hallowed be thy name''. I felt the song was being played from a CD player. That was the perfection with which they reproduced it on stage. For that matter, they played almost all songs like that. And, almost everyone was singing along that Bruce's voice was drowned. This song was the signal that the concert was coming to an end. Bruce was so impressed by the crowd, who sang almost every song with him, that he said the following words..''You've waited 17 years for Maiden, but u don't have to wait even 17 months for the next one''.. So, another Indian concert is on the cards soon. At the end, they all turned their back to the audience for a snap with us in the background. Am sure that will rank alongside some of the other iconic Iron Maiden posters. They threw down drum sticks, wrist bands and guitar picks down into the audience. Though we were all standing in the front row, none among us were fortunate enough to get a piece of the memorabilia.

Eddie arrives

Goodbye Banglore

We didn't know what hit us. And before we could find out, it was all over. We didn't want it to end so fast. But it was all over by the time we realised its Maiden playing in front of us. Now, that is Maiden magic for you. Its not for nothing that they been ruling the Metal Kingdom for the past 30 years... The audience kept on chanting 'Maiden, Maiden'. Most of us were relucatant to leave even after Maiden left. We hung around near the stage trying to catch a glimpse of the Maiden guys and all we got to see were the sound guys. They were all really fast in dismantling the huge amount of concert equipment that they had set up there on stage. Atlast, the policemen drew us away. As we walked back, we were still shaking our head. Now, as I write this, almost one week after the show, am still shaking my head. Am wondering when will it all sink in..the truth that I watched Iron Maiden live...up close..in flesh and blood..from the front row..... Until then, its 'MAIDEN MAIDEN'....chant alongggg...all u members of the Maiden army...

for the complete photo album checkout...
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/blazeofglory2007/IronMaidenEddFest07Banglore


your crusader Praveen