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 As Bruce Dickinson carefully reminds us, 2006 has been Iron Maiden's most successful year, with the heavy metal monsters selling out bigger venues than in their Number of the Beast 1980s heyday. This, Dickinson tells us, may have something to do with the less-than-rocking competition. Reality TV and such are "Bollocks, basically," he says, to cheers, before leading the band (named after an instrument of torture) into "a good old-fashioned power-ballad. Get your lighters out, set fire to the ashtrays!"
As pop moves forward, there is something reliably out of sync about the Maiden. Comeback album A Matter of Life and Death has a war theme, which enables the boys to trot out more anthems about death. The stage set features sandbags, searchlights and newspaper headlines from 1944. It seems to have escaped their attention that a war is currently raging, but no one ever accused heavy metal of being topical.
The band defy time in every way, sporting preposterous rock barnets (a trimmed Dickinson aside) at ages when they should concern themselves with gardening but, crucially, they still rock like beasts. With Dickinson operatically wailing, the new album is played in full before the group delight rockers of all ages with the venerable classics Iron Maiden and Fear of the Dark. Sensitivity prevents the inclusion of Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter, but disappointment is banished when band horror mascot "Eddie" appears as a polystyrene tank commander and then a 12ft walking soldier. Dickinson suggests the band will celebrate their renewed popularity by taking 150,000 fans "to a muddy field in the middle of England" next year. It will probably look just like the Somme.
The review is written by Dave Simpson from The Guardian, who gave the gig four out of five stars.
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2006 World Tour 
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