You ever have one of those nights where nothing seems to go to plan? Well this wasn't one of them, but it came close!! My planned timetable for the evening was as follows:

15:00 Finish work
15:30 Pick nephew up and leave car off at my house
16:00 Catch bus to Leeds train station
17:02 Catch train
18:30 Arrive Manchester Victoria (MEN Arena)
18:30 -19:30 Eat drink & be merry
19:30 Watch gig

This is how it actually happened

15:00 Finished work
15:30 Picked nephew up
15:40 realise wife has disappeared with cash and bank cards
15:40 - 16:10 Try to locate said wife without success
16:10 Borrow cash off sister in law
16:15 Miss bus
16:20 Catch taxi
16:50 Pay taxi £12.00
17:02 On platform - train delayed
17:30 Get on train, absolutely frozen
19:15 Arrive MEN Arena (an hour and ¾ to go 40 miles)

Arriving as we did, a bit late, there was no queue and we wandered straight in. Two pints of Carlsberg and two £2.50 hotdogs later we were ready to go watch Funeral for a Friend who were twenty minutes into their set.

My first thoughts were that these guys shouldn't be supporting Iron Maiden. And my first thoughts were my last thoughts on the subject. Try as they might FfaF didn't muster any real enthusiasm from the masses. Fundamentally, I think, they looked like they didn't believe they deserved to be there. The frontman, despite all his posturing and arsing about, made very little eye contact with the audience and often has his back to us; the other guys jumped about now again, but also stared primarily at the floor or their instruments. The singer also kept making references about the 'Mighty Iron Maiden' which for me reinforced their obvious inferiority complex. The songs seemed to be a mish-mash of emo, indie and metal but one pretty much blurred into the other. Not recommended.

A quick reconnoitre to the alcohol dispensary successfully completed during the interval, I took my seat and looked around the arena. It really is an amazing location, holding a lot of people (what, you don't expect me to do research as well do you? I'm not getting paid for this, this is gratis, pro bono all for you fuckers. If you want to know how many people the arena holds look it up yourselves!) and the atmosphere and tension was almost tangible as the lights dimmed for the main event….

The obligatory atmospheric music blasted out a few explosions and we were into 'Wildest Dreams' with Bruce jumping around like a lunatic. (I remember saying to my nephew - "He's going to break his fucking neck jumping over that monitor like that!" And then I remembered my nephew was only 13 so I apologised for swearing in case he told his mum and I got into trouble).

Janick Gers - an excellent showman - was twirling his guitar around his neck and diving around the stage like a man on an amphetamine overdose, Harris, Murray and Smith, not quite so lively but obviously totally committed nonetheless.

The energy was awesome, the sound fantastic and the whole place was fucking jumping. Quickly into 'Wrathchild' and the crowd were in a frenzy and this was only the second number.

Maiden stuck to their guns on the Brave New World Tour by playing a limited number of classics, and they took a lot of criticism. I know that the older songs are what the crowd had come to hear tonight. Into Can I Play with Madness, Dance of Death (a Bruce rant about the music press notwithstanding) and I was knackered!! Another quick refuelling excursion to the refreshments stand and I was soon singing along to Paschendale. What a song! The stage set was first rate as you would expect at a Maiden gig the themed backdrops changing depending on the song, but to be honest I was cringing in advance when I heard that Bruce was putting costumes on for certain numbers. He carried it off though, surprisingly and the soldier garb for Paschendale worked really well with the barbed wire set.

The set worked perfectly for me - the perfect blend of old and new. In total there were five tracks off the new album, and ironically enough 'Journeyman' (the albums weakest moment in my opinion) was the highlight of the evening. A real rousing, sing along anthem which along with Number of the Beast and Run to the Hills closed the evening perfectly.

Maybe it's because I wasn't expecting too much, or maybe it's because I forgot how good these guys really are, but this gig was a genuine surprise to me. One word to sum up - AWESOME.

PIXIE

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF WWW.IRONMAIDEN.COM