The X Factour (1995 - 96)
After being off the road for nearly two years, Maiden were eager to return to the stage. They had a new singer and a new album they were ready to play live. Unfortunately, Maiden’s popularity was declining and they found themselves playing smaller venues in Europe and especially North America. It’s no secret that the two tours with Blaze had problematic moments, but there were some highlights too. Here’s a quick look at how Blaze’s first tour with Maiden panned out.
Of course this tour was higher pressure than usual because they were showing off a new singer. Blaze wasn’t just replacing a singer, he also had to fill Bruce’s role as one of Rock’s greatest frontmen. It’s pretty obvious watching the tour that Blaze was out of his element with Maiden. His stage presence was very stiff compared to Bruce and he didn’t contribute much in the way of stage banter. He was also tasked with singing Bruce’s old vocal parts, which brings us to the show’s setlist.
There was no getting around the material with Bruce and the majority of the setlist was made up of songs that he sang on. Obviously Blaze had a much more limited range and struggled with several of the songs. It didn’t help that the band didn’t adjust the tunings to better accommodate Blaze’s lower voice. However, he did have his good moments. His rendition of Afraid To Shoot Strangers is probably the closest he came to touching one of Bruce’s performances. The song also fit quite well with the darker material from The X Factor. There surprisingly wasn’t much played from the Di’Anno albums. Going back to the early days for songs that better fit Blaze’s voice would’ve made sense, but Maiden didn’t seem very interested in deviating much from the staples of the recent tours. In fact, apart from the new songs, these were all songs that had previously been featured on the Fear Of the Dark and A Real Live tours. They did deviate from the typical ending of Sanctuary/Running Free by closing instead with The Trooper. It was a very interesting choice for set closer and remains a choice unique to the Blaze era.
Probably in acknowledgement of Blaze’s limited vocal abilities, the setlist was very heavy on new material. 7 songs were performed from the X Factor, which is a higher number than usual and much more than the 5 performed from Fear of the Dark. A few of these songs were also on the lengthier side, so they made up a large portion of the set. The X Factour was also the first tour since Beast On the Road where the opening song wasn’t the first song on the album. Ironic since Beast On the Road was Bruce’s first full tour with the band. Unlike Beast On the Road, the album’s opening track was played later in the show. Instead, they opened with Man On the Edge. The other songs played were Lord Of the Flies, Fortunes Of War, Blood On the World’s Hands, and The Aftermath. With the exception of Lord Of the Flies and Man On the Edge, these songs showed the album’s more complex and darker side. Still, the energy of a live performance greatly benefited these songs. Blood On the World’s Hands in particular was a highlight with Steve Harris’ bass intro.
For staging, the band decided it was finally time to begin moving away from the “bare bones” style of the last few tours. The wall of Marshall Amps disappeared and was replaced by a stage setup that was themed after the new album’s cover artwork. The centerpiece was Eddie in an electric chair during Iron Maiden. A big walk on Eddie also appeared earlier in the set. Overall, it was probably the most “classic” stage design of the decade so far, although the production was considerably smaller to accommodate the smaller venus Maiden were playing on this tour.
The X Factour was to continue Maiden’s exploration of new markets and began with a tour of the Middle East and Africa. Maiden kicked off the tour with their very first appearance in Israel, followed by their first performance in Africa. The tour was mostly a success, the band even filmed the video for Man On the Edge in Israel, although unfortunately the last show in South Africa was cancelled due to issues with the local authorities.
The tour hit its low point in the US. By 1996, Maiden’s popularity in the US was at an all time low. They had gone from playing arenas to playing small clubs and theatres. In Colorado, Maiden played Red Rocks on the Fear of the Dark tour and were downgraded to a small theater on The X Factour. A string of dates toward the end of the tour was also cancelled. The official reason is that Blaze had a voice infection, although it’s often speculated that the low ticket sales had a lot to do with it.
It wasn’t all bad, however. Similar to the Fear Of the Dark tour, when Maiden hit South America they once again became superstars. The tour was kicked off with a headlining performance at Rock In Rio Brazil. As usual in South America, the crowd was huge and proved that some parts of the world still supported Maiden. The short South American tour was probably the highlight of the tour and also included their first visit to Chile. It is also here where we find video footage of the tour. Three of the South American performances were broadcasted on TV: Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. The Brazilian show is incomplete but still covers a large portion of the show. The Chile performance is complete and better video quality, but it also features what is probably the most infamous clip from the Blaze years. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it yet, but make sure you stick around for The Trooper. The Argentina show is pretty low quality, but worth checking out anyway since this era is so undocumented by the band. I also included a clip from the Bulgaria show which is very high quality, but unfortunately incomplete.
Brazil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqLW5xZ72hwChile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB3QkKfV6E8&t=4003sArgentina:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk14RKCC50ABulgaria:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKPKjHDPOrIOverall, like most of the Blaze era, the tour was a mixed bag. The tour had some obvious pitfalls and Blaze’s performances were hit and miss, but there were plenty of memorable moments and aspects of the tour that make it worth revisiting years later. For one thing, this was the third tour in a row where the bulk of the new songs were instantly retired afterwards. Most didn’t even make it to the next tour. There was also no lull in the band’s on stage energy. With Bruce gone, Steve took the opportunity to act as a frontman in a similar way to when Paul was in the band. Bruce or no Bruce, it was still Maiden and Maiden still knew how to put on a fantastic live performance.
Best Of the Beast (1996)
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Toward the end of The X Factour, Maiden released their first compilation album. Maiden has put out several greatest hits albums since then (there was one every three years from 1996 to 2011), but Best Of the Beast remains the best and probably the only one that is essential unless you’re a hardcore fan or collector. Not only is it a solid retrospective of the band’s history up until this point, it also contains some unreleased material. Two versions of the album were released. The first is a single CD that mostly features the band’s most popular songs, singles, and live favorites. There is also a 2CD version that has the songs resequenced in reverse chronological order with some extras and ending with two cuts from The Soundhouse Tapes, including the previously unreleased Strange World. There is also an LP version that contains the entire Soundhouse Tapes.
What makes this album especially unique is the presence of a new song: Virus. Maiden were never a band with non-album tracks. Aside from b-sides that were never meant for the album anyway, they only recorded enough to fill an album. Every single since Women In Uniform was a cut that appeared on a studio album. Maiden began to buck this tradition with The X Factor when they recorded more music than what would fit on a CD. The tradition was broken again just a year later when Maiden recorded Virus as a one-off, the first time they did such a thing since Women in Uniform. The song was released as a single a few weeks before the album and also became the first Maiden single to never be performed live.
The song itself is a pretty rough recording, even more raw than The X Factor. It has a similar dark tone to The X Factor with a long slow interest before finally kicking off almost 3 minutes in. When the song gets going, it has a high speed feel that’s almost more reminiscent of the next album. Appropriately, Virus seems to be the missing link between the two albums. Lyrically, the song deals with the negative press Maiden were receiving with Blaze and the new album. It's also one of the most unique writing combinations in the band's catalog: Harris/Murray/Gers/Bayley. This is the only time in the band's history that two of the guitarists collaborated directly and the only Maiden song to feature more than 3 songwriters.
For the artwork, the band returned to Derek Riggs for a return to the classic style of Maiden covers. It’s a neat collage of various Eddies over the years with an obvious focus on the 80s. It’s a nice nod to the band’s past and I can’t think of a more appropriate album cover.
Overall, Best Of the Beast is a fun retrospective of the band’s career. It’s a solid selection of songs that naturally focuses on the band’s more accessible side. The 2CD version is best in terms of sequence and song selection, plus the added bonus of the Soundhouse Tapes cuts, but is harder to find. It’s worth picking up for Virus alone if you find it at a used CD store for a good price.
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