Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour (1987 - 88)
The Seventh Son tour marks a change of pace for Maiden’s touring habits. For the first time, the band began the tour after the release of the album. By the time they hit the road, the album was out and had a month to marinate. Additionally, this marked the first time the tour didn’t start in Europe/The UK. In 1988, the band were invited to headline the prestigious Monsters of Rock festival at Donington. As a result, their schedule was created around the event and the tour essentially happened in reverse, starting in the USA. The itinerary continued to shrink compared to the World Slavery Tour and Somewhere On Tour. The former was a 13 month tour and the latter was an 8 month tour. Seventh Tour lasted 7 months and only saw Europe and North America. No Japanese dates, no South American dates. The European tour was also significantly scaled back. They stayed away from most of Eastern Europe and only did a handful of dates outside of the Monsters of Rock festivals. They did perform in Greece for the first time though. The North American tour was as extensive as ever and continued the tradition of attempting to hit every nook and cranny in the USA, even though the album wasn’t as much of a success there as the previous albums.
The Monsters of Rock was a major event for Maiden. The festival occurred on an annual basis since 1980 and Maiden were invited to play every year since its inception. The band (i.e. management) turned down the offers because they wanted to wait for the time to be right so they could put on a special show. With their second #1 album under their belts and what was likely going to be the final tour of the decade, the time was right to finally headline the festival. Maiden were the first band to headline without playing the festival before in a lower slot (other than Rainbow of course). The entire lineup was one of the best Donington had ever seen. Maiden were joined by Kiss (the last time Kiss and Maiden shared the stage, Maiden were the opening band in 1980), an emerging Guns n Roses, David Lee Roth, Megadeth, and Helloween. Outside of Donington, bands such as Anthrax and Metallica were included on the bill.
By this time, Monsters of Rock had expanded to a mini-European festival tour, but the main event was still Donington, which was the first stop in Europe. It was one of the biggest Monsters of Rock events ever and was one of the biggest audiences the band played to. It was partly broadcast on MTV and the audio was broadcast on the BBC. An excerpt of the performance was released as part of Eddie’s Archive, which we will get to later. Unfortunately, the show was marred by tragedy when two audience members were crushed to death during Guns n’ Roses’ performance. The event was packed and people were aggressively pushing toward the barrier during the concert. Maiden were unaware of the incident until after the gig. What was briefly one of the band’s most triumphant moments quickly turned to one of their most tragic. The afterparty was cancelled and the event created a cloud over the rest of the tour.
That’s not to say the tour wasn’t without great moments after. The rest of the Monsters Of Rock tour was a big success. The Germany Monsters of Rock was partially broadcast, there’s no video of Maiden out there but you can find Anthrax, Great White, and Kiss on youtube (the Kiss performance was also officially released). I wasn’t around in 1988, but my dad was an he attended the German Monsters of Rock, so that gig has some significance for me.
The tour ended appropriately with an extensive UK run that acted as a homecoming for the band. After spending the better part of a decade conquering the world as one of the biggest touring acts, they returned home for a storybook ending to the band’s golden age (even if they didn’t realize it at the time). It is also here that we get the official live release from the tour:
Maiden England (Recorded 1988, released 1989)
(2013 cover)
Maiden England was recorded on the band’s UK tour at Birmingham’s NEC. This was their first time playing the venue and they sold out two nights there. As was often the case for bands in the 70s and 80s, it was important for this video to be significantly different than Live After Death, from the setlist to the cinematography.
Steve Harris requested he be in charge for the next Iron Maiden video, so Maiden England marks his directorial debut. The differences between the videos are pretty clear. Steve wanted the vibe of the video to be similar to that of a bootleg, as if it was from an audience member’s perspective. As a result, you get lots of closeups of the band members, less audience shots, and overall a more intimate portrayal of the band compared to the larger-than-life persona of Live After Death.
The setlist featured the standard 6 songs from the latest album. Only two songs (The Prophecy and Only the Good Die Young) from Seventh Son were left off the setlist. Unlike the previous three tours, nothing from the new album was dropped by the end, so all 6 songs are represented on the video. By this time, the band had actually added to the setlist. It seems to me that they were preparing for the live video with the setlist, because the songs added were rarities that weren’t featured on Live After Death. Killers and Still Life hadn’t been played for years and live recordings of these songs did not exist at the time. The rest of the setlist was also unique, with 6 new songs and 2 songs from Somewhere In Time, which hadn’t been recorded live yet. They also performed The Prisoner, which hadn’t been performed since 1982. Overall, the original VHS release contains only 4 duplicate songs from Live After Death. In 2013, the video was finally released on DVD with the addition of the encore (it was not included on the original VHS). The encore is identical to the one on Live After Death, but is still nice for the full concert experience.
Of course the other thing that makes every Maiden video special is that it captures the latest stage show. As usual, the band brought the album artwork to life with the blue dominated icy landscapes. There were iceberg props, a fortune teller ball that appeared at the start of the show, and two large Eddies. The first appeared during Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, representing his “prophet” look from the inner sleeve artwork, and again of course during Iron Maiden mimicking his look on the album cover.
Another unique moment during this show is Steve’s bass tech, Michael Kenney, joining the band on stage in costume for the keyboard parts to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Kenney had been enlisted to cover the synth parts backstage during the Somewhere In Time tour and continues as the man behind the curtain to this day.
Maiden England is another essential Maiden release, especially now that it is widely available on DVD. The video looks fantastic and it features some great bonus features, including a documentary that covers 1986-1988 and 12 Wasted Years. I always felt that Maiden England was the one for the hardcore fans, as it features many live rarities that are still only available on this video.
This is really one of the few tours where bootlegs are unnecessary. Maiden England features pretty much all the songs performed on this tour and the ones that aren’t included aren’t exactly rarities. It’s a great video and you get the full experience of the tour. Donington is partially available and the video is decent enough. But I decided to upload something anyway because I actually wasn’t able to find this one on youtube. This is one of several secret gigs the band performed under the name of Charlotte and the Harlots. They performed a few shows in Germany, where the album was recorded, and then a club show in New York City to practice for the full tour. This is the New York City gig. This is late 80s Maiden in a club. No stage production, no frills, the band are even in more everyday outfits. It’s an incomplete video, but is really fascinating to watch.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l8z999c40gkppuk/AABg8dAW09K31SZXEEYzceLda?dl=0And that's what many consider to be the end of Maiden's golden age. Obviously at the time they weren’t planning on a lineup change or the coming change in the musical landscape, but they really ended the decade on a high note. A number one album, a headline performance at the premier rock festival, and a video that is in many ways a love letter to the band’s original fanbase. You couldn't ask for a better end to this lineup.
On Friday we’ll talk about how the members of Maiden spent 1989 before moving on to the next album.
Poll