IRON MAIDEN Drummer Nicko McBrain On Playing Live - "Me And Steve
Get Going Together And The Rest Of The Band Moan And Groan At Us Because
We Think We're Young Kids Again" IRON MAIDEN drummer
Nicko McBrain is featured in a new interview with AZCentral.com. An excerpt is available below:
Q: I know you've been doing a set list based on Maiden England,
which was filmed on the tour in support of Seventh Son. Is the
production also based on that tour?
A: "I say loosely based. It's a slightly different color, the stage
set. There's a different look to it. But yes, we've got beautiful
backdrops that we normally do for each song. We've got some wonderful
spectacles with Eddie and, as I said, pyro and the flames. It is the
Seventh Son visually. And we're really excited to be doing some songs
that we haven't played in 25 years."
Q: Did that require much relearning of material?
A: "Oh yeah (laughs). We hadn't played for nine months, so you get
in the rehearsal room and even the songs you've played every year for
the last 30 years, it's like riding a bike. You never forget, but you
get a little wobbly and the joints go rusty on the bike. So that's a
couple days' rehearsal. But the songs you haven't played for 25 years
... We're doing 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers', which we haven't played
since the mid-'90s. 'Seventh Son', the title track, was last aired in
'88, and that's an epic piece of music. So we had to go over those songs
with a fine-tooth comb."
Q: Having gone in and relearned those songs from Seventh Son, you obviously had to listen to the album. What did you think?
A: "Oh, it's a masterpiece. What I tended to do was listen to the
Maiden England video. And I'd go 'Gosh, I can't believe we played that
song that fast.' So what we've done is -- we still have a lot of energy,
but as a player, I've realized that we couldn't play these songs at
that speed today and make it work. We were younger, and it was a lot
more crazy. We're a bit more refined with where we go with the tempos
now. There are still nights where I get a bit quick, and me and Steve
get going together and the rest of the band moan and groan at us because
we think we're young kids again up there (laughs). But it was really
nice listening back to the old stuff because I rarely revisit the older
Maiden material when I'm listening in my car to music."
Go to this location for the complete interview.
According to Billboard.biz,
IRON MAIDEN are third on Billboard's Hot Tours Chart list of
top-grossing tours with $4.8 million in ticket sales revenue from seven
performances on its 2012 tour through North America.
Following a June 21 launch in Charlotte, the veteran English band
played amphitheater dates in Atlanta, Boston and New York's Long Island
before the June 29 concert at Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, N.J.,
the first date included in this week's Hot Tours tally. Outdoor
performances followed in the Washington D.C. market as well as in
Milwaukee and Toronto. Although the majority of the group's tour dates
this summer are outdoor shed performances, arenas are also included on
the itinerary. Three of those indoor events are part of this week's
recap. The Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. hosted the band on July 2,
and two more arena shows were held in Canadian cities - Quebec City on
July 8 and Montreal on July 11