CREEM SHOWCASE
The word is loud. Loud in concept. Loud in packaging. Even the clothes come equipped with a volume control. After years of constant touring (as much as 13 months at a stretch), Iron Maiden have pumped themselves up into one of heavy metal’s top arena attractions on both sides of the Atlantic.
CREEM SHOWCASE
IRON MAIDEN'S POWERSLAVIN' GEAR
Dan Hedges
The word is loud. Loud in concept. Loud in packaging. Even the clothes come equipped with a volume control. After years of constant touring (as much as 13 months at a stretch), Iron Maiden have pumped themselves up into one of heavy metal’s top arena attractions on both sides of the Atlantic. The secret? Simple—or at least frontman Bruce Dickinson thinks so. He reckons it’s the songs.
“There are two ways of approaching rock ’n’ roll,” he says. “And that’s form and function. With form, it’s ideas first, then interpret them the way you want. With function, you start with three chords and do an incredible virtuoso number on them. Play every scale in the book 10 times faster than anybody else. We prefer to go for the form.”
The band’s recent side trip into the land of living vinyl, Live Death (The World Slavery Tour), followed up 1984’s mammoth Powerslave world tour—12 months on the road with five buses, six semis, 50 crew people, 23,000 watts of stage monitors, 150,000 watts of PA, and a 700-lamp lighting rig. Fifty tons of gear in all, including their massive Egyptianflavored stage set.