Iron Maiden

Their newest album was awful
go see Motörhead instead

 

Album 15? Just a word of warning, they do have a tendency to focus on their new stuff rather than just the classics. They'll be plenty in there but don't expect a 'best of' set-list.

 

I think the last few Maiden albums have been OK, but about as far removed from anarcho punk as you can get but then a lot of the 'anarcho' bands have been going that way too in recent years

Iron Maiden were seen as great corporate product from the moment EMI signed them, the suits saw commercial product that could last well into the next century but I don't think even they expected that they would be playing to audiences in far reaching parts of an ever changing globalised world when they started. I watched that flight 666 documentary recently and v.amusing it was too


Iron Maiden are very good for a laugh but fuck paying mega£$£$£$ to see them, saw them on the seventh son tour and that can't really be beaten these days unless you are living on one of these more remote places like seen in flight 666.

Last thought Iron Maiden played a big role in ending the cold war and spreading the values of Western capitalist culture in parts of the Soviet Union. They are a massive hit in India, I doubt Maiden would have many qualms conquering the Chinese market either. Hope they ain't giving Crass too many wild ideas

 

Iron Maiden = over-rated. I like the Dianno stuff pretty well, though...but they're still corporate d-bags.

 

The Dianno stuff is easily the best, I agree they were a different band altogether then really. I am open minded about music and have been into a lot of different music in my life. I wouldn't write off everything they have done coz if nothing else Iron Maiden are actually fucking hilarious, like it or not they do seem to bring together a ,lot more people than anarcho punk does, that film Flight 666 seems to affirm that and Iron Maiden have proved many an ice breaker with many a person I've met even if ultimatley they are a load of old corporate wank

 

It is pretty much true, see 'Behind the Iron Curtain' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_the ... 28video%29

I pretty much believe Maiden were the first Western rock band to play in the Eastern bloc, some time in 84 before Gorbachev no less!!! Only saw the video once a long time ago but it is very odd indeed seeing Warsaw pact military types taking their hats off and headbanging, crying even as I recall

On this subject an Ex KGB type was very sure that Western rock music had a massive impact on bringing down communism, citing the Beatles as having more of an effect in bringing down the Soviet empire than Ronnie or Bush. I do have connections in the former Eastern bloc and some discussion has kind of affirmed a lot of this, though one close associate shall we say feels Gorbachev did more than the CIA could ever have dreamt of to fuck it all off

 

Maiden is a guilty pleaure. I still listen to them from time to time when I get the craving for "meedlymeedlymeedly"s (as Strongbad calls them). It's quite possible I have a secret pair of spandex "metal" pants I may or may not wear sometimes when nobody else is home, but I won't confirm that


Maiden is fun and all, but i wouldn't pay more than $15 to see them. I'd rather pay $2 to see six hardcore bands in someone's backyard.

 

Some of those kids fucking bring it, though. And really, in an ideal world all punk/hardcore shows should be all ages (this coming from a 30 year old). Kinda weird listening to a hardcore band singing about "the kids" in a 21+ venue.

 

i was growing up in hungary and still too young to listen to music when the iron curtain fell - for political reasons only, starting with the polish solidarnoc movement 1980, becoming louder after the czernobyl incident 1986 and the inability of the party system to silence the people blaming the party for lying, so the afghanistan debacle gave the last necessary impetus to say - it's enough now, lets just end it.
the control organs didn't like it when young people start to get together outside the party organisations offering traditional and cheapest pop music for entertainment, between indoctrinating praises of the socialist paradise we were told to live in - but no one could see it, and it wasn't very smart to ask where the hell it actually was, this paradise.
there was not very much to compare iron maiden with, and the lyrics didn't really matter because nobody understood english
(i was still learning russian in my first years in school) - so it became style just because of it's exoticism - and it's sad that the stuff some proto-punks who got inspired by the bootlegs to use electric guitars themselves was never recorded because of the lack of equipment, i knew only a few nameless shards and even the memories of the small movement is getting lost.
i think it was different in czechoslowakia with groups like "the plastic people of prague" closely related to frank zappa and the mothers of invention - (remember vaclav havel?) but they managed to translate what zappa was singing and so the similiarities between the u.s. and the eastern bloc became obvious to them, giving their projects much more orientation than elsewhere. too bad that i don't really know much about the early origins of the punks in ex-yugoslavia...

 

cheers for that Lil Apple. Yes well my connection to the eastern bloc is being very close to someone Czech shall we say and I know of the ‘plastic people of the universe’ as they are actually called. JJ Burnel of the stranglers was visiting Poland in the late 1980's I have an article about it somewhere and bands are mentioned here. Burnell himself was a huge critic of the communist system, he wrote a solo song 'Euromess' which is about Jan Pallach in Czechoslovakia, not to mention the Vladimir chronicles. Interesting now that a lot of people are asking if the end of the soviet empire really represents a desirable freedom, from Communist totalitarianism to neoliberalism, from what I have seen it’s fucked a lot of places and people up. It’s not black and white, not a case of everything about Communism being shit and everything about capitalism being great far from it. Besides the Czech connection I have known people from Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Lithuania and all with very similar stories to tell, which I am sure you will have something else to say.....

back to Iron Maiden, '2 minutes to midnight'.....

 

About origin of Punk in ex-Yugoslavia. Well it was a fashion statement, not much more than that. Sure it was looked down upon and could get you into trouble but had no real political or social significance. There are books about it as well as TV documentaries you can even find stuff on you tube like this here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bskh8NUG ... re=related

The sad thing is punk scene in former Yugoslavia had more to do with extreme right than anything positive, and origins of local nazi organizations can be traced to the local punk scene of the late 80's... It wasn't till the 90's that politically conscious punk bands started appearing on the scene, but in a lot of ways it was too late at that point...

Yugoslavia wasn't like most eastern block countries. Rock music wasn't banned and there were local acts ever since the early 60's. By 70's it was nothing special for western bands to visit Yugoslavia.

 

Interesting that cheers mate. Yes I have the impression that Yugoslavia wasn't really the Eastern bloc as such anyway. Tito pursued a path very much independent of Moscow and it has often been commented that Yugoslavia was like a buffer zone between East and West, Yugoslavia enjoyed a lot of export trade from Western Europe for a start and as such there was much greater ‘choice’ for the consumer than in the USSR.

You are right, a lot of the punk and new wave bands did play Yugoslavia, punk rock fans will no doubt be familiar with the anti nowhere league 'live in Yugoslavia' album recorded in the early 80's. I also had an interesting conversation with someone who travelled out to Yugoslavia to see the stranglers in 1990, the last tour with the original line up, they described the obvious tension in the air at the time, because of course civil war erupted within that kind of time period.

 

Remember the legal age for booze in australia is 18

Fuck Riot Fest btw. Reagan youth, Negative approach and a butt load of other good bands all played 21+ shows... WTF?!?
screw any show that isn't all ages.

 

We have some serbian Pekinska Patke and Obojeni Program, too bad that everybody thinks about asking for a translation of the lyrics here and there, but constantly forgets to ask if we have the chance of a native speaker...
What do you ex-yugoslaves think about them?
And we have a Plastic People LP too, french release from the 80's, not really punk but very interesting, again it's the language problem keeping us from understanding it - even the net hasn't much information to offer.
What about the Moscow/russian movement in the late 80's doing music and arts? I found only shards of information, often related with sci-fi-stuff and even the recent musicians and artists are rare in western media.

 

Well if you are interested in any Pekinska Patka or Obojeni Program lyrics I can help you, just say which songs you are interested in... but, don't expect much Pekinska Patka lyrics are most like "Hey I'm young and ugly and listen to punk, and I don't care, your long haired hard rock is for fossils I'm gonna keep my hair short 'coz the new wave is bringing in fresh blood"... Actually the second LP has far better lyrics but is nowhere as popular due to very strange sound that is somewhat reminiscent of Joy Division.

Obojeni Program could be compared to The Fall. Certainly were influenced by The Fall. Lyrics are all kinds of stuff, but not much that is socially concerned, I would say mostly introspective stuff...