Post by Bartwald on Mar 22, 2004 4:01:13 GMT -5
Iron Maiden
[shadow=red,left,300]Classic Albums: The Number Of The Beast[/shadow] (DVD, 2001) ***
Alright, straight to the chase: I AM a Maiden fan but yet I didn't really want to buy this DVD. I mean: a concert I can watch over and over again and still not get bored but a disc full of, uh, interviews? Come on, now - it seems to be worth $hit, really... you can only watch it once and then what? Plus with both parts of Run To The Hills biography of the band out - what new can you learn from an hour of Maiden-related guys talking about one of their records?
Well, to be honest - nothing new. As far as I remember all this was already in the book. But still - the DVD is far more enjoyable than one could think and not $hit by any measure. First of all, it's nice to see how different members of my favourite band behave when they're forced to talk to the cameras: Adrian very serious and informative, Dave shy and looking scary, Bruce as easy as possible and constantly joking, Steve much less serious than I expected, Clive brief, shy and humble and Nicko... well, we all know Nicko - he's a joy! As I wrote before: the anecdotes are not new, you do know them all if you have read the book or enough interviews with the band BUT it's actually a pleasure to see the guys telling it all themselves: especially when Bruce is making fun of Rod Smallwood losing his self-confidence when talking to Patrick McGoohan (about using some of his lines from The Prisoner for a Maiden song of the same title). The interviews focus mainly on The Number Of The Beast album but they also go nicely back to the beginnings (a pity there's no Di'Anno to add a swear word or two to the story) and then to the time when Clive Burr was no longer in the band (therefore the welcome presence of Nicko McBrain). Also there are parts where Adrian plays some cool riffs from the album's most famous songs - some of them for a strange reason placed in the Bonus section. Also there is a sad message from Clive Burr about his illness - the one that shocked the other members of Maiden as they were watching the DVD (Clive was keeping it a secret up until then). The musical highlight of this DVD is one more thing from the Bonus bunch: Hallowed Be Thy Name recorded at Rock In Rio; I mean, now that every fan has the whole Rock In Rio DVD on shelf it doesn't matter all that much but I can only imagine what a treasure it must have been when The Number Of The Beast first came out and Rio was not yet available!
Overall, it's really stuff done pretty well and surprisingly not boring, and the only thing that should bother you when buying it is 'How many times will I really watch it?' Myself I can't answer this question yet.
[shadow=red,left,300]Classic Albums: The Number Of The Beast[/shadow] (DVD, 2001) ***
Alright, straight to the chase: I AM a Maiden fan but yet I didn't really want to buy this DVD. I mean: a concert I can watch over and over again and still not get bored but a disc full of, uh, interviews? Come on, now - it seems to be worth $hit, really... you can only watch it once and then what? Plus with both parts of Run To The Hills biography of the band out - what new can you learn from an hour of Maiden-related guys talking about one of their records?
Well, to be honest - nothing new. As far as I remember all this was already in the book. But still - the DVD is far more enjoyable than one could think and not $hit by any measure. First of all, it's nice to see how different members of my favourite band behave when they're forced to talk to the cameras: Adrian very serious and informative, Dave shy and looking scary, Bruce as easy as possible and constantly joking, Steve much less serious than I expected, Clive brief, shy and humble and Nicko... well, we all know Nicko - he's a joy! As I wrote before: the anecdotes are not new, you do know them all if you have read the book or enough interviews with the band BUT it's actually a pleasure to see the guys telling it all themselves: especially when Bruce is making fun of Rod Smallwood losing his self-confidence when talking to Patrick McGoohan (about using some of his lines from The Prisoner for a Maiden song of the same title). The interviews focus mainly on The Number Of The Beast album but they also go nicely back to the beginnings (a pity there's no Di'Anno to add a swear word or two to the story) and then to the time when Clive Burr was no longer in the band (therefore the welcome presence of Nicko McBrain). Also there are parts where Adrian plays some cool riffs from the album's most famous songs - some of them for a strange reason placed in the Bonus section. Also there is a sad message from Clive Burr about his illness - the one that shocked the other members of Maiden as they were watching the DVD (Clive was keeping it a secret up until then). The musical highlight of this DVD is one more thing from the Bonus bunch: Hallowed Be Thy Name recorded at Rock In Rio; I mean, now that every fan has the whole Rock In Rio DVD on shelf it doesn't matter all that much but I can only imagine what a treasure it must have been when The Number Of The Beast first came out and Rio was not yet available!
Overall, it's really stuff done pretty well and surprisingly not boring, and the only thing that should bother you when buying it is 'How many times will I really watch it?' Myself I can't answer this question yet.
