Iron Maiden live at Knebworth review: Heavy metal icons raise the bar yet again
Eddie and the gang close out the European leg of the Run For Your Lives tour with a historic festival experience at Knebworth.
“Anybody would think there’s a football match on,” beams Bruce Dickinson as he surveys the sun-kissed fifty-thousand metalheads before him. We’re four songs into Maiden’s historic Knebworth return and the frontman is in great spirits as inflatable footballs bounce across the crowd. “Apologies to any Norwegians in the audience,” he adds, inviting jeers before gazing into the future: “We can argue about that later after we’ve won!”
We are of course at Eddfest, the band’s very own festival. People have made the pilgrimage to the hallowed grounds of Knebworth from around the globe for this two-day event, which is all about celebrating the band’s legacy.
Arriving on site, it’s not hard to see why this is an unmissable experience for both die-hard fans and newcomers alike, even if the band’s ‘Run For Your Lives Tour’ has been on the road for well over a year now. The night prior had seen performances from Maiden’s early peers in the new wave of British heavy metal along with past members like Blaze Bailey, while the Saturday saw hand-picked performances from Airbourne, The Hu and The Darkness.
Away from the stages, crowds bask in the sun while exploring the carefully curated site. You can get Maiden tattoos, drink the band’s own Trooper ale in dedicated dive bars, win cuddly Eddies in the fairground, or explore the ‘Infinite Dreams’ museum experience, a career-spanning archive of items including rare early memorabilia and a ghostly army of iconic Eddie’s from tours gone by.
Sticking to the demands of their epic well-oiled production, the show itself allows little room for surprises. After a barrage of early classics that date back to the band’s roots on the East End pub scene, Dickinson acknowledges the setlist which is perhaps the closest to a comprehensive hits tour they’ve done since 2008’s ‘Somewhere Back In Time’ run. “I realise that a lot of you have heard most of these songs last year,” he tells the crowd, “but not in this amazing place with the fairground and the museum, I’ve never been to a museum before and now I’m in one!”
A very welcome curveball and set highlight comes early with the recent addition of the skyscraping and heartfelt ballad ‘Infinite Dreams’, a song which hasn’t been played live for 38 years. Dickinson warmly tells the crowd, “It seemed like a great idea to bring it out now because it’s one of the coolest songs we’ve ever written together as a band.”
As the soaring guitar lines of Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers ring out and a clairvoyant Eddie appears between burning candles scribbling upon some ancient parchment, you’d be hard pressed to disagree with him. It’s the kind of song that could only belong to Iron Maiden, especially as Dickinson lets out his almighty scream nearing its dramatic climax.
When asked about the band’s unique fandom in a recent interview, Dickinson tried to explain why Maiden have such a religious following in every far-flung corner of the globe. “When you join Maiden, you join a whole world, there’s a universe, there’s a constellation of songs, of monsters, of stories, a lot of great bands just make records, whereas we create worlds.”
As you watch the animated backdrops which gently bring to life their artwork through the decades, it’s impossible not to fall headfirst into those worlds tonight. We’re taken from the moody backstreets of the East End during ‘Killers’ through to ancient Egypt for ‘Powerslave’ as flickers of lightning illuminate great pyramids, by way of cursed creaking ships for fan-favourite ‘Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’.
The small matter of the World Cup rears its head again as Dickinson reminds those who needed reminding, “It’s 10’ o’clock and they’ve just kicked off! Scream for me England, the Iron fucking Maiden!” as their pre-encore set closer welcomes the giant ‘Piece Of Mind’ era Eddie who looms large over 50,000 adoring fans.
Even with a setlist packed with catalogue classics and celebrated treasures, the amazing thing with Iron Maiden is that they almost always leave you wanting more. During an unusually early airing of a pyro-happy ‘Number Of The Beast’, Dickinson gives one of his biggest hints of the future as he lashes an almost threatening emphasis on the words, “we will return.”
With Eddfest, Maiden have triumphed in bringing their world from the stage out into the festival arena while elegantly nodding to those of whom they’ve shared the journey. One particular artifact on display is the late frontman Paul Di’Anno’s era-defining leather jacket and red t-shirt, a man who surely would have had a part to play in this weekend’s proceedings.
Yet none of this spectacle would be possible without the musicianship and work ethic of a band still hungry for everything they commit themselves to. They might be one of the biggest forces on the planet, but Maiden still show no signs of resting on their laurels. Fifty years in and counting, they’re acting like a gang with everything still to prove.