It has been a long-time coming. Long-serving metal fans will remember the original Maiden England VHS (remember those?) and VHS/CD combo-packs appearing, and will remember treasuring the same when they finally saved up enough to purchase them. So few concert videos were impressive thanks to the restrictions of technology (only just becoming compatible with stage lighting) and VHS (grainy picture, degenerating soundtrack), and yet Maiden (being Maiden) still managed to capture the scale and wonder of the highly theatrical 7th Son tour. Long out of print, following reprising the tour itself in 2012, the band set to work on re-mastering the sound and video and collating appropriate bonus material, finally announcing ‘Maiden England ‘88’ a few months past to no little excitement from the band’s loyal and ever-expanding fan-base.
So what do you get in the package? Well this is Iron Maiden, so nothing here is small in scale and, as with the band’s previous, impressive DVD releases, there are plenty of extras available to tempt you to purchase this double disc set. Disc one houses the concert itself, fully remixed (by Kevin Shirley no less) and with DD/DTS 5.1 options as well as a linear PCM track, and with the missing tracks ‘can I play with madness?’ and ‘Hallowed be thy name’ (left off the VHS for space reasons) re-instated into the eighteen track running order. Disc two, meanwhile, offers up the brand new forty minute documentary ‘the history of Iron maiden part three’, the 1987 video release ’12 wasted years’ in its entirety and even the promo videos for ‘wasted years’, ‘stranger in a strange land’, ‘can I play with madness’, ‘the evil that men do’ and ‘the clairvoyant’ for those who have inexplicably forgotten to buy the excellent ‘visions of the beast’ box set. In short it is a magnificently generous selection of material from a band who have never shied away from giving the very best to their followers, and it puts many other rock DVDs to shame with its sound options, beautifully animated menus and additional features.
Disc one, then, will be familiar to those who supported the band in the late 80s/early 90s. Memorably packaged back then in an over-sized video box in order to accommodate a CD with a suitably reduced track listing, it was the sort of thing you gazed lovingly at on the shelves in HMV or Our Price and eventually took home to gawp at as the scale of the band’s latest stage-arrangement unfolded on the screen. Nowadays, of course, audiences are more cynical, live DVDs have become ubiquitous and the wonders of modern technology make even mediocre bands look amazing thanks to slow-motion shots and careful editing, and yet for all that, Maiden’s show still thrills. Perhaps it is the sheer level of fantasy involved in the oh-so-imaginative stage design (part skating-rink in hell, part Snow Queen palace), but more to the point it is the thrilling, honest, blistering performance that the band give as they charge through a set that weighs heavily on one of their most progressively flavoured and fondly remembered albums. Moreover Steve Harris knows how to direct a live concert. There’s no stupidity here, no rapid-fire editing distracting from the music, no rampant ego demanding the bassist be in every shot, Steve films like a fan would film with the result that the viewer gets to see everything from a privileged position indeed and you’re taken right to the heart of those sweaty NEC gigs.
Sensibly in preparing the DVD the band have stuck to the originally filmed ratio of 4:3 rather than artificially impose a widescreen format upon it. Although there will be those who surely complain, this keeps the picture intact as it was originally planned and avoids the curse of widescreen tinkering that has ruined updated concert films in the past. The picture is as clear as one could expect from the time period, although evidence of digital enhancement is apparent in many shots and the colours have that ‘rinsed’ feel that will be familiar to anyone who grew up in the period. As a result the picture looks a little dated, although it is a massive improvement over the degraded VHS copy I still have in my garage. The sound, however, is where the band have gone to town. As mentioned earlier you have both a linear audio track as well as DD and DTS 5.1 options. For the best sound the explosive DTS mix wins hands down, with guitars and vocals well positioned (no fancy effects here, Kevin Shirley’s no-frills approach simply makes the band sound fantastic without resorting to novelty panning effects) and Steve Harris’ bass a throbbing monster locked tight with Nicko’s powerhouse drumming. In other words this is a DVD that captures the early Maiden in full flight and anyone with fond memories of the video owes it to themselves to treat themselves to a copy.
Technical details aside the set list is a Maiden fan’s dream. Over eighteen tracks you get rampaging runs through ‘moonchild’, ‘the evil that men do’ and the evergreen ‘the prisoner’ as well as atmospheric trips through ‘the clairvoyant’ and ‘seventh son of a seventh son’. With the band standing amidst huge blocks of floating ice and Bruce free to charge around like the man possessed that he truly is, it is an audio-visual overload that easily matches in ambition (and indeed surpasses) pretty much any concert you can name apart from The Wall. The downside is that the band’s ambition is not so readily matched by technology and for newer fans used to modern presentation, the ice blocks drawn straight from the ‘seventh son…’ album cover are likely to appear as realistic as the boulders that turned up week after week in the original episodes of Star Trek. But this is Iron maiden, and Iron Maiden have always demanded a willing suspension of disbelief from its audience, and it takes no time at all to adjust to the period and sink into the atmosphere of a more naïve time when heavy metal ruled the airwaves and even charted and Spandex was considered not only normal, but desirable.
Aside from the brilliantly restored concert, the band also offer up a brand new documentary, ‘the history of Iron Maiden part three – 1986-88’, which does a grand job of a band heading towards implosion and somehow making their masterpiece along the way. Burnt out following the monumental tor documented on ‘live after death’, the band, and Bruce Dickinson in particular, are seen to be teetering on the edge of the breakdown that was to take place only a few years later, and remarkably candid interviews (interspersed with archival footage) does much to reveal the turbulent making of ‘Seventh Son’ and the pressures of life in a major rock band. Often funny, insightful and very revealing, it is clear that the band decided to pull no punches in exploring their history, and this third chapter in their extensive history makes for fascinating viewing.
Another essential element of the DVD, although now looking rather dated, is the ‘twelve wasted years’ documentary which covers Maiden’s history from their inception through to 1987. Boasting interviews with dismissed frontman Paul Di’Anno, vintage footage from the band’s very earliest moments and a wealth of full performance clips and early videos (rare for a documentary) it is well worth a watch even if parts of it were recycled for the ‘early days’ documentary, and Paul’s less-than-amicable departure feels somewhat brushed over. It is an indisputably generous addition to the package that once again demonstrates Maiden’s commitment to giving the fans what they want when it comes to developing these exhaustive historical packages – practically unprecedented in a band at this level, ‘maiden ’88 neatly contains at least two releases worth of material bundled together, and for fans who were there during this period this is a treasure trove of material which takes something in the region of five hours to work through.
With a number of releases already available there is always the question of whether Iron Maiden are in danger of saturating the market, but where Maiden stand apart is their commitment to offering a hugely immersive experience with their products. Whether it is one of the new concerts (‘death on the road’, ‘rock in Rio’, ‘Il Vivo’), the brilliantly realised footage that comes part and parcel with ‘flight 666’, or one of the vintage collections, each disc comes with a surprising array of bonus material that demands to be seen by fans and newcomers alike. This particular disc offers a trip down memory lane via two highly regarded VHS releases, now beautifully restored and remixed for the demands of the digital age, alongside a new instalment of the much vaunted history of Iron Maiden series. Frank (at times painfully so), open and providing a level of access unrivalled by any of their peers, Iron Maiden’s history is one that deserves careful inspection as documenting the rise of a band who made it through sheer strength of will and an unerring ability to produce great records, rather than hyperbole and hysteria, whilst the story of Bruce Dickinson’s flashing stage wear is almost worth the price of admission alone. For Maiden fans, ‘Maiden England ‘88’ is an essential treat that belongs in your collection.
