Part 1- Pre-production to Poland.

Dear reader, welcome to the wonderful, weird and occasionally wacky world of the mighty Iron Maiden, on the road.
I’m writing this first part of the diary in my hotel room in Katowice, Poland. As I write, we’ve just travelled for about 27 hours on “Das Bus”, from the Download Festival, held at Donington Park, to lovely, sunny Poland. Some of the crew have gone off to Auschwitz to have a look around. Mind you, after more than a day on a crew bus, it may seem like a little light relief in comparison.
I’m getting ahead of myself, however.
November, 2002. A dark, cloudy day in England. I have just returned from Europe with “Riverdance”, here forthwith referred to as “that pack of spud-munching cloggers” (please, if you’d done the tour, there’s no way you could take offence at that, even if you were Irish). By the way, is it true that if Ireland is for the Irish, is Peckham for the peckish? I merely ask.
I am sitting at home, with my three little girls, (or coven, as may be) running riot, sitting riot, or just plain dribbling all over me. The phone rings. An unholy silence falls over the room, like a cloak of darkness. The children whimper and look to me for guidance and support. Yes, it’s Dicky Bell on the phone.
I answer it. “Brennan…. It’s on”. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. What he actually said was “Brennnnnnnnannnannnannn”. He never can quite slam on the brakes quite quickly enough when it comes to my name. We talk, I listen, I talk, he laughs, demonically. “How much? Ha ha ha”. Wage negotiations over, then.
So, a festival tour of Europe is being set up, with an American shed tour being pencilled in for the summer. I am told to design a rig that will accommodate all of the above. In fact, most of the basic outlines have been spinning around in my head since the last tour, “Brave New World” in 2000.

So, we cut to January 2003. A dark, cloudy day in England. I, however, don’t give a flying toss, ‘cos I’m in Australia with the above-mentioned cloggers!! Brilliant time, wonderful country, great people, and two weeks off in the middle of it! As it happens, my fabulous wife is paying for me to fly up to Cairns, and all points North, to do my PADI course. More of that later, perhaps.

Thanks to the modern technology of laptops, modems, e-mail, fax machines, telephone charge cards, and even Tipp-ex, a rig is designed, budgets fought over, discussions had and meetings planned. Houston, we are green to go.

March 2003. Back in Blighty. Meetings with Dicky Bell, Maiden’s legendary Production Manager (now Pre-Production, cos he doesn’t actually do the touring any more) are held. Meetings with Alan Chesters, the set designer, and meetings with Dave Ridgway, Managing Director of Neg Earth Lights, the lighting supply company for the band since I’ve been with them, and a great company. Ideas, budgets and logistics are thrown about, numbers crunched and small toys thrown out of prams, until, finally, a deal is stuck.

We are booked into Nottingham’s Ice Arena for Production Rehearsals. We only have four days, which is incredibly tight for a production of this size, but we have a fabulous crew, who work their bollocks off to make it happen. Alan’s set is a bit of a corker. It has all of the “usual” Maiden elements, but there are a few elements, which are new to the band.
The first part of the tour is based around the new, Best Of… compilation, “Edward the Great”. The set is therefore covered with illustrations of virtually every Eddie (their omnipresent mascot) you could think of. “The Trooper”, “Powerslave”, “Somewhere in Time”; they’re all here. I must confess that I am quite proud of two little elements of the design. We have three scrims, bungeed within my three lighting boxes. I thought of them, I did. Me. Myself. Wow. The second bit I only noticed a few days later. We have a backdrop, based on the “Bring Your Daughter” single cover. There is a pub “chalkboard of fayre” nailed to one side of the drop. Alan uses small details like this occasionally for little in-jokes. A lot of the crew are listed on the drop, including “Torchy and the black-outs”. Torchy being a nickname of mine. Me Myself. Big, fat, hairy deal, I hear you cry. Whatever.

The main visual difference is the 40’ diameter arch truss that is used to frame the seven illustrated drapes. Drapes are hugely important to the band, and this arch gives a fresh look to some old favourite Eddies. Alan also suggested using a series of Chroma-banks, placed on top of the stage set, in order to de-lineate the set. I don’t think anyone was entirely convinced by them at first, but we went with Alan’s faith, and dammit, they worked! Fortunately for me, I had Jonathan Armstrong (or Leggy, as he is known throughout the industry), on my lighting crew. He had used these Banks before, and was absolutely indispensable in making them work, not only physically, but within the confines of the show. Bless you, mate.

All of the other “traditional” Maiden elements are still there, however. The moving trusses, the backdrops, the 350 par cans and, of course, Eddie.
We have two on this part of the tour. The walking Eddie is a 13-foot tall beauty, decked out in full “Edward the Great” regalia. The big Eddie is a real monster, in just about every sense of the word!! He is the head and shoulders taken from the tour poster. With lights in his eyes, and an opening brain case, he is flown on four inverted motors and comes up from behind the stage set. I shall give away no more for now, but it is proven that, without doubt, Eddie has a brain. Either that, or King Kong is missing a testicle. You’ll have to see the show to find out.
By the way, the tour is going around under the rather colourful moniker of “Give me Ed…’Til I’m Dead”. Thank God the posters weren’t what was I was expecting, or possibly dreading. It just doesn’t bear thinking about.

So, six trucks of lighting, PA, set, back line, catering and production groan their way out of Nottingham, bound for the first of four warm up shows before the Big D-word. Cue DISASTER NUMBER 1. It’s a long drive from England to Spain, right? You have just enough time to get there and have a breather before the mayhem starts, okay? You don’t expect your bus to get a jammed airline in the middle of France, causing you to stop for seven hours in the middle of the French wilderness, until some bloody French mechanic finally decides to get off his arse, and actually take only 20 minutes to fix the fucking thing? DO YOU? DO YOU REALLY?
Sorry. I’m okay. Just got a bit tense, there, for a moment.

So, the gigs. At last. Ah, Spanish gigs. The jokes are universal. Nobody expects the Spanish Electrician. What’s the first thing a Spanish rigger does when he falls out of the roof? Takes his hands out of his pockets. Etc., etc. Possibly a little cruel, possibly not. You’ve been there, you decide. Any way up, La Coruna was the first gig. I must state, here and now, that I have a most brilliant lighting crew out with me at the moment. They are a real collection of disparate individuals, and not one of them conforming to the 70’s- style pre-conception of “the roadie”. And funny, too.
For a first gig, with a big rig, the boys were still able to get onto the bus for a nap by about 5p.m. I’ve been on much smaller tours where that NEVER happened.
The gig was pretty good for a first one, too. The band were in good spirits, and played well, if a little rushed. First night nerves, even for a band of their longevity.
Gig number 2 was in Gijon. A sports hall. With glass walls. And no blackouts. At all. That’s when you learn whether your pan and tilts have been lined up properly!!! Went well, though. The band were more relaxed, and I was able to do some tweaking to the show during the day.

After a really nice and relaxed day in Toulouse, France, we did to Zenith shows. The first in Toulouse, the second in Toulon. I love the Zenith circuit. Firstly, it’s not in Spain (only joking, my little Latinate buddies), the stage spaces are good, the local crew great, and other facilities clean.
The only slight hitch in Toulouse was that the big Eddie got a small case of nerves. As the black drape was pulled across to reveal his Eddiness, and he began rising on his four motors, the black started coming back across. There had been a tiny little technical faux pas, which I will not go into here and now, but suffice it to say, Eddie’s appearance was regrettably short-lived!
The next night, however, paid for all. It was brilliant. The band had well and truly relaxed into the gig, Bruce especially in fine form, flying around like a loony, with a schoolboy grin plastered to his face. I was also happy with the look of it for the first time in the four shows. It was beginning to look how I envisioned it.

So, success in Spain and France, now to Donington. Looking back on it, the band again played very well, and the kids loved it, which is the reason for it all, but I was quite disappointed at the time. All you LDs out there will know why. An outdoor festival, a smallish festival rig, God’s big floodlight in the sky until about five songs from the end. You get my drift. The lights didn’t cut it until just before the band went off before the encores!! Bugger.
I’d spent a great programming session with the local Neg Earth crew, who, once more, were brilliant. Darragh, Roger, Toby, Max and Rob Gawler were so supportive, it was breath-taking. Rob, especially, worked like a trooper (ahem) to program the X-spots and PC Beams with me. I suppose I could have used more open white earlier in the show, but the brief was, give us the show we normally get, and let’s face it, who expects England to be sunny at the end of May!! Ho hum.

Donington was actually more like a summit meeting than a gig, with lots of friends from various crews appearing out of the woodwork, left, right and centre. A friend of mine, Rob Coleman, was LD-ing for “A” on the Scuzz stage. It was actually with Rob that I went diving in Australia, and he has just agreed to be my littlest daughter, Caitlin’s, godfather. So you could say that he is a good friend. Anyway, I went to his stage, and the first person I saw was a mate of mine called Caio, who had just got the Sepultura gig. The last time I saw him was in South America, on one of the local lighting company crews, and we bump into each other in a field in the middle of England, on his first ever-European tour! What a great business.

And now, we’re here in Poland. Twenty-seven hours on a bus, including DISASTER NUMBER 2, where the other bus had its fuel line fall off, and start pissing diesel all over our bus. Another three hour delay, but this time at Watford Gap! It gets worse!! France, okay, but God, no, not Watford.

Tomorrow brings forth the Spodek, with mainly local production. I shall say no more for now. We shall speak again.

If you read this, and you know me, AND you are nearby when the tour passes by, come and say hello. It’s always good to see a friendly face.

Here’s to the next instalment.

“Give me Ed……” what can I say?

Martin Brennan.

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