Gill gives you his view on Iron Maiden’s ‘Flight 666′! Stay tuned for more posts on Iron Maiden day!

Iron Maiden were my band. The band I hunted down on cassette, bought t-shirts of, exhaustively read inner-sleeves of, painted lead figures to and stayed up listening to the radio for when they played the Monsters Of Rock in 1992. I liked Black Sabbath, but I loved Maiden.

If you’re not a metal/Maiden fan, read this bit and you don’t need the rest of this very personal review:

It’s an interesting insight into heavy metal around the world and the day-to-day workings of a large touring band.

‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666’ is the most candid I have ever seen Iron Maiden. The basic premise was to follow the band on the tour that the accountants said they couldn’t do. But in the finish the film-makers got – not only more than they bargained for – but more than I think they even know they’ve captured. The insight into the global cult of Iron Maiden is truly staggering. At one point I genuinely welled up when the dude who caught Nicko’s drumstick starts crying. Not just as metal heads, but as music fans we’ve all had those moments. Just try and fucking deny it. There are hardcore fans who collect everything, but in South America – as the movie so poignantly shows – is more of a religion: it effects people’s lives so profoundly and so completely.

But, as a Maiden fan, who feels that I never knew as much about the characters in the band as I wanted. The movie exposes not only the members’ offstage personalities, but their relationship to each other. What Nicko thinks of Dave Murray, what Bruce thinks of Janick and so on.

Being such a big fan means having high expectations. As I learned more and more about the business of music, it seemed that much of the Maiden machine was to be driven by a corporate-minded captain: the humanity was gone out of the band, and the enigmatic mysteriousness became megalomaniacal privacy paranoia.

I was wrong.

As Bruce explains to funny effect in footage of an American interview, the idea behind the tour was not to cash-in, not to milk a back catalogue that new material could never hope to better, but to give the band’s growing and ever younger fanbase the chance to see the tours and the songs live that they were too young (or often, too not born) to have seen.

I’m one of those people. Seeing those songs (Phantom Of The Opera etc.) live blew me the fuck away. And it was great to hear Bruce talk about the songs he was most looking forward to performing.

As the film-making duo spend more time with the band and crew, the movie puts you in their shoes. The band are initially apprehensive – even reluctant – if genial, about the film crew. But as the documentary progresses, so their relationship with the band grows, and the real insight begins.

I could go on with details about the Colombian police of Adrian Smith playing tennis with Pat Cash, but let’s face it, I’ve said what the most important things about this movie are already, and it’s not shots of the plane, the swearing, or even the heavy metal midget (which is nonetheless funny as fuck).

Iron Maiden still feel like my band.

Gill