Urban's Ultimate Gigs
 

I'm bored of reviewing albums so I thought instead I would select various bands and make up my ideal set-list and maybe explain some of my choices.
I decided to start this up with a very popular band on the forum and one of the first bands I ever got into.Ladies & Gentlemen I give you....


I was only going to go up to the Powerslave album but I really really liked the two singles that were on the Somewhere In Time album so I included them also, so I guess you could date this gig circa 1986.

I would have put Aces High as the opening song but Where Eagles Dare is one of my favourite album openers and when they opened with it on the Piece Of Mind tour it really worked well so i've started with it here. Plus as far as I am aware that was the only tour they ever played it on.
Maybe i've been listening to Powerslave & Live After Death far too many times but there's just no other song apart from Two Minutes To Midnight that could go second, it just belongs there and I don't think it would work anywhere else.
Killers is up third because I always think at that point in the gig you play an early favourite to get the hardcore fans going. Back In The Village is a song i've never ever heard Iron Maiden play live in this era which i think is a shame because it's one of the highlights on the Powerslave album for me.
Then i've gone with Remember Tomorrow so people can get a bit of a breather after the frantic pace of the first 4 songs. I'm not really a fan of Bruce Dickinson singing this, I much prefer Dianno's version. Dianno even said himself when he heard Dickinson sing it he sounded more like an opera singer rather than a rock singer, maybe i'll get him to do a guest appearance for this one song only.
Total Eclipse was the B side of the Run to The Hills single and they played it on the Beast tour and I would bring it back as I think it's a much more interesting song than a lot of the stuff on the Number Of The Beast album.
Then there's another early favourite in Murders In The Rue Morgue, although this time around I think Dickinson does a pretty good version of this song so i'd let him sing that.
After that Flight Of Icarus which is basically a short & sweet burst of much needed mid gig energy.
Powerslave would be the epic right in the middle of the gig and I have placed Wasted Years right after it to counteract with it so you go from prog like epic straight to a singalong commercial song.
Revelations is next for another breather and then straight into a hard rockin version 22 Acacia Avenue.
At this point i'm undecided between Phantom Of The Opera & Hallowed Be Thy Name. I really can't decide between the two but I think they're too similar in style to play them both and I think at any other point in the gig would sound all wrong. I think the easiest way around this is to have them play one song on one night and the other the next night and just see them twice...... works for me.
After that a couple of energetic songs in the Prisoner & Purgatory before going straight to the crowd pleasing Number Of The Beast after making people wait most of the gig for it.
Stranger In A Strange Land would go last before the encores because that's what they did on the Somewhere In Time tour and the extended outro makes this a natural placing.
For the encores I would leave it pretty much alone to what they were playing at the time as I can't think of any better songs to go there. I would add Aces High to the beginning of it because I do think it only works as an opening song and I think having it open the encores would get a good reaction from the crowd.

So that in rather a large nutshell is basically my ultimate Iron Maiden gig.
I shall be following this up with another post with some near misses and glaring omissions (You're all going to scream at me about The Trooper, right? ;) )

Shame on you for dividing the two best Maiden songs!

Geeky i know but i love making up perfect set-lists! If you do any for some acts i like enough then i'll be sure to post my own as well.

Actually I just noticed the lack of Wrathchild, why's that?

I'm not much of a fan of Maiden but this a great idea for a thread. I'm looking forward to future lists.

Nice thread, I hope you do The Cult one of these days.

I have a feeling I will. They're playing their entire Love album on the tour they're doing at the moment. I managed to get a bootleg of one of the gigs they played last month and they're sounding really good.
I do wish Ian Asbury would drop his faux American accent though.

Good! Are you going to go see them again? If you do, I will be jealous out of my mind. Oh Urban, you can't blame Ian for wanting to be more like us sexy Americans. ;)

I won't be seeing them sadly. They're only playing a handful of UK gigs and only one in London in a couple of weeks time. I've only been back to work a week or so, I don't think my boss would be too happy about me wandering off again so soon.

I'm pleased you included Stranger In A Strange Land. It's a little commercial for them but remains one of my favourite maiden songs. Fantastic guitar sound on it. Can't stand Wasted Years though :(. I do like bits from 7th Son of a 7th son and would have put in Infinite Dreams instead of Wasted Years.