Iron Maiden review – 50th‑anniversary tour is as near as the uncompromising band gets to a greatest‑hits show…

Iron Maiden review – 50th‑anniversary tour is as near as the uncompromising band gets to a greatest‑hits show

 

Iron Maiden touched down in Birmingham this weekend for the UK leg of their sprawling Run for Your Lives World Tour, marking fifty years since their inception in 1975.

Promoted as their “closest thing to a greatest‑hits show,” the setlist drew exclusively from their first nine albums—spanning 1980’s Iron Maiden up to 1992’s Fear of the Dark—a nostalgia‑driven focus that delighted casual fans yet left some diehards wanting more .

The show opened with a thunderous one‑two‑three salvo from Killers: “Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “Wrathchild” and “Killers”—the latter not played live since 1999 . From that point, the set followed a highly familiar but potent course, drenching fans in live staples like “Aces High”, “The Number of the Beast”, “Run to the Hills” and “Fear of the Dark”—the latest song featured, underscoring the tour’s deliberate avoidance of more recent material .

Clocking in at roughly 17 songs, the performance balanced broad appeal with eras of deep fandom: epic rarities such as “Phantom of the Opera” (first time since 2014), “The Clairvoyant” (2013), “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (2009) and “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” (2014) appeared, earning roars for both familiarity and novelty . But in narrowing the timeframe, the tour sidestepped the band’s four‑post‑1992 albums—a choice some fans lamented as too retro .

Onstage, the band remains dramatic and magnetic. Frontman Bruce Dickinson still prowls the stage with boundless presence—perched atop risers, commanding the crowd with his trademark “Scream for me…” callouts. While his operatic range occasionally veers toward a “car‑alarm” rasp, the energy remains robust . Harris’s galloping bass lines retained their pulse, while guitarists Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and veteran showman Janick Gers traded solos in the high‑octane twin‑lead tradition .

The rhythm section includes newcomer Simon Dawson on drums, stepping in post‑Nicko McBrain. His performance was powerful but occasionally buried in the mix—leading to imbalances where guitar solos pushed front, and drum fills vanished—or, as critics put it, “subdued” at times .

 

Visually, the tour is majestic. Enormous LED backdrops cycle through cinematic war scenes, occult symbolism and rotating incarnations of Eddie—escalating the live‑theatre vibe with pyrotechnics and mood lighting . It’s a modern spectacle anchored by retro zeal—a fusion Maiden has mastered.

Despite moments of technical imbalance and vocal age, the evening reaffirmed Maiden’s unyielding ethos. As The Guardian notes, “a band whose career has been constructed absolutely on their own terms without a single compromise” . Birmingham’s audience proved this point, responding with thunderous encouragement—screaming along long after the final encore .

In its 32‑show European chapter, the tour is selling steadily (~1 million tickets across 2025’s first leg) . Whether Maiden choose to deviate next year remains open—but for now, this is exactly what the 50th was billed to be: a reverent, high‑energy celebration of their classic era, delivered with zero compromise.