To be able to back up this volume of work, the band had to be able to carry it in the live environment. From the early years of relentless touring, the band drew crowds through the doors of the clubs that they played, eventually graduating to larger venues that befitted their status. This could only be achieved by being the best live act around, and there is little doubt that they achieved this. By the time it came around to promoting the “Powerslave” album with a world tour, their popularity had risen to such levels that they had more dates shovelled into their schedule than they had ever had before. From 9 August 1984 to 5 July 1985, over a period of 331 days, the band played 189 shows throughout the world. The stage production was the biggest they had ever assembled, with Egyptian themes and enormous ramps and drum riser, light show and other effects. This had to be assembled, disassembled and carted to all venues, all while the band had to continue to be at the top of their game every night. By its conclusion, the band was exhausted, with Bruce Dickinson in particular feeling the brunt of the workload. It would eventually bleed into his writing contribution to the following album being non-existent.
In 1981, the band had released a live EP from their tour of Japan called “Maiden Japan”, but on the back of the band’s enormous and increasing success and fan base, the band decided to record dates on the World Slavery Tour to release as both a live video and alive album. The chosen destination for the video and the bulk of the live album was Long Beach in California, where four nights were scheduled in March 1985, which enabled the band to record all four nights. They also recorded at four nights at the Hammersmith Odeon in October 1984, shows that Bruce Dickinson said in an interview with Classic Rock magazine in 2011 should have been used for the live video. "The whole thing should have been from Hammersmith. The performances there were better than the ones in Los Angeles. But the lighting engineer, Dave Lights, was at war with the video guys and consequently the whole thing was too dark. So we had great audio footage, but a lot of the concert footage was unusable”.
What remained became “Live After Death”, still arguably the greatest live album ever released, and if you don’t think so... think again...
The opening to the album and the concert is perfectly formulated, utilising the same opening as for the video for “Aces High”, with Chruchill’s Speech backed by the sound of the spitfires offering that spine tingling intro which is the recorded opening section, before the band bursts onto stage and takes hold of the occasion. The opening passage of “Aces High” that then blasts straight into its sister song of “2 Minutes to Midnight” is a cracking way to start the live album, back to back on the “Powerslave” album and also here, they set the stage for what is to comes with the intensity and power that they do on the album itself. And then for good measure, let’s just back into “The Trooper”. While some fans in the modern day feel some tiredness and overdrawn takes on “The Trooper” in particular, and these three songs overall, often allowing that to offset their enjoyment of the opening of this album – it does wonders to take yourself back to how you felt when you first listened to this album in 1985 and 1986, when these songs were still brand new or close enough to that effect, and how amazing it must have been to have seen them open this concert, and also how brilliant it was to hear them open this album. Honestly, it was next level stuff.
Side A of the first LP then drew on two more songs from the “Piece of Mind” album, “Revelations” and “Flight of Icarus”. Both songs again draw differing opinions, but it is more exacting to say that both of the live versions on this album are the better versions of the songs overall. The live setting brings out the best characteristics of each track, both played faster than the studio versions which gives them both more impetus than those original versions portray. All the way through we also have Bruce’s introductions to the songs, ones that everyone still quote when they listen to this album or even the studio albums.
Side B of the first LP has the three outstanding epic tracks of the band to itself, and it makes it even more incredible to listen to. Opening with “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, the band’s longest song to that time was not one that was expected to be brought to the live stage, and yet it becomes the centrepiece of this experience. The opening stanza into the middle section of the track still sounds superb. But it is the return of the heavier section that is transformed once again. The tumbling down the wave with Bruce’s maddening laughter, the descent into the crash of guitars on the back of Nicko’s drums is still absolutely amazing. There are few better moments in music history than this few minutes of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and live it is just as joyous. It is emotionally strong enough to send shivers down the spine, bursting forth with joy from the heart and the brimming of tears such is the intensity of the brilliance of this passage. And then for good measure the band breaks into the title track from that album “Powerslave”, and again produces their mastery, especially in the instrumental solo section between chorus and final verse. The atmosphere the guitars produce here again matches how magnificent it sounds on the studio version, the majesty of both these tracks truly superb. And then just to bring a tighter edge to the game, “The Number of the Beast” follows, and the rollicking of the middle section of the song again transforms into an energy of guitar solos and drumtainment that captures the mood of the song in a way that is energising and blasting.
So now, go and grab the second LP, because the goodness doesn’t end here. Indeed, it may only increase, with the beginning of “Hallowed Be Thy Name” where Bruce takes control, and the holding of the note of the end of ‘running low’, and then the second time… and then the burst into the opening burst of ‘When the priest comes to read me the last rites…’ … the power of the music and vocals here is outstanding, the harmony melodic guitars of the first solo break leading into Bruce exclaiming ‘As the guards march me out to the courtyard’… and into ‘scream for me Long Beach!’… and we are off on the most magnificent ride as Dave and Adrian career down the slope of the back side of the track. The original version might be brilliant. The live version completely outranks it. Just amazing.
“Iron Maiden” – the song by the band – as always does its job, before the encore arrives, with a fitting hard core relating of the song that blew the world wide open for the band in “Run to the Hills”, and then into the extended audience participation of “Running Free”, which closes out the Long Beach recording in style.
But wait! There is just a little bit more, and this is what helps to make this double live album as massively brilliant and important as it is. Because here we have five songs recorded at Hammersmith Odeon some six months earlier, ones that only appeared in a shortlived timeframe for the sets lists at the beginning of the tour, but each of them brilliant in their own right. The short sharp burst of “Wrathchild”, excellently performed by Bruce. The wonderful “22 Acacia Avenue” with Bruce’s opening short proclamation and then that cracking guitar riff to open the track. Just a terrific version of this song, followed by an equally brilliant version of “Children of the Damned” which Bruce sings so poignantly it is impossible to ignore, and followed again by a rollicking version of “Die With Your Boots On”. Finally, the album concludes with “Phantom of the Opera”, stunningly performed here by the band and brutally sung by Bruce and his backing vocalist companions. Harry’s bass guitar on this version is undeniably the start attraction, and the solo section in the middle of the song has never ever sounded better. It may well be the final song on this double live album, but it continues to still be arguably the best on an album that is full of the unobtainably brilliant.
Most who have followed either or both versions of this podcast over the past four and a bit years will already know my Iron Maiden story, whether it be through album reviews here or through the excellent podcast called Uncle Steve’s Mega Maiden Zone (available on most streaming platforms), where Steve interviewed myself along with many others and discusses their Iron Maiden story. If you are not already a listener then it will be more than worth your while to tune in and listen to Steve, Matt and Kirsty talk about all things music and especially Iron Maiden themselves each week. Informative and fun, and you can’t ask for any more than that from a modern day podcast.
This album was released about a month before I first discovered the band themselves, at an end of year school camp where my music world changed forever. Within a couple of weeks I had been offered cassette version of the then-three albums of the Dickinson era from my soon-to-be monikered heavy metal music dealer, who would offer me so much joy with chosen music and albums over the next 40 years. By January of 1986 I was hooked, an obsession that continues to this very day. So much so that very early on my return to school I forced my dealer to start earning his money (there was none) by recording me the “Live After Death” album, which he had procured several weeks earlier. So I didn’t have this on its release, but I had it about four months after. And he recorded it for me such that it would fit nicely on a C90 cassette, but also have the end of the ‘concert’ as the end of the cassette. That meant Side A having the first album recorded on it, minus the middle part of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” so that it fit snugly there, while Side B of my cassette began with the fourth side that was recorded at Hammersmith (except for “Wrathchild”, which was jettisoned to again allow all of the second LP to fit snugly) and THEN Side 3, meaning the end of concert encore with the extended version of “Running Free” was the final thing on the cassette. This all worked marvellously, up until I bought my own vinyl copy of the album a few months later. I played this cassette to death, and I played the album to death as well. It rarely left my tape player and turntable for a very very long time.
I often use the following analogy when it comes to live albums of any band – a live album should generally be a 5/5 album, because it will in general contain the band’s best songs performed in the best environment. That could hardly be more true of “Live After Death”. At the time of its release, Iron Maiden had had just their first five albums out. And while it can always be argued about the songs that don’t appear here, it would be a very difficult task to suggest that this album does not contain the very best the band had released to this point of time. The big singles in “Run to the Hills”, “The Number of the Beast”, “Flight of Icarus”, “The Trooper”, “Aces High” and “2 Minutes to Midnight”. The epics in “Phantom of the Opera”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name” and “Powerslave”. The monster in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. And all the other classics compiled here on this album. 5/5? Can you give an album more? Because this one deserves it.
For the last two weeks I have listened to this whole album again a dozen times, spaced around other albums that I have episodes to compose. And not once has it gotten old. In fact it acts as a security blanket. That familiar way Bruce sings all of the tracks live on this album is so wonderful. And those live versions, some of which are iconically... iconic. “Children of the Damned” and “22 Acacia Avenue” and “Phantom of the Opera” ... they are amazing. It is Iron Maiden at a point of their theoretical peak. On the back of those first five albums, and each amazing track. It is a masterpiece. Other live albums stand alongside this – Slayer's “Decade of Aggression”, UFO’s “Strangers in the Night”, Judas Priest’s “Unleashed in the East”, Deep Purple’s “Made in Japan”, just to name a few. None better this. Iron maiden is captured here as the beast that was still on the rise, but with the fire and fury of youth on their side. It is still an incredible release. The finest of its kind.
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