50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode: Run For Your Lives Dream Setlist
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK bonus episode
Welcome to our very first “bonus episode” of 50 Years of Iron Maiden! These bonus episodes will feature shorter videos on a variety of topics. With Maiden’s 2025 tour beginning in May, we wanted to get ahead of the pack and speculate on the setlist.
Harrison and I set two rules for these setlists, based on what we know from Iron Maiden themselves. 1) Each one of the first nine albums will be represented in the set, and 2) They will at least one song that has never been played live before. From there we let our imaginations run wild!
What songs do you think Maiden will play this year? What’s on your wishlist? Tell us in the comments below, and UP THE IRONS in 2025!
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 8: Drummer Spotlight
With Glen “Archie” Gamble
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #95
Do you want to know who almost replaced Nicko McBrain in Iron Maiden? Stay tuned because Archie Gamble has the details in this special episode of 50 Years of Iron Maiden, on Grab A Stack of Rock!
Former Helix drummer Glen “Archie” Gamble joins us for this special drummer spotlight, bringing us insight as a touring musician. In this episode, we discuss Archie’s fandom, each drummer’s approach, Nicko’s stance on double bass, a drummer’s retirement, what challenges the new guy Simon Dawson will face, and much more.
Archie’s perspective in this episode was invaluable, as we sat down to appreciate the drummers of Iron Maiden, and catch a glimpse of life on the road and in a band.
Kiss – You Wanted the Best – Unseen photos from the archives? I call BS!
Kiss – The Box Set (guitar case version) – CDs fall out of top flap every time you open it, as demoed on last show.
Alice Cooper – Old School (box set) – Top of “desk” curls up over time. Due to shape and fragility of box set, it is hard to flatten safely.
Ozzy Osbourne – 1995 remasters – The postage stamp sized art and the circular song titles on back are an epic fail.
Kick Axe – Rock the World (reissue with the really bad cover) – The brilliant original cover was replaced in 2005 with something far uglier.
Marillion – Marbles – campaign edition 2 CD digipack – Discs pop out and the little foam things that hold the discs in, come unglued with time.
Pearl Jam – Vitalogy – Known to fatally scratch discs.
Kim Mitchel – Itch – People think the album is actually “self titled” due to messy cover art.
AC/DC – PWRUP lightbox – Mine ripped, trying to get all the stupid tape off the box set. Ripped on day one!
Twisted Sister – Live at the Marquee – Rhino limited edition – Doesn’t file nicely anywhere, doesn’t stand up straight…a straight fail!
Packaging fails! Cover art that’s too small, discs that fall out, packages the scratch the precious CD inside…we’ll cover lots of them tonight on the Contrarians Live.
There will be a variety of “fails” tonight, from the usual suspects. Unfortunately I may have to start skipping these Wednesday night shows. With spring now here, I no longer need to occupy my evenings in front of a screen. We will see what the future holds. I had a great run – 17 shows in a row without missing a single one. Only Grant can say he also hasn’t missed a single show of the last 17. We’ll see how it goes. It’s bittersweet. I’d like to continue doing this every week, but when the sun is shining outside and the air is warm, it’s hard to sit at a screen.
Watch live and comment! Martin always tries to address the comment section.
THE CONTRARIANS – Packaging Fails – Wednesday March 12 – 7:00 PM EST
Packaging fails! Cover art that’s too small, discs that fall out, packages the scratch the precious CD inside…we’ll cover lots of them tonight on the Contrarians Live.
There will be a variety of “fails” tonight, from the usual suspects. Unfortunately I may have to start skipping these Wednesday night shows. With spring now here, I no longer need to occupy my evenings in front of a screen. We will see what the future holds. I had a great run – 17 shows in a row without missing a single one. Only Grant can say he also hasn’t missed a single show of the last 17. We’ll see how it goes. It’s bittersweet. I’d like to continue doing this every week, but when the sun is shining outside and the air is warm, it’s hard to sit at a screen.
Watch live and comment! Martin always tries to address the comment section.
THE CONTRARIANS – Packaging Fails – Wednesday March 12 – 7:00 PM EST
Here comes Melissa Nee, dropping knowledge bombs all over Piece of Mind! Melissa is a long time fan, having seen the band on this actual tour. Her insight, appreciation and multitude of knowledge make this a must-watch episode!
Flying over the valley, to the Eagles’ Nest, we cover the album album track by track from “Where Eagles Dare” to “To Tame A Land”. Special attention is paid to the lyrics. Four songs on this album have accompanying books or movies, and this is covered as well. Most importantly, this album is the debut of Nicko McBrain, replacing the beloved Clive Burr on drums.
As usual, we cover the artwork, both single B-sides, and the tour. Harrison and Melissa go deep on the live show, setlist and stories. (There is one important story that happened on this tour, that we will save for the Powerslave episode.)
Please join Harrison, Melissa and I for this mission behind enemy lines: Piece of Mind!
Last week on Rock Daydream Nation, Peter Kerr and Martin Popoff broke down the history of Australian producer team Harry Vanda and George Young. You may recognize those names from the AC/DC albums in your collection. As I recently discovered, Vanda & Young were also responsible for the early Rose Tattoo records. What else have Vanda & Young brought to the music world? Watch this episode of Rock Daydream Nation and hear about their best works.
As Blotto themselves know, from the making of their new documentary film Hello! My Name Is Blotto – The Movie, sometimes great stuff happens when the tape stops rolling! That happened to me on Tuesday February 25, after finishing up my interview with the band.
During the pre-show chat, Bowtie Blotto told me that they had played my home town of Kitchener, as well as my dad’s city of Guelph. And he asked Broadway Blotto what he remembered of those gigs.
Check out the funny story in the YouTube short below, and check out the full interview if you haven’t already!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and Blotto Episode 92: Hello! My Name Is Blotto! The Interview
Blotto hit the sand on MTV with “I Wanna Be A Lifeguard”, being among the first 40 videos played on their first morning as a station. Then came “Metal Head”, Metal For Breakfast, and a heck of a lot of gigs. The core members were all named Blotto: Sarge, Cheese, F Lee, Broadway and Bow Tie. Sadly we lost Cheese and Sarge, but for this special interview, F Lee, Broadway and Bow Tie reunited with director Bert Blotto on Grab A Stack of Rock. It’s a Blotto reunion, and a good time was had by all.
The subject is a new movie about to premier on April 12 at Cohoes Music Hall: Hello! My Name Is Blotto! The Movie. Director Rob “Bert Blotto” Lichter has carved this film from many hours of archives, like a sculptor cuts wood. Join the Blotto guys and I, as we check out the movie trailer and hear firsthand stories from the band. There are laughs a-plenty, some serious moments, and some fan geekery. You’ll always hear about the one (hilarious) unreleased track that was never recorded.
It is clear that for Rob, this is a work of passion and pride, as well as hope. Indeed, Blotto deserve a larger audience, for their music still rings true and makes us laugh.
Plus, Bow Tie does the “Dr. Bow” laugh from “Goodbye Mr. Bond” and if that isn’t worth the price of admission, I don’t know what is.
Video premieres at 7:00 PM Eastern.
Thursday February 27 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube.
Episode 6 of 50 Years of Iron Maiden (and episode 93 of Grab A Stack of Rock) was a learning experience as Harrison schooled us on the Beast On the Road Tour.
A fabulous live album recorded in 1982 but not released until 2002, Beast Over Hammersmith rivals Live After Death in metal mastery. The lively comments section anticipated all of our praise for this album, which you can get on vinyl, but probably not on CD without buying the Eddie’s Archive box set.
Harrison Kopp was the master of ceremonies, and this episode was all his. Hear about the unusual opener, the instrumental, the guitar solo, the B-side, and much more. Several things came up multiple times in this episode: 1) Bruce Dickinson’s voice at this point in 1982. 2) Clive Burr’s masterful performances of these songs. 3) The band’s fresh take on the songs that would later be played hundreds of times.
This is episode is certain to go down as a favourite. Join us next week with Melissa Nee, for Piece of Mind!
Recorded 20 March 1982 – 2 days before album was out, released 2 November 2002.
Never released in full on video as the band were unhappy with the quality, but you can see part on the 2004 Early Days DVD.
Opener: Murders in the Rue Morgue! Starts slow, showcasing Steve’s bass harmonics. Then goes breakneck! What a strange opener!
Wrathchild is another great Steve bass opener. This one is more along the lines of the album version, but with Bruce singing.
New song Run to the Hills is 3rd in the set! Not as breakneck speed as some versions.
Another new song, Children of the Damned. Bruce announces the album will be out March 22. Tour de force vocals and some nice guitar harmonics added in.
Crowd is very quiet except for a few pockets of cheers to open Number of the Beast. Bruce mentions the “problems” they had in the studio.
Great version of “Another Life”, with Clive absolutely on fire on the snares and cymbols. Bruce’s vocals make the lyrics more clear: “As I lay here lying on my bed.” Amazing Davey soloing here.
Screaming version of Killers next. Bruce at peak voice tackling this song. Otherwise pretty faithful to album cut, especially the guitars and guitar tone. We also learn Adrian had some bruised up ribs that night.
22 Acacia is introduced as an Adrian co-write. Another perfect performance. Bruce’s vocals are biting and growly during the intro.
Bruce says Total Eclipse isn’t really a B-side, but it is. “Didn’t have enough room on the album.” This song and Run to the Hills were on a vinyl single already. The vocals are a little haggard toward the challenging ending high notes.
Leads into instrumental Transylvania, played as it should be by Clive.
Crowd is silent during the Prisoner opening. Great hearing it like with Clive on drums. The drums are fast, frenetic and flawless. Tempo seems a bit faster in the latter part than the album.
Hallowed comes in with no intro from Bruce. Better live version than Live After Death, as Bruce sings the opening a little more true to album. Passionate singing from Bruce.
Phantom – Top performance from Bruce, expressive and soaring! Tempo feels a little faster than album.
Iron Maiden – Breakneck version!
Sanctuary – Same with Sanctuary!
Drifter – Songs tend to flow one into another. I don’t like when Bruce refers to some in the audience as a “fucking women,” but that was the 80s. I doubt he’d say this today.
Running Free – A top Bruce version, with impassioned and wild vocals.
Prowler – Crazy to hear this album opener as a closer.
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 6: Beast Over Hammersmith
A special 🅻🅸🆅🅴 episode
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #93
Good evening Hammersmith…or wherever you are! Tonight on 50 Years of Iron Maiden, Harrison and I are appropriately tackling this live album with a live episode!
Beast Over Hammersmith is a double live album recorded just before The Number of the Beast was released. The band played a rare mix of Di’Anno classics and deep cuts, along with new material, and one B-side! Bruce explains to the crowd that it’s not “really” a B-side, which it was, but we’ll get into that, as well as “all the lazy bastards from EMI in the back.”
This episode is our sendoff to Clive Burr, and we’ll be talking about him, though not for the last time in this series.
Beast Over Hammersmith was first issued as a 2 CD set within the Eddie’s Archive box set, which we have taken brief looks at in the past. Today you can get Beast Over Hammersmith on vinyl, so it is a significant enough release to warrant its own episode.
So give us a yo, yo yo yo! and see us tonight, live!
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