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🅻🅸🆅🅴 50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 32: En Vivo!

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 32:  En Vivo!

A special 🅻🅸🆅🅴 episode – 15th Anniversary of the Santiago Chile concert!

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #142

Another Maiden live album?  Another 50 Years of Iron Maiden live episode.  Hitting the skies in a brand new Ed Force One jet, our heavy metal heroes embarked upon “the road” once again.  With the new space and science fiction-themed Final Frontier album providing new Eddies and new songs, the Maiden live show evolved once again.  With six new songs (including intro “Satellite 15”) and an alien hybrid Eddie, Iron Maiden roared into Santiago, Chile intending to record a live DVD and Blu-ray.  Recorded on this day, 15 years ago,  April 10 2011, history was made and documented.  The album was released almost a year later, on March 26 2012.

Join Mike and Harrison live, as we celebrate the 15th anniversary of the En Vivo! concert.  Another double live CD and DVD or Blu-ray set, we will take you through the entire track list song by song.  The visual aspects of the show will be accounted for, and the unique split-screen editing will be assessed.  The bonus DVD includes a music video (and a short behind the scenes clip) and a 90 minute documentary called “Behind the Beast”.  We will take you through each in our usual detailed manner.

Is this just another Maiden live album?  What tracks stand out?  How does it compare to other live albums?  We’ll assess the whole thing and let you know.

Please join us live if you can.  We love interacting in the comments, and these live albums give us an excuse to do these Maiden episodes as live ones.  You make it worth it!

Friday April 10 at  7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.

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50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode: From Fear To Eternity – The Best Of 1990-2010

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode: From Fear To Eternity – The Best Of 1990-2010

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK bonus episode

Iron Maiden have certainly done many compilations since the reunion era began.  Last time we looked at Somewhere Back In Time, which covered the 1980s.  Leaving no loose ends, the followup album From Fear To Eternity covers 1990 to 2000.  It is Maiden’s sixth compilation album, and fourth 2 CD set of that kind.  It follows a blueprint set by Somewhere Back In Time, but with some notable inclusions and exclusions.

The cover art on this album is given a special inspection in this episode, as Mike and Harrison point out every Easter egg and reference to prior albums.  We also take a good look at the inside cover, a nice piece of art in itself.  This episode is a feast for the eyes!

Not quite long enough to make into an officially numbered episode, but informative and interesting nonetheless, From Fear To Eternity is a good solid look at an era of Maiden that snobs often ignore:  the underrated 1990s, the glory of the reunion era, and some of the best epic long-bombers of Maiden’s career.  Don’t believe us?  Join tonight for the fun.  It’s all for the love of Maiden.  Up the Irons!

 

Friday March 27 at  7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube.

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50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode: Hot Metal

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode: ‘Hot Metal’

Featuring Tim Durling from Tim’s Vinyl Confessions

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This special bonus episode of 50 Years of Iron Maiden would not be possible without the efforts of Tim Durling of Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, who years ago informed us of a long-forgotten Iron Maiden cassette release from 1986.  On TVC episode 351 (“Rare CDs”), during a portion where I was showing of my Iron Maiden First Ten Years box set, Tim told us of a cassette release exclusive to the A&A Records and Tapes chain in Canada.  Mike has a long history with A&A, being something of a home base for him during his highschool years.  Tim acquired and sent Mike the cassette of this odd release:  Iron Maiden – Hot Metal, an A&A three track “sampler” exclusive, on Capitol Records.

In this episode we take a good look at this release, which featured a nice three-page foldout with lots to look at.  The tape is clearly geared to new fans who are still buying Iron Maiden catalogue releases, as you’ll see when we dive deep into the innards of the tape.  Priced at just 99 cents, the cassette is essentially a “cassingle” of the “Wasted Years” 12″, but with a twist.  Join Mike and Harrison for a mini-episode suited to this mini-cassette!

Join us for some memories of A&A Records and Tapes (and Compact Discs!), and a close look at a really nice cassette release with quality music and content inside.  Special thanks to Tim’s Vinyl Confessions for providing the video content from his episode providing background on the tape, and actually sending us a copy!

This special episode will run at a special time, see below and hope to see you in the comments.

 

SPECIAL TIME

Wednesday March 25 at  7:00 AM EST, 8:00 AM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube.

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50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 31: The Final Frontier

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 31:  The Final Frontier

With special guest D’Arcy Briggs

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #140

When Iron Maiden returned on 13 August 2010 with a new studio album The Final Frontier, for the first time in a long time, it felt like “just another Iron Maiden album”.  There were no gimmicks, no comebacks, just 10 new songs.  Many of the new songs were longer and looser.  The beginning of the new Iron Maiden?  We at 50 Years of Iron Maiden try to appreciate each album as they stand on their own, and in this episode we break it down track by track, retrieving nuggets of gold.

Joining Mike and Harrison this time is new guest D’Arcy Briggs from the @Darcyska YouTube channel.  D’Arcy was glad to be able to choose this album.  He explains why in the episode.  Once again, we have the right guest for the right record.  This is a passionate episode with depth and appreciation for an album that often slips through the cracks.

Unfortunately, for the first time in Iron Maiden history, we have a new studio album with no new B-sides.  We do have singles, but no additional songs.

Once our trio of fans breaks down the album for analysis, Harrison will run us through the tour and setlists.  Would many of these songs reappear on tours down the road?  Harrison has the details.  And of course, we’ll address the controversial artwork!

Please join us for this premiere as we love to interact in the comments!

Friday March 6 at  7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube.

SCHEDULE NOTE:  CLOCKS CHANGE ON SUNDAY – DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

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🅻🅸🆅🅴 50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 30: Somewhere Back In Time & Flight 666

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 30: Somewhere Back In Time & Flight 666

A special 🅻🅸🆅🅴 episode

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #139

Scream for me, YouTube!  In May 2008, Iron Maiden released a new “best of” CD, unlike the previous four.  Yes, that makes Somewhere Back In Time– The Best of: 1980-1989 the fifth Iron Maiden “best of”.  Despite the title, it has no songs from the first two albums, subbing in live versions with Bruce singing.  The actual tracklist focused on the Dickinson albums from 1982-1988 (Number of the Beast to Seventh Son).  Then, Maiden embarked upon a tour designed to recreate the Live After Death era, with some added goodies (and Eddies) from Somewhere In Time and Seventh Son (plus one song that didn’t fit).

Singer Bruce Dickinson, who was also a licensed pilot, had an idea:  would it be possible to modify a passenger jet to carry all their gear and crew, and fly it from gig to gig no matter how far?

It was indeed possible (if not difficult), and Ed Force One took to the skies to bring Iron Maiden to their fans around the world.  In the pilot’s seat:  Bruce himself!

The first leg of the Somewhere Back In Time tour was documented by Sam Dunn and Banger films for a movie:  Flight 666.  This film played theatrically, and was eventually released on a double DVD set with the movie and all the complete songs.  There was a complete soundtrack on CD and vinyl, and tonight we’re going to look at it all.

Mike and Harrison will dive deep into the film, the songs and the tour.  Mike has over 2000 words of notes, and copies of Flight 666 on CD, DVD and vinyl.  We will tackle Somewhere Back In Time itself as an album, and Harrison will discuss the tour legs that followed.

This will truly be an epic episode, so do not miss it.  We love to interact with the comments.

 

Friday February 27 at  7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.

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50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 29: A Matter of Life and Death with Uncle Meat

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 29: A Matter of Life and Death

With special guest Uncle Meat

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK episode 137

“I love work. I can sit and watch it for hours.” – Nicko McBrain

Our longest episode of the entire series, A Matter of Life and Death is a special album in the Maiden arsenal.  Bringing back one of Maiden’s most popular lyrical topics, the album largely focused on warfare, with a sideline into religion and social commentary.  There might even be an original fictional tale or two here, sprinkled in with the cold historical reality.  A Matter of Life and Death is a high water mark, we will argue, and hope you’ll listen to what we have to say.

Original Grab A Stack of Rock alumnus Uncle Meat returns for an album that he picked, because he was fortunate enough to see this tour.  That will become important later on.  Along with Mike and Harrison, each of the 10 new songs are broken down musicially and lyrically, with historical and personal context added for colour.  An album laden with highlights, we take our time to appreciate the minor details.

We’re only just getting started:  This album has a whopping 11 assorted bonus tracks and B-sides to discuss, plus a vital bonus DVD.  The extra tracks come from many formats:  A magazine CD tribute album to Deep Purple’s Machine Head, a DVD single, several CD singles, a 7″ and 10″ vinyl, just to get all the tracks.  There is also an additional promo CD single to mention, and an exclusive live track that you can’t get anymore because it was a download-only.  Bummer.

When we’re done all that, and have discussed the included documentary DVD in detail, we move on to the tour(s).  And oh, what they did nearly tore fandom apart.  As illustrated on Mike’s bootleg CD, Revenge Is Living In The Past, Maiden played all 10 album tracks in sequence before getting to a smattering of classic hits (including of course “Fear of the Dark”).  Uncle Meat was there when it went down in Toronto, and not knowing what we was in for, he describes his immediate impressions.  As a group, we tackle the tour’s historic importance, and the fallout that came next.  The next time around, Maiden had cut the 10 songs down to just five, and added more classics back into the set.

This 1 hour 38 minute episode includes the last musical B-sides or bonus tracks we’ll get from Maiden, save one RSD picture disc we’ll discuss later on.  The bonus tracks are a wonderful, confounding collection to complete.  We hope you enjoy the level of detail we went into for this episode.  We felt the album deserved nothing less.

 

Friday February 13 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T., 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube.

 

 

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Grab A Stack of Rock theme video – Updated with Harper, Oscar Award, Robert Lawson & Darcyska

Music & vocals by Tee Bone, remix and guitar solo by Tim Durling.  Writting by M Ladano, J Ladano, T Erickson

Not including myself, 53 people have been on Grab A Stack of Rock to date since its debut on October 28 2022.

Cool things still to come.  More interviews lined up in 2026, and 50 Years of Iron Maiden rolls on.  We have two NEW series that we have started recruiting guests for, and many more surprises lined up.   Because the song is now over two minutes long, we are using it as our outro video instead of intro.  It will debut on the February 20 episode of Grab A Stack of Rock – Top 20 Queensryche songs!

Stick around!

 

  1. Blaze Bayley
  2. Harrison Kopp
  3. Mike Ladano
  4. Eric “Uncle Meat” Litwiller
  5. Aaron KMA
  6. Tim Durling
  7. Rob Daniels
  8. John T Snow
  9. Marco D’Auria
  10. Grant Arthur
  11. Brian Richards
  12. MarriedandHeels
  13. Kevin Simister
  14. Dr. Kathryn
  15. Jen Ladano
  16. Grace Scheele
  17. Jex Russell
  18. Spencer “Spenny” Rice
  19. Nurse Kat
  20. Peter Kerr
  21. John Clauser
  22. Erik Woods
  23. Jason Drury
  24. Pierre-Luc Allard
  25. Len Labelle
  26. Reed Little
  27. Metal Roger
  28. John the Music Nut
  29. Mike Slayen
  30. Pete Jones
  31. Todd Evans
  32. James Kalyn
  33. Angie Moon
  34. Ryan Gavalier
  35. Chris Preston
  36. Dan Chartrand
  37. Glen “Archie” Gamble
  38. bicyclelegs
  39. Davey Cretin
  40. Melissa Nee
  41. Sidney Cini A
  42. shley Geisler
  43. Martin Popoff
  44. Bert Blotto
  45. F Lee Harvey Blotto
  46. Bowtie Blotto
  47. Broadway Blotto
  48. Jake Not From State Farm
  49. Bob Cesca (Camp Chaos)
  50. Lana Teramae
  51. Robert Lawson
  52. Harper (with Oscar)
  53. D’Arcy Briggs
  54. and (briefly) Max the Axe

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode: Reissued Singles with New B-Sides 2002-2005

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode: Reissued Singles with New B-Sides 2002-2005

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK bonus episode

This 22 minute bonus episode finally wraps up some of the loose ends that we skipped over in prior instalments.  We wanted to group these special singles into one episode.

In 2002, Maiden reissued “Run to the Hills” to support a special fundraising gig for the Clive Burr MS Trust Fund.  The first CD single included songs from Beast Over Hammersmith, also released in 2002 on Eddie’s Archive.  This single also supported the forthcoming Rock In Rio album.  A second CD included two tracks from Reading 1982.  Both singles included Camp Chaos videos later released on Visions of the Beast.  “Total Eclipse” is a previously unreleased live version.

In 2005, to support The Early Years DVD, Maiden reissued “The Number of the Beast” on CD and vinyl.  There were new B-sides here as well, from the Clive Burr support gig at Brixton ’02.   The single also included a Camp Chaos video, and a live video from Brixton.

Finally in 2005, supporting Death on the Road, “The Trooper” was reissued on multiple formats.  A highly coveted download-only version of “The Trooper” from Iceland in 2005 remains one of Maiden’s most highly sought rarities, simply because it had no physical release and is no longer for sale on their website.  The singles on various formats included a slew of early tracks from the Eddie Rips Up The World Tour.  Once again the CD version included videos, but no Camp Chaos this time.

Harrison and Mike will go through all the versions of all the singles, in detail tonight.  That wraps up all the loose ends before we get into the next studio album, A Matter of Life and Death.  Don’t miss this special, crucial part of Maiden history.

Friday February 6 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T., 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube.

 

 

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🅻🅸🆅🅴 50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 28: Death on the Road

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 28: Death on the Road

A special 🅻🅸🆅🅴 episode with guest Jex Russell

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #135

Scream for me, YouTube!  We’re back with our first live Maiden episode of 2026.  We try and do the live albums as live episodes, since we love that live show experience so much.  With us this time is a lucky owner of the Death on the Road DVD, Mr. Jex Russell!  We first saw his copy of the DVD back in June 26 on a special episode on our Maiden collections.  That set being such a rarity, we had to get Jex back on board when it was time to talk about it.

The early 2000s were an incredibly busy time for Iron Maiden, and for the first time ever we had two consecutive live albums after two consecutive studio albums.  This leads to natural comparisons with Rock In Rio, which also received CD and DVD releases.

Tonight we go all-in for the live album, breaking it down track by track.  Harrison and Jex will have their DVD copies on hand to detail us on its contents.  All three of us will be live to answer your questions and comments as we go!  Don’t miss this special live episode!

 

Friday January 23 at  7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.

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50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode: The Essential Iron Maiden

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode: The Essential Iron Maiden

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK bonus episode

This week’s bonus episode of 50 Years of Iron Maiden falls on a Tuesday.  This is a shorter episode, that we wanted to run mid-week.

On 12 July 2005, Sony released The Essential Iron Maiden in North America.  As Maiden’s fourth compilation (and third multi-disc compilation), it was interesting for several reasons.  First and most obviously, there is no Eddie on the cover.  Second, it was released as part of Sony’s Essential series, and we’ll look at another disc from that series for comparison.  Third, it is again mostly reverse-chronological, almost like an updated Best of the Beast without the rarities.

We’re calling it the “weirdest” Iron Maiden best of album for these reasons and more.  Would you buy it?  Have a watch and let us know about this truly un-essential Essential release by Sony!

Wednesday January 13 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T., 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube.

 

 

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