Clash of the Titans
Judas Priest & Iron Maiden, Glasgow SECC, July 19th & 20th 2011

It’s not often you’ll see two of the UK’s biggest metal bands playing the same venue on consecutive nights, but the tour itineraries for Judas Priest and Iron Maiden brought them both to the Glasgow SECC within 24 hours of each other.

Both bands have followed similar trajectories over the years.
Starting out from humble origins they slogged it out on the road and became international successes before suffering a fall from grace when their charismatic singers left.
Struggling through the wilderness of the nineties with poor record sales and shrinking audiences they then experienced a renaissance when their respective singers returned to the fold. Subsequent albums and tours gave them a renewed credibility and popularity.

Musically, I’ve always felt Priest had the edge, pushing the boundaries with each new album, experimenting with guitar sounds and song structures, while Maiden tended to stick to a tried and trusted formula.
Priest’s songs were razor sharp and focussed, rarely outstaying their welcome, whereas Maiden could get bogged down in lengthy compositions that tended to over-use the same bass lines or guitar riff.

Yet Maiden has always been the more successful band in commercial terms, mainly due to astute management and an unswerving loyalty to their fans.
Priest, on the other hand, have had a tendency to blunder into ill-thought-out decisions that have on occasion alienated their fans.

Nevertheless, both bands have been a profound influence in shaping the heavier sounds of rock and looking across the age range in the audiences it’s clear both bands are leaving a legacy that is inspiring a new generation of musicians.

"Pounding the world like a battering ram…."

This may have been their last ever show in Glasgow, but Priest were determined to go out loud ’n’ proud and the opening salvo of ‘Rapid Fire’ and ‘Metal Gods’ got the show underway in style.
The guitar riffs still sounded as fierce as they did when the celebrated British Steel album came out 30 years ago, but this time with added wallop from double-kick drumming.

From there the show rarely let up in pace or intensity as the band ploughed through their best stuff over the next two and half hours.
Sensibly, the classic ‘Victim of Changes’ came early on in the set to ensure that singer Rob Halford could hit those legendary high notes before his voice started to tire. On recent tours his singing and phrasing has been a bit hit or miss, but tonight he was right on the money, his screams echoing around the hall with hellish accuracy. Considering he first sang this song 35 years ago, he deserved the crowd’s ovation for pulling this one off.

This tour has courted controversy, with one of the original guitarists quitting and hurriedly being replaced by an unknown, but new boy Richie Faulkner slotted in perfectly, playing as if his life depended on it, prowling the front of the stage, engaging the audience, and playing flawless counterpoint to the riffs and solos of old hand Glen Tipton.

A lot of thought went into the choice of songs, with one from every album and the inclusion of songs never played live at all.
All backed by an inferno of lights, lasers, flame, smoke and, of course, the motorbike.

As the band launched into the traditional show-closer ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ the audience assumed this would be their last chance to make their appreciation heard and I could feel my own throat starting to shred but I held on to the end… only for the band to stride back onstage to play a fourth encore.
‘Living After Midnight’ was the perfect choice for saying goodbye as band and audience roared out the chorus. 

If this was the last time they played here, then it was one helluva show to bow out on.

"Scream for me Glasgow!"

Could Maiden live up to the previous night’s show?
Walking into the arena there was an immediate sense that tonight’s show would be bigger in every sense – a bigger crowd and a humungous stage set – reflecting the huge popularity that Maiden enjoy. It probably didn't help that I was much further back for this one, so it was hard to see the action at some points.

But as the lights went down and the atmospheric drum samples of ‘Satellite 15…The Final Frontier’ thundered out of the speakers the vibe was breath-taking.
So much so that when the band actually took over from the taped intro, it was almost a sense of relief that we were underway.

As the guitarists hared around the stage, and singer Bruce Dickinson held court centre stage, the crowd gave them a heroes' welcome (which probably gave the sound man a few headaches trying to sort the audio balance).
If the opening song got everyone slowly warmed up, ‘El Dorado’ and ‘Two Minutes To Midnight’ led the main charge, with pumped up riffs, rousing choruses and arms defiantly punching the air.

Ironically, the songs I enjoyed most were those I least expected to.
In recent years, Maiden’s material has taken on a more prog-rock slant, longer and more complex in arrangement. I wondered how well these songs would go down before a rowdy crowd reared on the older belters like ‘The Trooper’ and ‘The Wicker Man.’ 
But on the night it seemed to work, with more thoughtful stuff like ‘When The Wild Wind Blows’ counterbalanced by shorter, faster tracks like ‘The Number Of The Beast.’

Maiden are somewhat unique in that they use three lead guitarists, allowing a fuller sound and interesting three-part harmonics, but sometimes the more intricate stuff got overwhelmed by the sheer volume of sound.
Yet, above the guitar mayhem, Dickinson’s vocals still manage to soar and amaze and, although he is prone to waffling between songs, he is an engaging front man as he criss-crosses the stage like a badger in heat yet never missing a note.

You certainly get your money’s worth at a Maiden gig, between the epic stage show and the band giving it everything on stage, but it’s that solid professionalism and no nonsense approach that have won them the loyalty of fans the world over, as evidenced in ‘Blood Brothers,’ the band’s tribute to their fans.

And it’s that wider loyalty that has sustained metal bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden while other music trends have come and gone over the last 30 years.
Contrary to what some blinkered critics would have you believe, metal ain’t dead – it just needs an oil change and fine tuning from time to time!

John Stout
July 2011