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I always have dreamt to see Iron Maiden in Scandinavia, so when I knew they were playing in Norway, I planned a summer trip there.
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I attended both Norwegian shows, in Oslo and Trondheim, but also spent a few days there visiting some cities as well as the Svalbard archipelago.
On July 22 I arrived to Trondheim by plane from Bodø. I saw that flight AEU 666, piloted by Captain Bruce Dickinson was arriving 3 hours later so I decided to stay at the airport.
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This flight was chartered as a Bruce Air trip and named the Viking Express.
Bruce Air trips are flights to Iron Maiden concerts abroad on an Astraeus Airline plane piloted by Bruce Dickinson himself. Tickets are available through the fan club.
Although they are a bit expensive, it has to be a memorable experience! |
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Anyway, I was flying in low cost airlines and wouldn’t have been to London to catch a plane to Norway. I didn’t even planned to wait for the band members at the airport, it was just good luck, as I was flying to the same airport on the same day.
While waiting for the plane to arrive I visited Hell. No, it’s not a joke, 10 minutes walking from Trondheim Værnes airport you will find a small town called Hell!. |
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I saw when the plane arrived. It was actually not Ed Force One, but another Boeing 757 painted on Ghana colours. We were only 3 people waiting for the plane’s arrival at Trondheim Airport, although some 200 fans, mostly from the UK but also from Japan, Belgium and Portugal, arrived on Flight 666.
By the way, I was interviewed by a Norwegian TV channel, and you can see an excerpt on this link. |
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I could talk to Bruce for a few minutes, asked him about the tour, specially the shows where I’ve been to. He said he had very good memories from the Colombian Iron Maiden show.
Well after that I went to Trondheim, made the check in at the youth host, which was full of metalheads with Iron Maiden music at the restaurant and the reception! That’s what I call a warm welcome!
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The youth hostel location was just perfect, right between Lerkendal Stadium and the city centre. I went directly to the show and drank a couple of beers with a few friends I made in front of the stadium. I missed the opening acts, Lauren Harris and Avenged Sevenfold.
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As usual the show started with “Doctor Doctor” from UFO, then came the video of the tour with lots of images from the first leg (the plane, the band and the crowds in Japan, India, Australia and South America) with the music of “Transylvania”, and finally… “Chrurchill’s Speech” followed by an amazing version of “Aces High”. |
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The Trondheim set list was the same as for the rest of the Somewhere Back In Time tour, but the band has other surprises, like Bruce Dickinson’s jokes! This time he was laughing at Adrian Smith, who spent 3 days fishing in Norway before the show and…according to Bruce he didn’t get any fish!
Of course one of the strongest moments of the concert is when they play ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. The set of lights gets down on the middle break, and we got fireworks when the song starts to speed again. And right after that comes “Powerslave”!
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Then the lucky winners of the “Heaven Can Wait” contest get on stage to sing with Steve Harris and the rest of the band. This is one of the moments where the crowd screams louder!
“Fear Of The dark” also gets great reactions from the audience, but I still think they shouldn’t have played this song on this tour. After all, it’s called “Somewhere back in Time”, but well, it’s always a great moment when they do it. |
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Finally, here comes "Iron Maiden", with the sarcophagus and the great Eddie as an Egyptian mummy. Can they do better than that?
Time for the encores. Bruce introduces the band and they play “Moonchild”. |
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Then comes “The Clairvoyant” where Eddie comes back. This time it’s the “Somewhere in Time” Eddie who appears with pyrotechnics and an Egyptian backdrop. On the first leg of the tour (which I saw in Colombia) this Eddie appeared during the song “Iron Maiden” and with the “Somewhere In Time” backdrop, so you had the impression of seeing the cover of the album being alive. |
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End of the show with “Hallowed be Thy name” and…there still was daylight! That’s summer in the Nordic countries!
Another great concert. The sound was good from the beginning to the end, as well as the pyrotechnics and the light show (even if there was daylight).
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So I got back to my youth hostel with some people I met who were also sleeping there. Most people on the room had Iron Maiden T-shirts and the morning after, there was still Iron Maiden music at the restaurant during breakfast time.
The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet titled their review “Perfekt Maiden”. What else can I say? Another great show from the greatest Heavy Metal band on earth. Next stop: Iron Maiden Live in Oslo!
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Set List Iron Maiden Trondheim, Norway, July 22, 2008:
01. Intro - Churchill's Speech
02. Aces High
03. 2 Minutes to Midnight
04. Revelations
05. The Trooper
06. Wasted Years
07. The Number of the Beast
08. Run to the Hills
09. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
10. Powerslave
11. Heaven Can Wait
12. Can I Play With Madness?
13. Fear of the Dark
14. Iron Maiden
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15. Moonchild
16. The Clairvoyant
17. Hallowed Be Thy Name
Links:
Iron Maiden
Norwegian TV Airport report - with Metal Traveller on it :-)
Norwegian TV on Lerkendal Stadium
Iron Maiden Tour Travel Guide |
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