Posts Tagged ‘nicko mcbrain’
Nicko McBrain’s Titanium Tart / Velvet Sky / Maximum Friction, Sanford, FL, July 25, 2025
Haven’t posted in a while but this one was important enough to share here…
Let’s flashback to about 1983. I wasn’t playing drums yet but I wanted to learn and a big reason for that was hearing Piece Of Mind and Nicko McBrain. They were becoming and still are my favorite band of all time, not matter that I generally haven’t cared about anything they’ve put out since No Prayer.
Flash forward to early 1988. I’m 17, a senior with terribly poofy hair and acne and local music store Abbey Music announces that Nicko, my favorite drummer ever, was doing a drum clinic and of course I had to go.
There were only about 30 people there as Whitesnake was in town touring for the ’87 LP. I was one of 2 people who actually got to get up on stage and play his drums with him standing right there. It was awesome. I still have the pair of his signature sticks! During one of his rambles, he mentioned the size of the crowd being small due to Whitesnake being in town. Under my breath from the front row I said “Fuck Tommy Aldridge.” Nicko stopped his speech and said, “Steve, give that man a beer!” So his tech handed me an ice cold Heineken which I had Nicko autograph after the show as we were getting a photo taken. I still have that bottle, unopened and it’s all chunky inside. I didn’t drink at the time so there was no reason to open it. It was an incredible night.
Flash forward to just a few weeks ago and I see a post online about Nicko’s Titanium Tart playing 4 Florida shows and offering a meet and greet. I had to do it. I sent the info to Kelz and we got on a long phone call to discuss logistics. Just based on price point, I decided to fly into Raleigh where he is and we’d drive down to Sanford, FL. BUT…we wanted to make sure we were able to purchase the meet and greet which was to go on sale a couple of days later. We got the tix dnd I booked my trip and that was that.
Thursday July 24
Kelz picks me up mid afternoon at the airport, we chill at his place a bit then run out for dinner at a coney dog place called Cloos’. It was excellent. Back to his place to chill for a bit and watch a movie. We planned to leave at 7AM on Friday.
Friday July 25
We did leave at 7AM and because of some traffic issues along that way, we got to our crash pad right at 5PM. Luckily we were just a couple of blocks away. We dropped our stuff, freshened up and walked over to The Barn. That humidity was no joke. Once there we checked in and got our meet and greet swag and do our obligatory pre-show shot. Mine was just Coke.
First band, Maximum Friction, opened up the evening. They’re all young high school kids and play as a 3pc with the bassist handling vocal duties. They played all classic metal covers by Ozzy, Megadeth, Sabbath, Pantera etc and one original. They were pretty solid and reminded me of School of Rock type kids. Good on em.
Another 3pc called Velvet Sky played next. Both bands played a side room and I didn’t watch any of Velvet Sky.
Nicko’s band started just before 8PM on the main stage and we grabbed a spot near the front stage right in the VIP section. You couldn’t really see Nicko because of his kit size but we could hear him fine. In general I’d call the song selection meh but I’m sure they’re doing the songs that best fit his physical condition. He did as well as I’d expected, especially after seeing three shows from that last tour. I was stoked to hear Infinite Dreams. Partially disabled by his stroke or not, the man’s right foot is still devastating as he proved throughout the night.
He’d come out from behind the kit every few songs and talk, tell jokes, introduced the band etc. I stayed up in that area for about the first third of the show and moved to the back of the room. Knees were stiffening up and I needed to loosen em up and walk around a bit. Kelz left the VIP shortly after and we watched the remainder of the show back by the soundboard. Looked like about 200-250 folks.
Immediately after their set, the meet and greet folks were told to wait by the stairs to the upper level. They sold 50 of those packages at $75 a pop. We were in the last 10 or so to cycle thru.
It was billed as getting “one on one time with Nicko” and only one item to get signed. Uh yeah. I was gonna try and work some mojo and get two items signed: The Book and the photo of us from 1988 for framing purposes. Nicko would engage with the folks almost as much as anyone wished to. Some folks opted for a quick sig and a photo and some engaged with him more. It was nice to see altho it slowed things down a bit. We had nowhere to be, right?
Kelz is up first and I filmed their interaction. He got his main two things signed: a cool old Sonor ad from Modern Drummer and his Powerslave cd which already had sigs by Bruce, Adrian and Steve. Pretty sweet.
I’m up next and lay The Book out in front of him and he signed it. He was pretty indifferent about it but was digging our photo. I started recounting the events of that night and mentioned his former drum tech (RIP) and the Heineken. That affected him a little and he said he missed that guy. He said, “this must’ve been from 89” and I showed him the announcement flyer and explained it was Feb 1, 1988 pre-Seventh Son and that night was the first time I’d heard the title of the upcoming album. I asked if he’d sign the photo and he obliged. They had someone taking pics using our cameras and Kelz filmed most of my interaction with the man. We did the one main photo and he shook my hand and I asked him for a hug. He obliged and I told him in his ear how much I loved him and thanked him for a lifetime of music. He thanked me back and that was that. I was hoping to recreate our original photo as much as we could’ve but it just didn’t play out that way and I’m good with that.
My San Antonio buddy Ruben and his lovely wife Jasmin were right behind us and get their stuff signed. He also had Nicko sign his leg which hopefully got tattooed in today.
We collected ourselves after the surreal moments with Nicko and Ruben gave us a ride back. Our adrenaline was still up and we ordered in a couple of sammiches, talked about the evening a bit more and crashed out. It was a perfect night.
We drove back Saturday the 26th, it was a little over 9 hours coming back and traffic was light for the most part. We got back here at 6PMish and just chilled out for the evening with a couple of movies.
The expense and time of this trip was worth every minute and dollar spent. Getting Nicko in The Book was a pinnacle moment and I’m considering retiring it. As I’m writing this eating breakfast tacos Sunday morning here in Raleigh with Kelz, we’re still quite a bit in awe of meeting Nicko. Glad we got to share the experience together as Iron Maiden has been a major part of our friendship for over 40 years.
All hail Nicko and always Up The Irons! Forever.
Video of Nicko and me:
Setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/titanium-tart/2025/the-barn-in-sanford-sanford-fl-4b4283ae.html
Iron Maiden – The Final Frontier Review
What a terrible album cover!
I’m at a loss for words (pun intended) on trying to review this album. Anyone that knows me knows I always have words, especially when it comes to talking about music. But this is a little bit difficult. But now I am reviewing an album by my all time favorite band ever…EVER! There is no other band that could be #1 for me, it’s just not possible. But for the sake of my adoring public *cough*, I’ll try to scribble out some drivel for your voracious reading palettes.
I don’t need to go back into the annals of The Metal Files and rehash my love for Maiden, it’s all there for you to peruse on your own. But for as much as I have loved them since 1984, I have not been so blinded by fandom to think that they can do no wrong. They’ve released their share of shit over the years. What? You want that list? It’s ugly and many will disagree, but here goes:
- Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (I can tolerate it better now than when it was released, but I detested it for years upon years)
- Fear of the Dark
- The X-Factor
- Virtual XI
- Dance of Death
Did you notice that The Final Frontier didn’t make the list? Look again, it’s not up there. Don’t get me wrong, this album is not ‘awesome’ or ‘great’ or ‘brilliant’ or even ‘ground-breaking’, but it is quite a solid album…with some warts. It’s the album that I expected after A Matter of Life and Death, which I loved.
I heard 30 second clips from each of the songs about a month ago and noticed something going on with either Bruce’s voice or the production of his voice. It sounded raspy, unclear and low in the mix. I honestly thought Maiden leaked rough mixes as a joke to fool their adoring public. I was wrong. Bruce sounds tired on this which is a bit surprising as he sounded great on the tour. While I don’t hear any auto-tuner done on his voice, it is pretty clear that much of his vocals were punched in. There are too many areas where even the mighty Air Raid Siren would physically not be able to catch his breath if he tried to sing some of this stuff straight through. And that’s not a big deal, bands have been recording vocals like this for decades.
When first seeing the tracklistings and the lengths of the songs, I knew what we were going to get; lots of intros and outtros and long repetitive choruses. We get some of that on this record for sure, but it doesn’t seem as much of the repetitiveness as we’ve seen on recent recordings by “Ron Maiden and the Dixie Chickens” (aka Iron Maiden).
Something I noticed on this album and the last one is the “absence” of Steve Harris. Sure you can hear him in the intros and in the main parts of the songs clanking along on his P-bass, but where are the signature ‘Arry bass runs? I just don’t hear them and have missed that in recent years. There are some areas where Nicko’s right foot still lets you know that he’s a bad mofo, but some of his fills seems to lack the energy and creativity that my favorite drummer used to have. Yes, he’s always been “Mr. 4-on-the-floor”, but it seems to happen way too much on this album.
While it pains me to say this, my favorite track on the album was penned by Jannick Gers: The Alchemist. It’s the shortest song on the album clocking in at a mere 4’29”. It’s also the most energetic and upbeat song on the record. Everything else is mid-paced with a few bursts here and there. But still, get Jannick out of the band already! Sure he’s been there for 20 years now but make him go away.
Adrian Smith has writing credits on 6 of the 10. Some of his stuff in the classic Maiden era were Maiden’s best songs. He’s a talented guy and I loved his solo album, but what I am hearing on here doesn’t have the classic “H” feel to it. Of course, this isn’t your father’s Maiden either.
Dave Murray gets some credit on The Man Who Would Be King. Upon my first listen to that track, I thought to myself, “Self? This one must’ve been written by Dave Murray.” It just seems like a Dave song, I don’t know any better way to explain it. Neither good nor bad.
I’ve read some other reviews of this album where people are giving accolades to the closing track When The Wind Blows. It’s 10+ minutes long, Maiden’s 3rd longest song ever. In general I don’t care for it. I don’t like the way that the guitar follows the vocals or vice versa. But the last few minutes of this song give us a flash of classic Maiden.
It took me a few listens but I realized something…this album reminds me a lot of one of their older albums…No Prayer For The Dying. I’m not sure exactly why it brings back memories of that album but it does, sans the retardedly goofy lyrics of NPFTD. Since Dance of Death, Maiden has been plodding along, playing it safe. It’s worked well on some songs, on others not so much.
All in all, The Final Frontier isn’t terrible and I’ll spin it several more times before this week is over, but it won’t rank up there in my favorite Maiden albums, not even close. Still, it’s better than what some of the other “classic” metal bands have been putting out in recent years (Nostradamus anyone?). If you’ve liked Maiden’s stuff since Brave New World (or anything from the Gers era), then you will not be disappointed. If you only care for the pre-1990 stuff, don’t bother with this. It will be a waste of time for you.
6.5/10 is my rating. It could have been a lot worse, and like anything else, it could have been a lot better. I guess I really wasn’t at a loss for words…big ‘orra!
It was a cold night in February 1988…
…when I met Nicko McBrain. He had come to town to do a drum clinic for Sonor Drums and Paiste Cymbals. As a zit 
-faced, poofy-haired kid who loved Iron Maiden more than just about anything, this clinic was like a taste of Heaven. There were only about 30 people there as Whitesnake were in town touring for the ’87 LP. I was one of 2 people who actually got to get up on stage and play his drums with him standing right there. It was awesome. During one of his rambles, he mentioned the size of the crowd being small due to Whitesnake being in town. Under my breath from the front row I said “Fuck Tommy Aldridge.” Nicko stopped his speech and said, “Steve, give that man a beer!” So his tech handed me an ice cold Heineken which I had Nicko autograph after the show. I still have that bottle, unopened and it’s all chunky inside. I didn’t drink at the time so there was no reason to open it.
Here it is:
Iron Maiden – Night Of The Living Dead (Live 1982)
Here’s a GREAT live show from the New York Palladium, June 29, 1982. This apparently was a radio broadcast. The 
only thing that could have made this show better for me was if they had played Total Eclipse.
Tracks:
01. Murders In The Rue Morgue
02. Wrathchild
03. Run To The Hills
04. Children Of The Damned
05. The Number Of The Beast
06. The Prisoner
07. Hallowed Be They Name
08. Phantom Of The Opera
09. Iron Maiden
10. Sanctuary
11. Drifter
Iron Maiden – The Whole Population Of Hackney (Live 1985)
Here’s a sort of rare Maiden bootleg that I used to have on vinyl ages ago. I used to be a bigtime Maiden record 
collector and had well over 200 records. Those old days of trading records through magazine ads and the early alt.newsgroup days are long gone thanks to the advancement of the Internet. Good times though. Never a deal gone sour! I sold off most of my entire record collection around 2000. Sometimes I wish I still had it all but I used to move a lot and lugging those crates around were a bear.
Anyhoo…The Whole Population of Hackney (aka The Entire Population of Hackney). This was an odd little show and technically it’s not even an Iron Maiden show. You can read about the history of this recording here.
One of the things I liked about this is that some of the songs ended up being recorded by Adrian under his ASAP project. I love that album and wish he would have done a followup.
Tracks:
- EastEnders theme/”Juanita” – 4:32 (Marshall Fury cover)
- “See Me Through” – 3:22 (original by James Buster Band)
- “Reach Out” – 3:36 (Written by Dave Colwell for the project)
- “Chevrolet” – 3:38 (Stray Dog cover)
- “Lady” – 6:55 (Urchin song)
- “Silver and Gold” – 6:21 (Later used with ASAP)
- “That Girl” – 5:06 (composed by the first instance of FM band with Andy Barnett on. Circa ’84)
- “Fighting Man” – 5:33 (Written by Dave Colwell for the project)(later appeared on the ASAP single, Silver and Gold)
- “School Days” (with extended drum solo) – 5:51 (Originally written by Colwell for his band 720) (later appeared on the ASAP single, Down the Wire)
- “When She’s Gone” – 5:30 (Not the Black Sabbath song. Later appeared on the ASAP single, Down the Wire)
- “Try” – 4:06 (Written by Kenny Mountain, who also co-wrote Rainbow’s Gold)
- “Losfer Words (Big ‘Orra)” – 4:11 (from Iron Maiden’s Powerslave) (Steve Harris and Dave Murray enter the stage)
- “2 Minutes To Midnight” – 6:11 (from Iron Maiden’s Powerslave) (Bruce Dickinson enters the stage)
- “Rosalie” – 4:33 (Bob Seger cover)
- “Tush” – 4:29 (ZZ Top cover)
The Metal Files 
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