Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain says he hopes the band will incorporate ‘Alexander The Great’ into their setlist “one of these days.”
The heavy metal legends are currently traversing Europe on The Legacy of the Beast Tour and the setlist includes a string of rarities including two Blaze Bayley era tracks (‘The Clansman’ and ‘Sign of the Cross’) and the first outing of ‘Flight of Icarus’ in more than three decades.
Speaking to Finland’s KaaosTV ahead of Iron Maiden’s shows at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki last week, Nicko McBrain conceded that Maiden can never keep all their fans happy as they have so much material to cherry-pick from.
However, he did single out historical epic ‘Alexander The Great’ as one rarity he’d like the band to perform live.
The eight-and-a-half minute ‘Somewhere In Time’ closer has never been performed live by the band in its 32-year history and, such is its fabled status, last year an Iron Maiden fan launched an online petition for them to start playing it.
Nicko said: “There is one thing I’d like to say, I would like to do live one day ‘Alexander The Great’. I think that’s such… y’know it’s a very very hard song (to perform) in the arrangement from everybody – from the guitar parts [mimics guitar playing], there’s all kinds of little bits in it.
“There’s all these very different timings. I like the intro [mimics drumming] and then there’s the fucking timpanis in there.”
He added: “One of these days I’d like Maiden to play that song cos’ we rehearsed it way back but I think we played it at one show and it didn’t work.”
Elsewhere in his extensive chat, Nicko insisted Iron Maiden have no plans to call it a day, explaining: “We got a lot of life left in us. We’ve not ever, that I can recall, unless anyone else in the band has without a band gathering, decided whether or not we want to carry on or not. We just carry on.
“I’ve always made it clear to Steve (Harris, bassist) and the guys that if I can’t drive the band physically, then I’d step down. Don’t get me wrong, boys and girls — I’m not saying that I am. It’s so important that the band carries on and plays as much as we want because we have the passion.
“Again, it’s not financial, it’s not anything to do with that, it’s because we love it. If it came as a chore and I’ll quote Jan (Gers, guitarist), if we ever became a parody of ourselves, that would be the time to hang it up. The thing is, we’re not.”
About The Author
