BRUCE DICKINSON Performs IRON MAIDEN’s ‘Alexander The Great’ At Greece’s RELEASE Festival.
IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson performed the band’s classic song “Alexander The Great” during his solo concert Sunday night (July 21) at the Release festival in Athens, Greece. At the end of Bruce‘s regular set, after playing the song “Road To Hell”, Bruce brought out an Alexander The Great dress helmet and told the crowd: “We couldn’t go tonight knowing that we’ve never done this ever in Greece. ‘Cause I know that you like this guy.
And so I brought a special hat. And I thought you might like to do a little bit of singing, just for a couple of minutes, just at the end.” IRON MAIDEN performed “Alexander The Great” live for the first time on May 28, 2024 at the kick-off of the band’s “The Future Past Tour” in Ljubljana, Slovenia. However, the trek didn’t include any shows in Greece.” Alexander The Great” is the eighth song on “Somewhere In Time”, the sixth studio album released by IRON MAIDEN.
Asked in a radio interview a number of years ago why IRON MAIDEN had never played “Alexander The Great” live, Dickinson answered, “Because Adrian [Smith, guitar] can’t remember the guitar solo.” While Dickinson may have been joking, he did go on to say that, when the song was originally written, they put the solo through a load of then-very-advanced music computer wizardry, and it just couldn’t figure out the time signature.
After playing two warm-up shows at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California, Dickinson officially kicked off his first solo tour in more than 20 years on April 15 at The Observatory in Santa Ana, California. Joining the IRON MAIDEN singer on the trek is his current backing band, featuring Dave Moreno (drums),Mistheria (keyboards) and Tanya O’Callaghan (bass),alongside the group’s latest additions, Swedish guitarist, songwriter and multi-platinum-credited producer Philip Näslund and Swiss session and touring guitarist Chris Declercq (who played on Dickinson‘s “Rain On The Graves” single). Bruce‘s longtime guitarist and collaborator Roy “Z” Ramirez is not part of the touring lineup.
Prior to the April 12 Whisky A Go Go show, Bruce last performed with his solo band on in August 2002 at the legendary Wacken Open Air festival in Germany. Dickinson‘s latest solo album, “The Mandrake Project”, arrived on March 1 via BMG.
Bruce and Roy recorded “The Mandrake Project” largely at Los Angeles’s Doom Room, with Roy doubling up as both guitarist and bassist. The recording lineup for “The Mandrake Project” was rounded out by Mistheria and Moreno, both of whom also featured on Bruce‘s previous solo studio album, “Tyranny Of Souls”, in 2005.
Dickinson made his recording debut with IRON MAIDEN on the “Number Of The Beast” album in 1982. He quit the band in 1993 in order to pursue his solo career and was replaced by Blaze Bayley, who had previously been the lead singer of the metal band WOLFSBANE. After releasing two traditional metal albums with former MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith, Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999 along with Smith.
Leave a Reply