![]() I mean it’s screamingly obvious that Mr Riggs and the band watched Ridley Scott’s masterpiece six or seventy times before coming up with that one. ![]() Let’s start with the obvious: It’s Blade Runner, right? RIGHT? The front and back covers, best seen on a vinyl copy (yes, I have gone full hipster) are a treasure trove of geekery that only the warped mind of Iron Maiden’s longtime cover artist and Eddie creator Derek Riggs could have conjured up. The main album in question which we shall observe first is their 1986 release Somewhere in Time. However, a few of the album covers have that little bit extra geek cred. However, did you know he once hung out with Doctor Who? And you lot up the back shouting “ahem, it’s The Doctor actually” can fuck off. Over the years, Eddie has puppeteer-ed the Devil, been lobotomized, given birth to himself, been a cloud, a badly rendered CGI Reaper and a radio DJ. Nigel Farage leading the doomed Brexit charge. He sort of looks like what would happen if Nigel Farage’s soul manifested itself on the outside. You’ve probably seen him before but maybe haven’t been able to place him. He/she (I will not assume it’s gender but we’ll go with He for the sake of the article) is Iron Maiden’s official mascot and has appeared on every album cover and t-shirt of which there are literally bazillions. Eddie is a big scary bloke who comes in many guises. Well, lemme tell ya.Īctually, I can’t be arsed telling you as I’m not being paid per word so here’s the Wikipedia page. Of all things geeky you could observe in Iron Maiden, whether it be their lyrics, their elaborate stage shows or the fact that their lead singer Bruce Dickinson is a pilot, Olympic class fencer, poet, historical fantasy author, professional Fleshlight tester and three-time Russian Cosmonaut (two of those aren’t true) standing above all of these is Eddie. Even a geek would say he looks like a nerd. Not that I still live in my mum’s basement or anything… This guy ran the fan club. But the dedicated among us remain rooted to Maiden’s unashamed geek credentials even if some of us, like the kids in Stranger Things, only indulge in the privacy of our mum’s basement. I mean that’s wrong on so many levels but there you go. Take the fact that they now sell Maiden t-shirts in Primark for example. ![]() And those are just the bar staff!īut Iron Maiden, unlike some of the sillier genres they inspired have actually begun to be seen as cool in a sort of retro or ironic way by mainstream crowds in recent years. Seriously, people go to these shows in full armor and chain mail. A scene so ridiculous I’m surprised JRR Tolkien hasn’t risen from the grave yet just to tell them all to “calm it down a bit”. With songs about epic battles, dragons, Satan and a lot of World War II, they pretty much paved the way for the frequently mocked Power Metal genre. In my youth, I’d only play Maiden albums with headphones on and scribble the name of a then cool band like Nirvana or Oasis onto my cassettes just in case the kids in school saw what I was listening to. ![]() It’s a bit like being a D&D player before Stranger Things made it cool (damn those fast talkin’ and totally realistic 80’s kids). To begin with, you kind of have to be a bit of a geek to be an Iron Maiden fan. ![]()
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