Well here I am at a loose end so let’s see what gigs are on in the smoke tonight.  Bruce Dickinson ah ha! – ok let’s see if there are any tickets.  Resale yes at £55.  Popped out and then revisited same site at 3pm and would you believe it £32 – I’ll have some of that.  So quick change and tube into London. Thanks to TFL closing Kentish Town tube for a year I have to go to Tufnal Park instead and walk, luckily it’s not that far.  Quick stop at a Japanese noodle bar and a couple pints in pub and I’m in.

Now this is a first for me. I don’t know any of Bruce’s solo material bar a few single from ‘Tattooed Millionaire’.  So I did a bit of digging to work out the set list and band members.

Last time I was here it was called the Kentish Town and Country club, not that I remember as it was a seriously long time ago and I was ratted.  The place was packed and steaming hot for this sell out show. Luckily I stood on the steps so had a great elevated view of proceedings.  The lights go down and monologue for ‘The Invaders’ (for you youngsters out there it’s a 1960s American Sci-Fi series) “The Invaders, Alien beings from a dying planet …” blasts out.  The band waltz on stage and are greeted with a barrage of “Brucie, Brucie” from and ardent crowd.  Worth milking it for a short while until they launch into ‘Accident Of Birth’.  It’s not long before he lifts his arms and, using his synonymous Maiden catch phrase, “Scream for me, London!”.  And yes they did!

This short set of 5 UK dates is to promote his lasts LP ‘The Mandrake Project’ and the 4 he played were good. Between songs, Bruce is his normal chatty self, with several dialogues throughout the set e.g. a tale of female vampires needing sex before ‘Many Roads To Hell’.  Tonight’s set surprisingly covers the majority of his solo career, a pretty even spread are his 1st album.

Set List (click on link to watch YouTube video)

1. Accident of Birth – (Accident of Birth, 1997)
2. Abduction – (Tyranny of Souls, 2005)
3. Laughing in the Hiding Bush – (Balls to Picasso, 1994)
4. Afterglow of Ragnarok – (The Mandrake Project, 2024)
5. Chemical Wedding – (The Chemical Wedding, 1998)
6. Many Doors to Hell – (The Mandrake Project, 2024)
7. Jerusalem – (The Chemical Wedding, 1998)
8. Resurrection Men – (The Mandrake Project, 2024)
9. Rain on the Graves – (The Mandrake Project, 2024)
10. Frankenstein – (Edgar Winter Group cover)
11. The Alchemist – (The Chemical Wedding, 1998)
12. Tears of the Dragon – (Balls to Picasso, 1994)
13. Darkside of Aquarius – (Accident of Birth, 1997)

Encore:

1. Navigate the Seas of the Sun – (Tyranny of Souls, 2005)
2. Book of Thel – (The Chemical Wedding, 1998)
3. The Tower – (The Chemical Wedding, 1998)

Once things for certain, having seemingly recovered from his well-documented throat issues he was at the top of his ‘air-raid siren’ game vocally, very impressive.  The band is well oiled, guitarists Philip Nãslund and Chris Declerq regularly take turns in lead and rhythm and the extremely seductive dread locked Tanya O’Callaghan putting stationary bassist to shame!  Drummer Dave Moreno is sweating and pounding the drums as if his life depended on it and the steampunk clad Mistheria fiddled with keytar strutting his stuff like a lead guitarist and enamouring the crowd to clap, sings and basically have a damn good time.  During longer solo’s Bruce would have breather at the back to get ready for the next vocal assault. One big negative for me was the bands dreaded virtuosic ‘look how competent I am on my instrument solo’s’ especially on ‘’Frankenstein’ where they all had a bloody go starting off with the drums.  Hell I hate those things.  They could have squeezed another song in instead!!

The Band are:
Philip Nãslund and Chris Declerq – guitar
Tanya O’Callaghan – bass
Dave Moreno – drums
Mistheria – keyboards, keytar.

The backstage visuals consist of UFO based themes and plenty of old B&W footage from old horror movies.  Lighting is generally dark and sparse bar some occasional strobe lighting. The entire time the audience were either clapping, singing or waving in unison, a devoted crowd indeed many sporting Iron Maiden insignia’s.  All in all an entertaining evening with pretty much every song receiving a standing ovation.

Bruce was sporting leather trousers, tour t-shirt, cut-off denim jacket and wool beanie throughout – he must have sweated off some pounds this evening.  He loves hamming it up with on the bongo’s and acts the demented demon whilst waving his arms about on the theremin – all very Vauderville 😊.

Black Smoke Trigger are the support act.  Not bad, their lead singer was a charismatic chap with a wonderfully husky voice. Some of the songs were pretty good, I wonder if they will break into the big time?

Marko [26 May 2024]