The webmaster at the IRON MAIDEN fan site, Maidenfans.com, has opened up a new fan forum which will be used to rant about subjects surrounding the band. Fans are invited to engage in intelligent discussion and share their thoughts about matters as they are brought up. The first rant appears below.

Note that views expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of BW&BK.;

"So this is a new section of the website where the owner gets to have a bit of a rant about things on his mind. I’m going to try and focus on 'hot topics' of the moment. Perhaps posts from the forums that have started a bit of debate or just things in the news that have raised an eyebrow. The theory is that this will be a regular feature so if you want to contribute an article yourself, please follow the links from the article listings page to “Write/Submit Article”

Big Issue

To start off for my first article I’m going to discuss ticket prices and the ever increasing financial burden being put on the shoulders of Maiden fans.

This subject came to light last week as Maiden announced their upcoming World Tour. I went to Ticketmaster to buy a single standing ticket for Newcastle only to find the tickets were being priced at £32.50 EACH but the cost doesn’t end there of course. Ticketmaster and GetLive.co.uk (where I eventually bought my tickets from) charge an additional £4.50 per ticket. THEN - and this is the bit that nearly had me falling off my chair – they wanted to charge me for delivery. Fine OK £4.50 for secure registered delivery that’s a bit expensive but understandable but there were two other cheaper but more ludicrous options. The first was a £1 fee to pick your tickets up at the box office. Fair enough but I don’t have the time to go and do that the second was £1.90 for them to email your tickets to you. You would then need to print out the tickets with your own ink in order to get into the show. £1.90 for an EMAIL? Are they having a laugh? What financial burden does an email incur them exactly? This is on top of the £4.50 booking fee which to this day I still don’t understand how they justify that.

OK so for some reason I went for the email because it was most convenient so total cost so far: £38.90

So then there’s travelling to the gig. This will cost me approximately £30. Fortunately I will be able to stay at my parents for the evening so I don’t have to pay for accommodation. Total cost so far £68.90

Merchandising! Of course it’s not a Maiden gig unless you can say you 'were there' by owning the officially endorsed shirt with the tour dates on. Last Maiden show I went to was on the Dance of Death tour and I was astonished to find the t-shirts which Maiden get printed in batches of probably around 10,000 for a bulk price of no more than £5 a shirt, were being sold for £25! This is for your regular black two sided short sleeved t-shirt. That’s a £20 mark-up by my guess. The long sleeved t-shirts I think were £30 and all over prints £35. Programmes are now £10 I think. £10 for a 10 page booklet with photos in it!? OK so I get a t-shirt and a programme then, total cost so far £103.90

Of course before then I have to buy the new album. Price £15.00 (approximately) total price now £118.90.

So this year I’m looking to almost £120 on Maiden alone. That’s a lot of money in my book but is it justified? OK you can argue I could go to Sheffield instead of Newcastle and I’d save on petrol. You could argue I don’t NEED to buy a t-shirt, hell; you could argue I don’t NEED to go to the gig at all! Point is though; this is an average fan doing what the average fan does. Is it too much? Are we all being ripped off or is this what things cost now?

OK well lets compare this to 1998. 8 years ago and the last tour with Blaze Bayley. My memory is hazy but this is roughly what I would have spent doing the same thing back then.

Gig ticket £22.50

Travel £20 (based on the same journey at 1998 petrol prices)

T-Shirt £15

Programme £5

Album £12

Total cost: £74.50

What’s Going On?

That’s a 62% price increase in 8 years. OK so there’s inflation but that doesn’t justify it. The main obvious reason is basic rules of supply and demand. Fact is in 1998 there were less people coming to see Maiden than there are now. Compare the venues, Newcastle City Hall in 98 (capacity around 2,000) to Newcastle Arena (capacity around 11250). If people will pay the money then they can charge the money. So maybe that’s fair enough?

But let’s look outside of the gig box for one minute. In the last eight years Iron Maiden have released two studio albums, two live albums, two best of’s (Edward the great and The Essential Iron Maiden), four DVD’s and one box set (Eddies Archive). That’s a lot of stuff and that’s not including the singles of which there are typically three different formats per single. Maiden have also promised to release a live album of every album from now till the end of the band.

The powers that be clearly see Iron Maiden as a marketing device and a way to make a LOT of money. It’s been this way ever since Bruce and Adrian came back into the band – why do you think the band got back together in the first place? In my opinion as a long time observer, it wasn’t because Steve suddenly thought, 'wouldn’t it be great if we had Bruce back instead of Blaze?' and Bruce is unlikely to have swallowed his pride and said, 'my solo project isn’t working and I’m not having fun, I really should get back with Steve and the boys.' No it was in my opinion, all down to Rod saying, 'come on guys bury the hatchet and lets make some great music' while in the back of his mind he knew that Maiden weren’t making the money they were in the 80’s and enough time had passed for a reunion to be a 'big thing' and a 'return to the great times of Powerslave and Seventh Son.' And if that’s the case he was right because that’s exactly what has happened. Maiden are selling out festivals and arenas instead of City Halls and albums are going Platinum instead of selling a few thousand copies. The exact same thing has happened to Priest and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing has at least been attempted with Helloween. Money talks.

The Voice of Reason

OK so taking all that into consideration and taking a deep breath for a minute let’s try and come to some kind of conclusion.

Like it or not music is no longer 'all about the music.' It has been happening for a while and it will keep on happening as long as the fans of these bands keep buying it. It’s one thing to have a bit of a whinge and say 'Maiden are ripping off the fans,' it’s completely another to actually say, 'No that’s too much money and I don’t need to buy it.' Yes it’s nice to say you own everything Maiden have ever released but if that’s how you want to be then you can’t complain about the quantity of merchandise being released. A few years ago I stopped myself and said – why do I need to get this? Since then there have been a number of singles, DVD’s and live albums I’ve let pass me by. It’s not because I don’t love the band – of course I do, I wouldn’t be doing this website if I didn’t – it’s just I looked at it, listened to it or whatever and said it’s not worth the money. Rock in Rio is an example. In my opinion it’s a bad live album so I didn’t buy it. I’m yet to buy Death on the Road but will likely pick it up on DVD at some point.

Maiden and Sanctuary are allowed to do whatever they want and they WILL keep doing it as long as it sells. And to be honest, as long as it’s quality merchandise, I will keep buying it as well. In the end, Maiden are there to make music and Sanctuary are there to make money from Maiden’s success. And who can blame them? We’re doing the same! Check out the “Support Maidenfans” box on the left of the site, are we just as bad? What do you think?

Please comment on this article and let us know YOUR thoughts."