My understanding of this LP is that the BBC makes its archived recordings available to buy for other commercial radio stations. Iron Maiden has two such recordings from what I can find, this, the 773 disc, and an earlier 669 recording. I picked it up from Reckless here in Chicago and its looks legit enough to me, but the music is what really matters.
It's an awesome live show, recorded in Holland and from what I can tell, during the "Fear Of The Dark Tour" in 1992, Bruce Dickenson's second to last tour with Maiden. The set list is amazing, comprising the best of the later part of Maiden's catalog, including "Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter," "Can I Play With Madness?," "Heaven Can Wait" and "Fear Of The Dark."
I'm a huge Maiden fan and have listened to the entire Dickenson catalog many, many times. I haven't posted anything up here as I only have cassettes and CD's of the catalog, save for this lone, LP release.
And its a killer one at that. This was probably Bruce's last great tour with the band as the 1993 tour saw him having already announced his leaving the band. Those dates had to be bittersweet for all involved, especially as bassist Steve Harris said he thought Dickenson was phoning it in on more than a few occasions.
What blew me away here is the relentless energy Maiden has live, how crushingly they perform every song. Totally professional at every turn. The mix is damn near perfect - way better than the Rock in Rio live release which has the guitars way back in the mix and the bass up front.
As far as I can tell, there is no other official release of these recordings beyond what I have here, which is a bit of a bummer as this LP is fantastic. I've had it on the turntable for the past month at least once a day.
Reckless is in the process of tracking down a copy of the 669 recording for me and I'll hopefully post about that when it arrives. As it is, there doesn't seem to be any youtube clips of the music from this one, so here is "Sanctuary" from another date in 1992. Long live Maiden!
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