Iron Maiden at the NEC in 1988.
Iron Maiden were at their towering best (before Bruce left and Blayze Bayley had to pretend to fill his mighty shoes) with progressively better and heavier and harder albums. Unfortunately the support were some nobodies called 'Killer Dwarves'.

The front man for the killer dwarves was, er, well, quite diminutive. The music was generic, uninventive metal and at the end of each track the front man (making up for his size with lots of energetic leaping bout and during the non-singing portion of the songs walking on his hands) would try and whip up the crowd with an 'AWWWWWWRITE! YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!' (silence) 'WE'RE HERE TO ROCK YOUR WORLD' (silence) 'COME ONNNN!' (silence) 'ARE YOU WITH ME?' (silence) 'SCREAM FOR ME BIRMINGHAM!' (silence) 'JUST THE LADIES!' (silence) 'THE LEFT SIDE OF THE HALL!' (silence) 'YEEEEEEAH!!!!!!' (silence except for a few low voiced Midland accented utterances such as 'fucking prick').

In the end, frustrated but still trying, he stood atop a monitor, spotlight picking out his tiny tiny puffed out bare sweaty chest and rivulets of perspiration glinting in his hair and with all of his lung power yelled into the mic (with the NEC's sound system pounding this into our ears) 'I HOPE YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO BE BETTER THAN THIS FOR FUCKING MAIDEN!!!!'

...at which point there was an acknowledgement by way of a faint murmur throughout the crowd 'Oh thank fuck for that, they're finished'. I think he took the faint sussuration for a final acceptance that the audience thought he was OK after all.

Maiden were excellent however, which made up for that.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Fri 26 Jul 2013, 23:33, 6 replies)

Maiden are always excellent
I imagine even more so back in '88, was that the show that they filmed for Maiden England? Either way, Seventh Son tour, best album IMO and Bruce Dickinson at his absolute peak.

I've seen them three times since he rejoined (first time was Dance Of Death tour, possibly their second best album), and they have always put on an incredible show. Seeing them at Reading was especially good, they were doing songs from the first four albums only, and not only did I get to see Murders In The Rue Morgue live, I was heartened to see that the half of the crowd that was only there because their boyfriend/girlfriend wanted to be there had got proper fucking into it within about three songs.

Dickinson is an incredible frontman, and they are maybe the most professional band in existence.
(Eukanuba, Sat 27 Jul 2013, 1:18, closed)

First "proper" gig
was Maiden "World Slavery Tour", Birmingham Odeon. Twas bloody awsome.
(kitescreech still here, Sat 27 Jul 2013, 10:10, closed)

Fucking youngster.
I saw them on the Killers Tour.
Supporting KISS.
:D
*Olds it up a bit.*
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Sun 28 Jul 2013, 8:45, closed)

That's good to know
Taking my youngest to see them this weekend at the O2.

I only found out he liked them last year when he displayed an encyclopaedic knowledge of them during a Rio concert on the TV.

I've never really been that bothered, so I'll be the one leaning over to ask him "so what's this one called then?".
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Mon 29 Jul 2013, 8:19, closed)

Oh, fuck me...
You missed the best part of the Killer Dwarfs' set!

I too was at that very gig ( then again, I think they may have done 2 nights at the NEC), sat up on one of the sides, and noticed that during the lead breaks, the singer would leap off the stage, jump onto a tiny kiddies' pushbike (complete with stabilisers) and pedal up and down the aisles in the floor seats section. Most strange.

They were still shite.
(Rsoles, Sat 27 Jul 2013, 21:26, closed)

They were fucking EXCELLENT as long as they and the audience had both drunk enough.
:D
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Sun 28 Jul 2013, 8:44, closed)