Live At Donington Jonesboro GA

Live At Donington

Iron Maiden

Raw Power Records, 1994

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 04/04/2002

Once upon a time, Live At Donington was considered to be one of the HolyGrails for any Iron Maiden fan. Almost like an "official bootleg,"this very limited release was meant to be a special tribute to thefans, especially those who had been at the show on August 22, 1992.I saw this disc in its original format only once - and was far toocheap to pay the $50 the music store wanted.

Yet the fans clamored for this disc to see wider release - andin 1998, Iron Maiden gave the fans what they wanted, even thoughtwo live albums comprising songs from the same tour were releasedon A Real Live One and A Real Dead One. (True, these discs also worked in songsfrom the "farewell" tour featuring Bruce Dickinson. More on that injust a moment.)

Live At Donington captures Iron Maiden just before theirfates - which had already started to slide a little bit - reallywent downhill. It's no Live After Death - nor was it meant to be. In sum, it's anokay show, just not quite as captivating as it could have - orshould have - been.

If you've never seen the video release of this concert, you maywonder what Dickinson is prattling on about during "Heaven CanWait". (Side note: I've not seen the video, but I read about whatwas going on in the enhanced CD portion of this disc. I've yet toview the video of "Heaven Can Wait" on the enhanced CD, but I'llbet it answers all questions.) During the bridge, many of the otherbands who had been on the bill that day came on stage and startedchanting the "whoa-oh-oh" portion. Had I not read about this, I'dstill be scratching my head and wondering if Dickinson was goingoff on someone in the audience. Likewise, if you didn't see theshow or read the enhanced bio, you'd never know that Adrian Smith -who had left the band after Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son in 1988 - came on stage andplayed guitar on "Running Free". (A sign of things to come,perhaps? Smith re-joined Maiden when Dickinson returned to the foldin 1999.)