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Sanctuary Records 2006
review by Jim Savard
ATTENTION IRON MAIDEN FANS, ATTENTION BRUCE DICKINSON FANS please do yourself a favor and rejoice. While the Maiden years without Bruce were a bit lean. But you know he was out doing his solo career and put out a few good solo cds of his very own.
To celebrate his solo career Bruce (now back with Maiden) and Sanctuary Records has put out a 3 DVD set which covers his life after Iron Maiden.
The first two discs are live concerts which cover specific tours. The
first disc is called DIVE DIVE DIVE which is pretty much his first solo
tour. The show takes place in 1990 and is no way outdated. It is simply a
pure heavy metal concert. There was live emotion in the show that you
could feel coming thru the tv set. Everyone was excited, the band was big,
played loud and the music sounded great.
The tour was for his Tattooed Millionaire cd which is probably one of his best solos. This concert features such hit songs as "DIVE DIVE DIVE", "Tattooed Millionaire", "Son of a Gun", "Born in 58". Unlike most singers who leave a band, Bruce did not do a lot of Maiden covers on this tour. The only song he did was "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter". The show is thrilling, the sound is good and we are introduced to soon to be IRON MAIDEN band mate JANICK GERS.
The second part of Disc one is the SKUNKWORKS Live tour. This was shot in 1996. Skunkworks, in my opinion is probably the worst of his solo music. It is the one you hear the least about and there is a good reason for that. It really is aptly named,
SKUNKWORKS. The concert video is foggy, certainly not as clear as DIVE DIVE DIVE and the sound is low and not crisp. The band that supports him are alright but could all be easily replaced. The highlight of the concert is when he sings "Tears of the Dragon" (which is one of his best songs) and of course it is kind of odd seeing Bruce Dickinson sporting a bubble blower...The smart thing they did was putting this concert with the DIVE DIVE DIVE show because it needed to be carried by it.
The second disc and the third live show is SCREAM FOR ME BRAZIL (live in 1999) is basically the last concert of his solo career. The show is more of a bootleg copy than a professional one, but it does a great job of capturing the power of Bruce Dickinson's live show. This concert eventually becomes a live cd for Bruce. The highlight of this show, is pretty much the entire concert. It is for his CHEMICAL WEDDING tour and from start to finish every song just rocks. The band is much heavier than the one he had on the Skunkworks tour, and he is reunited with an old friend, Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden joins him on this tour. The show rocks and this is another hit for Bruce fans to enjoy.
The third and final disc of ANTHOLOGY is his promotional video
disc. It is for the MTV fan who wishes MTV would actually play music
videos. It has all of his solo videos on it in their entirety. "Accident
of Birth", "Back from the Edge", "Tears of the Dragon", "All the Young
Dudes" and "Road to Hell" are just a few of the songs. Plus the DVD also
sports two extra features. The first is a breakdown of his Tyranny of
Souls cd (breaking down how the songs were made) and the second is his
first video ever from his PRE MAIDEN days with a band named SAMSOM.
I urge all Bruce Dickinson fans, all Maiden fans to get your hands on this DVD set. It was put together with thought, understanding of the fans and all the means needed. The set is a valuable part of the Bruce Dickinson music library. Don't miss out on it.
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