The concert was held inside Singapore Indoor stadium. Almost all of the seats and pits that faced the stage were full with fans from all walks of life, just to see Iron Maiden's maiden concert in South East Asia. I read somewhere that 12,000 fans came.
As for me, it was an experience to remember for many, many years to come in a lot of ways. That morning, I flew from KK to Johor and took a bus to Singapore. When I reached the immigration counter, I forgot to bring along a pen to fill in the immigration form. Guess what, I saw a few guys in Maiden tees and I greeted them. Lucky for me they have a pen in hand and after that, we took the bus together to Singapore.
We parted ways at Bugis where I met a friend who came from Bintulu for the concert. He brought along my Maiden ticket. (Note : all photos were taken using Aria)
The ticket case. It stated : Losing your voice for your idol : priceless. Indeed!
Top part : receipt. Bottom part is the ticket. Pen A, right in front of the stage.
After we freshen up at the hotel, we made our move via MRT to the stadium. We reached there around 4.30 pm.
First thing first, buy merchandise.
I bought this flag for SGD20. Bought another Maiden's Final Frontier 2011 tee and one for my cousin for SGD100.
Then we made our the Pen A entrance and we saw a quite a number of fans already lined up. Then...it rained. Heavy. Damn heavy. In an instant, all of us were soaked. I was fortunate to have a plastic bag in hand where I stored my passport, wallet, ticket and handphones. The new tee quickly became my temporary rain cover.
Later we were ushered into the covered parking area, where from then onwards, chaos started. Some of the fans who queued early find themselves not in the front row anymore and that made them furious. Lots of swearing and cursing were thrown. Things were getting more ugly until more security personnel came to calm down the situation.
My friend and I stayed away from all the ruckus. We came to enjoy music.
Why not kill the time with some photos.
Finally, after hours of standing, I entered the stadium after 7. The opening act was Rise To Remain where Bruce's son is the vocalist. They played metalcore songs from their new EP. The fans were sporting enough to cheer for them but after every song, 'Maiden' chants took over. The stage were cleared, then around 8.30 pm, finally...
Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the best moments in my life.
Bruce, even in his 50's can still ran and jumped around the stage.
We screamed, shouted, jumped and headbanging to the songs.
This was their setlist for that night.
- 1. Satellite 15...The Final Frontier
- El Dorado (kudos to Maiden for getting a Grammy for this song)
- 2 Minutes to Midnight
- Coming Home
- Dance of Death
- The Trooper
- Blood Brothers
- The Wicker Man
- When The Wild Wind Blows
- The Talisman
- The Evil That Men Do
- Fear of the Dark
- Iron Maiden
- The Number of the Beast
- Hallowed be Thy Name
- Running Free
Then we stopped to have some drinks where we chatted with a nice guy from Switzerland. He had attended Maiden's concert numerous times at Europe. It was during the chat that we discovered that every time before the concert starts, the song Doctor Doctor by UFO will be played and when the song Always Look On The Bright Side of Life by Eric Idle is played, it marks the end of the concert. Hmm...so much for our first Maiden concert.
The next morning, still nursing a sore leg and backache, I headed to Bugis to get some souvenirs and taking some photos before going to the airport to catch the flight home.
I was interested with the stairs at the homes here.
Bugis Junction.
One of the few smoking areas at Changi airport.
Tonight, Maiden is playing at Jakarta and later Bali. Can't wait to catch them again hopefully next year. I met new friends, and some were on the same flight to KK with me. All of us were looking forward for the next concert. Time to save up starting from now.
