Despite the full support lineup taking its sweet time in getting announced, everyone knew that Lauren Harris would be on the bill. Maiden fans don’t tend to be the most welcoming of people to bands that aren’t Maiden, but everyone felt that they had to be nice to her as daddy Steve would be on stage later. Lauren blasts through her generic power pop/rock songs, each one with a catchy chorus and a similar sound. She tries to warm the crowd up with some unneeded swearing, to which most just groan at. But the biggest mistake that Ms Harris makes is encouraging the crowd to clap their hands at every possible point, turning the stadium into a scene from Happy Days in which the Fonz constantly walks in and out of a room. Never the less, the suck up crowd claps along, with fewer hands joining in each time. 5/10

The UK never seems to get the best or most appropriate support acts when it comes to Maiden tours, so many didn’t seem all that surprised when Within Temptation and Avenged Sevenfold were announced. I’m sure many would have been happier with Iced Earth or Motorhead, but alas…However, Within Temptation put on an excellent set, encouraging crowd interaction that wasn’t frowned upon by the audience and just being genuinely pleasant to watch/listen to. Even if some of the older and drunken Maiden fans didn’t enjoy them, Sharon den Adel (vocalist) certainly provided something to look at. With more and more hands joining in the applause after each song it’s obvious that Within Temptation made some new fans. 8/10

It’s surprising to see some Avenged Sevenfold t-shirts in the crowd, the sheer volume of people complaining about them in the queue would have suggested that a wall of bottles would be greeting the Orange County rockers. But there is only the usual in between band bottle fights, Avenged Sevenfold come on the stage with the biggest cheer of the day so far. Although mainly ploughing through their most well known singles they acknowledge that some of their fan base has mainly come to see them today with Maiden on the side, so they play a song never before heard live by British fans, A Little Piece of Heaven. Although storming on stage and grabbing arena-wide attention they seem to drift in and out towards the end. 7.5/10

Despite being awoken at 7:30am, and spending roughly four hours getting to Twickenham, the wait between Avenged Sevenfold and Maiden is the longest wait of the day. Motorhead and Judas Priest get played over the PA system, receiving a bigger applause than Lauren Harris. Then the voice everyone had been waiting to hear all night mumbles over the entire stadium, Winston Churchill’s famous speech lets everyone that Aces High is about decimate the entire crowd, and it does. Within seconds of Maiden hitting the stage people can be seen leaving the rabid crowd. Everyone expects the mandatory songs of the night, Run to the Hills, Number of the Beast and The Trooper, but tonight everyone wants the songs from perhaps Maiden’s grandest era. Powerslave, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and Somewhere in Time are the backdrops for the night as well as the basis of the set list. When Bruce asks who was at the legendary 1985 concert at Long Beach, the entire crowd of course raises their hands, leading to Bruce calling them ‘a bunch of lying bastards’. Dickenson, who is fast approaching the ripe old age of fifty runs around the stage as if he were half that, he even promises another tour and album, this is the band that just keeps giving and giving! The crowd gets more intense as each song goes on, Powerslave and Rime of the Ancient Mariner both being potential riot starters. Maiden leave the stage, then come storming back with utterly astounding renditions of Moonchild and The Clairvoyant. The band leave the 55,000+ fans in the most epic of ways, with Hallowed be Thy Name.

Older than most, bettered by few. 9.5/10