Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson strongly condemns the decline of grassroots gig venues
Bruce Dickinson has strongly criticised the loss of many small gig venues across the UK saying Iron Maiden wouldn’t be here without them.
The heavy metal legend and unwavering orator of the truth was chatting to WalesOnline when he was asked about Cardiff pub and live music venue Dempseys, which announced its closure in January.
Bruce said: "Sadly that seems to be happening in a lot of places. It’s the gentrification of the city centre, the dodgy hangouts which are really cool which kids like. We (Iron Maiden) wouldn’t have been able to start out if there hadn’t been venues like that.
"The good thing is you don’t need a lot to have a place where you can have a racket and have people turn up.”
He added: "Small venues are indispensable to bands... always have been and always will be. I think we miss a trick in this country and some countries in Europe do it better in that they protect their social infrastructure. And pubs and small venues are part of that social infrastructure.
"Just because something would be worth X a square foot, that is a case of people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
"These are vital things (small music venues) and the reason why people come to a city centre is to keep it alive. And it's not just people who want to drink posh lattes, there are other people in the world who have cultural needs and rock and roll is pretty fundamental to people's lives these days."
Reflecting patterns across the country, a report by the Music Venue Trust in October 2015 estimated that London lost 40% of its music venues over the previous decade.
Echoing Bruce’s sentiment, Sir Paul McCartney, who is a patron of the Music Venue Trust, said last autumn: “Without the grassroots clubs, pubs and music venues my career could have been very different… If we don’t support live music at this level then the future of music in general is in danger.”
Elsewhere in his chat with WalesOnline, Bruce Dickinson expressed his wish for Iron Maiden to play Caridff’s Principality Stadium: “I would love to play Principality Stadium, it’s the best stadium in the world for any purpose, the atmosphere in there is superb, the sightlines, the dimensions, it’s about as perfect as you could wish for.
“I should say Twickenham (Stadium) is brilliant, but I don’t like it. I don’t like watching rugby there, I don’t like watching music there. I played there (on the Somewhere Back in Time Tour in 2008) and I was like, I don’t really like playing here.”
Iron Maiden’s UK tour kicks off at Nottingham Motorpoint Arena on Thursday 4th May. Tickets to Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle and Aberdeen are still on sale from Planet Rock Tickets now.
The tour calls in at the following shows:
MAY 2017
Nottingham Motorpoint Arena – Thu 4th - SOLD OUT
Manchester Arena – Mon 8th
Sheffield Arena – Wed 10th
Leeds First Direct Arena – Thu 11th
Newcastle Metro Radio Arena – Sun 14th
Glasgow SSE Hydro – Tue 16th - SOLD OUT
Aberdeen GE Arena – Wed 17th
Liverpool Echo Arena – Sat 20th - SOLD OUT
Birmingham Barclaycard Arena – Sun 21st - SOLD OUT
Cardiff Motorpoint Arena – Wed 24th - SOLD OUT
London O2 Arena – Sat 27th - SOLD OUT
London O2 Arena – Sun 28th - SOLD OUT