Bruce Dickinson mentioned probably the most decadent second of his life got here throughout Iron Maiden’s tour of the Soviet Union.
The highway journey began out in August 1984, 5 years earlier than the Berlin Wall got here down, which marked the top of the usS.R. Whereas Maiden had been the primary Western band to take a full manufacturing present via the Iron Curtain, they refused to take credit score for encouraging political change.
“We didn’t should work too exhausting to construct [a] bridge,” Dickinson instructed the Unbiased in a brand new interview. “We simply needed to construct the opposite half to go and meet them midway. Afterwards, after they took their future into their very own palms … that Soviet-era authoritarian factor simply crumbled as a result of it had no substance, it had no foundation, no one truly wished it.”
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One of many cross-culture points they needed to cope with was being paid in Polish zloty, a forex with zero worth within the West. In consequence, bassist Steve Harris mentioned, “[w]e purchased every kind of stuff – china, porcelain, simply to eliminate the cash.”
Dickinson recalled an incident in a resort eating room: “This man comes up with a bin liner filled with caviar. We had been all drunk, going, ‘Come on then, how a lot?’ He acquired a half-kilo tin of caviar out and he mentioned, ‘It’s $100.’ I’m like, ‘$100? That’s extremely low cost!’”
Polish Vodka Made Iron Maiden See Pink
With the worth settled at $50 a tin, the singer continued: “We mentioned, ‘Have you ever acquired any extra?’ He got here again with 5 kilos – like an oil drum filled with caviar. Everybody went mad. We in all probability had about 10 kilos of caviar, which we couldn’t probably eat.
“That is probably the most decadent factor I believe I’ve ever executed in my life, consuming a tablespoon of caviar and knocking it again with vodka. It might’ve been the scene in Tommy however with out the baked beans.”
Dickinson additionally had stark recollections of consuming the Polish spirit: “Once we began knocking again the photographs of frozen vodka, you found that the world took on a complete totally different which means, which was largely pink. That was the colour that the world was the subsequent morning whenever you awakened, as a result of your eyeballs had been so purple.”
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Gallery Credit score: Bryan Rolli