Between the 12th and the 14th of April, Paul Dianno and his band, the Killers, visited Athens for one and only performance during their world tour. The whole thing apart from some minor problems that occurred worked out very well. The concert finally took place at the "AN Club" on the 14th of April and not the day before as it was scheduled (venue problems, but everything finally went fine).
Two Greek bands, "Dark Nova" and "Black Sun" were the opening acts
and stayed on stage for about an hour, these bands deserve
congratulations, their performance was absolutely great. Dianno and the
Killers appeared on stage about 21:30. With Cliff Evans on the guitars,
Pete Newdeck on drums, Markus Thurston guitars and Daryus Kaye on the
bass, Killers gave an extremely powerful and full of energy performance
in front of a very passionate and very close audience.
They played 11 tracks. 9 were from the Maiden era and two from their own
albums. The reasons Paul chose this set list are obvious and you can
very easily understand them when reading Paul's interview. They played
songs like Killers, Wrathchild, Prowler, Sanctuary, Phantom of the
Opera, Running Free, Remember Tomorrow and others.
All from the 1980-81 period, the one where Paul DiAnno was a member of Iron Maiden.
The total time they played was one hour and 15 minutes and they also had
an encore with two more songs. Paul has changed a lot through the
years, even the vocals in Sanctuary seemed more brutal, but it was made
to us very clear that he went on stage determined to give us an
unforgettable performance. Sadly he announced once more: "Three more
gigs and we'll stop playing these bullshits! We'll stop playing f**king
Iron Maiden" and everybody was let down. Generally speaking we must
admit that even so many years have passed, Paul has never lost the magic
that he had back there at the golden Maiden years.
Looking at the reactions from the audience it seemed as though they
believed they were watching the original Maiden line-up, which is great!
Congratulations to the boys!
Now personally I would honestly would like to thank the band: Paul
Di'Anno, Cliff Evans, Pete Newdeck, Markus Thurston and Daryus Kaye
(for becoming a real brother to me)! Lea James Hart, for being a friend
to me, supporting and helping, me in person and Alexander The Great (our
Fan Club). Makis, owner of Dionysos Metal Cafe and Texas Rock Club for
everything! Kostas Kiriakakis and Viky (his wife), for being so friendly
and of course for their support! Eleni and Lida, great friends and
supporters of me. Dimos for his phone call! Many many more people, for
being supportive and friendly, like: Kostas, Christina, Olga, Tasos,
Nikos, Ilias, all boys and girls on our Party in Texas and Dionysos, and
of course everyone I may forget... We had a great time in Athens!
Thanks for everything!!!
Manolis "In Heaven" Varouhas
