During an interview published on Iron Maiden’s official YouTube channel, drummer Nicko McBrain talked about the complex Maiden song for him to play live.
He mentioned ‘The Wickerman’.
He said:
“That song for me is a big challenge to play. Notice here that I’ve got a metronome, and I have one of these on stage. Each song is programmed with the start tempo. Whether we stay on that – it remains to be seen.
“Sometimes we move out a little bit, sometimes we stay where we are, sometimes we actually go behind it, but ‘Wicker Man,’ on the chorus, that bass drum has to stay consistent through the whole of that chorus.”
Discussing the Blaze Bayley-era track “The Clansman,” Nicko commented:
“‘The Clansman,’ now that’s a classic track! It has such a great groove to it, and it’s such a joy to play it. When we get to that chorus section, instead of thinking of ‘freedom,’ I would listen to see if anybody sings ‘Sweden.’ Believe me, they do it.
“As you’re probably aware, ‘The Clansman’ is kind of based around William Wallace and the war between Scotland and England back in the 16th century.
“One of the classics after ‘The Clansman’ is ‘The Trooper.’ We’ve got the Clansman Eddie in all of his glory on the backdrop and that gets changed to Eddie Trooper with his lance and his sword and jacket.
“So, there’s a nice big drum fill at the beginning of that one as well, it’s not on its own. A great song, galloping, that’s the Maiden gallop, ‘Trooper,’ war-cry song.”