The past two weeks were spent looking over Iron Maiden’s two live albums from the early 1990’s, a period regarded as one of the band’s weaker segments. Today we shift gears and head to – oh wait, this is yet another live album from the early 1990’s.

This one is a bit different, as we get an entire single concert presented on an album. While there are 13 live albums in total, there is only one other that is also a single, complete show presented in full. All of the others are either tour compilations or selections taken from several nights in the same city. It is kind of nice to have a full show on offer.

This show was the headlining spot for the 1992 Monsters Of Rock festival at Castle Donington. Monsters Of Rock had been a huge thing in the ’80’s but was starting to lose its luster in the ’90’s. Maiden was top of a bill that included Skid Row, Slayer and W.A.S.P. The Monsters Of Rock concept had a few more tries after this one but sputtered out, it would be replaced at Donington grounds by the Download festival in the early 2000’s.

This particular show was well attended, with a crowd of around 80,000. Iron Maiden compiled both audio and video from the show and released it, though only in a handful of territories. The video format was only ever issued on VHS, no known official copies of DVD or anything newer exist. The audio portion was released as a 3 record package and a 2 CD set, with a rather plain white cover. The CD was reissued in 1998 and given an actual cover taken from a promo flyer for the show, the cover you see above. This is the version of the album that I possess.

As with other ’90’s live Maiden, getting a hold of this on vinyl is an expensive chore. Prices are in the hundreds. It is one I’ll hold off on until a reissue hits or I win the lottery, I can’t really justify shelling out that much for a damn record. I’m not even sure they will ever reissue it but this era’s vinyl is just too rich for my blood.

This is a monster tracklist so I’m going to just post the back cover then I’ll get into the particulars of the album.

There’s honestly not much to say about song selection here – this is a full concert so there was no picking or choosing for the album. It’s a representative setlist of the tour in 1992, which again is the same tour A Real Live One was pulled from.

Speaking of that live album and its companion A Real Dead One, that’s where we can go to do some comparisons. This album has every single song that also appeared on A Real Live One and all but two that are also on A Real Dead One. Granted, the other albums draw from different performances, but we have three live albums that cover nearly identical ground song-wise. It begs the question – what’s the point of all these albums and which one stands out above the rest? The quick and clear answer is this one.

The sound quality of Live At Donington is fairly good overall. The performances sound like they were captured well, but no effort seems to be in production. Steve Harris is listed as the producer on the audio side of things so he would need to answer questions about it, I don’t think he will given how far removed he is from this era.

The performances come off well – it sounds pretty well spirited and energized. This version of the band maybe doesn’t handle the older material as well as they do the current songs but it’s not anything bad, just more basic than what the classic line-up would have delivered. I don’t have any real qualms about the execution here though, I think this live set works fine.

It is maybe a bit tough to pick out actual highlights, though two stand out. The first is the performance of Fear Of The Dark, their current album’s title track that has become a staple of most every Maiden set since release. It’s definitely worth the price of admission here.

The other true highlight comes at the album’s close. It’s not unusual for Maiden to perform Running Free, but it is unusual for former guitarist Adrian Smith to join them onstage while they do so. This brief “reunion” was a nice tip of the hat to the band’s 1980’s heyday. And while we didn’t know it at the time, Adrian being onstage with his replacement Janick Gers was a preview of the Iron Maiden line-up we’d have from 1999 until the present day.

Overall there’s a lot to like about Live At Donington – it is a rare complete show from a band who releases live albums like water but rarely hands out complete one-night performances. It was a good energy show at the festival and only suffers from questionable production choices that don’t entirely ruin the listening experience. This album is a good summation of Maiden as they were winding down Bruce Dickinson’s first tenure in the group.

The only real question I have isn’t even about Live At Donington, it’s about the two live albums from the same era and mostly even tour that preceded it – with this complete package, why did A Real Live One and its companion even see the light of day? I don’t know, but what I do know is that I’m finally done talking about ’90’s era Iron Maiden in this live series.

The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

Live After Death

A Real Live One

A Real Dead One

Live At Donington (you are here)

Rock In Rio

BBC Archives

Beast Over Hammersmith

Death On The Road

Flight 666

En Vivo!

Maiden England ’88

The Book Of Souls – Live Chapter

Nights Of The Dead – Legacy Of The Beast Live In Mexico City

The Iron Maiden Live Album Ranking

The Maiden Live Album “Wishlist”