Whatever the cost may be... I was going to be at the Iron Maiden gig in Twickenham, on July 5th for the only UK tour date, of the somewhere back in time tour. I've been a massive Iron Maiden fan since seeing them in Brixton a little over a year ago. The 30+ plus year old band have been touring since before I was born, and I can't believe that I went so many years without exposure to their music. I marked myself as "Out of office" in my work calendar, and made sure that whatever happened, I'd be at the gig; I made it the most important day of my year, after the Marathon Des Sables.

I tried to talk my mates Pete and Patrick into coming with me, but the sold out tickets cost around £100, and they weren't up for that sort of outlay, so I went along on my own, and at a metal concert you aren't alone anyway. I got into the stadium around 4pm, and after buying a couple of tour t-shirts, headed for a cider and the arena.

The first support act on was Lauren Harris, Daughter of Steve Harris, Maiden's Bassist. Straight away walking on stage, she had stage presence and attitude, and I was mesmerised by her, she was fantastic, and the tight leather trousers just completed it. Her music was even pretty good, not that it mattered, this is the sort of girl blokes dream about going out with, she's brilliant. Apparently she's just released her first album, Calm before the storm, which like it or not I'll go and buy next week, why can't there be more women involved in Heavy Metal?

Clearly I enjoyed that first support act, and stood chatting to people, and sipping my cider when the second act came on, Within Temptation, and they sounded a bit like a hardened version, of evanescence but thankfully not as commercial or mainstream. Their sound wasn't as heavy as Lauren Harris's, but again, the lead singer was a belter! She was dressed in a corset style dress, and had this incredible air of appeal and energy, and I think most of the blokes around me just stood and stared quite longingly at her act, it was most impressive. The music was pretty good I think, It'd be interesting to hear their studio album in the cold light of day as it were.

The Third act was Avenged Sevenfold, an American band from Orange county , California. This was very much a US metal act, and I didn't enjoy their music quite as much. It was still pretty cool, everything at a gig is pretty cool, but it's just that it didn't feel to fit so well. It reminded me of Linkin Park a little bit, all well and good, but it didn't work as well. Again I'd like to sit down and listen to their music on my Hi Fi and see what's its like. They left the stage a bit prematurely after someone down the front near me got injured, but we were all reiling for Maiden by this point anyway.

The crowd was getting pretty sporty, and it was a bit of a fight down the front, I was probably about 8 people deep from the barrier, and that'd been good, and not too rough and I'd made friends with a few people, and we were holding each other up in the maul. Sometime after 9pm though, the lights dimmed and Churchill's speech started as the intro to Aces High, and it went nuts...

The gig was mega, absolutely mega, I held my position right at the front for the first few tracks, but the scrum (appropriate) was exhausting. I retreated several people deep and enjoyed the music from there. I was still in the thick of it, and had to avoid headbutts and crowdsurfers, an inherent hazard of staying down front. I purposely left my camera in my pocket during most of this time. It was very important to me to remember, that being there was about the experience and not photography. I yelled along to the words of number of the beast at the top of my voice and beamed a giant smile. People who've not been to a gig like this would assume violence or nasty people; the opposite is true, people immediately picked you up if you fell, and if you wanted to move back the crowd opened up. Really great friendly people, who were out for a good time, and I loved being there amongst it. I had paid £100 for my ticket and it'd been worth every penny, and I enjoyed the experience of being there immensely despite being massively dehydrated and exhausted by the pack.