2) Three Guitars for the first time - how will that work and do you find it exciting?


Bruce Dickinson:: I'm really excited. The characters of the three guitarists actually blend very well. Jan has this completely anarchic style, which in a sense can now be set free, as before he had to fulfil Adrian's parts and his parts. Davey has a very distinct style. They all have. They're all capable of being as disciplined as they need to be, but they've all got such separate personalities that it's going to be fantastic. I think with Adrian back in the band, he's going to make such a huge contribution. Having worked with him he's as good, if not better than he ever was. There's always work for three guitars in a Maiden song, simply because of the number of guitars that we laid down in the studio that we never ever do live. In actual fact the old Maiden songs will sound even better with three guitars. The new stuff may possibly take to a whole new level.

Steve Harris: It's difficult to say if the three guitars will affect the writing, as in the past we've written stuff where there were two guitars and another behind it or three either unison or harmony guitars anyway. So I don't think it'll be a big problem and I don't think it'll take us in a different direction, or anything like that. Sometimes when we break away and do harmonies live, with the bass and drums, it opens it up and sounds really good like that, but sometimes on an album we put a rhythm guitar there, and live you can't do that. Now we can!

Dave Murray:I suppose Skynyrd are one of the only bands around with that sort of line up. With Maiden, on the material side of it, it really weighs favour between guitars. In fact there's a lot of stuff on the studio albums with three guitar harmonies anyway, and that's most of the old material, so we'll be able to incorporate that in. And also, I think with the new stuff as well. People are going to be thinking that we'll be doing three part guitar, so I think it's going to actually broaden the whole thing. It's going to widen and give it another dimension. Sometimes they say less is more, but I think in this case, more is heavier! More is going to be bigger, so I'm really looking forward to it, and the thing is, with Adrian, it's going to widen the whole scope musically, where we can do more things within the band musically, so I think it's going to take shape very well. Subconsciously, I think we will write differently also; it'll be there in the back of your head, because you can actually add things in there. I think it's going to affect things - slightly - it'll make things a lot broader in some sense, but that we're yet to find out. I really think it's going to work great. It'll broaden the sound and make it damn fat!

Janick Gers:Really interesting because the aesthetics of it. You can actually double up in various chords and stuff, so we can make it a kind of bigger sound in various parts. The galloping parts will be the same, but probably distinctly heavier, because of the extra part there. There may be various parts where we might leave the bass and the two guitars might go off and might have a rhythm under them. And obviously, where we can add three part harmonies, that would be real fun to do. There's quite a lot of different things we can actually put into the songs and bring them into the year two thousand. I suppose if you want to look at it like that, it could be very exciting.

Adrian Smith:If ever there was a band where three guitars could compliment the music, it was Maiden. There are a lot of guitar harmonies and guitar parts. The songs are long and I think there's a lot of space there for three guitar players. It will compliment the music and it's never really been done before in the rock and metal field - obviously Skynyrd, but I don't think in the metal field it's been done, which gives it an exciting dimension. I think it will sound amazing as we all play slightly differently. In a concert situation it will be interesting as well, because it keeps changing the focal point which makes it interesting from an audience perspective. I also think, as we haven't worked together in this format yet, I imagine that as we write together, Janick Dave and I will write together. There's a lot of interesting stuff we can work with - but I don't think it means we're going to have 98 guitar solos in each song, I think it'll be more of a textural thing. Who knows! It's difficult to say until we start working. At best, it will add another dimension to the band and will compliment what we already have.

Nicko McBrain:Chaos! Absolute chaos! First of all I think it's going to bring an added strength that has previously been un-tapped. So we know that Adrian's guitar style worked for so many years with the band and then when Janick came in, his style of playing is quite fiery and very effervescent, compared to Adrian who's more laid back and a more controlled player. We've got the best of both worlds there, but I said to the guys that they need to take out added insurance for on stage as there's 5 of them running around! It's going to be like the Grand National meets RollerBall! I'm looking forward to it and it's going to be a challenge, an exciting one, with the three guys, especially on the older songs. There's going to be picking and choosing who does what solo, and maybe even adding new parts as you can't have one guy standing there while everyone else is playing! The people are going to be so excited seeing the three guys up there in the first place, but with the added dimension of the musical parts involved, I think it's going to very exciting.