Bruce Dickinson Addresses Censorship at Chinese Iron Maiden Shows: ‘The Most Important Thing Is That We’re Here’
The changes Iron Maiden were forced to make while performing in China have not been lost on singer Bruce Dickinson, but he's looking at the big picture.
As previously reported, the country's Ministry of Culture mandated a few alterations to the band's stage show, including a lyric change to "Powerslave," a ban on profanity and no Union Jack for Dickinson during "The Trooper." During Maiden's stop in Shanghai on April 26, he addressed those differences from the stage.
"They did say ‘no cameras.’ Do I care? Everybody take out your camera device – take a picture," says Dickinson in the fan-shot footage above. "It’s great to be in China tonight. We ripped it up in Beijing, and we thought, ‘That was a bit serious.’ They had a few rules, so we kind of stuck by the rules and we didn’t do any swearing. There’s another thing I can’t do – see if you can guess what it is later on."
Taking care to mouth his swear words instead of saying them out loud, Dickinson continued, "We don’t really give a s--- about all that, because the most important thing is the music. The most important thing is that we’re here, and you’re here, and we’re going to have a great f---ing time."
One irony of the band's visit, as Dickinson pointed out, was that promotional footage depicted Maiden doing things onstage that the Chinese government wouldn't let them do in China — like using their pyrotechnic effects. "They’ve got these great pictures of the show with flames everywhere, dry ice and smoke. I thought, ‘That’s a f---ing shame, because we can’t do that – we got a little bit restricted," he mused. "Next time we’ll have a word. Next time we come back to China."
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