Friday the 13th lives up to it's reputation.
Published on February 17th, 2009

We would like to say a big thank you to all the people who turned out on Friday the 13th to support us down at The 12 Bar in Swindon.

We were pleased to see many old friends in the crowd as well as a few new faces, but everyone seemed to have a rocking night. We certainly did. We just hope that your evening went a little smoother than ours!

Superstition holds that Friday the 13th bestows bad luck upon the unwitting, and we definitely had our fair share. Soon after picking up the hired van, our Mr Swift was informed by the radio that this troublesome date is an especially bad one for breaking mirrors. True to form, after parking up briefly to pick up supplies for the journey Swifty returned to find the nearside mirror in several pieces on the road. But this was just the beginning…

After being haunted by many lone magpies on the long trip down south Messrs Dugginson and Swift arrived at the venue, sound-checked and awaited the ill-fated show.

Kicking off the show with 'Aces High', Bruce Dugginson opens his airways to take in a much needed draught of oxygen. Instead, he finds a handful of wig hair disappearing down his gullet. Cue terrible episode of choking!

With one calamity behind us the first few riffs of '2 Minutes to Midnight' ensue. Time for Dave Hurry to break a string. Now it's customary for us to keep back-up guitars on stage in case of this very event. However on this occasion it had been casually left up in the dressing room. A charge across the stage to claim Swifty's SG led to the discovery that it was monumentally out of tune, so Mr. Hurry was forced to exit stage left (well, right) to retrieve his back-up from the dressing room. Impressively he was back in time for his solo!

If you thought Mr. Swift's tribulations ended with a busted mirror, think again. An allergic reaction to the smoke machine meant everyone within a 10' radius of the aforementioned Swift were subjected to high velocity snot expulsion. Not a pleasant situation for anyone concerned. Alas, this was not the end of his troubles. The first note of the his ’22 Acacia Avenue’ solo was just too much for his G string to handle – the second string breakage of the night. The ever-ready Dave Hurry took over solo duties while Swifty grabbed his out of tune SG. Fortunately the next (and last) song of the set was 'Hallowed Be Thy Name', giving Swifty time to tune up while the rest of the band perform the dramatic intro. All clear? Nope. Halfway through Hallowed all guitar sound disappears from stage left as Swifty's Marshall head gives up the ghost (no pun intended) in a puff of blue smoke.

All in all not the most successful night Hi-on Maiden have ever seen, but unquestionably the best audience we've ever had at The 12 Bar. Once again, many thanks for making this a special night in spite of our misfortune.