Perfect for the Maiden Fan who has Everything
I recently purchased this DVD thinking that I probably owned half the footage on it already, but the price was right, and I figured it might have a clip or two I hadn't seen before. But actually I was very surprised. This DVD is made up of interviews with the band members, plus producer Martin Birch, and manager Rod Smallwood, and they take you back in time to 1982, and how The Number of the Beast album came to be. It's filled with cut up clips of the Beast concert, (available in it's entirety on Iron Maiden: The Early Years Part 1)and it shows Adrian Smith twanging away at the signature licks from various tracks off the album-- it's really cool to hear those rhythms coming out of a little studio amp without the production and mixing, etc. This DVD is a great time capsule, and it reminds you of just how perfect this album is. And how 26 years ago, four British upstarts rode that New Wave of British Heavy Metal into a World-Wide Conquest that still stands the test of time even today. So if you've already got everything Maiden, and you want to relax and have a pint with the boys, and go back to when one of the Greatest Heavy albums of all time was created, this is the DVD for you.

For those who have the understanding reckon the number of the beast...
Pretty much all the Classic Albums series that I've had the opportunity to get my greasy mitts on have scored four starts. The simple reason for this is the fact that they comprise a main body in the form of a logical, digestable length rocumentary or around an hour or so incorporating illuminating interview footage with the band who created the album being discussed as well as seeking out interviews with related individuals such as producers and managers etc. They have understated though appropriate production values and they at no point engage in any sort of amusement at the expense of the genre at hand but instead take the viewpoint that many different genres have produced classics with themselves.

And certainly within the miliue of hard rock and heavy metal Iron Maiden hold a definite place for their creation not only of some very fine metal but also for their creation of an artistic juggernaut that actually crosses over into the visually artistic style that of their album covers and their stage shows.

The main rocumentary and the bonus material which supplements it nicely total approximately 80 minutes and cover the usual gamut of issues from the albums conception through to it's unleashing onto the world, with particular reference of course being made to the somewhat amusing reactions to it from some of the more hysterical puritanical types in the US. The release has a judicious blend of serious discussion of the topics at hand interspersed with amusing anecdotes of the trials and tribulations of life in the studio, on the road and various points in between.

A fine release that really would look good on the bookshelf of every Iron Maiden fan young and old and a fitting tribute to an album that, while IMHO isn't the best album they ever offered up for their listening public is rightly considered a classic of the genre in most quarters.

Good DVD
Good DVD, but mostly for die hard Maiden fans. Could be a VH1 Behind the Music type (without the drama) doc you see on cable, but since it isn't if you want to see it, buy this vid. I've watched it once and feel smarter for it...but haven't watched it over and over. TNOTB is one of my favs so I had to get it.

ATTENTION: MUSICIANS/ENGINEERS
About 90% of these reviews are misleading! I was looking for an insight to a classic album especially when I saw Martin Birch (a God!) was involved. But Birch only soloed a couple of tracks in one or two songs and did nothing else! It started off cool with Martin and Bruce talking about how Bruce had to do take after take of the opening to number of the beast but the insight stops there. The interviews are nice(thank-you for the subtitles!-friggin brits!) but it's really a video on Iron Maiden and how this album achieved such great success for the band. If you wanna see a producer AND the band explain an album, buy Judas Priest's classic dvd on British Steel-thanks to Tom Allom. Get the "History of Iron Maiden-Part 1" instead of this dvd!!

Misleading
This DVD is a documentary on the making of the album. It was highly disappointing to be teased with a few seconds of the music videos followed by endless boring commentary. There is very little concert footage from the 82 show, nearly all is from the most recent concert. If you are a die hard fan from the early 80's and are wanting to watch awesome concert footage, this is not the DVD for you!!!!!!! If you want to see the videos from this album, this is not the DVD you want!!!!!! If you enjoy endless commentary, I guess you'll love this DVD!!!!!! We are very, very disappointed with the sneaky way the description reads, it implies what we hoped to get but uses language that they can claim is accurate in a subtle way. What scumbags!!!!