Martin Popoff - 2 Minutes to Midnight: An Iron Maiden Day-By-Day
Backbeat Books
http://halleonardbooksnewsroom.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/2-minutes-to-midnight/

Rating: B

Might Martin has taken on Maiden and made a magnificent book! That may be the most I have ever used the letter M in one sentence in my life!  While that is cool and all…it is not nearly as neat-o as the book the sentence describes.

Who, other than Martin Popoff, the original Metal Nerd from the Great White North, could have…A) Interviewed Iron Maiden enough times to create a Maiden Timeline…B) Knows so many rock and roll photographers to make this book look so nifty and C) and this is the important one…who, other than Mighty Martin, would KNOW this much about Iron Maiden and the whole New Wave of British Heavy Metal to even attempt such a feat? 

Okay, Martin is a friend, but if this book sucked I would be forced to say so. Gladly, for our friendship and our artistic integrity, this book is a long way from suck.  In fact, it is freaking cool as hell.

Think of it this way…this is the history of Iron Maiden, shrunk down to daily freaking facts…year in and year out…about the band, the members, their songs, their albums, the ex-members, as well as the entire time period of British Heavy Metal.  This is the entire career of Maiden in a cool looking book that is as easily read in your living room as it is on the can.

The colorful pages are great eye candy and, as if this were not enough, there are interviews with freaking everyone that you could imagine…Maiden…yep, guys like Bruce Dickinson…and then ex-Maiden members including Paul Di’Anno and then there are interviews with Maiden’s manager Rod Smallwood (oh how has that name avoided being made fun of over the years), who is as important to both the creation and legacy of Iron Maiden as anyone who ever strummed a guitar, or smacked a drum in the band.  Oh, and don’t forget Derek Riggs…the dude who drew Eddie…he speaketh as well in this book.

I said how good this sucker looked but I need to give you, the reader, more details.  There are a ton of live shots of the band performing from all eras of Maiden.  There are endless full color pictures including old Iron Maiden ads, tour posters, rare release artwork and tons of pictures of cool ass Iron Maiden memorabilia.  Think of this as an Iron Maiden Museum in book form. 

Rivet-heads and Ed-Heads will be lining up to get this sucker, so you need to hurry up.  If you want to be one of the first to own this book then you need to email Martin at martinp@inforamp.net and you can even pay on Paypall.  Just send him 48 bucks (US dollars) and he will sign the sucker for you.  If you want a book and live in Canada, or anywhere else in the world, just email Martin and discuss.  Or you can go to http://www.amazon.com/Minutes-Midnight-Maiden-Day-By-Day-Series/dp/1617135658 and buy an unsigned book.  My advice? Get the signed one as Martin’s autograph will one day be sought after as he is quickly becoming The Metal Scribe of Choice in the world of music. 

If you love Maiden then you will love this book.  So, up the Iron’s and get to reading!

By Jeb Wright