From The Observer:
When Britain’s hardiest metal band played their first Indian gig, Ed Vulliamy joined them and their fans for a frank discussion of war, economics – and music
Whereas a Maiden audience in Europe tends to be what Valerie Potter of Metal Hammer magazine calls ‘a family outing, father and son perhaps’, the crowd tonight are almost all in their twenties and there are more girls than there would be in the West. It becomes clear that in India it is frowned upon for a Maiden fan to like any other band. There is particular loathing for Ozzy Osbourne, regarded by Payal Bal as ‘a sell-out. Nothing to do with metal. It’s got to be Maiden and only Maiden.’
‘We may listen to other music, and we all fall in love, but that’s not the point,’ says Alidya Hara. ‘We can get our love songs from any of the others. From Maiden we can get what we really feel – pent-up aggression, the right questions.’
Here.