Bandbiography

Formed in London, England, on the first christmasday in 1976, Iron Maiden was from the start the brainchild of Steve Harris (b. 12 March 1957, Leytonstone, London, England; bass), formerly a member of pub rockers Smiler. Named after a medieval torture device, the music was suitably heavy and hard on the senses.

The heavy metal scene of the late 70s was widely regarded as stagnant, with only a handful of bands proving their ability to survive and produce music of quality. It was at that time that a new breed of young British bands began to emerge. This movement, which began to break cover in 1979 and 1980, was known as the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, or N.W.O.B.*.M. Iron Maiden were one of the foremost bands in the genre, and many would say its definitive example. Younger and meaner, the N.W.O.B.*.M. bands dealt in faster, more energetic heavy metal than any of their forefathers (punk being an obvious influence).

There were several line-up changes in the Iron Maiden ranks in the very early days, and at the come the release of their debut EP, the band featured Harris, Dave Murray (b. 23 December 1958, London, England; guitar), Paul Di’Anno (b. 17 May 1959, Chingford, London, England; vocals) and Doug Sampson (drums). The band made its live debut at the Cart & Horses Pub in Stratford, east London, in 1977, before honing its sound on the local pub circuit over the following two years. Unable to solicit a response from record companies, the band sent a three-track tape, featuring ‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Prowler’ and ‘Strange World’, to Neal Kay, DJ at north London’s hard rock disco, the Kingsbury Bandwagon Soundhouse. Kay’s patronage of Iron Maiden won them an instant welcome, which prompted the release of The Soundhouse Tapes on the band’s own label.

In November 1979 the band added second guitarist Tony Parsons to the line-up for two tracks on the Metal For Muthas compilation, but by the time the band embarked on sessions for their debut album, he had been replaced by Dennis Stratton (b. 9 November 1954, London, England), and Sampson by Clive Burr (b. 8 March 1957; drums, ex- Samson ). A promotional single, ‘Running Free’, reached number 34 on the UK charts and brought an appearance on BBC Television’s Top Of The Pops. Refusing to mime, they became the first band since the Who in 1973 to play live on the show. Iron Maiden was a roughly produced album, but reached number 4 in the UK album listings on the back of touring stints with Judas Priest and enduringly popular material such as ‘Phantom Of The Opera’. Killers boasted production superior to that of the first album, and saw Dennis Stratton replaced by guitarist Adrian Smith (b. 27 February 1957). In its wake, Iron Maiden became immensely popular among heavy metal fans, inspiring fanatical devotion, aided by blustering manager Rod Smallwood and apocalyptic mascot Eddie (the latter had been depicted on the cover of ‘Sanctuary’ standing over Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s decapitated body).

The release of Number Of The Beast was crucial to the development of the band. Without it, Iron Maiden might never have gone on to be such a force in the heavy metal arena. The album was a spectacular success, the sound of a band on the crest of a wave. It was also the debut of former infantryman and new vocalist Bruce Dickinson (b. Paul Bruce Dickinson, 7 August 1958, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England), replacing Paul Di’Anno (who went on to front Dianno, Paul Di’Anno’s Battlezone and Killers ). Formerly of Samson, history graduate Dickinson made his live debut with Maiden on 15 November 1981. Singles such as ‘Run To The Hills’ and ‘The Number Of The Beast’ were big UK chart hits, Iron Maiden leaving behind their N.W.O.B.*.M. counterparts in terms of success, just as the movement itself was beginning to peter out. Piece Of Mind continued their success and was a major hit in the UK (number 3) and USA (number 14). Clive Burr was replaced by Nicko McBrain on the sessions, formerly drummer with French metal band Trust, who had supported Maiden on their 1981 UK tour (he had also played in Streetwalkers). Piece Of Mind was not dissimilar to the previous album, carrying on the strong twin-guitar bite of Murray and Smith, coupled with memorable vocal lines and a sound that perfectly suited their air-punching dynamic. Single offerings, ‘Flight Of Icarus’ and ‘The Trooper’, were instant hits, as the band undertook two massive tours, the four-month World Piece jaunt in 1983, and a World Slavery retinue, which included four sell-out dates at London’s Hammersmith Odeon a year later. With the arrival of Powerslave in November, some critics accused Iron Maiden of conforming to a self-imposed writing formula, and playing safe with tried and tested ideas. Certainly, there was no significant departure from the two previous albums, but it was nonetheless happily consumed by the band’s core supporters, who also purchased in sufficient quantities to ensure UK chart hits for ‘Aces High’ and ‘Two minutes To Midnight’.

Live After Death was a double-album package of all their best-loved material, recorded live on their gargantuan 11-month world tour. By this time, Iron Maiden had secured themselves an unassailable position within the metal hierarchy, their vast popularity spanning all continents. Somewhere In Time was a slight departure: it featured more melody than previously, and heralded the use of guitar synthesizers. Their songwriting still shone through and the now obligatory hit singles were easily attained in the shape of ‘Wasted Years’ and ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’. Reaching number 11 in the USA, this was another million-plus seller. Since the mid-80s Maiden had been staging increasingly spectacular live shows, with elaborate lighting effects and stage sets. The Somewhere In Time tour (seven months) was no exception, ensuring their continued fame as a live band, which had been the basis for much of their success. A period of comparative inactivity preceded the release of Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, which was very much in the same vein as its predecessor. A concept album, it retained its commercial edge (giving the band their second UK number 1 album) and yielded hit singles in ‘Can I Play With Madness’, the surprisingly sensitive ‘The Evil That Men Do’ and ‘The Clairvoyant’.

After another exhausting mammoth world trek, the band announced their intention to take a well-earned break of at least a year. Speculation abounded that this signalled the dissolution of the band, exacerbated by Dickinson’s solo project, Tattooed Millionaire, his book, The Adventures Of Lord Iffy Boatrace, and EMI Records’ policy of re-releasing Maiden’s single catalogue in its entirety (on 12-inch). After a considerable hiatus, news of the band surfaced again. Steve Harris felt that the direction pursued on the last two albums had been taken as far as possible, and a return to the style of old was planned. Unhappy with this game plan, Adrian Smith left to be replaced by Janick Gers (b. Hartlepool, Lancashire, England), previously guitarist with White Spirit and Ian Gillan (he had also contributed to Dickinson’s solo release). The live show was also scaled down in a return to much smaller venues. No Prayer For The Dying was indeed much more like mid-period Iron Maiden, and was predictably well-received, bringing enormous UK hit singles with ‘Holy Smoke’ and ‘Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter’. The latter, previously released in 1989 on the soundtrack to A Nightmare On Elm Street 5, had already been awarded the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Song that year. Nevertheless, it gave Iron Maiden their first ever UK number 1. The obligatory world tour followed.

Despite being denounced as ‘Satanists’ in Chile, 1992 also saw the band debut at number 2 in the UK charts with Fear Of The Dark, which housed another major single success in ‘Be Quick Or Be Dead’ (number 2). However, it was Dickinson’s swan-song with the band, who invited demo tapes from new vocalists following the lead singer’s announcement that he would depart following current touring engagements. His eventual replacement was Blaze Bayley (b. 1963, Birmingham, West Midlands, England) from Wolfsbane. His debut album was The X-Factor, and on this and at live gigs (which they only resumed in November 1995), he easily proved his worth. This was a daunting task, having had to learn Maiden’s whole catalogue and win over patriotic Dickinson followers. Adrian Smith resurfaced in a new band, Psycho Motel, in 1996. In February 1999 it was announced that Dickinson and Smith had rejoined the band, restoring the classic 80s line-up, still including Janick Gers. To the great delight of their loyal followers an excellent new album was not long in following. Brave new World, released 2000 with two singles “The Wickerman” and “Out of the silent planet” brought back the Metal, Maiden had before Blaze Bayley. After a monsterous world tour, with a final gig at the “Rock in Rio”-Festival on the 19th Jannuary of 2001 they will go back to the studio for the next album.

During 2001 the fans were shocked by the news about the disease of Clive Burr.
The band made 3 tribute gigs for Clive Burr in the first months of 2002 at the Brixton Academy in London. All the money goes to the Clive Burr multiple sklerosis-fund.

Also a 6” tall figure of Eddie has been released during February 2002 by Spawn-Toys of Todd McFarlane. Click here to check out some pictures. A model of a ‘Trooper’ followed in September 2002. The release of Rock in Rio was a big blast in record stores in Austria and I’m glad I got a 3D-Cover double CD on 26.3.02, ist’s just incredible. It followed the release of a triple picture LP set and a double DVD.

In November 2002 Iron Maiden annouced a “just for fun”-Tour in 2003 to visit the biggest festivals and play on the greatest venues worldwide. It’s called the “Give me Ed – ‘til I’m dead Tour”.

During the USA-Tour, Nicko smashed a parking-lot guy with his new Jag – what tha hell was he doing in front of Nicko’s car !?
On 1st September 2003 they released the single “Wildest Dreams” and “Dance of Death” followed a week later. The album has been discussed a lot in all forums, because of the untypical Eddie and that shitty CGI-graphics – well, the music on it was ‘kin better than everybody expected to hear!
Maybe that album close up to the awesome Brave new world…

DoD is released and it smashed the shelfes. There are two different opinions out there, the one love it, the other hate it…(their loss), anyway -the DoD World Tour kicks off in Debrecén, Hungary and will lead the boys for 49 concerts around the whole planet. This tour is one of the best taped tours ever. There are several high quality bootlegs surfacing!

“Rainmaker”-Single released on 24.11. in different formats: DVD-Single, Maxi-single, Mini-CD and last but not least in a wonderful blue vinyl!

The release of the DVD-Audio delayed nearly 6 months, but it has been scheduled for 29.3.2004! I really can’t wait to hear the whole album in 5.1 mix! There also will be a special EP from “No more lies”. The CD comes along with a wristband and a 12 pages booklet – relesedate 22.3.2004!

Wow – nearly after a half a year, the DVD-A has finally been released – and there’s one thing you notice just after the first song:
Waiting was worth – the sound is just AWESOME and very good arranged (Like on RiR) and you have the feeling to sit in the middle of the songs. Just an awesome sound experience!

The band did the usually break after the tour and Steve worked hard for the first part of their history DVD series. Rumors ain the internet said that the next DVD would be about the Death on the road tour which was not true. In the meantime an EP was released which contains No more lies and a few tracks as some sort of Thank you to the fans, being on the road for 25 years and still playing in full halls is not a comon thing.

The made some promotion for the Early years DVD and released their Top 10 single The number of the beast again and hit number 2 in the british charts, awesome. A wonderful 12 picture disc was the highlight for each collector! The DVD followed the single and was a huge success and the top Video documentary of the band, never got so much info about the past members. Four concert exerpts makes this item an all time favorite for each Maiden fan thats a history lesson which dont get boring!

Christmas 2004 was the beginning to announce the first tour dates for 2005 a festival tour in summer like the Give me Ed til Im dead tour. Much more dates came in spring and the boys let the fans know that only songs from the first four albums would be played, an anouncement nobody had believed in the beginning. The tour was kicked of on Prague and Maiden played in a perfect form through Europe on every bigger festival. The setlist was just fucking awesome and a dream came true as they played songs like Another life, Drifter and the mighty Phantom of the opera an old time classic.

The enter the USA again, Maiden deceided to join the legendary Ozzfest and played before Black Sabbath for about an hour. A few headliner gigs were also played and one night Ozzy was ill. The british heavy metal legends were sabotated by Sharon Ozzbourne (Ozzys wife) on the last concert and played the gig brave to an end. Not very professionel for a rock manager….

During the US tour, the third rereleas single was kicked on the market The Trooper. A wonderful 12 picture disc was again the highlight for each fan.

The last three gigs were the big Leeds festival, the legendary Reading festival (which they played twice in the early days) and a charity gig for the Clive Burr MS found in the more than legendary Hammersmith Apollo (former Odeon).

September 2005 was the birth for the Death on the road live album, unfortunately not the best performance Maiden did on the Dance of death tour. Coverartwork is nice but the recording itself is very weired as they cutted all rants! The DVD was delayed for more than half a year and we are still waiting…

The new album Dance of death was released on September 8th. Most of the fans liked the new tune very much but the press gave it almost bad critics. It was the first time Maiden used orchestral parts in their songs to create a bombastic sound which works really well. The second single was the smash hit Rainmaker that have for a very longt time an awesome promo video.

The Dance of Death world tour started in October to do Europe. Support act was Funeral for a friend and Maiden was very close to sold out every gig of the tour. The stage production was very big and theatralic this time and the best show since the seventh son tour. They played an unplugged song for the first time live Journeyman. The European tour ended in December 2003 while America, South America and Japan followed in winter 2004.

Due to the big success of the tour the band decided to release a special tour EP. The No more lies EP comes in a nice paper box and an Iron Maiden wristband. Short after the EP another DVD was released called Visions of the beast which features all promo videos from 1980 to 2000. Some of them are very rare and never played very often on TV.

November 2004 saw the best Maiden DVD of all time – The history of Iron Maiden Part 1: The early days. It features the history of the band from 1975 to 1983 with many unseen concert footage and rare interviews with the founders and ex-members of Maiden. The number of the beast single was rereleased to promote the DVD better a gem for the collectors.

Spring and summer 2005 was under the sign of the Early days tour which brings Maiden around the world again. Just songs from the first four albums were played to give the younger fans the chance to hear the tunes they never heard before or will in the future. The musicians were older but have the same energy as in those times. The stage was simple built but had a very huge light system. Setlist was a dream for everybody and left the location with a smile after the end of the gig. The concerts from Rock am Ring and Gothenburg were braodcasted on TV and in the internet some good home videos.

The Trooper single was rereleased before Maiden entered the USA and to promote the tour. The band was part of the legendary Ozzfest summer festivals and played support act for Black Sabbath. Sometimes Ozzy wasnt able to play and so the british metal legends took the part of the headliner. Rumors said that Maiden plays better than BS and Bruce did his part with some rants on various gigs (but it was true). Some american fans were very angry that Maiden just got one hour to play and not longer and so many classic songs were not played.

On the last gig of the US tour the band got a really bad present from Sharon Ozzbourne and her bitchy doughter Kelly. They threw foul eggs and trash on Maiden and turned down the volume at various songs. But our boys took no prisoners and played as nothing were happen. There were many bad letters between Rod Smallwood and Sharon Ozzbourne but IM stopped first and were the mental winners of this conflict. Another big success was the end of the tour as they played Leeds festival, again the Reading festival, Dublin and the legendary Hammersmith Odeon to support the MS fond for Clive Burr.

Maiden took a break for the durration of half a year. At first another DVD was released called Death on the road (also on double CD) in february 2006. Not everybody liked the new video due to the high rate of picture cuts.

The band traveled to London to record their 14th studio album together with Kevin Shirley as producer. It took three weeks of practice and three weeks to record the whole album. After the production the boys said that it was their easiest recording session ever. The end product is an good, honest, long and thrilling album. The new disc is called A matter of life and death and was released in August 2006.

It was clear that Maiden made a good job after some listening samples from The Reincarnation of BB from the internet the best album since the mighty Seventh son of a seventh son.

Concert date after concert date followed and the band started their tour in the USA and Canada first with Bullet for my vallentine as support act. Japan followed (Support act Lauren Harris) and then the rest of western Europe. Maiden played the new album in one piece and every song which was not everybodies taste. The hardcore fans loved this decision but most of the people who saw them for the first time were very disapointed. Never mind the whole European tour was sold out! Maiden is the only band which have so much albums and hitsingles who have the guts to do this we are so proud of this!

The band took a longer break after this successful tour until they announced a few concert dates for the summer to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their The number of the beast album. The band informed the fans via their internet site that five songs of this genius album would be played on the following summer tour. There were a lot of different speculations about the setlist and especially which songs they would play from TNOTB (The prisoner, Children of the Damned or 22 acacia avenue).

Tour kick off was in summer and the British metal legends did what they can best playing live. Unfortunately they just played four songs from The number of the beast album, but instead of many new songs more classic stuff which satisfied the fans. Highlights were the gig at Donington which was broadcasted live via the internet and filmed for a future DVD release, and the concert at the Brixton Accademy/London which was probably the best Maiden gig in the last years.

Another break followed and everybody just waited for the next coming release the legendary Live after Death DVD! It was released in winter 2008 and featured the main video from the Long Beach Arena, the second part of the history of Iron Maiden and a lot of bonus material. All in all a very good package which makes the fans happy.

It was crystal clear that another tour has to follow and it was the tour of tours the legendary World slavery tour was resurrected added with the best songs from 1980 to 1992. Tour kick off was in Australia followed by many other destinations worldwide. The band rent a special aeroplane called the EdForce One to play as many gigs as possible for wide distance destinations. Captain was Bruce Dickinson who flew all band members and helping hands around the planet. Unfortunately the big mummy and some of the stage equipment was to big sized and so the first gigs of the tour had a smaller show. Therefore they played such exotic countries like Australia, Costa Rica, Columbia, Mexico, India, etc.

After these dates another best of album was released called Somewhere back in time with a cover designed by Derek Riggs.

The second part of the tour led the band back to Europe, this time with complete show and a very good setlist. Probably the best performance of the last years and the big Eddie mummy was just awesome. Rime of the ancient mariner and Powerslave were the best songs of each gig and much better than on the World slavery tour. Also Heaven can wait was played and there was a chance to win the tickets via the fan club. Highlight of the tour was the Twickenham gig the first ever open air headliner concert of Maiden in England. About 55.000 people saw the gig with a huge stage and much pyros.

The year ended very calm, but not without some breaking news about another leg of the tour in the beginning of 2009. EdForce 1 was started again to fly once more around the world to play some gigs by Maiden. The concerts were a big success for the band and they played sold out shows most of the time.

Just a few weeks after the tour, Flight 666 documentation was showed in many cinemas around the world. The movie contained many cuts of concerts and backstage material filmed on the first part of the last tour. The DVD/CD/Vinyl package was released some days later and made most of the fans very happy.

The companies Jackson (Adrian Smith), Fender (Dave Murray) and again Fender (Steve Harris) released custom models of Maidens instruments. Many fans bought them to play the same instruments as their heros! The ones of Adrian and Steve are really fantastic.

The summer was calm and some rumors about a new album in 2010 came along the internet. The official Fan Club released their new magazines in a new and bigger format (A4), also 3 per year! Around Christmas some dates and a summer tour were announced.

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