Iron Maiden

This heavy metal band was put together by the songwriter and bassist Steve Harris in Leyton, East London, England on Christmas Day in 1975. At first they went by the name Ash Mountain but later they used the name Iron Maiden which was attributed by Harris as a reminder of the torture device used in the film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s novel The Man in the Iron Mask. The band’s mascot Eddie appears on most of the album releases.

The original band, with Paul Day as the lead singer, the drummer Ron Matthews and guitarists Dave Sullivan and Terry Rance, debuted in Poplar at the St. Nicks Hall in May 1976 and went on to become a resident band in Maryland, Stratford, East London at the Cart and Horses Pub, which is now officially named “The Birthplace of Iron Maiden”. Paul Day was soon replaced by the singer Dennis Wilcock and they invited the guitarist Dave Murray on board. The two original guitarists weren’t too happy and the band went into a short disbandment in 1976 before coming back with just Murray as the guitarist and Steve Harris.

In 1977 the guitarist Bob Sawyer joined the band but would soon be sacked for pretending to play the guitar with his teeth on stage. Problems began again with Dennis Wilcock getting Steve Harris to sack Dave Murray and Ron Matthews. This led to yet another line-up with the keyboardist Tony Moore, the guitarist Terry Wapram and the drummer Barry Purkis aka Thunderstick.

Not even a year later, in early 1978, Tony Moore’s position as a keyboardist wasn’t required in the band and Dave Murray was re-hired, much to the annoyance of Terry Wapram who then lost his job. Within a matter of weeks Dennis Wilcock went his own way to form his own band, V1, taking Barry Purkis and hiring Terry Wapram. Before long Doug Sampson became the new drummer and he, along with Steve Harris and Dave Murray, began looking for a new singer while playing together over the summer and autumn. Then they met the vocalist Paul Di’Anno and took him on and recorded a four song demo on New Year’s Eve.

The demo was regularly played by the DJ Neal Hay at the Bandwagon Heavy Metal Soundhouse club in 1979 with the song from it, “Prowler”, reaching No. 1 on the Soundhouse chart which always appeared in Sounds magazine. Before long the music manager Rod Smallwood had heard the demo and was soon managing the band. The demo led to the band releasing The Soundhouse Tapes on their own record label which featured three of the original four track and within weeks the 5,000 copies were sold out. At the end of 1979 the band gained a record deal with EMI and added the guitarist Dennis Stratton to the line-up, after Adrian Smith had had to refuse the offer due to other commitments. Doug Sampson also had to leave due to health problems and was replaced by the drummer Clive Burr.

In February 1980 the compilation Metal for Muthas was released which contained the Iron Maiden songs “Wrathchild” and “Sanctuary” and before long they embarked on a tour with other heavy metal bands. Later in the year they released the self-titled album which included the tracks “Running Free” and “Sanctuary”, which was only included on the US version initially, and debuted at No. 4 on the UK Album chart. They toured the UK and was the opening act in concerts by Judas Priest and Kiss, after which Dennis Stratton was let go due to various differences. Adrian Smith was successfully hired as his replacement this time and in December they released their video Live at the Rainbow, which featured heavily on MTV.

The following year the band released their 1981 album Killers with the new songs “Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “Prodigal Son” but unhappy with the final result, they hired the producer Martin Birch, who stayed with them for more than a decade until his retirement. The band embarked on a world tour and opened for Judas Priest in Las Vegas and Killers debuted on the US Billboard 200 chart, adding 132 shows to promote it. Also in this tour they performed in Yugoslavia, behind the Iron Curtain and at several European festivals. It was during 1981 that Paul Di’Anno started to have problems due to drug addiction and was let go during the world tour for Killer. He was replaced by the singer Bruce Dickinson in September 1981 and in October they toured Italy and did a performance at the Rainbow Theatre in London.

1982 saw the release of the band’s successful UK No. 1 album The Number of the Beast which also went to No. 33 on the Billboard 200 and reached the Top 10 in various other countries. Bruce Dickinson wasn’t allowed to add his name to the songwriting credits because of legal difficulties with his previous band, Samson, but he did contribute to the hit song “Run to the Hills” along with a couple of others. They went on The Beast on the Road tour and over the next 10 months performed 188 shows and met with some controversy in the US when a lobbying group claimed they were Satanic and Christian activists protested by destroying their recordings. This, however, made them known publicly and by 2022 the album has gone on to sell 20 million copies. Towards the end of 1982 the drummer Clive Burr was replaced by Nicko McBrain.

The band released Piece of Mind in 1983 which reached No. 3 in the UK and No. 14 on the Billboard 200. The album include the songs “Flight of Icarus” and “The Trooper” which were released as singles. The band followed the release with its World Piece Tour and performed as headliners at Madison Square Garden and other North American venues. The next year saw the 1984 release of Powerslave which produced the singles “Aces High” and “2 Minutes to Midnight” along with two others. It reached No. 2 in the UK album chart and No. 12 on the Billboard 200 and the ensuing World Slavery Tour saw the band performing in 28 countries over 13 months, including co-headlining with Queen at the Rock in Rio festival in South America. In 1985 they were given an award by Public Choice International as the world’s best rock and metal band.

After taking some time out after their tour they started to concentrate on adding other synthesised guitar and bass sounds, which appeared on 1986’s Somewhere in Time. The album produced the “Wasted Years” single and reached No. 2 in the UK Album chart and No. 11 on the Billboard 200. Seeing the success of the new sound they released the concept album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son in 1988, which was the first album to include keyboards. It topped the charts as No. 1 in the UK and reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200. The following tour saw them recruiting the keyboardist Michael Kenney and performing to the largest known festival crowd at Donington Park’s Monsters of Rock Festival along with several other headlining show in England. The tour was also recorded for the live video Maiden England, which topped several international video charts. A year later in 1989, during a break from touring, both Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson released solo albums. The 10 CD and double 12-inch singles compilation The First Ten Years was released to mark the 10th anniversary of the band, with the individual parts being released in 1990.

Once the 1990s came along Adrian Smith and Steve Harris encountered differences with the band’s direction so Smith left the band and was replaced by Janick Gers. Later in 1990 No Prayer for the Dying was released and produced the hit singles “Holy Smoke” and “Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter”, which was the group’s only No. 1 single to date. The album reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 17 in the US. The ensuing The No Prayer on the Road tour had them performing 120 shows, often sold out, in 3 continents.

In 1992 Fear of the Dark was released and once again topped the UK Album chart and reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200. It produced “Wasting Love”, the No, 21 single “From Here to Eternity” and the No. 2 “Be Quick or Be Dead”. The tour saw them including their first ever Latin America shows, although were not allowed to perform in Chile, along with headlining at seven European countries at the Monsters of Rock festivals and having their second performance at Donington Park being filmed. Bruce Dickinson and the other members of the band were seeing disagreements so he left the band to pursue his career in 1993 after agreeing to appear in a farewell tour and on two live albums. The albums were A Real Live One and A Real Dead One and although the tour faced several problems, the farewell show of Bruce Dickinson was filmed and broadcast by the BBC as the video Raising Hell. The following year the band were joined by the singer Blaze Bayley who had been with the band Wolfsbane.

1995 saw the release of The X Factor and even though it won “Album of the Year” in France, German and Spain, it was the least successful album with the lowest sales since 1981 when it debuted at No. 8 in the UK. The singles produced from it are “Lord of the Flies” and “Man on the Edge”. The tour lasted until the end of 1995 and into 1996 and included performances for the first time in Bulgaria, Israel, Malta, Romania and South Africa. They headlined in Sao Paulo, Brazil at the Monsters of Rock festival. Following the tour it released it’s first compilation and the single “Virus”.

In 1998 Virtual XI was released and once again showed less chart success when No. 16 was the highest it could go in the UK. Blaze Bayley left the band in 1999 as he had been experiencing issues with his voice. The band then started talking to Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith again and they agreed to return. The band went on The Ed Hunter Tour which was a reunion tour that went alongside the release of the greatest hits collection Ed Hunter. Later on in 1999 they released Brave New World.

When the new millennium came about they were continuing with their reunion tour which finished in Brazil in 2001 at the Rock in Rio festival and was recorded for DVD and CD for the 2002 release Rock in Rio, while the band took a year off touring. They were nominated for two Grammy Awards and won the 2001 Ivor Novello Awards’ International Achievement Award. They did, however, perform 3 fundraising shows at Brixton Academy after the former member Clive Burr was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. They performed twice again in 2005 and 2007 before his death in 2013.

In 2003 they performed the Give Me Ed… ‘Til I’m Dead tour in North America and Europe and headlined various festivals. The band then released its Dance of Death which reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 18 on the Billboard 200. The Dance of Death tour was performed from 2003 into 2004 and while at Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany they recorded the live album Death on the Road, which was released in 2005. They had released their 2004 DVD The History of Iron Maiden – Part 1: The Early Days and went back out on tour on the Eddie Rips Up the World tour in 2005 as well as enjoying the success of the re-release of “The Number of the Beast” which reached No. 3 in the UK chart. At the end of the year they started work on their next album.

A Matter of Life and Death was released in 2006 and brought the band its first Top 10 album in the US when it reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 along with another 13 countries. The tour included their first performances in Dubai and Bangalore Palace Grounds in India. The following year, in 2007, they released the DVD Live After Death and went on their Somewhere Back in Time world tour, which saw a further release of their compilation album Somewhere Back in Time. They performed 27 concerts in Latin American as well as doing shows in the US and Europe and for the first time ever they headlined an English stadium when they performed at Twickenham Stadium. T

The band took a break after the tour and in January 2009 announced the release of their Iron Maiden: Flight 666, which was a documentary of the first part of the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour. The late CD and DVD release reached the top of the music DVD charts in 25 countries. They were awarded a 2009 Brit Award for the Best British Live Act.

The 2010s saw the band writing new music and released the album The Final Frontier in 2010, which released several singles including the 2011 Grammy Award’s Best Metal Performance winner “El Dorado”. It reached No. 1 in 28 countries and No. 4 on the Billboard 2oo. The tour included their first shows in Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea. Also in 2011 they released an accompaniment to 2009’s Somewhere Back in Time and in 2012 they released the live album and DVD En Vivo!. The DVD topped the music video charts in various countries and in December the song “Blood Brothers” won a nomination for the 2013 Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Grammy Award.

Maiden England World Tour was the next tour which began in 2012 and ended in 2014 at Knebworth, England. In 2015 The Book of Souls was released which once again went to No. 1 in the UK and 43 other countries and reached No. 4 in the US. The following year they went on The Book of Souls World Tour in 35 countries and then in 2018 and 2019 they toured again in the Legacy of the Beast World Tour. They released the live album Nights of the Dead, Legacy of the Beast: Liv in Mexico City.

In 2021 they released the single “The Writing on the Wall”, with the video gaining a UK Music Video Award 2021 for Best Animation in a Video nomination, from the album Senjutsu. Although successful in many international countries it was the first album in 15 years that did not top the chart in the UK. It was, however, the recipient of Rolling Stone magazine’s Best Metal Album of 2021 Award. In 2022 the band announced the Future Past Tour and in 2023 it received its 2nd nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was also honoured by postal stamps and cards being dedicated to it by the Royal Mail.

Over the years the band has been inducted into Hollywood RockWalk, Kerrang! Hall of Fame and BPI Hall of Fame and received numerous awards and nominations. It has been ranked as Channel 4’s most successful British metal group. No. 3 in the VH1 Classic’s “Top 20 Metal Bands”, No. 4 in MTV’s “Top 10 Greatest Heavy Metal Bands” and No. 24 in VH1’s “100 Greatest Heavy Metal Bands of All Time”.

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Iron Maiden

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