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| Band Info | |
| Origin | London, England |
| Years-Active | 1975 — Present |
| Genre(s) | Heavy Metal |
| Label(s) | EMI Universal Sanctuary Epic Columbia Portrait Capitol |
| Homepage | www.ironmaiden.com |
| Last.fm | Iron Maiden on Last.fm |
Iron Maiden is an English heavy metal band from Leyton in the East End of London. The band were formed in 1975 by bassist Steve Harris, formerly a member of Gypsy's Kiss and Smiler. Iron Maiden are one of the most successful and influential bands in the heavy metal genre, having sold over 100 million albums worldwide without significant mainstream or radio support. They are also often considered the leaders of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. The band won the Ivor Novello Awards for international achievement in 2002, and were also inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk in Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles County, California during their tour in the United States in 2005. Iron Maiden are influenced by Thin Lizzy, UFO, Wishbone Ash, and Deep Purple among others.
Formation and early days[]
Iron Maiden were formed on Christmas Day 1975, by bassist Steve Harris, shortly after he left his previous group, Smiler. Harris attributes the band name to a movie adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask, which he saw around that time, and so the group was christened after the purported torture device.
Steve Harris and guitarist Dave Murray remain the longest-surviving members of Iron Maiden to this day. Original vocalist Paul Day was fired as he lacked "energy or charisma onstage". He was replaced by Dennis Wilcock, a Kiss fan who utilised fire, make-up and fake blood during live performances. Wilcock's friend, Dave Murray, was invited to join, to the frustration of guitarists Dave Sullivan and Terry Rance. This fueled Harris to temporarily split the band in 1976, though the group reformed soon after with Murray as the sole guitarist.
Iron Maiden recruited another guitarist in 1977, Bob Sawyer, who caused a rift between Murray and Wilcock, prompting Harris to fire both Murray and Sawyer. A poor gig at the Bridgehouse in November 1977, with a makeshift line-up including Tony Moore on keyboards, Terry Wapram on guitar, and drummer Barry Purkis resulted in Harris firing the entire band. Dave Murray was reinstated and Doug Sampson was hired as drummer.
Rising popularity[]
A chance meeting at the Red Lion pub in Leytonstone evolved into a successful audition for vocalist Paul Di'Anno. Steve Harris has stated, "There's sort of a quality in Paul's voice, a raspiness in his voice, or whatever you want to call it, that just gave it this great edge."
Iron Maiden had been playing for three years, but had never recorded any of their music. On New Year's Eve 1978, the band recorded a demo, The Soundhouse Tapes. Featuring only three songs, the band sold all five thousand copies within weeks. One track found on the demo, "Prowler", went to number one on Neal Kay's Heavy Metal Soundhouse charts in Sounds magazine. Their first appearance on an album was on the compilation Metal for Muthas (released on 15 February 1980) with two early versions of "Sanctuary" and "Wrathchild".
From late 1977 to 1978, Murray was the sole guitarist in the band until Paul Cairns joined in 1979. Shortly before going into the studio, Cairns left the band. Several other guitarists were temporarily hired until the band finally settled on Dennis Stratton. Initially, the band wanted to hire Dave Murray's childhood friend Adrian Smith, but Smith was busy with his own band, Urchin. Drummer Doug Sampson was also replaced by Clive Burr (who was brought into the band by Stratton). In December 1979, the band landed a major record deal with EMI.
Iron Maiden's eponymous 1980 release, Iron Maiden, made number 4 in the UK Albums Chart in its first week of release, and the group became one of the leading proponents of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. In addition to the title track, the album includes other early favourites such as "Running Free", "Transylvania", "Phantom of the Opera", and "Sanctuary" — which was not on the original UK release but made the U.S. release and subsequent re-releases. The band played a headline tour of the UK then went on to open for Kiss on their 1980 Unmasked Tour's European leg. Iron Maiden also supported Judas Priest on select dates. After the Kiss tour, Dennis Stratton was fired from the band as a result of creative and personal differences. Stratton was replaced by Adrian Smith in October 1980.
In 1981, Maiden released their second album, titled Killers. This new album contained many tracks that had been written prior to the release of the debut album, but were considered surplus. With songs already shaped on the road well in advance, only two new tracks were written for the album: "Prodigal Son" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (the title was taken from the short story by Edgar Allan Poe).
Hitting it big[]
By 1981, Paul Di'Anno was demonstrating increasingly self-destructive behaviour, particularly through cocaine usage. His performances began to suffer, just as the band was beginning to achieve large-scale success in America. At the end of 1981 the band fired Di'Anno and began to seek a new vocalist.
Bruce Dickinson, previously of Samson auditioned for Iron Maiden in September 1981 and joined the band shortly afterwards. He then went out on the road with the band on a small headlining tour. In anticipation of the band's forthcoming album, the band played "Children of the Damned", "Run to the Hills", "22 Acacia Avenue" and "The Prisoner" at select venues, introducing fans to the sound that the band was progressing towards.
Dickinson's recorded debut with Iron Maiden was 1982's The Number of the Beast, an album that claimed the band their first ever UK Albums Chart number 1 record and additionally became a Top Ten hit in many other countries. For the second time the band went on a world tour, visiting the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, UK and Germany. The tour's U.S. leg was marred by controversy stemming from an American right-wing political pressure group that claimed Iron Maiden was Satanic because of the new album's title track. The band members' attempts to deflect the criticism failed to dampen persistent accusations. A group of Christian activists went on to destroy Iron Maiden records (along with those of Ozzy Osbourne) in protest against the band.
Dickinson, at the time, was still in legal difficulties with Samson's management, and was not permitted to add his name to any of the songwriting credits. However, he was still able to lend "creative influence" to many of the songs.
In December 1982, drummer Clive Burr left the band due to personal and tour schedule problems. He was replaced by Nicko McBrain, previously of French band Trust. Shortly afterwards, in 1983, the band released Piece of Mind.
Following the success of Piece of Mind, the band released Powerslave on September 9, 1984. The album featured fan-favourites "2 Minutes to Midnight", "Aces High", and Rime of The Ancient Mariner, the latter based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem of the same name and running over 13 minutes in length. "Back in the Village" followed up on an earlier hit "The Prisoner", both based on the television show starring Patrick McGoohan.
The tour following the album, dubbed the World Slavery Tour, was the band's biggest to date and consisted of 193 shows over 13 months. This was one of the biggest tours in music history. Many shows were played back-to-back in the same city, such as in Long Beach, California, where most of the recordings were made for their subsequent live release Live After Death. This tour was physically grueling for the band and they took a 6-month break when it ended. This was the first break in the band's history, even cancelling a proposed supporting tour for the new live album.
Experimentation[]
Returning from their break, the band adopted a different approach for their 1986 studio album, titled Somewhere in Time. This was not a concept album, though it was themed loosely around the idea of time travel. It also included associated themes - history, the passage of time, and long journeys. It featured, for the first time in the band's history, synthesized bass and guitars sounds to add textures and layers to the sound. Though considered different from the norm of Maiden sounds, it charted well across the world, especially with the single "Wasted Years". The band had resisted using synthetic sounds before, and still insisted on not using keyboards. At the time they claimed the music was still 'real' since actual guitars/bass guitars had been used.
The experimentation on Somewhere in Time led to a follow-up in Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, 1988. Adding to Iron Maiden's experimentation, it was a concept album featuring a story about a mythical child who possessed clairvoyant powers. For the first time, the band used keyboards on a recording, as opposed to guitar synthesisers on the previous release. Critics stated this produced a more accessible release. It was a huge success, and became the band's second album to hit #1 in the UK charts.
In 1990, to close Iron Maiden's first ten years of releasing singles, Iron Maiden released The First Ten Years, a series of ten CDs and double 12" vinyls. Between February 24 and April 28, 1990, the individual parts were released one-by-one, and each contains two of Iron Maiden's singles, including the B-sides.
1990-1994[]
In 1989, after touring with Iron Maiden, guitarist Adrian Smith released a solo album with his band ASAP entitled Silver and Gold. In 1990, vocalist Bruce Dickinson launched a solo career with former Gillan guitarist Janick Gers, releasing Tattooed Millionaire. The band had spent 1989 off, and Dickinson took this time to work on the album. Though seen as good creations at the time, these solo albums would eventually inspire both band members to leave later on.
Soon after work on a new album began, Adrian Smith was let go due to lack of enthusiasm. Bruce Dickinson's solo project guitarist Janick Gers was chosen to replace Smith - the first new member in seven years. When Dickinson left Maiden in 1993, he would later regroup with Smith.
In 1990, Iron Maiden released the album No Prayer for the Dying. This album had a raw sound compared to their recent releases and featured one last song co-written by Adrian Smith, "Hooks in You", despite Smith's having left the band prior to the recording of the album.
The band obtained their first (and to date, only) UK Singles Chart number one hit single with "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", originally recorded by Dickinson for the soundtrack to A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. It was released on December 24, 1990, and was one of the first records to be released on several different formats with different B-sides. The single holds the record for being the fastest release straight in to number one and straight out of the charts again over the following couple of weeks.
Dickinson performed a solo tour in 1991 before returning to the studio with Iron Maiden for the album Fear of the Dark. Released in 1992, the album was noticeably longer (due to this being Iron Maiden's first album