Iron Maiden

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Biography

Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music|heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician)|Steve Harris . Since their inception, the band's Iron Maiden discography|discography has grown to include a total of thirty-eight albums: fifteen studio albums; ten live albums; four Extended play|EPs ; and seven compilation album|compilations .

Pioneers of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal , Iron Maiden achieved success during the early 1980s. After several line-up changes, the band went on to release a series of U.S. and UK platinum and gold albums, including 1982's The Number of the Beast (album)|The Number of the Beast , 1983's Piece of Mind , 1984's Powerslave , 1985's live release Live After Death , 1986's Somewhere in Time (Iron Maiden album)|Somewhere in Time and 1988's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son . Since the return of lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith in 1999, the band have undergone a resurgence in popularity, with their latest studio offering, The Final Frontier , peaking at No.& nbsp;1 in 28& nbsp;different countries and receiving widespread critical acclaim.

Considered one of the most successful heavy metal bands in history, Iron Maiden have reportedly sold over 85& nbsp;million records worldwide with little radio or television support. The band won the Ivor Novello Awards|Ivor Novello Award for international achievement in 2002, and were also inducted into the Guitar Center#Hollywood's RockWalk|Hollywood RockWalk in Sunset Boulevard , Los Angeles, California during their United States Eddie Rips Up the World Tour|tour in 2005. As of August 2011, the band have played almost List of Iron Maiden concert tours|2000 live shows throughout their career.

For the past 30& nbsp;years, the band have been supported by their famous mascot, " Eddie the Head|Eddie ", who has appeared on almost all of their album and single covers, as well as in their live shows.

History

Early years (1975–1978)

Iron Maiden were formed on Christmas Day 1975, by bassist Steve Harris (musician)|Steve Harris , shortly after he left his previous group, Smiler. Harris attributes the band's name to a film adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask (1939 film)|The Man in the Iron Mask from the novel by Alexandre Dumas , which he saw around that time and which had a verbal connection to the iron maiden (torture)|iron maiden torture device .
The original lineup did not last very long, however, with vocalist Paul Day (musician)|Paul Day being the first casualty as he lacked "energy or charisma onstage." He was replaced by Dennis Wilcock, a Kiss (band)|Kiss fan who used make-up and fake blood during live performances. Wilcock's friend Dave Murray (musician)|Dave Murray was invited to join, to the dismay of the band's guitarists Dave Sullivan and Terry Rance. Their frustration led Harris to temporarily disunite the band in 1976, though the group reformed soon after with Murray as the sole guitarist. Steve Harris and Dave Murray remain the band's longest-standing members and have performed on all of their releases.

Iron Maiden recruited yet another guitarist in 1977, Bob Sawyer, who was sacked for embarrassing the band onstage by pretending to play guitar with his teeth. Tension ensued again, causing a rift between Murray and Wilcock, who convinced Harris to fire Murray, as well as original drummer Ron Matthews. A new line-up was put together, including Tony Moore (musician)|Tony Moore on keyboards, Terry Wapram on guitar, and drummer Thunderstick|Barry Purkis . A bad performance at the Bridgehouse, a pub located in Canning Town, in November 1977, the line-up's first and only concert, led to Purkis being replaced by Doug Sampson . At the same time, Moore was asked to leave as Harris decided that keyboards did not suit the band's sound. A few months later, Dennis Wilcock decided he'd had enough with the group and left to form his own band, V1, and Dave Murray was immediately reinstated. As he preferred to be the band's sole guitarist, Wapram disapproved of Murray's return and was also dismissed.

Steve Harris, Dave Murray and Doug Sampson spent the Summer and Autumn of 1978 rehearsing while they searched for a singer to complete the band's new line-up. A chance meeting at the Red Lion pub in Leytonstone in November 1978 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." Although, the band were always looking to employ a second, from that point Murray would typically act as their sole guitarist, with Harris commenting that "Davey was so good he could do a lot of it on his own. The plan was always to get a second guitarist in, but finding one that could match Davey was really difficult."

Rise to fame (1978–1981)

On New Year's Eve 1978, Iron Maiden recorded a demo, consisting of four songs, at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge. Hoping the recording would help them secure more gigs, the band presented a copy to Neal Kay , then managing a heavy metal club called "Bandwagon Heavy Metal Soundhouse", located in Kingsbury Circle, northwest London. Upon hearing the tape, Kay began playing the demo regularly at the Bandwagon, and one of the songs, "Prowler," eventually went to No.& nbsp;1 in the Soundhouse charts, which were published weekly in Sounds (magazine)|Sounds magazine. A copy was also acquired by Rod Smallwood , who soon became the band's manager, and, as Iron Maiden's popularity increased, they decided to release the demo on their own record label as " The Soundhouse Tapes ," named after the club. Featuring only three tracks (one song, "Strange World", was excluded as the band were unsatisfied with its production) all five thousand copies were sold out within weeks.
In December 1979, the band secured a major record deal with EMI and asked Dave Murray's childhood friend Adrian Smith to join the group as their second guitarist. Smith declined as he was busy with his own band, Urchin (band)|Urchin , so Iron Maiden hired guitarist Dennis Stratton instead. Shortly afterwards, Doug Sampson left due to health issues and was replaced by an ex- Samson (band)|Samson drummer Clive Burr at Stratton's suggestion on 26 December. Iron Maiden's first appearance on an album was on the Metal for Muthas compilation (released on 15 February 1980) with two early versions of " Sanctuary (Iron Maiden song)|Sanctuary " and "Wrathchild". The release led to an Metal for Muthas Tour|ensuing tour which featured several other bands linked with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal .
Iron Maiden's eponym ous 1980 release, Iron Maiden (album)|Iron Maiden , debuted at No.& nbsp;4 in the UK Albums Chart . In addition to the title track, the album includes other early favourites such as " Running Free ", "Transylvania", "Phantom of the Opera", and " Sanctuary (Iron Maiden song)|Sanctuary " – which was not on the original UK release but made the U.S. version and subsequent remasters. The band set out on a Iron Maiden Tour|headline tour of the UK , before opening for Kiss (band)|Kiss on their 1980 Unmasked Tour 's European leg as well as supporting Judas Priest on British Steel Tour|select dates . After the Kiss tour, Dennis Stratton was dismissed from the band as a result of creative and personal differences, and was replaced by Adrian Smith in October 1980.

In 1981, Iron Maiden released their second album, entitled Killers (Iron Maiden album)|Killers . Containing many tracks that had been written prior to their debut release, only two new songs were written for the record: "Prodigal Son" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (the latter's title was taken from the The Murders in the Rue Morgue|short story by Edgar Allan Poe ). Unsatisfied with the production on their debut album, the band hired veteran producer Martin Birch , who would go on to work for Iron Maiden until his retirement in 1992. The record was followed by the band's first Killer World Tour|world tour , which included their debut performance in the United States, opening for Judas Priest at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino|The Aladdin Casino , Las Vegas.

Success (1981–1986)

By 1981, Paul Di'Anno was demonstrating increasingly self-destructive behaviour, particularly through his drug usage, about which Di'Anno comments, "it wasn't just that I was snorting a bit of coke, though; I was just going for it non-stop, 24 hours a day, every day... the band had commitments piling up that went on for months, years, and I just couldn't see my way to the end of it. I knew I'd never last the whole tour. It was too much." With his performances suffering, Di'Anno was immediately dismissed following the Killer World Tour, at which point the band had already selected his replacement.
After a meeting with Rod Smallwood at the Reading Festival, Bruce Dickinson , previously of Samson (band)|Samson , auditioned for Iron Maiden in September 1981 and was immediately hired.The following month, Dickinson went out on the road with the band on a small headlining tour in Italy, as well as a one-off show at the Rainbow Theatre in the UK. In anticipation of their 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 they were progressing towards.

Dickinson's record debut with Iron Maiden was 1982's The Number of the Beast (album)|The Number of the Beast , an album that gave the band their first ever UK Albums Chart No.& nbsp;1 record and additionally became a Top Ten hit in many other countries.Dickinson, at the time, was in the midst of legal difficulties with Samson's management and was not permitted to add his name to any of the songwriting credits, although he still made what he described as a "moral contribution" to "Children of the Damned", "The Prisoner" and "Run to the Hills".
For the second time the band went on The Beast on the Road|a world tour , visiting the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, UK and Germany, including a headline appearance at the Reading Rock festival. A new and hugely successful chapter in Iron Maiden's future was cemented; the album went on to sell over 14 million copies worldwide.

The Number of the Beast tour's U.S. leg proved controversial when an American conservative political lobbying group claimed Iron Maiden were Satanism|Satanic because of the new album's title track, to the point where a group of Christian activism|activists destroyed Iron Maiden records as a protest against the band. In recent years, Dickinson has stated that the band treated this as "silliness," and that the demonstrations in fact gave them "loads of publicity."

In December 1982, drummer Clive Burr ended his association with the band due to personal and tour schedule problems and was replaced by Nicko McBrain , previously of French band Trust (band)|Trust . Soon afterwards, the band journeyed for the first time to The Bahamas to record the first of three consecutive albums at Compass Point Studios . In 1983, they released Piece of Mind , which reached the No.& nbsp;3 spot in the UK, and was the band's debut at the North American charts, reaching No.& nbsp;70 on the Billboard 200 . Piece of Mind includes the successful singles " The Trooper " and " Flight of Icarus ," the latter of which being particularly notable as one of the band's few songs to gain substantial airplay in the U.S.
Soon after the success of Piece of Mind and its World Piece Tour|supporting tour , the band released Powerslave (album)|Powerslave on 9 September 1984. The album featured fan favourites " 2 Minutes to Midnight ", " Aces High (song)|Aces High ", and "Rime of The Ancient Mariner", the latter based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's Rime of the Ancient Mariner|poem of the same name and running over 13 minutes long.

The tour following the album, dubbed the World Slavery Tour , was the band's largest to date and consisted of 193 shows in 28 countries over 13 months, playing to an estimated 3,500,000 people. Many shows were played back-to-back in the same city, such as in Long Beach, California (4 consecutive sold out concerts to an overall audience of 54,000), where the majority of their subsequent live release, Live After Death , was recorded, which became a critical and commercial success, peaking at No.& nbsp;4 in the UK. Iron Maiden also co-headlined (with Queen (band)|Queen ) the Rock In Rio festival, where they performed to an estimated crowd of 350,000. The tour was physically gruelling for the band, who demanded a six month break when it ended (although this was later reduced to four months). This was the first substantial break in the band's history, including the cancellation of a proposed supporting tour for the new live album, with Bruce Dickinson threatening to quit unless the tour ended.

Experimentation (1986–1989)

Returning from their time off, the band adopted a different style for their 1986 studio album, entitled Somewhere in Time (Iron Maiden album)|Somewhere in Time , featuring, for the first time in the band's history, synthesiser|synthesised bass and guitars to add textures and layers to the sound. The release charted well across the world, particularly with the single " Wasted Years ," but notably included no writing credits from lead singer Bruce Dickinson , whose material was rejected by the rest of the band.
The experimentation evident on Somewhere in Time continued on their next album, entitled Seventh Son of a Seventh Son , which was released in 1988. A concept album , based on The Tales of Alvin Maker series of novels by Orson Scott Card , this would be the band's first record to include keyboards, as opposed to guitar synthesisers on the previous release. After his contributions were not used for Somewhere in Time , Dickinson's enthusiasm was renewed as his ideas were accepted for this album. Another popular release, it became Iron Maiden's second album to hit No.& nbsp;1 in the UK charts, although it only achieved a Gold certification in the U.S, in contrast to its four predecessors.

During the following 7th Tour of a 7th Tour|tour , the band headlined the Monsters of Rock festival at Donington Park for the first time on 20 August 1988, playing to the largest crowd in the festival's history (107,000). Also included on the bill were Kiss (band)|Kiss , David Lee Roth , Megadeth , Guns N' Roses and Helloween . The festival was marred, however, by the deaths of two fans in a crowd-surge during the aforementioned Guns N' Roses performance; the following year's festival was cancelled as a result. The tour concluded with several headline shows in the UK in November and December 1988, with the concerts at the National Exhibition Centre|NEC Arena , Birmingham recorded for a live video, entitled Maiden England .

Upheaval (1989–1994)

During another break in 1989, guitarist Adrian Smith released a solo album with his band ASAP (band)|ASAP , entitled Silver and Gold (ASAP album)|Silver and Gold , and vocalist Bruce Dickinson began work on a solo album with former Gillan guitarist Janick Gers , releasing Tattooed Millionaire in 1990, followed by a tour. At the same time, to mark the band's ten year recording anniversary, Iron Maiden released The First Ten Years , a series of ten CDs and double 12"|12" vinyls . Between 24 February and 28 April 1990, the individual parts were released one-by-one, each containing two of Iron Maiden's singles, including the original B-sides.

Soon afterwards, Iron Maiden regrouped to work on a new studio record. During the pre-production stages, Adrian Smith left the band due to differences with Steve Harris regarding the direction the band should be taking, disagreeing with the "stripped down" style that they were leaning towards. Janick Gers, having worked on Dickinson's solo project, was chosen to replace Smith and became the band's first new member in seven years. The album, No Prayer for the Dying , was released in October 1990 and contained " Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter ", the band's first (and to date, only) UK Singles Chart No.& nbsp;1, originally recorded by Dickinson for the soundtrack to A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child .
After another No Prayer on the Road|tour and some more time off, the band recorded their next album, Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)|Fear of the Dark . Released in 1992, the release was noticeably longer (due to this being Iron Maiden's first album recorded for CD rather than LP) and included the stand-out Fear of the Dark (song)|title track , which is now a regular fixture in the band's concert setlists. Achieving their third No.& nbsp;1 in the UK albums chart, the disc also featured " Wasting Love ", one of the band's softer songs, and the No.& nbsp;2 single " Be Quick or Be Dead ". The album featured the first songwriting by Gers, and no collaboration at all between Harris and Dickinson on songs. The Fear of the Dark Tour|extensive worldwide tour that followed included their first ever Latin American leg (after a single concert during the World Slavery Tour), and being the headline act of " Monsters of Rock Festivals" in seven European countries. Iron Maiden's second performance at Donington Park , to an audience of 68,500 (the attendance was capped after the incident in 1988), was filmed for the audio and video release, Live at Donington (Iron Maiden album)|Live at Donington , and featured a surprise appearance by Adrian Smith, who joined the band to perform "Running Free".
In 1993, Bruce Dickinson left the band to further pursue his solo career, but agreed to remain for a Real Live Tour|farewell tour and two live albums (later re-released in A Real Live Dead One|one package ). The first, A Real Live One , featured songs from 1986 to 1992, and was released in March 1993. The second, A Real Dead One , featured songs from 1980 to 1984, and was released after Dickinson had left the band. The tour did not go well, however, with Steve Harris claiming that Dickinson would only perform properly for high profile shows and that at several concerts he would only mumble into the microphone. Dickinson denies the charge that he was under-performing, stating that it was impossible to "make like Mr Happy Face if the vibe wasn't right," claiming that news of his exit from the band had prevented any chance of a good atmosphere during the tour. He played his farewell show with Iron Maiden on 28 August 1993, which was filmed, broadcast by the BBC and released on video under the name Raising Hell (video)|Raising Hell .

Blaze Bayley era, The X Factor and Virtual XI (1994–1999)

In 1994, the band listened to hundreds of tapes sent in by vocalists before convincing Blaze Bayley , formerly of the band Wolfsbane (band)|Wolfsbane who had supported Iron Maiden in 1990, to audition for them. Bayley had a different vocal style from his predecessor, which ultimately received a mixed reception among fans.
After a two year hiatus (as well as a three year hiatus from studio releases – a record for the band at the time) Iron Maiden returned in 1995. Releasing The X Factor (album)|The X Factor , the band had their lowest chart position since 1981 for an album in the UK (debuting at No.& nbsp;8), although it would go on to win Album of the Year awards in France and Germany.The record included the 11-minute epic "Sign of the Cross", the band's longest song since "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", as well as the singles, " Man on the Edge ", based on the film Falling Down , and " Lord of the Flies (song)|Lord of the Flies ", based on the Lord of the Flies|novel of the same name . The release is notable for its "dark" tone, inspired by Steve Harris' divorce. The X Factour|The band toured for the rest of 1995 and 1996, playing for the first time in Israel and South Africa, before stopping to release Best of the Beast . The band's first compilation, it included a new single, " Virus (Iron Maiden song)|Virus ", whose lyrics attack the critics who had recently written off the band.
Iron Maiden returned to the studio to record Virtual XI , released in 1998. The album's chart scores were the band's lowest to date, including the UK where it peaked at No.& nbsp;16 failing to score one million worldwide sales for the first time in Iron Maiden's history. At the same time, Steve Harris assisted in remastering the band's entire discography, up to and including Live at Donington (which was given a mainstream release for the first time).

Ed Hunter , Brave New World , Dance of Death (1999–2005)

A band meeting was held in January 1999, in which Bayley was asked to leave Iron Maiden due to issues with his voice during the Virtual XI World Tour , although Janick Gers has since stated that this was partly the band's fault for forcing him to perform songs which were beyond his natural register. At the same time, the band were in talks with former vocalist, Bruce Dickinson, who agreed to rejoin during a meeting in Brighton, along with guitarist Adrian Smith, who was telephoned a few hours later. With Gers, Smith's replacement, remaining, Iron Maiden now had a three guitar line-up and embarked on a hugely successful reunion tour. Dubbed " The Ed Hunter Tour ," it tied in with the band's newly released greatest hits collection, Ed Hunter , which also contained a computer game of the same name starring Eddie the Head|the band's mascot .

In November 1999, the band moved to Guillaume Tell Studios, Paris with producer Kevin Shirley to make their first studio release following the reunion with Dickinson and Smith, 2000's Brave New World (Iron Maiden album)|Brave New World . Thematic influences continued with " The Wicker Man (song)|The Wicker Man " – based on the 1973 British The Wicker Man (1973 film)|cult film of the same name – and "Brave New World" – title taken from the Aldous Huxley Brave New World|novel of the same name . The album furthered the more progressive and melodic sound present in some earlier recordings, with elaborate song structures and keyboard orchestration.
Brave New World Tour|The world tour that followed consisted of well over 100& nbsp;dates and culminated on 19 January 2001 in a show at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil, where Iron Maiden played to an audience of around 250,000. While the performance was being produced for a CD and DVD release in March 2002, under the name Rock in Rio (album)|Rock in Rio , the band took a year out from touring, during which they played three consecutive shows at Brixton Academy in aid of former drummer Clive Burr , who had recently announced that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis .
Following their Give Me Ed... 'Til I'm Dead Tour in the summer of 2003, Iron Maiden released Dance of Death (album)|Dance of Death , their thirteenth studio album, which was met by worldwide critical and commercial success. Produced by Kevin Shirley, now the band's regular producer, many critics also felt that this release matched up to their earlier efforts, such as Killers , Piece of Mind and The Number of the Beast . As usual, historical and literary references were present, with "Montségur" in particular being about the Catharism|Cathar stronghold conquered in 1244, and "Paschendale" relating to Battle of Passchendaele|the significant battle which took place during World War I|The First World War .
The Dance of Death World Tour|following tour was another landmark for the band, as they played to over 750,000 fans during 50& nbsp;dates over a period of 4 months in 2003–04, including sold out dates in South America, Europe, North America and Japan. Their performance at Westfalenhalle in Dortmund , Germany, as part of the supporting tour, was recorded and released in August 2005 as a live album and DVD, entitled Death on the Road .

In 2005, the band announced the Eddie Rips Up the World Tour which, tying in with their 2004 DVD entitled The Early Days , only featured material from their first four albums. As part of this celebration of their earlier years, the "Number of the Beast" single was re-released and went straight to No.& nbsp;3 in the UK Chart. The tour included many headlining stadium and festival dates, including a performance at Ullevi Stadium in Sweden to an audience of almost 60,000. This concert was also broadcast live on satellite television all over Europe to approximately 60 million viewers. The band completed this tour by headlining the Reading and Leeds Festivals|Reading and Leeds weekend festivals on the 26–28 August, two shows to an estimated combined audience of 130,000 people, and in Ireland on 31 August to almost 40,000 people at RDS Stadium. For the second time, the band played a charity show for former drummer Clive Burr's MS Trust Fund charity, this time taking place at the Hammersmith Apollo .

A Matter of Life and Death (2005–2007)

At the end of 2005, Iron Maiden began work on A Matter of Life and Death (album)|A Matter of Life and Death , their fourteenth studio effort, released in autumn 2006. While not a concept album, war and religion are recurring themes in the lyrics, as well as in the cover artwork. The release was a critical and commercial success, earning the band their first top ten in the Billboard 200 and receiving the Album Of The Year award at the 2006 Classic Rock (magazine)| Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards . A A Matter of Life and Death Tour|supporting tour followed, during which they played the album in its entirety; response to this was mixed.

Iron Maiden recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for Live from Abbey Road in December 2006. Their performance was screened in an episode alongside sessions with Natasha Bedingfield and Gipsy Kings in March 2007 on Channel 4 (UK) and June 2007 on the Sundance Channel (United States)|Sundance Channel (USA).

In November 2006, Iron Maiden and manager Rod Smallwood announced that they were to end their 27& nbsp;year relationship with Sanctuary Music and were to start a new company named Phantom Music Management . No other significant changes were made.

The second part of the "A Matter of Life and Death" tour was dubbed "A Matter of the Beast" to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Number of the Beast album, and included appearances at several major festivals worldwide. The band announced plans to play five songs each from A Matter of Life and Death and The Number of the Beast as part of their set, but in fact only played four songs from the latter. They performed in the Middle East for the first time at the annual Dubai Desert Rock Festival in 2007, playing to an audience of 20,000. They also made their first appearance in India with a concert in Bangalore , aptly titled Eddfest , playing to over 30,000& nbsp;people at the Bangalore Palace Grounds. This event marked the first time any major heavy metal band played in the Indian sub-continent. The band went on to play a string of European dates, consisting of open air festivals and mostly stadium-sized concerts, including an appearance at Download Festival|Download , their record-breaking fourth headline performance at Donington Park . The show attracted the largest audience in Download's history, with an estimated attendance of approximately 80,000 people, in spite of higher ticket and camping prices. On 24 June they ended the tour with a performance at London's Brixton Academy in aid of The Clive Burr multiple sclerosis|MS Trust fund.

Somewhere Back in Time World Tour & Flight 666 (2007–2009)

On 5 September 2007, the band announced their Somewhere Back in Time World Tour , which tied in with the DVD release of their Live After Death (video)| Live After Death album. The setlist for the tour consisted of successes from the 1980s, with a specific emphasis on the Powerslave era for set design. The first part of the tour, commencing in Mumbai , India on 1 February 2008, consisted of 24 concerts in 21 cities, travelling nearly 50,000 miles in the band's own chartered aeroplane, named "Ed Force One". They played their first ever concerts in Costa Rica and Colombia and their first Australian shows since 1992.

The tour led to the release of a new compilation album, entitled Somewhere Back in Time , which included a selection of tracks from their 1980 eponymous debut to 1988's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son , as well as several live versions from Live After Death .

The Somewhere Back in Time World Tour continued with two further legs in the US and Europe in Summer 2008, during which the band used a more expansive stage-set, including further elements of the original Live After Death show. With the sole UK concert taking place at Twickenham Stadium , this would be the first time the band would headline a stadium in their own country. The three 2008 legs of the tour were remarkably successful; it was the second highest grossing tour of the year for a British artist.

The final part of the tour took place in February and March 2009, with the band, once again, using "Ed Force One". The final leg included the band's first ever appearances in Peru and Ecuador, as well as their return to Venezuela after 19 years and their first performances in New Zealand for 16 years. The band also played another show in India (their third in the country within a span of 2 years) at the Rock In India festival to a crowd of 20,000. At their concert in São Paulo on 15 March, Dickinson announced on stage that the show was the biggest of their career. In fact, the crowd of 100,000 people was Iron Maiden's largest ever audience for a solo show (i.e. not a festival). The attendance was larger than Chile 's show of almost 60,000& nbsp;people, according to the organisers. The final leg ended in Florida on 2 April after which the band took a break. Overall, the tour reportedly had an attendance of over two million people worldwide over both years.

At the 2009 BRIT Awards , Iron Maiden won the award for best British live act. Voted for by the public, the band reportedly won by a landslide.

On 20 January 2009, the band announced that they were to release a full-length documentary film in select cinemas on 21 April 2009. Entitled Iron Maiden: Flight 666 , it was filmed during the first part of the Somewhere Back In Time World Tour between February and March 2008. Flight 666 is co-produced by Banger Productions and was released by Universal Music Group in the U.S. and EMI Records in the rest of the world. The film went on to have a Blu-ray, DVD and CD release in May and June, topping the music DVD charts in 22 countries.

The Final Frontier (2010–2012)

Following announcements that the band had begun composition of new material and booked studio time in early 2010 with Kevin Shirley producing, The Final Frontier was announced on 4 March. The album, the band's fifteenth, was released on 16 August, garnering critical acclaim and the band's greatest commercial success in their history, reaching No.& nbsp;1 in twenty-eight countries worldwide. Although Steve Harris had been quoted in the past as claiming that the band would only produce fifteen studio releases, band members have since confirmed that there will be at least one further record.

The album's The Final Frontier World Tour|supporting tour would see the band play 98 shows across the globe to an estimated audience of over 2 million, including their first visits to Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea and Transylvania, before concluding in London on 6 August 2011. As the tour's 2010 leg preceded The Final Frontier 's release, the band made " El Dorado (song)|El Dorado " available as a free download on 8 June, which would go on to win the Grammy Award|award for Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance|Best Metal Performance at the 53rd Grammy Awards on 13 February 2011. It is the band's first win following two previous Grammy nominations (" Fear of the Dark (song)|Fear of the Dark " in 1994 and " The Wicker Man (song)|The Wicker Man " in 2001).

On 15 March, a new compilation to accompany 2009's Somewhere Back in Time was announced. Entitled From Fear to Eternity (album)|From Fear to Eternity , the original release date was set at 23 May but was later pushed back to 6 June. The double disc set covers the period 1990–2010 (the band's most recent eight studio albums), and, as on Somewhere Back in Time , live versions with Bruce Dickinson were included in place of original recordings which featured other vocalists, in this case Blaze Bayley .

In a press release regarding From Fear to Eternity , band manager Rod Smallwood revealed that the band will release a new concert video to DVD in 2011, filmed in Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina during The Final Frontier World Tour. On 17 January 2012, the band announced that the new release, entitled En Vivo& #33; (Iron Maiden album)|En Vivo! , based on footage from the Chile concert, will be made available worldwide on CD, LP, DVD and Blu-ray on 26 March, except the United States and Canada (where it will be released on 27 March). In addition to the concert footage, the video release will include an 88-minute tour documentary, entitled Behind The Beast, containing interviews with the band, their crew and fans.

Image and legacy

Iron Maiden were ranked No.& nbsp;24 in VH1 's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock", fourth in MTV's "Top 10 Greatest Heavy Metal Bands of All Time" and were named as the third best heavy metal band of all time in VH1 Classic's Top 20 Metal Bands.
The band also won the Ivor Novello Award for international achievement in 2002 and were inducted into the Guitar Center#Hollywood's RockWalk|Hollywood RockWalk whilst touring in the United States in 2005.

Iron Maiden frequently use the slogan "Up the Irons" in their disc liner notes, and the phrase can also be seen on several t-shirts officially licensed by the band. It is a paraphrase of "Up the Hammers," the phrase which refers to the London Association football|football club, West Ham United , of which founder Steve Harris is a fan.

Iron Maiden's mascot , Eddie the Head|Eddie , is a perennial fixture in the band's science fiction and horror-influenced album cover art, as well as in concert|live shows. Originally a papier-mâché mask incorporated in their backdrop which would squirt fake blood during their live shows, the name would be transferred to the character featured in the band's debut album cover, created by Derek Riggs . Eddie was painted exclusively by Riggs until 1992, at which point the band began using artwork from numerous other artists as well, including Melvyn Grant . Eddie is also featured in the band's first-person shooter video game, Ed Hunter , as well as numerous t-shirts, posters and other band-related merchandise. In 2008, he was awarded the "Icon Award" at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods, while Gibson Guitar Corporation|Gibson.com describes him as "the most recognizable metal icon in the world and one of the most versatile too."

Iron Maiden's distinct logo has adorned all of the band's releases since their debut; the typeface originates with Vic Fair's poster design for 1976 science fiction film, The Man Who Fell to Earth (film)|The Man Who Fell To Earth , although Steve Harris claims that he designed it himself, utilising his abilities as an architectural draughtsman.

Influence on other artists

According to Guitar World Iron Maiden's sound has "influenced generations of newer metal acts, from legends like Metallica to current stars like Avenged Sevenfold ," with Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich commenting that he has "always had an incredible amount of respect and admiration for them." Kerry King of Slayer has stated that "they meant so much to me in their early days" and Scott Ian of Anthrax says that "they had a major impact on my life."
M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold states that Iron Maiden "are by far the best live band in the world and their music is timeless," while
Trivium (band)|Trivium singer Matt Heafy comments that "without Iron Maiden, Trivium surely wouldn't exist." Slipknot (band)|Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor says that "Steve Harris does more with four fingers than I've ever seen anybody do. And Bruce Dickinson? Dude& #33; To me, he was the quintessential old-school heavy metal singer. He could hit notes that were just sick, and he was a great showman. Everything made me a fan. And there wasn't a dude that I hung out with that wasn't trying to draw Eddie on their schoolbooks," while their music also helped Jesper Strömblad of In Flames to pioneer the melodic death metal genre, stating that he had wanted to combine death metal with Iron Maiden's melodic guitar sounds.

Other heavy metal artists who cite the band as an influence include Chris Jericho , WWE wrestler and lead singer of Fozzy , and Cam Pipes of 3 Inches of Blood . On top of this, however, pop artist Lady Gaga has cited Iron Maiden as her favourite band, saying that "their fans live, breathe and die for Maiden, and that is my dream. Maiden changed my life."

Appearance in media

The band's name has been mentioned prominently in several songs, such as the singles " Teenage Dirtbag " by Wheatus , " Back to the 80's (song)|Back to the 80's " by Danish dance-pop band Aqua (band)|Aqua . and " Fat Lip " by Sum 41 . Iron Maiden have also been referenced in Weezer 's "Heart Songs" (from their 2008 self-titled " Weezer (2008 album)|Red " album), Blues Traveler 's "Psycho Joe" (from 1997's Straight On till Morning ), and NOFX 's "Eddie, Bruce and Paul" (from their 2009 album Coaster (album)|Coaster ), which Sputnikmusic describes as "a humorous retelling of Paul DiAnno's departure."
On top of this, Swedish power metal band Sabaton (band)|Sabaton have made references to the band in their songs " Metal Machine " and "Metal Ripper", with the former mentioning various Iron Maiden songs (namely "Fear of the Dark" and "Afraid to Shoot Strangers"), and the latter including lyrics from " The Number of the Beast (song)|The Number of the Beast ".

In 2008, Kerrang! released an album, entitled Maiden Heaven: A Tribute to Iron Maiden , composed of Iron Maiden cover songs played by artists such as Metallica, Machine Head (band)|Machine Head , Dream Theater , Trivium, Coheed and Cambria , Avenged Sevenfold, and others who were influenced by Iron Maiden throughout their careers. In 2010, Maiden uniteD , an acoustic tribute band consisting of members of Ayreon , Threshold (band)|Threshold and Within Temptation , released Mind the Acoustic Pieces , a re-interpretation of the entire Piece of Mind album. Many other Iron Maiden cover albums exist (each featuring various artists), including piano, electro, string quartet and hip-hop tributes.

Iron Maiden songs have been featured in the soundtracks of several video games, including Carmageddon 2 , Grand Theft Auto: Vice City , Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City , Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned , '' Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 '', SSX on Tour and Madden NFL 10 . Their music also appears in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band (video game)|Rock Band series of music video game|rhythmic video games . Iron Maiden songs have also appeared in films, such as Phenomena (film)|Phenomena (entitled "Creepers" in the U.S.), and Murder by Numbers ; while MTV's animated duo Beavis and Butt-head have commented favourably on the band several times.

Transformers (toy line)|Transformers author Bill Forster is an avowed Iron Maiden fan and made several Iron Maiden references, including song lyrics and the phrase "Up the Irons" in his books, including The Transformers: The Ark : A Complete Compendium of Transformers Animation Models|The Ark series and The AllSpark Almanac series.

Claims of Satanic references

In 1982, the band released one of their most popular, controversial and acclaimed albums, The Number of the Beast (album)|The Number of the Beast . The artwork and title track led to Christian groups in the United States branding the band as Satanism|Satanists , encouraging people to destroy copies of the release. The band's manager, Rod Smallwood, later commented that Christians initially burnt the records, but later decided to destroy them with hammers through fear of breathing in the melting vinyl's fumes. The claims were not restricted to the United States, however, with the Catholic Church managing to prevent Iron Maiden from performing in Chile in 1992.

Contrary to the accusations, the band have always denied the notion that they are Satanists, with lead vocalist, Bruce Dickinson, doing so on-stage in the Live After Death (video)|Live After Death concert video. Steve Harris has since commented that, "It was mad. They completely got the wrong end of the stick. They obviously hadn't read the lyrics. They just wanted to believe all that rubbish about us being Satanists." Harris has also stated that " The Number of the Beast (song)|The Number of the Beast " was inspired by a nightmare he had after watching Damien: Omen II , and also influenced by Robert Burns ' '' Tam o' Shanter (Burns poem)|Tam o' Shanter ''. Furthermore the band's drummer, Nicko McBrain , has been a born again Christian since 1999.

Musical style and influences

Steve Harris, Iron Maiden's bassist and primary songwriter, has stated that his influences include Black Sabbath , Deep Purple , Led Zeppelin , The Who , Uriah Heep (band)|Uriah Heep , Pink Floyd , Genesis (band)|Genesis , Yes (band)|Yes , Jethro Tull (band)|Jethro Tull , Thin Lizzy , UFO (band)|UFO and Wishbone Ash . In 2010 Harris stated, "I think if anyone wants to understand Maiden’s early thing, in particular the harmony guitars, all they have to do is listen to Wishbone Ash’s Argus (album)|Argus album. Thin Lizzy too, but not as much. And then we wanted to have a bit of a prog thing thrown in as well, because I was really into bands like Genesis and Jethro Tull. So you combine all that with the heavy riffs and the speed, and you’ve got it." In 2004, Harris explained that the band's "heaviness" was inspired by "Black Sabbath and Deep Purple with a bit of Zeppelin thrown in." On top of this, Harris developed his own playing style, which guitarist Janick Gers describes as "more like a rhythm guitar," cited as responsible for the band's galloping style, heard in such songs as "The Trooper" and "Run to the Hills."

The band's guitarists, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, each have their own individual influences and playing style. Dave Murray is known for his legato technique which, he claims, "evolved naturally. I'd heard Jimi Hendrix using legato when I was growing up, and I liked that style of playing." Stating that he "was inspired by blues rock rather than metal," Adrian Smith was influenced by Johnny Winter and Pat Travers , leading to him becoming a "melodic player." Janick Gers, on the hand, prefers a more improvised style, largely inspired by Ritchie Blackmore , which he claims is in contrast to Smith's "rhythmic" sound.

Singer Bruce Dickinson, who typically works in collaboration with guitarist Adrian Smith, has an operatic vocal style, inspired by Arthur Brown (musician)|Arthur Brown , Peter Hammill , Ian Anderson and Ian Gillan , and is often considered to be one of the best heavy metal vocalists of all time. Although only receiving one writing credit on the Dance of Death album, Harris often relies on drummer Nicko McBrain in developing songs, with Adrian Smith commenting, "Steve loves playing with him. used to work for hours going over these bass and drum patterns."
Throughout their career, the band's style has remained largely unchanged, in spite of the addition of guitar synthesizers on 1986's Somewhere in Time , keyboards on 1988's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son , and an attempt to return to the "stripped down" production of their earlier material on 1990's No Prayer for the Dying . In recent years, however, the band have begun using more progressive rock|progressive elements in their songs, which Steve Harris describes as not progressive "in the modern sense, but like Dream Theater , more in a 70s way." According to Harris, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was the band's first album which was "more progressive," while they would only return to this style from 1995's The X Factor , which he states is "like an extension of Seventh Son ..., in the sense of the progressive element to it." The development contrasts with the band's earlier material, which Allmusic states was "clearly drawing from elements of punk rock," and also led to drummer Nicko McBrain stating in 2006, "I don't regard Iron Maiden as heavy metal. I don't think we're a heavy metal band. We're a hard rock band. We're a progressive rock band."

Special charter

In October 2007, Iron Maiden commissioned an Astraeus (airline)|Astraeus 757 as transport for their ' Somewhere Back in Time World Tour ' in 2008. Lead singer Bruce Dickinson explained the logic behind the charter in 2007: ''

"Looking at the list of places we would like to play we have always had problems joining up the dots. With sea containers in various places it slows down the whole touring process, which is fine if you want a holiday but not if you want to play. It's great to see places but we don't want to sit around for a week waiting for gear to get from, say, Australia to South America, so this way we can get to more fans in more places en route in the same time period"

The aircraft, named "Ed Force One" after a competition on the band's website, was flown by Dickinson as he is also a commercial airline pilot for Astraeus. The aeroplane was converted into a combi configuration and repainted with a special Iron Maiden livery, along with a list of that year's tour dates. According to Dickinson, Astraeus decided to retain the Iron Maiden artwork when it returned to normal charter service after receiving positive feedback from customers, but had to remove the decals after passengers in Africa refused to board the plane, claiming it to be possessed by evil spirits.

The decoration was restored a year later as the same aircraft (G-OJIB) was used on the final leg of the Somewhere Back in Time tour in 2009. It plays a major role in the award-winning documentary, Iron Maiden: Flight 666 , which was released in cinemas in 42 countries in April 2009 and on DVD and Blu-ray in May and June 2009. The film debuted on British television on 4 March 2010 at 11:00& nbsp;pm on BBC4 as part of Heavy Metal Britannia Weekend.

"Ed Force One" was used again for " The Final Frontier World Tour " in 2011, although this time with a different aeroplane (G-STRX) and altered livery, adopting the artwork of " The Final Frontier ".

Awards

Bandit Rock|Bandit Rock Awards :

2011: Best International Live Act – Iron Maiden

Brit Awards :

2009: Best British Live Act – Iron Maiden

Classic Rock (magazine)| Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards :

2006: Album Of The Year – A Matter of Life and Death (album)|A Matter of Life and Death , Iron Maiden

2006: VIP Award – Rod Smallwood , Iron Maiden

2009: Band of the year – Iron Maiden

Emma-gaala :

2004: The audience vote for Best Foreign Artist – Iron Maiden

2006: The audience vote for Best Foreign Artist – Iron Maiden

Grammy Award s:

2011: Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance – El Dorado (song)|El Dorado

Guitar Center#Hollywood's RockWalk|Hollywood's RockWalk :

2005: RockWalk Of Fame Inductee – Iron Maiden

Ivor Novello Awards :

2002: International Achievement – Iron Maiden

Juno Award s:

2010: DVD of the Year – Iron Maiden: Flight 666 (Sam Dunn and Scott McFadyen)

Kerrang& #33; Awards| Kerrang! Awards :

2005: Kerrang! Hall of Fame – Iron Maiden

Metal Hammer Awards| Metal Hammer Awards :

2004: Best UK Act – Iron Maiden

2008: Best UK Band – Iron Maiden

2008: Icon Award – Eddie the Head|Eddie

2009: Golden Gods Award – Iron Maiden

2009: Best UK Band – Iron Maiden

2011: Best UK Band – Iron Maiden

Metal Storm Awards :

2006: Best Heavy Metal Album – A Matter of Life and Death , Iron Maiden

2009: Best DVD – Iron Maiden: Flight 666

2010: Best Video – Satellite 15... The Final Frontier|The Final Frontier , Iron Maiden

Nordoff-Robbins :

2004: Special Achievement Award – Iron Maiden

Rockbjörnen :

2011: Best Hard Rock Live Act – Iron Maiden

South by Southwest|SXSW Film Festival :

2009: 24 Beats Per Second – Iron Maiden: Flight 666

Band members

;Current members

Steve Harris (musician)|Steve Harris – bass, backing vocals (1975–present)

Dave Murray (musician)|Dave Murray – lead & rhythm guitars (1976–1977, 1978–present)

Adrian Smith – lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals (1980–1990, 1999–present)

Bruce Dickinson – lead vocals (1981–1993, 1999–present)

Nicko McBrain – drums, percussion (1982–present)

Janick Gers – lead & rhythm guitars (1990–present)

;Live members

Michael Kenney – keyboards, synthesiser (1988–present)

;Former members

Paul Day (musician)|Paul Day – lead vocals (1975–1976)

Ron "Rebel" Matthews – drums (1975–1977)

Terry Rance – guitars (1975–1976)

Dave Sullivan – guitars (1975–1976)

Dennis Wilcock – lead vocals (1976–1978)

Bob Sawyer – guitars (1977)

Terry Wapram – guitars (1977–1978)

Tony Moore (musician)|Tony Moore – keyboards (1977)

Thunderstick – drums, percussion (1977)

Doug Sampson – drums, percussion (1977–1979)

Paul Di'Anno – lead vocals (1978–1981)

Paul Cairns – guitars (1979)

Paul Todd – guitars (1979)

Tony Parsons -guitars (1979)

Dennis Stratton – guitars, backing vocals (1979–1980)

Clive Burr – drums, percussion (1979–1982)

Blaze Bayley – lead vocals (1994–1999)

Discography

;Studio albums

Iron Maiden (album)|Iron Maiden (1980)

Killers (Iron Maiden album)|Killers (1981)

The Number of the Beast (album)|The Number of the Beast (1982)

Piece of Mind (1983)

Powerslave (1984)

Somewhere in Time (Iron Maiden album)|Somewhere in Time (1986)

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)

No Prayer for the Dying (1990)

Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden album)|Fear of the Dark (1992)

The X Factor (album)|The X Factor (1995)

Virtual XI (1998)

Brave New World (Iron Maiden album)|Brave New World (2000)

Dance of Death (album)|Dance of Death (2003)

A Matter of Life and Death (album)|A Matter of Life and Death (2006)

The Final Frontier (2010)

Concert tours

Duration	Concert tour	Lineups						Scheduled dates	Dates
Duration	Concert tour	Vocals	Bass	Guitars			Drums	Scheduled dates	Dates
Feb 1980	Metal for Muthas Tour	''' Paul Di'Anno	Steve Harris (musician)	Dave Murray (musician)	Dennis Stratton	N/ A	Clive Burr	30	11
Apr 1980 – Dec 1980	Iron Maiden Tour				Dennis Stratton			92	91
Feb 1981 – Dec 1981	Killer World Tour				Adrian Smith			119	117
Feb 1982 – Dec 1982	The Beast on the Road	Bruce Dickinson						179
May 1983 – Dec 1983	World Piece Tour						Nicko McBrain	141	133
Aug 1984 – Jul 1985	World Slavery Tour							193	190
Sep 1986 – May 1987	Somewhere on Tour							157	152
Apr 1988 – Dec 1988	7th Tour of a 7th Tour							101
Sep 1990 – Sep 1991	No Prayer on the Road				Janick Gers			118	107
Jun 1992 – Nov 1992	Fear of the Dark Tour							65
Mar 1993 – Aug 1993	Real Live Tour							45
Sep 1995 – Sep 1996	The X Factour	Blaze Bayley						138	128
Apr 1998 – Dec 1998	Virtual XI World Tour	Blaze Bayley						98	82
Jul 1999 – Oct 1999	The Ed Hunter Tour	B. Dickinson				A. Smith		31	28
Jun 2000 – Jan 2001	Brave New World Tour							90	81
May 2003 – Aug 2003	''' Give Me Ed... 'Til I'm Dead Tour							56	55
Oct 2003 – Feb 2004	Dance of Death World Tour							53	52
May 2005 – Sep 2005	Eddie Rips Up the World Tour							45	42
Oct 2006 – Jun 2007	A Matter of Life and Death Tour							58
Feb 2008 – Apr 2009	Somewhere Back in Time World Tour							91	90
Jun 2010 – Aug 2011	The Final Frontier World Tour							101	98

Copyright Citations

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