music
Iron Maiden
Since their explosion on the scene in the early '80s Iron Maiden have been hailed as one of the UK's greatest live acts of all time with their fiery brand of music, spectacle and live performance all of which has excited their fans around the planet for over two decades. To date they have almost 75 million records and their name, imagery and artwork has made them the recognised symbols and icons for the metal music genre and its followers.
It all really kicked off in 1979. After three years playing sporadic pub gigs with various line-ups changing around founder, song writer and bass player Steve Harris, by mid-1979 Iron Maiden were Steve, Paul Di'Anno (vocals), Dave Murray (guitar) and Doug Sampson (drums). Teaming up with Rod Smallwood, who still manages them today, they began to undertake a widening gig circuit including London's legendary Marquee Club. Following a sold out show there in early October, EMI Records became very interested and by November the band had a major worldwide recording contract.
At the beginning of the following year Dennis Stratton came into the band as second guitar and Doug Sampson, who found it difficult handling the ever increasing band schedule, was replaced by Clive Burr. The band embarked on their first 'Metal For Muthas' UK headline tour. Their first single 'Running Free' peaked at No. 34 in the UK charts, while their debut self-titled album entered the UK charts at No. 4, following a February UK tour supporting Judas Priest. After an immensely successful European Tour with Kiss took them all round the continent for the first time, Dennis Stratton was replaced with Adrian Smith.
In 1981 the album 'Killers' was released, the first of many to be produced by Martin Birch. After their first headlining European tour Paul Di'Anno left the band and was replaced by Bruce Dickinson.
Iron Maiden hit the UK top 10 singles chart for the first time in 1982 when 'Run To The Hills' went to No. 7 in the charts, while the subsequent album - 'Number Of The Beast' - debuted at No. 1 (their first of four No. 1 UK albums).
Despite the success, Clive Burr left the band in 1983, replaced by Nicko McBrain in time for 'Piece Of Mind' and the accompanying 'World Piece' tour. The touring continued the following year when the release of 'Powerslave' kicked off the 11 month, 26 country 'World Slavery' tour which featured a stop at the inaugural Rock In Rio, and four nights at Los Angeles' Long Beach Arena – recorded as the 'Live After Death' album.
The albums 'Somewhere Back In Time' (1986) and 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son' (1988) as well as the accompanying global treks continued the band's '80s golden age. But by 1990 Smith quit, replaced by Janick Gers. Three years later – following 1992's 'Fear Of The Dark' album and subsequent Real Live Tour, Dickinson followed suit.
With Blaze Bayley on lead vocals, the group released 1995's 'The X Factor' – which was accompanied by their first South African shows – and 'Virtual XI' (1998).
In 1999 became a six-piece when Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith rejoined the band, reintroduced to the fans on the 'Ed Hunter' tour, which coincided with the release of their first computer game of the same name.
With new producer Kevin Shirley, the expanded line-up recorded 'Brave New World' (2000), 'Dance Of Death' (2003), and 'A Matter Of Life And Death' (2006), with the reinvigorated creativity matched by ever-growing tours.
This culminated with the Somewhere Back In Time World Tour in 2008. The tour was a massive stage production based heavily upon the band's legendary World Slavery Tour from 1985, the first leg of which was easily their most ambitious and groundbreaking touring venture yet and something that no other band had ever attempted in touring history. The first leg saw the band fly 75 000km around the world, visiting 21 cities in 11 countries in the course of less than seven weeks in a specially converted Boeing 757-200 airliner carrying all the band, crew and 12 tons of stage equipment and production to India, Australia, Japan, North and South America before finishing in Canada.
This first leg of the tour was captured in the film 'Flight 666', released in 2009. In that same year, Iron Maiden were honoured by the Brit Awards for the very first time, being crowned Best British Live Act, ahead of Coldplay, The Verve and Elbow - and the film won the best music documentary award at SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.