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Iron Maiden

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Performers and composers

   Iron Maiden
   From left to right : Adrian Smith, Steve Harris, Bruce Dickinson, Dave
   Murray, Janick Gers, Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden in 2000)
   From left to right : Adrian Smith, Steve Harris, Bruce Dickinson, Dave
   Murray, Janick Gers, Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden in 2000)
   Background information
   Origin East London, England
   Genre(s) Heavy metal
   New Wave of British Heavy Metal
   Years active 1975—present
   Label(s) EMI
   Associated
   acts Blaze
   A.S.A.P.
   Wolfsbane,
   Paul Di'Anno
   Website http://www.ironmaiden.com
   Members
   Bruce Dickinson
   Dave Murray
   Adrian Smith
   Janick Gers
   Steve Harris
   Nicko McBrain
   Former members
   Clive Burr
   Paul Di'Anno
   Blaze Bayley
   Dennis Stratton
   Doug Sampson
   Paul Cairns
   Paul Todd
   Dave Mac
   Tony Parsons
   Dennis Wilcock
   Terry Wapram
   Thunderstick
   Tony Moore
   Ron Matthews
   Bob Sawyer
   Terry Rance
   Paul Day
   Dave Sullivan

   Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from East London. Formed in
   1975 by bassist Steve Harris, previously of Gypsy's Kiss and Smiler,
   Maiden have sold over 70 million albums world-wide. Iron Maiden has so
   far released 14 studio albums, four ' best of' compilations, nine live
   albums, and four boxed sets. The band won the Ivor Novello Award for
   international achievement in 2002.

   Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie, is a perennial fixture in the band's
   horror-influenced album cover art, as well as in live shows. Eddie was
   drawn by Derek Riggs until 1992, but has had various incarnations by
   numerous artists, the most notable being Melvyn Grant. Eddie is also
   featured in a first-person shooter video game and best of album - Ed
   Hunter - as well as numerous books, graphic comics and band-related
   merchandise.

   The band has headlined several major events in its career, notably Rock
   In Rio, Ozzfest alongside Black Sabbath, Donington's famous " Monsters
   of Rock", " Download" Festivals and the " Reading and Leeds Festivals."

History

   The road from formation to the present started on Christmas Day 1975
   shortly after bassist Steve Harris formed his own band after his
   bandmates in the group Smiler rejected many of his original songs.
   Harris attributes the band name to a movie adaptation of The Man in the
   Iron Mask he saw around that time, and so the group was christened
   after the medieval torture device.

   Harris and guitarist Dave Murray remain the longest surviving members
   of Iron Maiden. The band had twelve different line-ups in the 1970s,
   paying their dues on the mostly punk club circuit in London's rough
   East End while struggling to form a stable lineup of band members.
   Although Iron Maiden was a metal band influenced by Deep Purple, Led
   Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, UFO, Yes, Wishbone Ash, Apocalypse, Queen and
   Judas Priest, the earlier music had undoubted punk overtones. Lacking
   "enough energy or charisma onstage", original vocalist Paul Day became
   replaced by the outlandish Dennis Wilcock, a huge KISS fan who utilized
   fire, make-up and fake blood during live commitments. Wilcock's friend,
   Murray, was invited to join, to the frustration of guitarists Dave
   Sullivan and Terry Rance. This fuelled Harris to temporarily split the
   band in the Winter of 1976, though the group reformed soon after with
   Murray as sole axeman.

   Maiden recruited another guitarist in 1977, Bob Sawyer, who caused a
   rift between Murray and Wilcock, prompting Harris to sack both Murray
   and Sawyer. A disastrous gig at the Bridgehouse in November 1977, with
   a makeshift line-up including Tony Moore on keyboards, Terry Wrapram on
   guitar, and drummer Barry Purkis (later rechristened 'Thunderstick')
   resulted in Harris sacking the entire band. Dave Murray was reinstated
   and Doug Sampson was drafted in as drummer.

   Star Studios in Bow, London played host to three rehearsals a week
   throughout the Summer and Autumn of 1978. A chance meeting at the Red
   Lion pub in Leytonstone evolved into a successful audition for punky
   vocalist Paul Di'Anno. Steve Harris reflected; 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 of 1978, the band recorded one of
   the most famous demos in hard rock history, The Soundhouse Tapes.
   Featuring only three songs, and a four-piece (all subsequent recordings
   featured a five-piece until 1999 when the band became a six-piece) the
   band sold all five thousand copies within weeks. One track found upon
   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".

   For most of 1977 and all of 1978, Murray was the sole six-stringer in
   the band. This changed with the arrival of Paul Cairns in 1979. Shortly
   before going into the studio, Cairns left the band and several other
   guitarists played alongside Murray 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 singing and playing
   guitar for his own band, Urchin. Drummer Doug Sampson was also replaced
   by Clive Burr (who was brought into the band by Stratton), and in
   December 1979, the band landed a major record deal by signing an EMI
   contract at the label's old building in London's Manchester Square.

Initial success

   The eponymous 1980 released Iron Maiden made number 4 on the UK charts
   in its first week of release, and the group became one of the leading
   proponents of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The band went on to
   open for KISS on their 1980 Unmasked tour, as well as opening select
   dates for the legendary Judas Priest. After the KISS tour, Dennis
   Stratton was fired from the band as a result of creative and personal
   differences. The timing was right for the arrival of guitarist Adrian
   Smith.

   Smith brought a sharp, staccato sound to Iron Maiden. His tight,
   experimental style was the complete opposite of Murray's smooth, rapid
   take on blues. One of Iron Maiden's trademarks is the double "twin
   lead" harmonising guitar stylings of Murray and Smith, a style
   pioneered by Wishbone Ash and Thin Lizzy, and developed further by
   Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.

   In 1981, Maiden released its second album, titled Killers. This new
   album contained many tracks that had been penned prior to the release
   of the debut album, but were considered surplus. With songs already
   shaped on the road well in advance, only three new tracks were written
   for the album; "Prodigal Son", "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and
   "Killers".

The next level

   Like many bands, Maiden consumed a large amount of alcohol in their
   early days. However, most members dabbled very little in other drugs,
   with Steve Harris never taking them at all. The exception was vocalist
   Paul Di'Anno, who demonstrated 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 replaced Di'Anno with former
   Samson vocalist Bruce Dickinson. Legendary DJ Tommy Vance had told
   Dickinson not to join the band – advice which was ignored. Dickinson's
   debut with Iron Maiden was 1982's The Number of the Beast, an album
   that claimed the band their first ever UK 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 and Australia. The tour's US leg was marred (or perhaps
   promoted) by controversy stemming from an American right-wing political
   pressure group that claimed Iron Maiden was a Satanic group because of
   the album's title track, ostensibly concerning a nightmare Steve Harris
   suffered. Iron Maiden members' attempts to deflect the criticism failed
   to dampen persistent accusations. A group of Christian activists
   destroyed the band's records (along with those of Ozzy Osbourne) by
   burning them in a large fire. However, these accusations of Satanism
   were largely based on misinterpretation of the song, or fear of the
   aggressive, energetic nature of the music. Iron Maiden's current
   drummer, Nicko McBrain, is a born-again Christian, and is happy to play
   the song, which he sees as a warning against Satanism.

   On the same tour, producer Martin Birch was involved in a car accident
   with a group of church-goers. Coincidentally, the bill for the repair
   came to £ 666, a figure which Birch refused to pay, instead opting for
   a higher amount.

   Actor Patrick McGoohan was accommodating when a request was made to
   allow the band to use a spoken intro from the cult TV series, The
   Prisoner, in which McGoohan was the lead actor, producer and series
   writer. McGoohan was a big name in 1982, and Iron Maiden manager Rod
   Smallwood was nervous about making the request. The conversation
   between McGoohan and Smallwood allegedly went:

          McGoohan: "What did you say the name of the band was again?"
          Smallwood: "Iron Maiden"
          McGoohan: "A rock band, you say...do it!"

   Before heading back into the studio in 1983, they replaced drummer
   Clive Burr with Nicko McBrain and went on to release four albums which
   went multi-platinum world-wide: the dark and ultra-heavy Piece of Mind,
   featuring "Flight of Icarus" and "The Trooper" (1983), Powerslave
   featuring "2 Minutes to Midnight", "Aces High", and "Rime of the
   Ancient Mariner" (1984), the double-live album Live After Death (1985),
   and the experimental, Adrian Smith-led Somewhere in Time (1986)
   featuring "Wasted Years."

   Satanic accusations persisted - there was a lot of controversy about
   occult messages in many bands' music at the time, normally discovered
   by playing the offending track backwards. On the Piece of Mind album, a
   backward message was placed at the start of the track "Still Life" as a
   kind of internal joke. Reverse this track, and you will hear drummer
   McBrain clearly saying "Hmm, Hmmm, what ho sed de t'ing wid de t'ree
   bonce. Don't meddle wid t'ings you don't understand", followed by a
   belch. McBrain later admitted this to be his "famous" impression of Idi
   Amin Dada. It translates to the following: "'What ho,' said the monster
   with the three heads, 'don't meddle with things you don't understand.'"

   Also on the Piece of Mind album, renowned author Frank Herbert came
   into conflict with the band when they wanted to record a song named
   after the book Dune. Not only did Herbert refuse to allow the song to
   be called "Dune", he also refused to allow a spoken quotation from the
   book to appear as the track's intro. Bass player Steve Harris's request
   was met with a stern reply from the agent: "No. Because Frank Herbert
   doesn't like rock bands, particularly heavy rock bands, and especially
   rock bands like Iron Maiden". This statement was backed up with a legal
   threat, and eventually the song was renamed " To Tame a Land" and
   released in 1983.

Experimentation

   In 1986, the band tried a different approach for their sixth studio
   album, titled Somewhere in Time. This was not a concept album, though
   it was themed loosely around the idea of time travel. It featured for
   the first time in the band's history synthetics for the bass/strings
   and for the guitars to add textures and layers to the sound. Though
   considered different from the norm of Maiden sounds, it charted well
   across the world and is still regarded a part of Iron Maiden's 'golden
   era' (from The Number of the Beast through Seventh Son of a Seventh
   Son).

   This experimentation lead to the more refined Seventh Son of a Seventh
   Son follow-up album. Adding to Maiden's experimentation, it was a
   concept album featuring a story about a mythical child who possessed
   clairvoyant powers based on the book Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card..

   For the first time, the band used keyboards on a recording (as opposed
   to guitar synths on the previous release). In the opinion of some
   critics, this produced a more accessible release. The band also
   headlined the annual Monsters of Rock Festival for the first time this
   year. The 1990 edition of the Guinness Book of Records contains the
   following entry:

     "Largest PA system: On Aug 20th 1988 at the Castle Donington
     "Monsters of Rock" Festival a total of 360 Turbosound cabinets
     offering a potential 523 kW of programme power, formed the largest
     front-of-house PA. The average Sound Pressure Level at the mixing
     tower was 118 dB, peaking at a maximum of 124 dB during Iron
     Maiden's set. It took five days to set up the system."

   To close off their 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, along with a part of "Listen With
   Nicko!"

Decline

   For the first time in seven years, the band had a line-up change with
   the departure of guitarist/backing vocalist Adrian Smith. Former Gillan
   guitarist Janick Gers was chosen to replace Smith, and in 1990 they
   released the raw sounding album No Prayer for the Dying. This album
   went back to the heavy style of the band. This album featured one last
   song co-penned by Adrian Smith with Bruce Dickinson, "Hooks in You",
   despite Smith's having not been involved in the band after Seventh Son
   of a Seventh Son. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson also began experimenting
   with a raspier style of singing that was a marked departure from his
   trademark operatic style. Nonetheless, the band obtained their first
   (and to date, only) number one hit single "Bring Your Daughter to the
   Slaughter". 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, thus encouraging fans to buy several copies. 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. The song was originally penned and recorded by Bruce
   Dickinson for the soundtrack to A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream
   Child.

   Before the release of No Prayer for the Dying, Bruce Dickinson
   officially launched a solo career alongside Iron Maiden, with Gers as
   guitarist. 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 had several songs which were popular amongst fans, such
   as the title track and "Afraid to Shoot Strangers".

   In 1993 Bruce Dickinson left the band to further pursue his solo
   career. However, Bruce agreed to stay with the band for a farewell tour
   and two live albums (later re-released in 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 1975 to
   1984, and was released after Bruce had left the band. He played his
   farewell show with Iron Maiden on August 28, 1993. The show was filmed,
   broadcast by the BBC, and released on video under the name Raising
   Hell. Magician Simon Drake performed grisly illusions on the
   performance, culminating in Dickinson's "death" in an Iron Maiden.

Winds of change

   The band auditioned hundreds of vocalists, both unknown and famous
   (among them Doogie White of Rainbow), and even offered the position to
   James LaBrie of Dream Theatre but he declined. They finally chose Blaze
   Bayley in 1994, formerly of Wolfsbane. Bayley had an altogether
   different style to his predecessor, which received a mixed reception
   amongst fans. After a three year hiatus, Maiden returned in 1995 with
   the 70+ minute-long album The X Factor. The album was generally seen as
   having dark, brooding songs that seemed more melancholy and
   introspective than usual. Chief songwriter Steve Harris was going
   through serious personal problems at the time with the break-up of his
   marriage and the loss of his father and many feel the album's sound is
   a reflection of this. The 11-minute epic "Sign of the Cross", opening
   the album, is perhaps the stand-out track, and even Bayley's detractors
   tend to recognise it as a classic. The first concert supporting the new
   album took place on September 28, 1995 in Jerusalem, Israel.

   The band spent most of 1996 on the road before returning to the studio
   for Virtual XI (1998). The album contained few notable tracks, with
   only "The Clansman" and "Futureal" surviving on future tours, and chart
   positions were observably lower. One of the most criticized tracks was
   the single "The Angel and the Gambler", which was all that many people
   heard of the album before deciding not to buy it. Virtual XI failed to
   reach the one million mark in worldwide sales for the first time, and
   thus sounded Bayley's death knell.

Reunion

   In February 1999, Bayley left the band, apparently by mutual consent.
   The main reason for his departure was his inconsistent onstage
   performance - Blaze's voice was not up to the rigours of a full-on
   Maiden tour. At the same time, the band shocked their fans when they
   announced that both Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith were
   rejoining the band, which meant the classic 1980s lineup was back in
   place - plus Janick Gers, who would remain. Iron Maiden now had three
   guitarists for the first time, and a successful reunion tour followed.

The new millennium

   In 2000, a more progressive period began for the band, commencing with
   the release of the Brave New World album. The world tour that followed
   ended in January 2001 with a show at the famous Rock in Rio festival in
   Brazil, where Iron Maiden played to an impressive crowd of 250,000.
   2003's Dance of Death followed, then in 2005, Iron Maiden announced a
   tour to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the release of their first
   album and the 30th anniversary of their formation. The "Number of the
   Beast" single was re-released, which went straight to number three in
   the UK charts, and the band hit the road to support the 2004 DVD
   entitled The Early Days, playing only older material.

Ozzfest incident

   At Iron Maiden's last Ozzfest performance (August 20th 2005 at the
   Hyundai Pavilion at Glen Helen in San Bernardino, CA), the band's sound
   was turned off several times, eggs were thrown towards the stage, and
   chants of "Ozzy" were shouted through the PA system. This was the work
   of Sharon Osbourne, who took to the stage and proceeded to call Bruce
   Dickinson "a prick" after they performed their encore, followed by a
   large portion of the crowd booing her off the stage. She officially
   admitted this in a scathing letter, accusing Bruce of heckling her
   husband and signing it "The Real Iron Maiden", although claiming not to
   have any personal vendetta against the band.

   The band completed its summer tour by headlining the Reading and Leeds
   weekend festivals on the 26th and 28th August 2005, playing classics
   from the first four studio albums to a combined audience of
   approximately 120,000. The final gig took place in London at the famous
   Hammersmith Odeon (now Apollo) in early September 2005. For the second
   time, the band played a charity gig for former drummer Clive Burr.

   A live album entitled Death on the Road was released on August 30 2005.

A Matter of Life and Death

   Iron Maiden's 14th studio album named A Matter of Life and Death was
   released worldwide on the 28th August 2006 (5th September for the US
   and 29th August for Canada). It was preceded by the " The Reincarnation
   of Benjamin Breeg" single on August 14. The album was once again
   produced by Kevin Shirley, and is the longest Iron Maiden album to
   date. The album is not a concept album, but six songs directly revolve
   around war and four religion (some overlapping takes place) and these
   two themes shade every piece of the album; this is likely Maiden's most
   serious lyrical effort. The music is often described as a cross between
   Dance of Death, The X Factor, and Bruce Dickinson's late nineties solo
   material, and seven of the songs could qualify as epics by general
   metal standards.

   Anticipating the release, the official website released two songs in
   streaming audio on August 10 and 11. The album topped the charts in ten
   countries, and entered the American charts in the Top 10 for the first
   time since album sales could be properly counted (ie 1991).

   There is currently a degree of controversy going on within the Iron
   Maiden fan community regarding the tour in support of A Matter of Life
   and Death, with Trivium supporting, as the band is playing every song
   off of the album, with a small amount of older material at the end.
   However, Iron Maiden strongly stand by their decision to have the tour
   set up as it is, as they feel that A Matter of Life and Death is some
   of the best material they have put out to date.

   The album also won the 'Classic Rock 2006 - Album of the Year Award',
   voted for by the magazine's fans, which further backs Iron Maiden's
   preference to do the whole album live.

New company

   In November 2006, Iron Maiden and manager Rod Smallwood annouced that
   they were cutting off their 27 year old ties with Sanctuary Music and
   have started a new company named Phantom Music Management.

   Rod Smallwood said, 'I formed Sanctuary in 1979 and named it after the
   Maiden song, so it's a bit of a wrench leaving after all these years.
   However in the latter stages of my career I want to be able to fully
   concentrate on and enjoy managing Maiden without being distracted by
   other areas of the business. As you all know we have an awful lot going
   on and we have many exciting plans for the future. The forthcoming
   European Tour will be incredible and l want to be at as many of the
   concerts as possible to enjoy the feeling l think you can only really
   get at a Maiden show! My new company is called Phantom and no prizes
   for guessing where that came from. Don't worry - it's Maiden business
   as usual!! 6.7 million albums in 2000 alone.' Upon release in the USA
   Singles chart, the single Different World debuted at number 8. It is
   due for release in the UK early January 2007.

Legacy

   Iron Maiden were ranked #24 in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard
   Rock", and in Kerrang! magazine were ranked as the most important band
   of the last 25 years. They were ranked fourth on MTV's "Top 10 Greatest
   Heavy Metal Bands of All Time".

Discography

Studio Albums

     * Iron Maiden (1980)
     * Killers (1981)
     * The Number of the Beast (1982)
     * Piece of Mind (1983)
     * Powerslave (1984)
     * Somewhere in Time (1986)
     * Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
     * No Prayer for the Dying (1990)
     * Fear of the Dark (1992)
     * The X Factor (1995)
     * Virtual XI (1998)
     * Brave New World (2000)
     * Dance of Death (2003)
     * A Matter of Life and Death (2006)

Audio

     * "Phantom of the Opera" Listen  – From the debut album, featuring
       Paul Di'Anno on vocals.
     * " Run to the Hills" Listen  – A top ten hit in the UK, and vocalist
       Bruce Dickinson's debut.
     * "Caught Somewhere in Time" Listen  – This clip showcases the band's
       trademark twin guitar harmonization/"galloping" bass.
     * "Sign of the Cross" Listen  – The band's third recording vocalist,
       Blaze Bayley, singing on the opening track from The X Factor album.
     * "Brave New World" Listen  – Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith return
       in 2000 to critical acclaim.

Lineup

Current lineup

     * Bruce Dickinson – lead vocals (1981-1993, 1999-present)
     * Dave Murray – guitar (1976-1977;1978-present)
     * Janick Gers – guitar (1990-present)
     * Adrian Smith – guitar, backing vocals (1980-1989, 1999-present)
     * Steve Harris – bass, keyboards, backing vocals (1975-present)
     * Nicko McBrain – drums (1983-present)

Original lineup (1975)

     * Paul Day – lead vocals
     * Dave Sullivan – guitar (replaced by Dave Murray after only two
       months)
     * Terry Rance – guitar
     * Steve Harris – bass
     * Ron Matthews – drums

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