Biography
In 1999, Iron
Maiden is a household-name in every part of the world.
After 20 years and almost 50 million album sales, Maiden
is now rightly regarded as the 'classic' rock band in
every sense: modern masters of that most emotionally
extreme and technically dazzling form of rock music - the
black sheep they call heavy metal. A genre Maiden single-handedly
reinvented for the Eighties, when they released their
first single, the punk-metal collision, 'Running Free',
and their uncompromisingly raw debut album, 'Iron Maiden',
in 1980. And a genre which is once again currently
enjoying a vast renaissance worldwide with Maiden very
much involved as always.
Back in the early eighties, Maiden was the band at the
forefront of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal - a
short-lived media-led phenomenon that would propel them
onto the world stage. "People always used to call us
punk-metal when we first started getting reviewed in the
music papers in Britain," bassist and founding
member, Steve Harris, recalls with a rueful smile. "But
I think that was partly to do with the fact that our
singer then, Paul Di'Anno, had quite short hair and the
fact that we used to play so fast. We used to come across
as really aggressive. But that was never really a punk
thing to me - that was a pure metal thing. We used to
frighten the life out of the punks·"
Despite receiving no radio play whatsoever, 'Running Free'
their debut single leapt into the UK Top 40. When the
band were then offered their first appearance on Top Of
The Pops, the UK's biggest weekly TV chart show, Maiden
refused to do it unless they were allowed to play live -
something no artist had done on Top Of The Pops since The
Who demolished the studio during a performance of their 'Quadrophenia'
hit, '5.15', in 1972. The BBC execs were sceptical but
eventually relented and such precocity was rewarded when
their debut album, 'Iron Maiden', was released a few
weeks later and immediately crashed into the UK albums
chart at No.4!
It was this take-no-prisoners attitude the band started
with, and still adopt to this day, which has served them
so well throughout their career. Since then, every one of
the 11 studio albums and three live albums that Maiden
have released have been major Top 10 successes both at
home in the UK and more than 25 other countries around
the world, including over 20 hit singles - a fact that
sometimes gets overlooked as so few of them have ever
been played on radio - and no less than five consecutive
million-selling albums in America.
Along the way, despite numerous line-up changes the
quintessential Maiden sound - the rumbling-earth bass,
searchlight guitars, spatter-gun drums and lion's roar
vocals - remained mercifully undimmed throughout. Their
second album "Killers" followed in 1981 which
saw the band paying first time tour visits to America, Canada
and Japan. The album achieved the band gold album status
around the world but at the end of the tour singer Paul
Di Anno left heralding the arrival of Bruce Dickinson.
1982 was to exceed all expectations for the new line up.
After a couple of warm up shows with Bruce the band went
in to record the legendary "Number of The Beast"
album. This blew away all competition to enter the UK
Chart at No.1 while the classic Maiden track,"Run To
The Hills", got the band their first UK Top 10
single. This success was mirrored across Europe and also
the American charts. The gruelling 180 date , 8 month 'Beast
on The Road Tour' again broke new ground for the band as
they did shows in Australia and New Zealand and saw the
band headline their first sold out US Show at the New York
Palladium proving a portent of things to come. Once again
there was a band casualty with Clive Burr ,the bands
drummer, leaving to make way for the now infamous drummer/prankster/headcase
Nicko McBrain.
The band immediately started work on Piece Of Mind which
they recorded in Nassauin the Bahamas The album went in
the UK charts at No.3 when the band started their "World
Piece Tour" in the UK. As before there was to be no
let up in pace and Maiden found themselves playing to
larger and larger audiences selling out everywhere and
gathering more momentum in America with their first - of
many - full scale arena headline tour. Powerslave was
recorded in Nassau in 1985. The "Slavery Tour"
was to give fans a massive stageshow of lights and
production featuring Eddie, the bands hugely popular
mascot and icon, now being transformed from a walk on
part to a huge twenty foot mechanised monster. The
groundbreaking tour started behind the Iron Curtain in Poland
which was the first time a major band had taken full
western production behind the Iron Curtain. By the third
week of the tour the album itself was released , going
straight in the UK Album Charts at No. 2.
The band found themselves breaking records everywhere
playing the Rock In Rio Festival to 200,000 fans, selling
out Radio City Hall in NewYork five nights running (illness
preventing it from reaching seven) and the first act ever
to sell out Long Beach Arena (Capacity 13000) for 4
consecutive nights. This Long Beach success was captured
in the bands next release "Live After Death",
Maidens first Double Live album and video of the same
name. The Live album charted at No.2 and the video went
to No.1 in the video charts and remained there for some
time.These releases are still regarded by many as one of
the best live albums/videos of all time.
"Somewhere in Time" was released in September
1986, this time recorded in both Nassau and Munich. This
album marked a slight change in their style with the
inclusion of keyboards for the first time but in no way
diluted Maidens classic style. The first single released
off the album "Wasted Years" reached the UK top
twenty and was a track written about the rigours of their
previous tours. The album continued to go gold or
platinum in practically every major territory. The live
show as before was a dazzling spectacle. The highlight
featured Eddie , this time an understage inflatable and
portrayed as a cyborg from the cover artwork, lifting the
band off the stage with his two hands and sending Nicko
and drumkit skywards balanced on his head. "Somewhere
On Tour" again started in Eastern Europe and
included six sell out nights at the Hammersmith Odeon
before again spending the spring of 87 touring through
the US and finishing in Japan some eight months later.
1988 brought "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son",
Maidens' first and only concept album. This wasn't the
original idea at the outset, but in writing and followed
by rehearsals it seemed the material had a common theme
running through out. The first single "Can I Play
With Madness" went to No. 3 in the UK Charts and was
followed by 3 other singles from the album all reaching
the Top 10 - quite a feat without Radio support. The
"Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour" saw them begin
in the US. The high spot of the tour was to be the
headlining of the legendary "Monsters Of Rock
Festival" at Castle Donington which with support by
the likes of Kiss, Dave Lee Roth, Guns and Roses and
stablemates Helloween, they played to a all time record
breaking 107,000 fans. The "Monsters" festival
also had repeated success in Europe after which the band
continued back to the UK to complete the tour with sell
out shows at Wembley Arena for 2 nights the Birmingham
NEC , 2 nights and 4 nights at the Hammersmith Odeon.
The band had previously decided to take the whole of 1989
off however, unable to rest, Bruce and Adrian spent their
time recording their first solo albums and November 1989
saw the group team up again for the launch of the "Maiden
England" video. In January 1990 work had barely
begun on the "No Prayer For The Dying" album
when Adrian decided to leave the band, this being their
first personnel change for some seven years. Bruce
meanwhile had been working through the previous summer
with ex-Gillan and White Spirit guitarist, Janick Gers
who after auditioning was invited to join.
The new line-up recorded the album in the UK at Steve's
own Barnyard studio. Released October 1st the album
entered the UK Chart at No.2. This album was to finally
bring the band their first elusive No.1 single with
"Bring Your Daughter to The Slaughter" going
straight to No.1 for Christmas 1990.
Work on "Fear on The Dark" started early in
1992 and Eddie went through a transformation as for the
first time artist Derek Riggs did not supply the cover
art but instead the band took a more sinister image drawn
by Melvin Grant. "Fear Of The Dark" was to be
the bands third No.1 album and with an elaborate show the
band hit the road again starting this time in Scandanavia.
Again the opportunity to play Castle Donington came to
the band. The show was filmed and later released on video
while several other shows on the tour were being recorded
for a possible live album. Finishing in Japan in November
the band returned unaware of what was lurking around the
corner.
In March 1993 Bruce announced his departure feeling he
had got to saturation point with other projects and the
band set to work on finding a replacement while doing a
final "Real Live Tour" tour with Bruce. The
band visited Moscow for the first time and received an
amazing reception and went on to complete 44 shows across
Europe. Bruces final show was to be a live pay-per-view
televised spectacular "Raising Hell" featuring
the magician Simon Drake performing grisly tricks
interspersed with live performance by the band. This
included Simon playing a guitar solo with guitarist Dave
Murray severed hands and Bruce being decapitated!
After an intensive search Blaze Bayley of Wolfsbane was
announced as Maidens new vocalist. The band and Blaze had
already crossed paths as Wolfsbane had supported Maiden
on 1990 UK Tour. This new partnership started work on the
darkly smouldering "X Factor" album , again
recorded at Steve's Barnyard Studios but with Steve
himself co-producing it with Nigel Green. The X Factour
started prior to the album launch in October 1995 with
shows in new territories Israel and South Africa. The
album itself went to No.8 in the album chart while the
band continued to tour comprehensively in Europe and the
UK, highlighted with the bands Brixton Academy show
before they continued throughout Western Europe, America,
Japan and headlining many major festivals including the
"Monsters of Rock" in Sao Paulo to 50,000 fans.
1997 saw work start on Virtual XI, aptly named, this
being their Eleventh Studio album. The cover artwork
supplied by Melvin Grant depicted a boy watching a
football match through a Virtual Reality headset while
being surrounded by Armageddon and Eddie. This being a
comment on technology taking over everything and the
concern society shares as we approach the Millennium.
This sentiment was also reflected in the material on the
album with tracks such as "Futureal" and "When
Two Worlds Collide". The football theme was carried
through as Maiden, always being massive football
supporters, decided to promote the album launch with
their own Football tour, 1998 being World Cup year. The
band set to work on putting together a dream team of
world professionals such as Paul Gascoigne, Ian Wright,
Faustino Asprilla, Marc Overmars, Patrik Viera and Stuart
Pearce, Stuart being an immense Maiden fan. A Virtual XI
team which featured ex-England stalwarts Terry Butcher,
Tony Woodcock, Neil Webb and Paul Mariner toured
throughout Europe playing games against teams with
similarly famous names like Anders Limpar in Sweden,
Gentile and Altobelli in Italy and even meeting up with
the great Eusebio in Portugal.
The first single "The Angel and The Gambler"
featured an amazing video, seeing the band placed in a
completely computer generated environment depicting Eddie
in his new guise along with characters that appear in
"Ed Hunter", the forthcoming computer game.
Their successful nine month "Virtual World Tour"
saw them in Europe, Japan, North America and finally South
America.
And so to now ..... January 1999.
With the departure of Blaze Bayley, the return of both Bruce
Dickinson and Adrian Smith brings a new twist to the
Maiden tale. Now a six piece with a formidable three
guitar onslaught, plans are currently taking shape for a
Spring release of "Ed Hunter", touring in July/August/Sept.,
recording a studio album at the end of the year and a
full World Tour in 2000.
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