Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden,unlike other bands have managed to keep their lives private to an extent. Aside from their music, you would expect to hear of the band’s vigorous acts of violence or excessive drug use as is typical of rock bands.

You can view the lyrics, alternate interprations and sheet music for Iron Maiden's El Dorado at Lyrics.org.

Instead, they have gained a reputation for diverting from music into businesses such as their trooper-premium beers which they have been producing till date, and their video games, released in honor of two of their singles.

Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden

Their music however stills stands as the backbone of their groundbreaking success.

The band’s style has remained unaltered despite the loud tension surrounding the rise of new genres and new artists.

In 2020, the members of Iron Maiden included the following:

  • Paul Bruce Dickson
  • David Michael Murray
  • Stephen Percy Harris
  • Adrian Frederick Smith
  • Michael Henry McBrain (Nicko)
  • Janick Robert Gers

History/Formation

The band was formed on December 25 1975 by former Smiler band member, Steve Harris (bassist). He named it Iron Maiden, after a novel written by Alexandre Dumas.

The band’s line-up was very unstable during the early stages with members such as Bob Sawyer, Barry Purkins, and Dennis Wilcock joining. Steve Harris recruited guitarist Dave Murray, drummer Doug Sampson, and vocalist Paul Di’Anno from 1975-1978. The three became the first stable line-up for the band.

The career of the band began in New Year’s Eve 1978, when the group recorded and demoed at the Spaceward Studios in Cambridge and handed it over to a heavy metal club Bandwagon Heavy Metal Soundhouse with Neal Kay, as their manager.

The band secured a major record deal in December 1979 with EMI.

Doug Sampson had quit the band due to some health issues and was replaced by Clive Burr (Late) in December 1979.

The band had their first compilationwhich they released on the 15th of February 1980. In mid-1980, the band released their self-titled album which made it to the top charts in the United States.

They went on the Kiss tour in the UK after which Dennis Stratton was sacked and replaced by Adrian Smith.

They released another album in 1981, titled Killers which did not succeed as much as they expected. They hired a new producer Martin Birch who worked with the band for over fifteen years of their career.

The successes of the band sailed through 1981. Paul Di’Anno was dismissed for his excessive use of drugs during the Killer tour and was fired right after.

Bruce Dickinson was hired in September 1981 and began to tour with the band immediately.

In 1982, the band was facing various accusations of portraying demonic artistic moves in their records that received very intense opposition. This however did not prevent the band’s publicity from tripling. Clive Burr was dismissed from the band around this period and was replaced by Michael Henry McBrain (Nicko McBrain).

Between 1986 and 1989, the band had started experimenting with different styles of music which was evident in the album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son in 1988.

That experiment shoved the English band back to its original style and they never looked back. After this album, the band went on a hiatus and later reunited to record and release The First Ten Years in April 1990.

Adrian Smith left the band after their regroup because of a discord between him and Steve Harris and was replaced by Janick Gers.

In 1993, Bruce Dickinson left the band after recording two live albums with the band and was replaced by Blaze Bayley.

The band took another break from shows and recordings for two years and returned in 1995 when they released their album The X Factor, which won the Album of the Year in two countries, Germany and France.

Blaze’s years with the band ended when he left in January 1999 during the Virtual XI album tour.

Dickinson and Adrian Smith returned to the band the same year before the band’s world tour in January 2001 which was a huge success.

The band’s line-up barely changed from that time and for two whole decades, there have been countless albums and tours released and embarked on by this team.

In 2020, Iron Maidens announced a release of a live album and are still working on new projects for the upcoming years.

Facts about Iron Maiden

They were nominated for the Best Metal Performance in 1994 and 2001, and finally won the award in 2011 with their song El Dorado.

They won the Ivor Novello Award for International achievement in 2002.

They were also nominated for the Kerrang! Hall of Fame, in 2003 and were inducted fully in 2005.

2006 proved well as the group swept away the Metal Storm Awards for Album of the Year with Matter of Life and Death. They also earned 9 awards from the 14 nominations they received from Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards. 

They were named the Best British Live Act in 2009 by BRIT Awards. In total, Iron Maiden has as of this writing, won 41 nominations and 29 awards from eleven major award companies.

The group has released their own video games which have been named after some of their singles.

The band once played at a wedding they thought was a disco in 1984.

Vocalist Bruce Dickson has special skills in flying planes. He piloted a plane that took the whole band to tour in Australia and New Zealand.

By October 2013, the band was reported to have performed at more than 2000 live shows.

Top Songs by Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden has impacted several different artists and bands in the heavy metal genre and are widely recognized for having longstanding hits that are still appreciated. Here are some of the band’s most famous releases:

“2 Minutes to Midnight”

“Aces High”

“Be Quick or Be Dead”

“Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter”

“Can I Play With Madness”

“Different World”

“El Dorado”

“Empire of the Clouds”

“Fear of the Dark”

“Flight of Icarus”

“From Here to Eternity”

“Futureal”

“Hallowed Be Thy Name”

“Holy Smoke”

“Infinite Dreams”

“Lord of the Flies”

“Man on the Edge”

“Out of the Silent Planet”

“Purgatory”

“Rainmaker”

“Run to the Hills”

“Running Free”

“Sanctuary”

“Satellite 15… The Final Frontier”

“Speed of Light”

“Stratego”

“The Angel and the Gambler”

“The Clairvoyant”

“The Evil That Men Do”

“The Number of the Beast”

“The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg”

“The Trooper”

“The Wicker Man”

“The Writing on the Wall”

“Twilight Zone”

“Virus”

“Wasted Years”

“Wasting Love”

“Wildest Dreams”

“Women in Uniform”

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