HISTORY OF THE GROUP
The history from middle of 1975 to 1982
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We're in the middle of 1975 when a bass player called Steve Harris set up a band with Hard Rock influences. He called it Iron Maiden. But he didn't know that he was creating one of the Greatest Heavy Metal band. The name "Iron Maiden" became inspired on a film called "The Man In The Iron Mask".
The band was set up in the grizzled streets of London's East End. London, at the time, was the centre of the musical business. "Punk" was the most popular kind of music. Harris counted on Dennis Wilcock (Steve's ex-band singer: Smiler) which recommended Harris to invite Dave Murray to join Maiden. Beforehand, Dave had done some auditions to play with the "Warlock" (Dennis' ex-band).
Six months after joining Maiden, Dave had a hard fight with Wilcock. So he was kicked out! Immediately, he joined the band "Urchin" that was commanded by Adrian Smith. Dave and Adrian have been friends since they were born.
Back to 76, Steve still thought that Dave had to play in Iron Maiden. So he went to see the "Urchin" act. Harris convinced Dave to join Maiden again. It motivated the exit of Wilcock and Thunderstick (drummer). They were replaced by Doug Samson (drums) and Paul Di'Anno (vocals).
The first Iron Maiden concert was at the pub "The Cart & Horses", in Stratford, London. The repertory was composed by songs like "Iron Maiden", "Prowler", "Transylvania", "Innocent Exile" and "Burning Ambition" (single). Di'Anno's opening night was on 31/12/77 at the "Rusking Arms Pub", which is situated in Migh Street North at the London's East End.
At the beginning of 1979, Dave gave a recording tape, which had songs like "Strange World", "Iron Maiden", "Invasion" and "Prowler", to Neil Kay, a known disk jockey specialist in hard rock. He became very surprised with the band's musical quality.
Doug Samson left the band, because he had healthy problems. Clive Burr replaced him. Clive was a young drummer with a great talent and he was very wished by the others bands to play with them.
Rod Smallwood appeared in this year. He still is the band's manager. After he appear, new "workers" appeared too, like Derek Riggs (Eddie pictures painter), Martin Birch and Dave Beasley.
Iron Maiden's first work was the Demo Tapes. The songs were edited at the independent "Rock Hard Records". These known tapes were called "The Soundhouse Tapes".
At the beginning of 80's, Dennis Stratton joined the band. He was the older player, 25. His career on Maiden was very short, only a year, but very productive. He helped to create songs like "Running Free", "Remember Tomorrow" and "Prowler".
EMI put Maiden on air on 21/02/80 playing "alive" at the the "Top Of The Pop's". They played the song "Running Free". The mini concert was transmitted by the BBC channel.
Finally, the Iron Maiden released their first LP, "Iron Maiden", on 14/04/80. Will Malome were the producer. This album is considered a classic in the Heavy Metal genre.
Iron Maiden and others British bands like Saxon or Def Leppard contributed to the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). This title was created by the journalists at that time.
Dennis was fired by the band. The officials reasons say that he wanted to change the Maiden's musical genre: Heavy Metal. Although he told in a interview that he had a fight with Rod about personals problems. Adrian Smith replaced him. He has a long career playing with Maiden.
The monstrous Eddie's appearance, created by Derek Riggs, was the "key" for Maiden got known faster. Hundreds of Headbangers started to decorate field jackets and T-shirts with the differents Eddie's illustrations. His contribution to the Iron Maiden's success was enormous, overcoat it was an authentic marketing handling through images. His creation was a tribute to Dave "Lights" Beasley, the Maiden's light engineer.
The name Eddie The Head appeared from a joke which was very known in the London's East End at the time. It said: a woman gave birth to a boy very healthy, but he had a problem, he was only a head! The doctor said to the mother not to preocupate because in five years her son will have his whole body grown. Five years had passed by, so the Eddie's father entered his room and said: "Son, today is a very important day, it is your birthday and I brought you a present". Eddie's answer: "Oh no, another hat!":)
Riggs decided to create Eddie's full body. It appeared for the first time on the first Iron Maiden's single called "Running Free". I think that Eddie is the most legendary metallic monster of all times!
Back to 1981, the band was Steve Harris, Paul Di'Anno, Clive Burr, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith. They started to record the album "Killers", their second album. At that moment appeared a Maiden's inseparable character along their history. The producer Martin Birch. He was very known because he had produced albums from Deep Purple and Whitesnake.
That was the first year that Iron Maiden started to play in a World Tour. They played 125 concerts, visited Europe, Austria, USA, Canada and Japan, where recorded some dates which were registered as "Maiden Japan", an allusion to the legendary "Made in Japan" from Deep Purple.
At the same year on May, Maiden edited their first official video, "Live At The Rainbow" which had 30 minutes total playing.
On the album's cover, Eddie appears in a terrible scene, with blood-stained axe in his hands, which proves that he murdered one of his victims. The curious detail is that the murder is surrounded by buildings and you can see behind it a red label which is written "Rusking Arms".
Paul Di'Anno was kicked out on autumn. There were many reasons: some people thought that the problem was the different musical genres, others said that Paul wasn't very happy to sing in the band. But the principal reason was the excessive consume of cigarette, drinks and he didn't take care of his voice. So concerts had been cancelled. The band fired Paul. That was a difficult decision because he was an important key for the Maiden's success.
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So Bruce Dickinson joined Maiden on September. He has sung in a band called Samson before joining Iron Maiden. The band calls him Bruce "air ride siren" Dickinson. He had many auditions and one of them was his opening in Holland. Bruce's career as Maiden's singer was very long and too much productive.
"666 The Number Of The Beast". Yes, we're in 1982. Iron Maiden recorded their third LP called "The Number Of The Beast". Maybe it is the best Maiden's album. It was released on 29/03/82 and produced by Martin Birch. Derek Riggs painted Eddie in a diabolic way, reflecting on songs like "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and "Children Of The Damned".
This album won the first place on the British band's albums chart and two singles were in TOP 20 in England. While realizing this album, the band introduced its self at the American market. The World Tour took them to play 180 concerts in Europe, Japan and USA during ten months.
The news were very good to Maiden. They received good criticisms and Clive Burr became the favourite drummer of Hard Rock fans. He was voted the third best drummer in the world at the Readers' Poll from a very important British magazine.
But he left the band. There were many reasons. He was saturated by the hard living on the road and his relations with Steve Harris weren't very good. "All that I can say is that the time which I played in the Iron Maiden were very amusing. I don't have any complaint about it. The band was the right thing at the right moment" Affirmed Clive Burr. He was substituted by Nicko McBrain in 1983.
In the middle of 1983, Maiden released another video called "Video Pieces" with 18 minutes total playing. There are 4 songs in this video. Clive Burr appears in "The Number Of The Beast" and "Run To The Hills". But Nicko McBrain appears in the others 2 songs.
On May in the same year, Iron Maiden released one of their master-pieces "Piece Of Mind". This album received bad and good criticisms. It won the third place in albums chart, It was produced by Martin Birch. The World Tour were composed by 180 concerts during eight months. In this tour, Eddie appeared as a giant monster that walked through the stage.
After a shortly rest, the band released their fifth LP,
"Powerslave". Chart number 2. Produced by Martin Birch. This album contains classics songs like "Aces High" and "2 Minutes To Midnight".
On the album's cover, Eddie appears as a sphinx, maybe one of the best covers painted by Derek Riggs.
The "World Slavery Tour" was the biggest Iron Maiden's digression. It was about 300 concerts during 13 months in 8 countries. "It was an
interesting experience, but we will never repeat it.", said Steve Harris. They played at a Brazilian's rock festival called "Rock In Rio", Hammersmith Odeon in London and Long Beach Arena in Los Angeles
where were recorded their first live album "Live After Death".
From their first concerts in Poland, Yugoslavia and Hungry, was edited another video called "Behind The Iron Curtain" which had 30 minutes total playing.
As the digression ended, all the band were exhausted. The internal problems were bigger. Bruce and Steve had many confronts and decided to take some holidays to rest.
"Live After Death" was produced by the experienced Martin Birch. He had produced the Deep Purple's live album called "Made In Japan". The Maiden's live album was attended by a video which has the same name. The live album's cover shows Eddie as zombie. The album was endowed of many informations about dates, people, equipment and a shortly interview with Martin Birch who explained the recording process.
The rest helped the band to think about their next LP, "Somewhere In Time" in 1986. On the album's cover, Eddie appears as a forthcoming warrior. On the cover's back, inside the CD case, there's a very curious place. Derek Riggs painted the "Rusking Arms", a Bar called "Long Beach Arena", the "Rainbow", the "Ancient Mariner seafood restaurant", the "Phantom Opera House", the "Marquee Club", a movie called "Live After Death", and the clock shows "23:58".
Guitars' synth were used in this album. Between this and the next album, the band realized their fourth official video called "12 Wasted Years". This video shows a band's historical material. It shows images from concerts in Rusking Arms, Marquee, a short interview with Neil Kay (the person who "discovered" the band) and other people.
After the "Somewhere On Tour", the band took six months to rest. When they got back, realized their seventh album, "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son" which were produced by Martin Birch. "The album is about a complete history from the beginning to the end, that relates the visions from a kind of clairvoyant, Doris Stones, who announced his own death and at the end he gets insane." said Bruce. This is the principal idea that the song "The Clairvoyant" was written about.
In this album was used keyboards rather than guitars' synth that were used in "Somewhere In Time". "We didn't need a keyboard player. Adrian, Steve, an engineer or anyone that was able to play it", said Bruce. While playing alive, the band could count on Michael Kenney playing the keyboards.
The concerts all over the world had the stage very decorated according to the album's cover. Derek Riggs painted seven Eddies.
In this year (1988), the Iron Maiden has reached their highest mark, they were the top band playing in Donington Castle. "We wished
a lot to play in this festival", said the band. The band played for over 107.000 fans. "I was wondered while we were testing the equipment and I realized: S**t, this is serious!", said Dave Murray. Donington was the last digression with Adrian.
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Between the world digression's end and the release of Maiden's next album, "No Prayer For The Dying", many things has happened to the band. The band decided to take a year to rest. Each one dedicated for differents projects. Steve Harris introduced him self into the "video's production world". He produced a video called "Maiden England" which had one hour and thirty minutes total playing.
Nicko McBrain utilized the year to play drums demos in many fairs, like the British Music Fair. He had been doing it for a long time. In 1985, Nicko and Adrian played a solo demo in the Marquee. They played old and new Maiden's songs. This demo was never edited officially, but the underground market produced a pirate version of events like "Live In London" and "The Whole Population Of Hackney".
Dave Murray joined Nicko and Adrian. They edited a demo video called "Rhythm Of The Beast". Dave used the year to decorate his house and got back to his home to stay with his family.
Bruce Dickinson set up a band and release an album called "Tattooed Millionaire" and started to sing in a digression. He and his band played in England and USA. Adrian set up a band too, called A.S.A.P. The Iron Maiden's end was approaching.
The band returned to the studios to start the rehearsals to record their next album. But Adrian wasn't liking the new album's direction. He preferred to play in A.S.A.P. So he left the band, but he had already recorded the song "The Assassin"'s base rhythm.
Adrian was substituted by Janick Gers. He had been known by Maiden for a time. The band knew that he was a Maiden songs' fan. So he had a very short a audition. Steve Harris told Janick to learn how to play the songs "The Trooper", "Iron Maiden", "The Prisoner" and "Children Of The Damned" for the audition, but while Janick was playing the first chords from "The Trooper", Steve realized that he could be the new band's
member. He and Dave soon became good fellows.
The band started to record the new album at Steve's "House". See it on Iron Maiden's Photos. The new album was called "No Prayer For The Dying". It was a great album which had two great singles "Holy Smoke" and "Tailgunner". The songs in this album became more aggressive than the others Maiden's albums. Another great single was "Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter" that was composed by Bruce based on a movie called "Nightmare on Elm Street V".
The band started their new digression. They played in shorter stages. The Maiden's World Tour's support band was "Wolfsbane" that the singer was Blaze Bayley. The new digression's stages were very short, the only things that could be seen on it were the "Marshalls" and the Nicko's drums.
They played 84 concerts in 17 countries. Iron Maiden played in Europe, USA and Canada. In the end of 1990, was released a new video called "The First Ten Years" which had 75 minutes total playing.
After the "No Prayer On Tour", they took a relative rest. In 1992 the band released their new album called "Fear Of The Dark". At the same year, they were the TOP BAND to play in Donington Castle again. It was released an album and a video called "Live At Donington" which shows the full Maiden's concert. The album "Fear Of The Dark" was recorded at Steve's "garret". It was produced by Martin Birch and co-produced by Steve Harris.
When the band played the song "Running Free" in Donington Castle, Adrian Smith joined the band and played it alive. Everyone became surprised. But it was just a small collaboration by Adrian.
In the beginning of 1993, Bruce left the band. All the fans as well the band became surprised. "I want to concentrate on my solo career as a singer, as a writer and dedicate more time to my family", said Bruce.
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4959 tapes (!), which contained songs sang by Paul Di'Anno, Michael Kiske, Joey Belladona (Anthrax), a guy called Blaze Bayley and others, had been sent to Maiden's office. The band tried to choose the best one.
At last it was confirmed the Bruce's successor, "Blaze Bayley" which has sung in the band called "Wolfsbane".
In 1995, the band released their next album "The X Factor" that was a polemical album for some people.
In 1998, they released their next album called "Virtual XI". In the same year it was released a PC Game called "Ed Hunter" which the principal objective was to KILL all the enemies. (I do like the albums "The X Factor" and "Virtual XI")
The history from 2000 to now...
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The two Maiden's album sang by Blaze were very rejected by the fans. A lot of fans didn't buy them. So Blaze was kicked out. Steve Harris called Bruce and Adrian back to Iron Maiden. "Iron Maiden is my home" said Bruce.
In this year (2000) Maiden released their new album called "Brave New World" which was produced by Kevin Shirley and co-produced by Steve Harris. This is a very good album of the pure Iron Maiden's Heavy Metal. They started the new World Tour. They had played in many countries and finished the tour playing in Brazil. It was the "Rock In Rio 3". A big Rock festival. Iron Maiden played in the first festival (1985), and it was the biggest crowd that Maiden have ever played to (more than 200.000 metal fans).
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UP THE IRONS!!! |
