The story of IRON MAIDEN

The story begins in Mai 1976 as IRON MAIDEN made their first show at all (in the Cart & Horses-Pub of Stratford). The band members to this time were: Steve Harris (Bass guitar), Paul Day (vocals), Dave Sullivan (Guitar), Ron "Rebel" Matthews (Drums), Terry Rance (Guitar). But this lineup was for Steve not good enough, he wanted a better singer and stronger guitars. Maiden got then a new form. The vocalist was then Dennis Wilcock and the "cultman" Dave Murray entered the band. For me Dave Murray is the quiet part of Iron Maiden. He never pushes himself in the foreground but he is always present, always feelable through his unique style of playing the guitar. Many metal-guitarists had copied his style. And he is the only one (with Steve Harris of course) who plays in the band from the beginning days until today . These causes make him similar important as the founder of Maiden: Steve Harris. (Rob Angelo (alias Bob Sawyer) was the second guitarplayer at that time.)
Then Dave leaved the band after a quarrel with Dennis Wilcock. In the following years the line-up changed almost monthly, but to our luck Dave Murray returned again. After the leaving of Wilcock Steve found with Paul Di`Anno a new frontman. But I think that he is a piece of bullshit and he was and still is a really bad singer. At this time "EDDIE" was born who was original named as Eddie the `Ead (but more about this theme in my Eddie-History). Dave Lights was the " Father " of Eddie because he had the idea to let make a masque which spits smoke and blood and to give it the name EDDIE. Over the years Eddie was a faithful companion of the IRON`S.
1980 there was again a cutting in the life of IRON MAIDEN, Clive Burr take the business behind the drums and Adrian Smith was standing now as second guitarplayer beside Dave. The first album "IRON MAIDEN" was published which bombed in the charts, on the fourth place.
1981 the second Maiden-LP : "Killers" was released and the Killers-Worldtour began which was certainly one cause for the high selling numbers (1 Mio.). But the most important and the best for the band in this periode was the firing of Paul Di`Anno. Because now a man was entering the stage with IRON MAIDEN who gave the band new impulses through his charismatic vocals and his aura. This excellent singer was BRUCE DICKINSON
whose voice was known as the heavy metal voice (and that is the truth!!!). The first LP with Bruce was published in 1982 : "THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST". On this record are some of the best IRON MAIDEN -songs ever, for example: Run to the hills and The Number of the beast.

1983 the fourth album came to life: "PIECE OF MIND". And the IRON`s get a new member, namely the drummer Michael "NICKO" McBrain who shaped the style of the band in some parts. This LP let the men round Steve Harris make their longest World-Tour: the World Piece `83-Tour.

The title of the next disc was "POWERSLAVE" (1984). On the World-Slavery-Tour the Long Beach Arena in California was sold out at four one after another days (no other Rock-Band managed that!!!). Martin Birch recorded there the Live After Death-Video and the LP. Live After Death is for me the best live album on this planet !! After the tyring tour the artists made a break and pushed out at 29.09.1986 the LP "SOMEWHERE IN TIME" which is one of my absolutely favourite albums! After the tour, Steve Harris wanted to change the band`s music style and and he make a lot of experiments. These tryings let come out "SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON" in 1988. This new style had impressed the criticians, but not as much the fans how it is known today. I can`t say that it is one of the best albums, but it has some excellent songs like "The evil that men do" or "The Clairvoyant". Then there was a break again and the band didn`t give interviews and they didn`t make a new LP. This and that the soloprojects of Adrian Smith und Bruce Dickinson were started at this time, for a lot of speculations: many people thought that Bruce would leave the band. But another member went out in 1990, namley Adrian Smith. The other musicians made Janick Gers (who played in Bruce`s soloband) to a new band member. He was almost a equal replacement for Adrian. With him the "NO PRAYER FOR THE DYING"-Album was recorded (released at 01.10.1990) which contains an super track: "HOLY SMOKE". This song stormed the charts though it was never played in radio and though the video was shown almost never. It came on 3. place. At this year the five had their ten year-jubilee. They celebrated it with a UK-Tour at little halls and then with the "NO PRAYER ON THE ROAD"-Tour which started in Barcelona.
Two years later in 1992 was the release of the "FEAR OF THE DARK"-Album . You can find on this disc the greatest livesong of IRON MAIDEN: the titletrack "FEAR OF THE DARK". The other songs were great, too, like "Be quick or be dead" or "Afraid to shoot strangers", but they can`t mess with the titlesong. After the tour there was again a longer break. The biggest loss for IRON MAIDEN, for me and certainly for all fans, was at this time, too: BRUCE DICKINSON leaved MAIDEN !!!!!!. The last concert with him was at 28.08.1993. An awful shock for me and all IRON`s and now there was the fear that the whole band will split. But to our luck IRON MAIDEN remained in the music world. I was very sceptical about the new singer because I couldn`t believe that Steve Harris can find an equal replacement for Bruce.
And I was right in that BLAZE BAYLEY has not the equal quality, but he sang on one of their best albums: "THE X-FACTOR"(1995). The cause for that is perhaps the excellent quality of the songs and I think that the LP would have benn much better with the singer Bruce Dickinson. But Blaze is a super frontman for MAIDEN. His vocal abilities are not so high, but when you compare how he sings at Iron Maiden with the singing in his ex-Band Wolfsbane, so you will see a very great increase of his voice. I wish that he will have big success in the band because I know that it must be very, very hard to be the successor of Bruce!!!

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