Biography

Iron Maiden is one of the best known heavy metal bands in history. The band is from Leyton in London and was formed in 1975 by Steve Harris, the bassist and lead songwriter. The band plays in the harmonic heavy metal genre. Therefore they have never had a mainstream appeal, but have still managed to sell over 70 million records worldwide.

In the beginning the band changed members rapidly and only Steve Harris and guitarist Dave Murray have been part of the band all along. Their first well known vocalist Paul Di'Anno was recruited after an audition in 1978 and soon after the band recorded their first demo. One of the tracks was an early version of “Prowler”. In 1980 the band released their first album “Iron Maiden” and reached number 4 on the UK album charts. Later that year in October Adrian Smith became their second guitarist.

From February 1981 to December the band went on their first world tour. The same year they dismissed vocalist Paul Di'Anno because of his cocaine usage. In September Bruce Dickinson became their lead singer after an audition. The following year they replaced their drummer Clive Burr with Nicko McBrain, who is their current drummer. After releasing their album “Powerslave” in 1984 the band went on their biggest world tour, “World Slavery Tour” with 193 gigs.

In 1989 both Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson began working on their own solo-projects and in 1990 Adrian Smith left the band and was replaced by Janick Gers. Later in 1993 also Bruce Dickinson left the band to work on his solo career. In 1994 the band auditioned many singers and chose Blaze Bayley as their lead singer. During his presence in the band they released two albums: “The X Factor” (1995) and “Virtual XI” (1998).

In 1999 Blaze Bayley left the band and at the same time both Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith rejoined the band. Resulting in the band having three guitarists and this has been their line up since. Afterwards the band has released three albums: “Brave New World” (2000), “Dance of Death” (2003) and “A Matter of Life and Death” (2006). Their latest world tour “Somewhere Back in Time World Tour” were in 2008 – 2009.