The History of Iron Maiden

The History of Iron Maiden

The History
Iron Maiden was formed in May 1975 by bassist Steve Harris, who joined up with guitarist Dave Murray a few months later. Thirty years later, the two remain at the helm of Iron Maiden!!!
 
The Early Years
Harris and Murray went through a ridiculous number of bandmembers throughout the 1970s, paying their dues on the mostly punk club circuit in London's rough East End neighbourhood. Though Maiden were a metal band influenced by Deep Purple, Yes, Wishbone Ash, and Black Sabbath, they did possess a fast, punkish style in the early days. Original singer Paul Day was much punkier than his replacement, the outlandish Dennis Wilcock, a huge Kiss fan that used fire, makeup, and fake blood on stage. By 1978, Harris and Murray had estabilised the Iron Maiden line-up with the addition of drummer Doug Sampson and vocalist Paul Di'Anno.

If the band had sounded punk before, they did even more so with the arrival of the short-haired, fiery Di'Anno. For years, the band had been pressured by record labels to cut their hair and sacrifice their complex metal sound in favour of a more punk image, but with Di'Anno at the forefront, the band could mix the two into a potent stew of classical themes, galloping metal rhythms, and speedy hardcore riffs. Iron Maiden was a sensation on the English rock circuit by 1978. The band had been playing for three years and gained a tremendously loyal following, but had never recorded any of their music. On New Year's Eve 1978, the band recorded one of the most famous demos in rock history, Soundhouse Tapes. Featuring only four songs, the band sold all 500 copies immediately, and did not reprint the demo again until 1996 (original copies sold for thousands of dollars). Two of the tracks on the demo, 'Prowler' and 'Iron Maiden', went straight to number one on the English metal charts.

In several of the early Iron Maiden line-ups, Dave Murray was joined by another guitarist, but for most of 1977 and all of 1978, Murray was the sole guitarist in the band. This changed with the arrival of Tony Parsons in 1979. Drummer Doug Sampson was also replaced by the dynamic Clive Burr. In November 1979, the band landed a major record deal by signing to EMI, a partnership that would last for nearly 15 years. Shortly before going into the studio, Parsons was replaced by guitarist Dennis Stratton. Initially, the band wanted to hire Dave Murray's childhood friend Adrian Smith, but Smith was busy singing and playing guitar for his band Urchin. Iron Maiden was released in 1980 to critical and commercial success. The band went on to open for Kiss on their 1980 Unmasked tour, as well as opening select dates for the legendary Judas Priest. After the Kiss tour, Dennis Stratton was fired from the band as a result of creative and personal differences. Finally, the timing was right for the arrival of Adrian Smith. Smith brought a melodic, whimsical sound to Iron Maiden. His bluesy, experimental sound was the complete opposite of Murray's speedy, lightning fast style. One of Iron Maiden's trademarks is the double 'twin lead' harmonising guitar stylings of Murray and Smith, a style pioneered by Wishbone Ash and The Allman Brothers Band, but taken to a whole new level by Iron Maiden. In 1981, Maiden released their second album, titled Killers. This new album contained the first hit songs for the band and they were introduced to audiences in the United States. It was at this time when the band was the star attraction of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, in which bands from England flooded the market of the United States. Killers remains one of the bands fastest and heaviest albums, and remains a favourite among hardcore fans.

The Classic Lineup
As a group, Maiden were never into partying or drug use, being extreme perfectionists both on the road and in the studio. However, just as the band were beginning to achieve large-scale success in America, Paul Di'Anno exhibited increasingly destructive behaviour, and his performances began to suffer. In 1982 the band replaced Di'Anno with former Samson vocalist Bruce Dickinson. Dickinson provided much better interpretation of their songs and possessed an astonishing vocal range. Dickinson's debut with Iron Maiden was 1982's album The Number of the Beast, which is recognised as a classic of the heavy metal genre. This album was a world-wide success providing classic songs as The Number of the Beast and Run to the Hills. For the first time the band went on a world tour, visiting the United States, Japan and Australia. However, the band was marred by controversy coming from religious groups that claimed Iron Maiden was a Satanic group because of their dark lyrics which supposedly spoke of Satan. In actuality, it was only one song ('The Number of the Beast'), an anti-Satanic song about a bad dream. The band denied these rumours and no Iron Maiden studio album to date has ever carried an 'explicit lyrics' stamp. (The live box set 'Eddie's Archive' does, though, as does the 'Two Minutes To Midnight' single). After the enormous success of The Number of the Beast, the band became worldwide superstars. Before heading back into the studio in 1983, they replaced Clive Burr with heavy drummer Nicko McBrain and went on to release four albums which went multi-platinum world-wide: Piece of Mind (1983), Powerslave (1984), Live After Death (1985) and Somewhere in Time (1986). The band gathered huge audiences everywhere they went, especially in South America, Asia, Australia, and the United States, where they still draw huge audiences on tour.
All of these albums contained complex riffs, multiple time changes, and classically based themes. Unlike many of their contemporaries, Iron Maiden generally avoided songs about drink, drugs, sex, or women. The band's lyrics are steeped in English literature ('The Rime of the Ancient Mariner') and history ('Alexander the Great, 356-323 BC'). The band's music was often referred to as 'intelligent metal,' and was on an entirely different intellectual plane than most other metal acts of the 1980s.
In 1988 the band tried a different approach for their seventh studio album, titled Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. This was a concept album featuring a story about a mythical child who possessed clairvoyant powers based on the book The Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card. It was the most experimental Iron Maiden album to date, and is often regarded as the creative zenith of the band and the end of Maiden's 'golden years.'

Decline
For the first time in seven years, the band suffered a line-up change with the major loss of guitarist/vocalist Adrian Smith. Former Gillan guitarist Janick Gers was chosen to replace Smith, and in 1990 they released the poorly received album No Prayer for the Dying. This album went back to the heavy style of the band but the lyrics were more simple and the music was not as challenging as previous efforts. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson also began experimenting with a raspier style of singing that was not well received by fans. However, the album was a huge commercial success and spawned the number one hit single 'Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter' from the horror movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 5.

Before the release of No Prayer for the Dying, Bruce Dickinson officially launched a solo career to coincide with Iron Maiden (Gers was his guitarist). He continued to tour in 1991 before returning to the studio with Iron Maiden for the smash hit Fear of the Dark. Released in 1992 it had several songs that were popular among fans, like the title-track and Afraid to Shoot Strangers, a critical song about the Persian Gulf War. Even though metal was out of date in 1992 and grunge was ruling the airwaves, Maiden continued to sell out arenas in the US and throughout the world. Still, Dickinson continued with his raspier vocals and much of the lyrics on Fear of the Dark were a downgrade from their previous successes. In 1993, Iron Maiden suffered a huge loss when Bruce Dickinson left the band to further pursue his solo career. However, Bruce agreed to stay with the band through the end of the year, resulting in a pair of live albums released in the fall.

The band auditioned hundreds of vocalists and finally chose young gun Blaze Bayley in 1994, formerly of Wolfsbane. Bayley proved to be a worthy vocalist, but he did not have the range Dickinson possessed. After a three year hiatus, Maiden returned in 1995 with the hour-long album The X Factor. Widely regarded as Maiden's worst album, the album's failure cannot be solely attributed to Blaze Bayley. Chief songwriter Steve Harris was going through serious personal problems, and many of the songs were dark, depressing, and slow (the album contained four songs about war). There were highlights, though. The anthemic 'Blood on the World's Hands' featured excellent acoustic bass work from Harris, and the 11-minute epic 'Sign of the Cross' stands head to head with any of the band's classic extended pieces.
The band spent most of 1996 on the road before returning to the studio for the much improved Virtual XI (1998). Bayley's vocal performance was leaps and bounds above his X-Factor showing, especially on 'The Educated Fool' and the reflective ballad 'Como Estas Amigos.' Oddly enough, one of the only low points of the album was the hit single 'The Angel and the Gambler,' which was all many people heard of the album, thus deciding not to buy it: Virtual XI was not a high selling album.

Return Of The Classic Lineup
In early 1999, Bayley was let go from the band. Months later, the band shocked the world when they announced that both Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith were rejoining the band, which meant the classic 1980s lineup was back in place. Even more exciting was the announcement that Smith's replacement, Janick Gers, would remain in the band. Iron Maiden now had three guitarists. This led to a reunion tour that gathered huge audiences all over the world.

In 2000, a new period, known commonly as 'the progressive years', began for the band when they released the album Brave New World. The songs were longer and the lyrics spoke about both dark themes and social criticism. The band gained a new fan base when they began exploring the genre of progressive metal. Brave New World, by almost all acounts, was the best Iron Maiden album in over a decade. The world tour for the album ended in January 2001 with a show at the famous Rock in Rio festival. It was a return to glory for the band, as many of their older fans now had bands themselves, and their influence could be heard through several forms of rock music in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The band continued with their progressive trend in the album Dance of Death released in 2003. The album went platinum in several countries and left no doubts that the band was still a heavy metal sensation. In fact, many fans say that Dance of Death surpassed Brave New World in creativity, and remains their best album since 1988's landmark Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.
As of 2005, Iron Maiden has announced a tour for the up-coming year to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the release of their first album and the 30th anniversary of their formation. The band plans to hit the road to support a new DVD entitled The Early Years, where the band will celebrate the music from its 1975-1985 period.
 
Eddie
Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie, is a perennial fixture in the band's horror-influenced album cover art, as well as in live shows. Eddie was originally drawn by Derek Riggs but has had various incarnations by Melvyn Grant. Eddie is also featured in a first-person shooter video game, Ed Hunter as well as numerous books, graphic comics and band-related merchandise.

Current Lineup
  Bruce Dickinson -    vocals (1982-1993, 1999-present)
  Dave Murray -   guitar (1976-present)
  Adrian Smith -  guitar (1980-1990, 1999-present)
  Janick Gers -   guitar (1990-present)
  Steve Harris -  bass (1975-present)
  Nicko McBrain - drums (1983-present)
 
Original Members
  Steve Harris - bass (1975-present)
  Dave Murray - guitar (1976-present, replaced Dave Sullivan after only two months)
  Paul Day - vocals (1975-1976)
  Terry Rance - guitar (1975-1976)
  Ron 'Rebel' Matthews - drums (1975-1977)

Other members
  Dennis 'Den' Wilcock - vocals (1976-1978)
  Bob Sawyer ('Bob Angelo') - guitar (1976)
  Terry Wapram - guitar (1977)
  Barry 'Thunderstick' Graham - drums (1977)
  Tony Moore - keyboards (1977)
  Doug Sampson - drums (1977-1979)
  Paul Todd - guitar (1977)
  Paul Cairns - guitar (1977)
  Paul Di'Anno - vocals (1978-1981)
  Tony Parsons - guitar (1979-1980)
  Dennis Stratton - guitar (1980)
  Clive Burr - drums (1979-1982)
  Blaze Bayley - vocals (1994-1998)

The Band
DAVE MURRAY as known by Adrian Smith
 Dave and I grew up in the same area of London and I think we probably
 met at the local youth club, through a mutual friend called Dave 
 McLaughlin. I knew that Dave McLaughlin was already playing guitar
 and I told him that I was a singer. I wasn’t, but I thought I’d get in with
 these guys! Then I think Dave Mac introduced me to Dave Murray and
 we started playing together; they played guitar and I sang.

When I first met him, he was a complete Hendrix nut and he loved Robin Trower and Santana, but I think he likes more blues based stuff these days. Back then, he had two guitars - he was very professional! His spare guitar from Woolworths wasn’t working, so I bought it off him for five quid and my dad fixed it, and that was my first guitar. It was a really nice guitar, as you can imagine!

Dave Mac drifted out of the band into other things, and Dave Murray and I carried on playing together for a few years until he decided to broaden his horizons and eventually he joined Iron Maiden. I carried on with the band we’d had, which became Urchin; he actually came back into the band for a while after he fell out with Iron Maiden’s singer, but then he went back to them. Before they did the first album, Iron Maiden asked me to join them, but my band was doing quite well, so I turned it down. Then they asked me again in 1980. I think Dave rang up and said, 'Look, I think you really should do it' and I did.

Dave is so easy-going and he’s a quiet guy. He has his moments, but generally, he goes with the flow. If you had six guys like Bruce or six guys like Steve in the band well, you need a combination of personalities. That’s what the chemistry of the band’s all about. In fact, I guess Dave and I are fairly similar. We’re both pretty laid-back and we’ve always got on very well.

Another good thing about Dave is that he’s always got a smile on his face. He has good energy, which is always a good quality to have in a band.

He’s a very consistent player, so it’s hard to pick his best moment on ‘Dance Of Death’, but the song ‘Rainmaker’ is one of my favourites and he wrote that with Steve, so I suppose I’d have to say that really.

Dave’s a very good guitarist, but he’s not the kind of guy who tries to outdo everybody. There’s enough scope in Iron Maiden’s music for all three guitarists to express themselves. The phrase 'Let the music do the talking' springs to mind when you talk about Dave. He’s always been able to express himself very well through the guitar.

He’s got his own style and sound, and that’s a rare thing. Everyone who plays guitar wants to have that and he always has, even when he’d just started playing. We could plug into the same amp and he’d still sound like him. If you hear Dave playing, you know it’s Iron Maiden straight away.
 
STEVE HARRIS as known by Janick Gers
 I was introduced to Steve and Bruce when Gillan were playing 
 Hammersmith Odeon back in the Eighties. I quite liked the lad at the
 time, and I met him subsequently at a few Maiden gigs after that. He
 always seemed quite intense and serious and aware of what was
 going on.

 As a person, Steve is one of the few people you meet that you can 
 trust totally. He wouldn’t sell you down the river, he wouldn’t badmouth you behind your back; he’s a very straight fella. You can confide in him and it won’t get passed around, and he doesn’t bullshit. He has the ability to stand back and look at both sides of a situation, but if he’s convinced that he’s right, he will argue with every fibre of his body and he’ll never change his mind, which I think is a great strength. He has very strong mental tolerance.

In situations where other bands might have caved in, the one thing that has kept Iron Maiden doing what it does best is Steve, because he has this belief that what he’s doing is right. When you’re in a young band and your record company come to you, saying, 'You need to soften up your sound, we need a single', Steve’s the kind of guy you need to turn round to them and say, 'Damn man!'

Steve has a very fertile imagination and a very simple way of writing lyrics. It’s not highbrow stuff – it’s deeper than that. He writes it as he sees it and you really get the feeling the words are from inside him. Every time I play the song ‘Blood Brothers’, it makes me shiver, because he hit the nail on the head. He lost his dad when he was on tour and when things like that happen to you, sometimes you go to deep places - everyone experiences that - but to be able to write it down is another thing. When you read his lyrics, there’s an honesty in there that comes out and he opens himself up more than he does when you’re talking to the guy.

He’s a great football player and he had the choice to play football professionally or play music when he was a kid, but I think he made the right decision. I don’t think he could cope with the discipline of the footballer’s life at the time when you’re a teenager and you’re starting to meet people and get into music. He’s his own man. But having said that, he doesn’t drink much and he takes care of his body – that’s very important to him. Being a sportsman, his attitude is that if your body is healthy, your mind is too, and I think that helps with the band, because you don’t get locked into that stupid rock'n’roll 'let’s go party every night' lifestyle.

He is an idiosyncratic bass player. He picked up the bass and taught himself in such a way that nobody can really copy it. People say it’s like a lead guitar, but it’s not. It gives the band a basis and it moves around quite a lot, but it’s the tone that he has. He has a way of hearing things and a tone that isn’t normally associated with a bass, it’s more like a rhythm guitar. Him and Nicko provide the pulse of Iron Maiden, the body of the band. You copy it at your peril, because the sound of Maiden is built around the way Steve plays bass and the only band that it would work in is Maiden.

Steve has been very involved in the new album. He has this tunnel vision where he can really hone in on things and he has this tremendous focus when he’s recording albums - or doing anything with Iron Maiden really. He wants to get it right and he’s prepared to put the time in. Not many people have that kind of determination and focus.

He is a very, very strong personality. Without his drive and ambition, it wouldn’t be Iron Maiden, no doubt about it. He’s its heart and its power.

BRUCE DICKINSON as known by Nicko McBrain
 I think my first encounter with Bruce was when he was rehearsing
 with Samson in Kilburn, which must have been 1979. I remember I
 was playing pool and Bruce came out of the studio and he was very
 animated and very loud and I thought, ‘Who is this geezer?!’ His
 personality was way in front of the man himself. But as I got to
 know Bruce, I realised that he is a very intense guy. In the early
 days when I joined Maiden, he was very extrovert, yet he was
 introverted at the same time. When he gets a great idea, he won’t
 let it go and he gets so animated, but other times he would be so intent on what he was thinking about, he would be in another world. His mind amazes me. He’s a genius. He’s also an absolute lunatic - but most geniuses are! And inside there’s a heart of gold.

In the early days, there was a bit of ego. He was the frontman of the band, and you can’t be the stubborn brawny frontman of a band like Maiden and be timid and weak. Outwardly, very few things would phase him, but I know inwardly he’s a very sensitive man. We would have incredible times together, but he would also be a bit of a loner and go off and do his own bits and pieces.

He got into his fencing, which I completely admired about him, because he’s superfit now, but he doesn’t work out half as much as he used to. He was such a good fencer, he was actually asked to join the Olympic fencing team in the mid-to-late Eighties, but he couldn’t because he had to go on the road with the band.

Writing books was the next thing. He was unbearable when he was writing those Iffy Boatrace books, because you’d be doing something on the bus and he’d have just finished writing a new chapter and he’d want to read the whole fricking story to you! But he was so excited, you can’t blow someone out the sky for that.

I was very angry with him when he left the band, because of the way it happened and because I didn’t want him to leave. But when we all got back in the room to take that beautiful picture of the reunion, it was as though we’d all been on holiday for a couple of months, instead of four-plus years and in Adrian’s case, ten almost. The most amazing thing about making music together is that you really bond with your music and also personally, in your inner soul. There’s an amazing vibe that’s always maintained and even though we had four great years with Blaze, when Bruce and Adrian came back into the band, there was this incredible affiliation again.

A change I saw in Bruce from that time, apart from his enthusiasm for the band back like he had when I first joined it, is the genuineness of the emotion that I feel from him. He’s changed in that he seems more rounded and more content, although he’s doing so much more than before he left the band. He’s doing his radio show, he’s doing his flying and he’s got a part-time gig in a band as a singer! He is an absolute joy to be around. We’ve had so many great times on the ‘Give Me Ed’ tour, as we will do on the ‘Dance Of Death’ tour.

I think his finest moment on ‘Dance Of Death’ has got to be on ‘Journeyman’, because it shows a lighter side to Bruce’s voice. There are a lot more subtle emotions than you get with some other tunes and there’s so much more control. The emotion he puts into that track is phenomenal.
 
ADRIAN SMITH as known by Bruce Dickinson
 I first met Adrian when I was in Samson and he’d just joined
 Iron Maiden. We were over the road from each other in different
 studios; we were doing the second Samson album and he was
 doing ‘Killers’. He was very much the new boy in the band, but I
 was really impressed with the style of his guitar playing. And he
 was dead rock and roll. He was skinny, pasty and waiflike, and
 he looked really cool!

 He’s a pretty mellow person, and he’s got a very dry sense of humour. His nickname in the band used to be Willie-Orwontee - not for nothing! He likes to take his time over things, which is not a bad thing and in the old days when we used to do soundchecks together, we’d all be waiting for him, he’s such a perfectionist over sound.

In a world populated by faceless guitarists who all go to school to learn how to do it and end up all sounding virtually indistinguishable, Adrian has evolved a tone and style that is all his own and is unique. Nobody sounds like Adrian, and that is priceless. His guitar playing sounds lazy, like the notes are almost falling over each other but they never do. You actually hang on every note that he plays, because you don’t quite know where it’s going to go next.

He’s a very good athlete. When he plays football or tennis, he has a natural grace, and that’s what his guitar playing’s like. When he plays football, he gets the ball and you think, ‘He’s never going to get past that guy’, but suddenly, there’s a little shuffle and he’s dribbled past him. And it’s like watching him play guitar. I swear to God the timing is the same!

When he left the band in 1990, I think everybody was a bit surprised at how much we missed him and certainly, I don’t think anybody had realised how much the fans would miss him - big time. I wouldn’t have rejoined Iron Maiden if he wasn’t in the band. I just don’t think it would have been complete without Adrian, and now, it’s great having three guitarists.

I think possibly one of the greatest tracks he’s ever written is on the new album; it’s called ‘Paschendale’. When I was writing stuff with him for the album, I noticed he had lots of Siegfried Sassoon and other war books lying around, and he was researching this track. It’s a fantastic song and really evocative of the whole horrific period of warfare - a stunning piece of music, ten minutes long.

Adrian’s philosophy, I guess, goes back to something we were talking about one drunken night. He turned around and said, 'The thing about me is, all I’m interested in is just having a bit of a sing and a play', and that is at the root of everything that is Adrian. He’s happy having a drink, having a sing and playing guitar. And for something that’s that simple, he does it alarmingly well - especially the guitar playing.

JANICK GERS as known by Dave Murray
 I saw Janick onstage before I actually met him, and that was when
 he was with Gillan at Wembley Arena. I saw this flamboyant
 showman dancing around the stage playing great guitar, and I
 thought it was absolutely wonderful. Then he came down to a few
 of our shows and I met him backstage in the bar and we hit it off
 pretty much immediately - he was a really nice bloke.

 In 1990, when Adrian left the band, Janick had just worked on 
 Bruce’s solo album (‘Tattooed Millionaire’) and obviously, he was going to be the first choice as a replacement. But I remember at the beginning that Janick was actually defending Adrian - he was upset that he’d left the band and I think he was trying to talk him into coming back, which shows you what a good guy he is.

He came down to rehearsal and the stacks had been set up facing each other, wall-to-wall, so it was like a stand-off in a Western like ‘The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’, except I think we both wanted to be Clint Eastwood! We did ‘The Trooper’, we just went straight into it, there was no 'Let’s work it out together quietly.' It was just like one, two, three, four… bang! And straight away, sparks were flying round the room! It was apparent right away that this was going to work. He was very exciting to play with and it gave the band a well-deserved kick up the rear.

He is a genuine, salt-of-the-earth bloke, a very smart man with a great sense of humour. He’s a very sociable kind of chap. He likes going out strutting, especially on tour. He’ll go out for 20 mile walks and try to hit every bar on the way back!

He’s a good soul. He’s got a very good way of calming things down if they suddenly start to go overboard. He can pull everything together and make sure that people see things the right way. He’s very good at expressing himself that way, a very diplomatic man.

When he’s playing, he’ll push himself to the edge and really goes for it. There are two sides to it. His playing can be very controlled or it can be very spontaneous, but then he plays a lot of the melodic stuff. He’s got great feel, great dexterity, very fluid. So he’s fully rounded as a guitar player who goes from one extreme to another. He encompasses all aspects, from the quiet acoustic clean stuff into overdrive. It’s 360 degrees he plays everything. And he’s a great showman.

He wrote the track ‘Dance Of Death’ and it’s got everything on there, from the quiet moody melodic guitar to clean guitar to really heavy riffs, but done in the most complex and beautiful and sweet and heavy way, done with really good taste. If that song was the alphabet, from A to Z, it’s got every letter in it.
 
NICKO MCBRAIN as known by Steve Harris
 With a character like Nicko, you never forget the first time you
 meet him! We were playing our first ever show abroad in Belgium
 and he was playing in a band called McKitty when I first saw him.
 He was sitting outside a café, dressed in a white suit, panama hat
 and winklepicker shoes. I thought he was a pimp or something
 from the way he was dressed! Larger than life, as he always has
 been and always will be, he had obviously had a couple of drinks
 and was chatting off, and I thought, ‘Wow, who is this character?’ It was quite an amazing experience to meet him and it still is really, he’s just a whirlwind. I suppose he’s calmed down a little bit over the years, but not a lot - but you wouldn’t really want him to.

He was with Trust when they supported us in ‘82 and we thought he was a fantastic drummer, so when Clive left the band, we approached Nick and asked if he’d like to try out and it worked fantastically.

It’s hard to describe what he’s like if you haven’t met him. I know people see him on the videos and that, and they think he’s crazy - and he is! But there’s a lot more to him than that. He flies planes and does all sorts of other things. He’s a more complex guy than you might think. He’s just really good fun to have around. I’m a bit on the shy side, so when we go out to meet people, I usually take him with me, because he’s a laugh and he’s got so much verbal, he takes the pressure off me. I just have to stand smiling in the background!

He is without a doubt the entertainer of the band. I really do think he could be a stand-up comedian if he wanted to. He half does that when he does his drum clinics. He tells these little stories and comes out with all these jokes. Often they’re in Spain or Italy or somewhere like that, and half the time, I’m sure the audience don’t really understand him, but he’s laughing at his own jokes anyway, so they laugh along with him! It really is a sight to behold, so I would recommend anyone to see his drum clinics, whether they’re into drums or not.

Technically, he’s a great drummer and he can play all kinds of music. Drummers from other bands sit round the back of him to see what he’s doing, but he’s got his kit set so he doesn’t even look at what he’s hitting half the time. He just puts his head down and plays.

He’s got his first songwriting credit with Maiden on ‘Dance Of Death’ with ‘New Frontier’. About time – he’s only been in the band 20 years! But the first one is probably the hardest to bring in to the other band members, especially when you’ve been in the band so long, and he’s up and running now, so I think it will give him the confidence to write stuff in future. Any variation in writing is a good thing and everyone is encouraged to write in this band; the only criteria is that it’s got to be bloody good!

Discography

Albums:
Soundhouse Tapes, 1979 EP
  Iron Maiden (1980) chart position 4 (UK)
  Killers (1981) chart position 12 (UK)
  Maiden Japan, 1981 (Live EP)
  The Number of the Beast (1982) chart position 1 (UK)
  Piece of Mind (1983) chart position 3 (UK), 18 (US)
  Powerslave (1984) chart position 2 (UK)
  Live After Death (Live 1985)
  Somewhere in Time (1986) chart position 3 (UK), 11 (US)
  Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988) chart position 1 (UK), 12 (US)
  No Prayer for the Dying (1990) chart position 2 (UK)
  Fear of the Dark (1992) chart position 1 (UK), 12 (US)
  Live at Donington (1993)
  A Real Live One (Live 1993)
  A Real Dead One (1993)
  The X Factor (1995) chart position 8 (UK)
  Best of the Beast (complilation) 1996)
  Virtual XI (1998) chart position 16 (UK)
  Brave New World (2000) chart position 7 (UK)
  Rock in Rio (2002)
  Edward the Great (compilation 2002)
  Dance of Death (2003) chart position 2 (UK), 18 (US)
 
Studio Records:
Iron Maiden (1980)

1. Prowler (Harris)
2. Remember Tomorrow (Harris/Di'Anno)
3. Running Free (Harris/Di'Anno)
4. Phantom Of The Opera (Harris)
5. Transylvania (Harris)
6. Strange World (Harris)
7. Sanctuary (Harris/Di'Anno/Murray)
8. Charlotte The Harlot (Murray)
9. Iron Maiden (Harris)
 
Killers (1981)
1. The Ides Of March (Harris)
2. Wrathchild (Harris)
3. Murders In The Rue Morgue (Harris)
4. Another Life (Harris)
5. Genghis Khan (Harris)
6. Innocent Exile (Harris)
7. Killers (Harris/Di'Anno)
8. Prodigal Son (Harris)
9. Purgatory (Harris)
10. Twilight Zone (Harris)
11. Drifter (Harris)
 
The Number Of The Beast (1982)
1. Invaders (Harris)
2. Children Of The Damned (Harris)
3. The Prisoner (Harris/Smith)
4. 22 Acacia Avenue (Harris/Smith)
5. The Number Of The Beast (Harris)
6. Run To The Hills (Harris)
7. Gangland (Smith/Burr)
8. Total Eclipse (Harris/Murray/Burr)
9. Hallowed Be Thy Name (Harris)
 
Piece Of Mind (1983)
1. Where Eagles Dare (Harris)
2. Revelations (Dickinson)
3. Flight of Icarus (Smith/Dickinson)
4. Die With Your Boots On (Smith/Dickinson/Harris)
5. The Trooper (Harris)
6. Still Life (Murray/Harris)
7. Quest For Fire (Harris)
8. Sun And Steel (Dickinson/Smith)
9. To Tame A Land (Harris)
 
Powerslave (1984)
1. Aces High (Harris)
2. 2 Minutes To Midnight (Smith/Dickinson)
3. Losfer Words (Harris)
4. Flash Of The Blade (Dickinson)
5. The Duellists (Harris)
6. Back In The Village (Smith/Dickinson)
7. Powerslave (Dickinson)
8. Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (Harris)
 
Somewhere In Time (1986)
1. Caught Somewhere In Time (Harris)
2. Wasted Years (Smith)
3. Sea Of Madness (Smith)
4. Heaven Can Wait (Harris)
5. The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (Harris)
6. Stranger In A Strange Land (Smith)
7. Deja Vu (Murray/Harris)
8. Alexander The Great (Harris)
 
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (1988)
1. Moonchild (Smith/Dickinson)
2. Infinite Dreams (Harris)
3. Can I Play With Madness (Smith/Dickinson/Harris)
4. The Evil That Men Do (Smith/Dickinson/Harris)
5. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (Harris)
6. The Prophecy (Murray/Harris)
7. The Clairvoyant (Harris)
8. Only The Good Die Young (Harris/Dickinson)
 
No Prayer For The Dying (1990)
1. Tail Gunner (Harris/Dickinson)
2. Holy Smoke (Harris/Dickinson)
3. No Prayer For The Dying (Harris)
4. Public Enema Number One (Murray/Dickinson)
5. Fates Warning (Murray/Harris)
6. The Assassin (Harris)
7. Run Silent Run Deep (Harris)
8. Hooks In You (Dickinson/Smith)
9. Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter (Dickinson)
10. Mother Russia (Harris)
 
Fear Of The Dark (1992)
1. Be Quick Or Be Dead (Dickinson/Gers)
2. From Here To Eternity (Harris)
3. Afraid To Shoot Strangers (Harris)
4. Fear Is The Key (Dickinson/Gers)
5. Childhood's End (Harris)
6. Wasting Love (Dickinson/Gers)
7. The Fugitive (Harris)
8. Chains of Misery (Murray/Dickinson)
9. The Apparition (Harris/Gers)
10. Judas Be My Guide (Dickinson/Murray)
11. Weekend Warrior (Harris/Gers)
12. Fear Of The Dark (Harris)
 
The X Factor (1995)
1. Sign Of The Cross (Harris)
2. Lord Of The Flies (Harris/Gers)
3. Man On The Edge (Bayley/Gers)
4. Fortunes Of War (Harris)
5. Look For The Truth (Bayley/Gers/Harris)
6. The Aftermath (Harris/Bayley/Gers)
7. Judgement Of Heaven (Harris)
8. Blood On The World's Hands (Harris)
9. The Edge Of Darkness (Harris/Bayley/Gers)
10. 2 A.M. (Bayley/Gers/Harris)
11. The Unbeliever (Harris/Gers)
 
Virtual XI (1998)
1. Futureal (Harris/Bayley)
2. The Angel and the Gambler (Harris)
3. Lightning Strikes Twice (Murray/Harris)
4. The Clansman (Harris)
5. When Two Worlds Collide (Harris/Bayley/Murray)
6. The Educated Fool (Harris)
7. Don't Look To The Eyes Of A Stranger (Harris)
8. Como Estais Amigo (Gers/Bayley)
 
Brave New World (2000)
1. The Wicker Man (Smith/Harris/Dickinson)
2. Ghost Of The Navigator (Gers/Dickinson/Harris)
3. Brave New World (Murray/Harris/Dickinson)
4. Blood Brothers (Harris)
5. The Mercenary (Gers/Harris)
6. Dream Of Mirrors (Gers/Harris)
7. The Fallen Angel (Smith/Harris)
8. The Nomad (Murray/Harris)
9. Out Of The Silent Planet (Gers/Dickinson/Harris)
10. The Thin Line Between Love & Hate (Murray/Harris)
Dance Of Dead (2003)

1. Wildest Dreams (Smith/Harris)
2. Rainmaker (Murray/Harris/Dickinson)
3. No More Lies (Harris)
4. Montsegur (Gers/Harris/Dickinson)
5. Dance Of Death (Gers/Harris)
6. Gates Of Tomorrow (Gers/Harris/Dickinson)
7. New Frontier (McBrain/Smith/Dickinson)
8. Paschendale (Smith/Harris)
9. Face In The Sand (Smith/Harris/Dickinson)
10. Age Of Innocence (Murray/Harris)
11. Journeyman (Smith/Harris/Dickinson)