Iron Maiden - Awards

BRIT Awards:

• 2009: Best British Live Act – Iron Maiden

Finnish Emma Awards:

• 2005: Best International Act – Iron Maiden

Ivor Novello Awards:

• 2000: International Achievement – Iron Maiden

Kerrang! Awards:

• 2005: Hall of Fame – Iron Maiden

Metal Hammer Awards:

• 2008: Best British Band – Iron Maiden
• 2008: Icon Award – Eddie

Iron Maiden - Former members

• Doug Sampson – drums, percussion (1977–1979)
• Dennis Stratton – guitars, backing vocals (1979–1980)
• Paul Di'Anno – lead vocals (1978–1981)
• Clive Burr – drums, percussion (1979–1982)
• Blaze Bayley – lead vocals (1994–1999)

Iron Maiden - Current members

• Steve Harris – bass, backing vocals (1975–present)
• Dave Murray – guitars (1976–present)
• Adrian Smith – guitars, backing vocals (1980–1990, 1999–present)
• Bruce Dickinson – lead vocals (1981–1993, 1999–present)
• Nicko McBrain – drums, percussion (1982–present)
• Janick Gers – guitars, backing vocals (1989-present)

with:

• Michael Kenney – live keyboards (1988-present)

Iron Maiden - Discography

• Iron Maiden (1980)
• Killers (1981)
• The Number of the Beast (1982)
• Piece of Mind (1983)
• Powerslave (1984)
• Somewhere in Time (1986)
• Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
• No Prayer for the Dying (1990)
• Fear of the Dark (1992)
• The X Factor (1995)
• Virtual XI (1998)
• Brave New World (2000)
• Dance of Death (2003)
• A Matter of Life and Death (2006)

Iron Maiden - Image and legacy

Janick Gers and Steve Harris. Eddie can be seen in the background

Dave Murray and Adrian Smith.

Iron Maiden were ranked #24 in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock". The band were ranked fourth on MTV's "Top 10 Greatest Heavy Metal Bands of All Time". Iron Maiden were named the third best metal band of all time on VH1 Classic: Top 20 Metal Bands. The band also won the Ivor Novello Award for international achievement in 2002. The band was also inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk during their tour in the United States in 2005.

Iron Maiden frequently uses the slogan "Up the Irons" in their disc liner notes, and the phrase can also be seen on several t-shirts officially licensed by the band. "The Irons" has been used to refer to the London football club, West Ham United, of which founder Steve Harris is a fan. Fans of Iron Maiden have been known to use the phrase as a greeting or sign-off to other Iron Maiden fans.

Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie, is a perennial fixture in the band's sci-fi and horror-influenced album cover art, as well as in live shows. Eddie was drawn by Derek Riggs until 1992, although there have been various incarnations by numerous artists including Melvyn Grant. Eddie is also featured in a first-person shooter video game from the band, Ed Hunter, as well as numerous books, graphic comics and band-related merchandise.

In 2008, Kerrang! released an album, entitled Maiden Heaven: A Tribute to Iron Maiden, composed of Iron Maiden cover songs played by artists such as Metallica, Dream Theater, Trivium, Coheed and Cambria, Avenged Sevenfold, and others who were influenced by Iron Maiden throughout their careers. Well over a half-dozen other Iron Maiden tribute albums (each featuring various artists) exist, including a piano tribute, an electro tribute, a black metal tribute and a hip-hop tribute.

Iron Maiden songs have been featured in several video games. These include the game Carmaggedon 2 with "Aces High" and "The Trooper," "2 Minutes to Midnight" is also featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and "The Number of the Beast" in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4.

Their music has also been featured in several rhythmic video games, including the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II with the song "The Trooper", Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s with the song "Wrathchild", Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock with the song "The Number of the Beast", and cover a version of "Run to the Hills" in Rock Band. A cover of "Number of the Beast" was also released for Rock Band as downloadable content.

The Iron Maiden video for "From Here to Eternity" was viewed (and commented favorably on) by Beavis and Butthead, and the duo sang "The Prisoner" in another episode.

The song "Flash of a Blade" was featured in the Italian horror movie Phenomena (called "Creepers" in the U.S.), and its soundtrack. "The Number of the Beast" appeared in the movie Murder By Numbers and its soundtrack.

Iron Maiden - Recent years (2006–present)

In Autumn 2006, Iron Maiden released A Matter of Life and Death. While the album is not a concept album, war and religion are recurring themes in the lyrics throughout, as well as in the album's artwork. A successful tour followed, during which they played the new album in its entirety; though response to this was mixed.

Iron Maiden recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for Live from Abbey Road in December 2006. Their performance was screened in an episode alongside sessions with Natasha Bedingfield and Gipsy Kings in March 2007 on Channel 4 (UK) and June 2007 on the Sundance Channel (USA).

In November 2006, Iron Maiden and manager Rod Smallwood announced that they were cutting their 27-year-old ties with Sanctuary Music and starting a new company named Phantom Music Management. No other significant changes were made.

The second leg of the A Matter of Life and Death tour was dubbed A Matter of the Beast to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Number of the Beast album, and included appearances at several major festivals worldwide. The band announced plans to play five songs from A Matter of Life and Death and five from The Number of the Beast as part of their set but in fact played only four songs from The Number of the Beast.They played in the Middle East for the first time at the annual Dubai Desert Rock Festival in 2007. On the June 24 they ended the tour with a performance at London's Brixton Academy in aid of The Clive Burr MS Trust fund.

On September 5, 2007, the band announced their Somewhere Back in Time World Tour., which ties in with the DVD release of their Live After Death album. The setlist for the tour consisted of hits from the 80s, with a specific focus on the Powerslave era for set design. The tour started in Mumbai, India on February 1, 2008 where the band played to an audience of about 30,000. The first leg of the tour consisted of 24 concerts in 21 cities, travelling over 50,000 miles in the band's own chartered plane "Ed Force One". They played their first ever concerts in Costa Rica and Colombia and their first Australian shows since 1992. On May 12th, the band released a new compilation album, titled Somewhere Back in Time. It contains a selection of tracks from their 1980 eponymous debut to 1988's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, including several live versions from Live After Death. With the sole UK headline show at Twickenham Stadium, this tour also marks the first ever stadium headlining show in the UK by the band. A final leg of the tour will take place in February and March 2009, including the band's first ever appearance in Peru and Ecuador, and their first performances in New Zealand for 16 years.

During the Somewhere Back In Time tour, Bruce Dickinson has said that there are plans for Iron Maiden to write and record a new album, most likely to come out in 2009, and in an interview with Metal Edge, Steve Harris said there definitely will be another album, stating that, "I always had this vision that we would do 15 studio albums, and the next one would be the 15th. Hopefully, we'll do another one or two for luck, but we'll see how we go, really." Dickinson has also been informing audiences that future tours will feature more recent Iron Maiden material.

On January 20, 2009, the band announced that they will be releasing a full-length documentary film in select theatres on April 21. Titled Iron Maiden: Flight 666, the movie was filmed during the first leg of the Somewhere Back In Time tour between February and March 2008. Flight 666 is co-produced by Banger Productions and will be released by Universal Music Group in the U.S. and EMI Records in the rest of the world.

At the 2009 BRIT Awards the band won the award for British live act.

Iron Maiden - Reunion (1999–2005)

Bruce Dickinson, the most well-known Iron Maiden vocalist

In February 1999, Bayley left the band by mutual consent. At the same time, the band shocked their fans when they announced that both Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith were rejoining the band, and that Janick Gers would remain. Iron Maiden now had three guitarists and a hugely successful reunion tour, The Ed Hunter Tour. This tour also supported the band's newly released greatest hits Ed Hunter, which also contained a computer game of the same name starring the band's mascot.

Iron Maiden's first studio release after the reunion with Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith came in the form of 2000's Brave New World. Thematic influences continued with "The Wicker Man" — based on the 1973 British cult film of the same name — and "Brave New World" — title taken from the Aldous Huxley novel of the same name.

The world tour that followed consisted of well over 100 dates and culminated on 19 January 2001 in a show at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil, where Iron Maiden played to an audience of around 250,000. This performance was recorded and released on CD and DVD in March 2002 under the name Rock in Rio.

In 2003, Iron Maiden released Dance of Death. As usual, historical and literary influences continued — "Montsegur" in particular being about the Cathar stronghold conquered in 1244 and "Paschendale" relating to a significant battle during World War I.

Their performance at Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany, as part of the supporting tour, was recorded and released in August 2005 as a live album and DVD, entitled Death on the Road.

In 2005, the band announced a tour to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the release of their first album, Iron Maiden, and the 30th anniversary of their formation. The tour also was in support of the 2004 DVD entitled The Early Days and as such during the tour they only played material from their first four albums. As part of the celebration of their early days, the "Number of the Beast" single was re-released and went straight to number 3 in the UK Chart.

At Iron Maiden's last Ozzfest performance (August 20, 2005 at the Hyundai Pavilion at Glen Helen in San Bernardino, CA), Sharon Osbourne interrupted their performance by turning off the PA system, after which the MC chanted: "Ozzy! Ozzy!". Members of the audience threw eggs at the band, causing singer Bruce Dickinson to question how eggs had gotten past Ozzfest security. During some of Maiden's signature numbers, the band's PA system cut in and out. On the Ozzfest website, Mrs. Osbourne would later accuse Bruce Dickinson of disrespecting Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, and the production quality of the Ozzfest tour, while praising the rest of the band and their crew.

The band completed this tour by headlining the Reading and Leeds weekend festivals on the 26th and 28 August, 2005. For the second time, the band played a charity show for former drummer Clive Burr's Clive Burr MS Trust Fund charity.