Iron Maiden

There are multiple artists with this name: 1) Iron Maiden is a New Wave of British Heavy Metal or nwobhm band from the United Kingdom. They formed in London, 1975 by bassist Steve Harris, they are one of the most successful and influential bands in the heavy metal genre, selling over 80 million albums worldwide. The band has so far released fifteen studio albums, four "best of" compilations, nine live albums and four limited boxed-sets. They have also won the Ivor Novello Award for international achievement in 2000.

1) Iron Maiden is a New Wave of British Heavy Metal or nwobhm band from the United Kingdom. They formed in London, 1975 by bassist Steve Harris, they are one of the most successful and influential bands in the heavy metal genre, selling over 80 million albums worldwide. The band has so far released fifteen studio albums, four "best of" compilations, nine live albums and four limited boxed-sets. They have also won the Ivor Novello Award for international achievement in 2000.

The band has changed their line-up several times up to 1999 when Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith returned to the band.

Their current line-up is:

Steve Harris (1975-): bass, backing vocals, studio keyboards
David Michael Murray (1975-): guitar
Paul Bruce Dickinson (1981-1993 1999-): lead vocals (see also Bruce Dickinson, Samson)
Nicko McBrain (1983-): drums, percussion (see also Trust)
Janick Gers (1990-): guitar (see also Bruce Dickinson, White Spirit)
Adrian Smith (1980-1990, 1999-): guitar, backing vocals (see also Bruce Dickinson and Psycho Motel).

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?1998)
Dennis Wilcock - lead vocals (1976?1977)
Barry Purkis ? drums, percussion (1977)
Paul Day - lead vocals (1975?1976).

Iron Maiden's work has inspired other sub-genres of heavy metal, including power metal and speed metal, and is generally thought of as an influence to any "metal" music containing dual-guitar harmonization. One example of their far reaching influence is that many bands from virtually every rock and metal sub-genre list Iron Maiden as one of their influences.

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.

Many of the band's songs are based on history, folklore, movies and books, such as "Aces High," "Brave New World," "The Trooper," "The Clansman," "The Wicker Man," "The Prisoner," "Where Eagles Dare," "Out of the Silent Planet," "To Tame a Land" (based on Frank Herbert's Dune) and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" ? in which words from the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem are incorporated into the song.

The band has headlined several major events in its career, notably Rock In Rio, Ozzfest alongside Black Sabbath, Donington's famous "Monsters of Rock" and "Download" Festivals and also the "Reading" and "Leeds" Festivals. Recently the band played to a 30,000 strong crowd at EDD-FEST'2007 in Bangalore, India. This was the first visit of the band to the country.

Iron Maiden released their latest album "The Final Frontier" in 2010.

http://www.ironmaiden.com/


2) Iron Maiden (later aka The Bolton Iron Maiden) is a late sixties doom-band. This Iron Maiden was formed in 1964 by Barry Skeels, Steve Drewett, Chris Rose and Alan Hooker as an acoustic band in Basildon, Essex that eventually evolved into a band called Iron Maiden. By 1966, the lineup was Skeels (bass), Drewett (vocals/harmonies), Rose (lead guitar), Tom Loates (rhythm guitar) and Stan Gillem (drums); they played Rolling Stones and blues numbers under the name "Growth". Reduced to a two-piece, Drewett and Skeels played blues under the name of "Stevenson's Blues Department" in pubs and clubs in Essex and London. They supported a number of up and coming bands including Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac, The Groundhogs and King Crimson.

In 1968, Drewett and Skeels were joined by Paul Reynolds (drums) and Trevor Thoms (guitar). They released an acetate (God of Darkness/Ballad of Martha Kent) under the then risqu? name of BUM. When they signed to the Gemini label in 1970, the name was changed to the less risqu? Iron Maiden. They recorded their debut album Maiden Voyage. Reynolds was replaced by Steve Chapman on drums and Iron Maiden released the single Ned Kelly/Falling. This coincided with Mick Jagger's film "Ned Kelly". A planned Australian tour fell through. The Gemini record label also folded (with the loss of the debut album master tapes) and Skeels left Iron Maiden. The band carried on without him for a while, but the debut album was not released until 1998 using duplicate tapes owned by Skeels. This "original" Iron Maiden is often considered by fans as one of the earliest 'true' doom metal bands.

However, soon after the "original" Iron Maiden was re-discovered , their name was officially changed to 'The Bolton Iron Maiden' since the Iron Maiden led by Steve Harris already had the name 'Iron Maiden' trademarked.