Biography

The history of "Iron maiden" begins in 1971 when Steve Harris bougth a telecaster copy for 40$ (Telecaster = bassguitar). Steve Harris had a dream, it was to one day become a professional soccer player. But Steve didn't fited in the team and he abandoned his hopes of a soccer carer and he started to build up his knowlege about rockmusic. Steve learned him self how to play by playing when he was listening to his favorite records. Soon he started a band whitch was called "Influence" who then changed their name to "Gupsy's kiss". Soon the band was dissolved. In the end of 1975 Steve started a new band and Iron maiden was born. Steve got the name from an old movie, "The man in the iron mask", It was a metall box with spikes on the inside and the wictims were placed inside and was screwered to death. Things were difficult in 1977 when the Punk / New Wave revolution came and most of the places were only booking new wave bands. The record companies did the same. The band did receive offers, if they were prepared to cut their hair and started to play punk. In 1978 had the situation improved enough that the band could work to make their comeback and get regular gigs. They realised that they needed a demo. At New Year's Eve they were in Spaceward Studios near Cambridge and recorded "Prowler", "Invasion", "Strange World" and "Iron Maiden", it cost £200. The recording was all that they had, so the band couldn't buy the master tape. When they went back a couple of weeks later to pay for the tape and mix, the tape had been destroyed. they leaved with just the cassettes from the original recording unedited and unmixed. Dave gave his copy to Neal Kay, a DJ who loved hard rock and who held regular rock nights at the Bandwagon pub in Kingsbury, North London. The band were now finding it easier to book gigs and gained a residency at The Ruskin Arms in Manor Park. Neal played the tape at one of his rock nights and was astonished at the reaction. It became the most requested songs for months and Iron Maiden started to play there. One night when they was playing in central London was John Darnley from the record company EMI watching Iron Maiden. The following month did Iron Maiden signed for EMI. In 1980 they released their debut album, "Iron Maiden" witch went straight up to No.4 at the UK list. In 1981 was the album "Killers" released and Iron Maiden went on their first worldtour. During the 80's the Iron Maiden released eight albums and was almost all the time at the UK lists. Iron maiden will soon make their comeback and they will also release a new record.