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42 Years Ago: Iron Maiden Unleash ‘The Number of the Beast’

Happy anniversary to Iron Maiden 's The Number of the Beast .

" Woe to you, oh earth and sea / For the Devil sends the beast with wrath / Because he knows the time is short / Let him who hath understanding / Reckon the number of the beast / For it is a human number / Its number is six hundred and sixty six ."

These words have been etched into the annals of heavy metal history, signaling the onset of one of the genre's most venerable songs: Iron Maiden 's "The Number of the Beast." The album, taking its name from the potent track, was released on March 22, 1982, thrusting Maiden onto bigger stages and under brighter spotlights as fans welcomed the arrival of new vocalist  Bruce Dickinson .

After finding Paul Di'Anno 's replacement in the former Samson singer, Iron Maiden performed a small run of shows before hitting the studio to record the follow-up to 1981's  Killers . With bassist and founder  Steve Harris ' well of songs running dry, it was the first time the band entered the studio without a significant amount of music ready to go. Esteemed producer Martin Birch oversaw the recording once again, having produced the aforementioned  Killers . He would notably draw out the recording process, meticulously looking for a certain sound and insisting the band perform take after take after take.

“Martin would always drag out a little bit more — to the point where sometimes bits of furniture went flying across the studio and things like that out of frustration," said Dickinson in Iron Maiden's  Early Days documentary. Echoing these statements, Birch commented, “I’d drive [Dickinson] crazy. I think he ended up throwing chairs around the studio and screaming and yelling and went home with a blinding headache threatening me he was never ever going to sing again. But I think now when he listens to it he realizes, ‘Yeah, he was right.'”

These unrelenting demands did more than simply find the perfect vocal take; they brought out one of metal's most defining moments. Frustrated in the studio, Dickinson unleashed one of the most savage heavy metal screams in history on "The Number of the Beast," which has yet to be replicated, though the singer has come alarmingly close onstage over the years.

“I enjoy making records with Martin. They’re not always comfortable, but they’re always bloody good," Bruce stated. "Bloody good" is an understatement when discussing  The Number of the Beast and Birch revealed, “I had the same feeling on The Number of the Beast  as when we did the Deep Purple album Machine Head . It was the same kind of atmosphere — the same kind of feeling that was going on. Something really good is happening here and it’s exciting to do and I think that excitement comes through on the album.”

Perhaps to Dickinson's amusement, Birch seemed to be haunted by the song. Sounding more like myth but is, in fact, truth, the producer was involved in a car accident to where the bill amounted to £666. "People don't believe this, but he changed it to 667 pounds," Harris said. "I mean that was only the one song we did, but he's done a lot of work with Black Sabbath , and apparently, they're into that sort of thing. So, I don't know, maybe there's something to it..." [via Metal Rules ]

The song itself was inspired by a dream Harris had after watching the film  Damien: Omen II  with the lyrical ideas coming from the Robert Burns poem  Tam o' Shanter . While the lyrics merely exclaim " 6! 6! 6! / The number of the beast..." religious groups, predominantly in the United States, staged protests and publicly burned Iron Maiden records, accusing the band of being Satanists. The famous spoken word intro is taken from the Book of Revelation and Maiden had originally intended on horror legend actor Vincent Price doing the voice over. His asking price of £25,000 was too high, so they settled on the lesser-known and equally eerie-sounding Barry Clayton.

Iron Maiden, "Number of the Beast"

Leading the record was the single "Run to the Hills." Released over a month prior to the album and two weeks before Iron Maiden's U.K. tour was set to kick off, it was the first single from the group to crack the Top 10 on the U.K. Singles Chart. The B-side, "Total Eclipse" (written by Harris, guitarist Adrian Smith and drummer Clive Burr ) was selected over "Gangland" (written by Smith and Burr) as the band knew the song that was not selected would make its way onto the album. It was a decision they later regretted, feeling "Total Eclipse" would have made for a stronger album track than the raging speed of "Gangland." The song was not included on the album until 1998, where it appeared between "Gangland" and the epic closer "Hallowed Be Thy Name" from then on.

Iron Maiden, "Run to the Hills"

The two cuts represent Burr's only writing credits with the band and his replacement, Nicko McBrain , wouldn't receive his first writing credit until 2003. Prior to  The Number of the Beast , Paul Di'Anno and guitarist Dave Murray were the only members to take an active role in writing in Iron Maiden, but with Harris' stockpile depleted, the need for other members to step up was paramount. Smith was the biggest secondary contributor, lending a hand on not only "Gangland," but "The Prisoner" and "22 Acacia Avenue" as well.

The Number of the Beast is where Iron Maiden began to truly gain notoriety for pulling influences from film and literature, a source they would return to time and time again throughout the rest of their career. "The Prisoner" was based off the British television show of the same name, taking the dialogue from the program's opening sequence. The other Smith tune, "22 Acacia Avenue" was a leftover from his pre-Maiden days in the band Urchin. With Harris' guiding hand, the two reworked the song into the thematic successor to "Charlotte the Harlot." The Harris-penned "Children of the Damned" was also inspired by film, taking influences from Village of the Damned  and its sequel,  Children of the Damned.

Closing out the record is arguably Iron Maiden's finest song of their illustrious career. "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is both a band and fan favorite, only ever having been omitted from a setlist on the 'Maiden England World Tour' between 2012 and 2014.

Iron Maiden, "Hallowed Be Thy Name"

These songs, now Iron Maiden classics, all arrived with the stunning Derek Riggs artwork which famously depicts the band's beloved mascot Eddie pulling the strings of the marionette Devil. The renowned artist put a spin on this visual, adding an Eddie puppet for the Devil to control, leveling the field. The cover was originally submitted as a single for "Purgatory," a cut off  Killers . Upon receiving the cover art, manager Rod Smallwood shelved it for the next full length as it was incredibly high quality — too high of quality to use on a mere single. An error at the pressing plant resulted in the now iconic blue sky background, though this was swapped for a dark grey background for the 1998 remasters and all pressings onward.

Clive Burr made his last appearance with Maiden on  The Number of the Beast , playing his final show with the band in December 1982. They did their best to retain his services at the time and he had been given three months to "sort himself out and he didn't," said Harris. Time was of the essence and they had to let Burr go, who was struggling with the demands of the increasing tour regimen, paving the way for Nicko McBrain to enter the fold, leaving his old band Trust, who had toured with Maiden in the past.

READ MORE: 10 Facts About Iron Maiden's 'The Number of the Beast' Only Superfans Know

In support of the record, Iron Maiden embarked on the 'Beast on the Road' tour, the second longest tour of their career. Spanning 18 countries, the band played 184 shows in just 10 months, only to best themselves two albums later on the mighty 'World Slavery' tour in support of  Powerslave . The Number of the Beast marked the band's first No. 1 album in the U.K. and has been certified platinum in the U.K., U.S. and Canada. As of 2010, it had sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

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Gallery Credit: Joe DiVita

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“The kids who wanted to buy our records were like, ‘Cool! The religious right’s burning them!’” The track-by-track guide to Iron Maiden’s The Number Of The Beast

From Invaders to Hallowed Be Thy Name, here’s everything you need to know about each song on Iron Maiden’s 1982 breakthrough

No matter how you look at it, The Number Of The Beast is the moment Iron Maiden were catapulted into the mainstream. Run To The Hills cracked the top 10 of the singles charts in the band’s native UK, before the album itself landed at the wildly enviable number one position. The US, meanwhile, was getting worked up by all the satanic imagery, staging mass protests that – unbeknownst to them – only made Maiden seem even cooler to metalheads.

Of course, none of that success would have been possible if Number… were shit. It took eight top-shelf songs to build this career-defining masterpiece (or nine if you own the CD), and below you’ll find the story of every single one. From Invaders to Hallowed Be Thy Name , here’s your track-by-track guide to Maiden’s magnum opus:

A bold and upfront thrasher, Invaders opens Number… with attention-demanding immediacy. There’s no build-up, just brash metal chords and Clive Burr’s forceful drumming separated by Steve Harris ’ characteristically loud bass. Despite it starting their biggest album, though, the band have since stated they’re not big fans of the song.

“[ Invaders ] could have been replaced with something a bit better, only we didn’t have anything else to replace it with at the time,” Steve said in Maiden biography Run To The Hills . “We had just enough time to do what we did, and that was it.”

To this day, Maiden have never played this song live.

Children Of The Damned

After the no-wasted-space onslaught of Invaders , Children Of The Damned is a more dynamic meander. The song routinely escalates from acoustic verses to cacophonous electric guitar chords, and the shifts in tone offered the first true glimpse of then-new singer Bruce Dickinson ’s range.

Freshly removed from ex-band Samson, Bruce wasn’t allowed writing credits on Number… , but made a “moral contribution” to several tracks, including this one. The frontman’s said Children… was inspired by Black Sabbath ’s 1980 anthem Children Of The Sea , as well as the ’60s science-fiction horror films Children Of The Damned and Village Of The Damned .

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The Prisoner

Famously, The Prisoner was inspired by (and samples its opening dialogue from) the 1960s TV series of the same name. Guitarist Adrian Smith , who’d only joined Maiden in 1981, came up with the track, marking his first songwriting contribution to the band.

“I was pretty shy about showing the band my songs,” Adrian told Classic Rock . “[…] But I thought that if I wanted to stay in the band I’d get pretty frustrated if I didn’t contribute ideas.”

The Prisoner creator Patrick McGoohan was reportedly supportive of the song sampling the show, telling manager Rod Smallwood: “What did you say the name was? Iron Maiden? Do it!”

22 Acacia Avenue

Adrian Smith and Steve Harris co-composed this song as a sequel to Charlotte The Harlot : a track on Maiden’s self-titled debut, written by guitarist Dave Murray about a fictional sex worker. “It’s an extension of Charlotte The Harlot ,” Steve said in a 1983 interview. “[22 Acacia Avenue] is where she’s living in London’s East End.”

Although Maiden would later revisit Charlotte twice more (1990’s Hooks In You and 1992’s From Here To Eternity ), none of the songs about her have persisted in the setlist. 22… , despite being a fixture during the ’82 Beast On The Road tour, hasn’t been played since 2003.

The Number Of The Beast

Inspired by a nightmare Steve Harris had after watching Damien: The Omen II , Number… became one of Maiden’s signature songs by drawing the ire of religious fundamentalists in the US. “It gave us loads of publicity,” Bruce Dickinson said in 2005. “The kids who did wanna buy our records were like, ‘Oh cool! The religious right are burning their records! I better buy half a dozen!’”

The title track was also an arse-ache to record. Producer Martin Birch had Bruce repeat that agonised wail after the third verse over and over again, to the point the vocalist began throwing furniture around out of frustration.

Run To The Hills

Steve Harris drew from his love of Western stories to write Iron Maiden’s most popular song. Run To The Hills narrates the struggles of the Native American Cree tribe as they’re hunted by colonial forces. Musically, it marked the epitome of Steve’s “galloping” style of bass playing, and its energy and infectious chorus pushed it to number seven in the UK singles chart.

According to Bruce, it was Martin Birch that suggested Run… should be released as Number… ’s single. “So, thanks to Martin’s prize-winning ears,” he’s said, “that’s what we did, and it turned out to be exactly the right choice.”

Iron Maiden fucking loathe Gangland . In the mad-dash lead-up to Run To The Hills ’ single release, the band had to pick a b-side for the song. They chose Total Eclipse , effectively disqualifying it from the album, and replaced it on Number… with this concise hard rocker. For 40 years now, the band’s members have been publicly lamenting that decision.

“The one mistake we made was putting Gangland on the album instead of Total Eclipse ,” Bruce Dickinson told Classic Rock . “We picked Gangland because it was the first thing we ever recorded together properly.”

Like Invaders , Gangland has never been played live.

Total Eclipse

Maiden have done everything they can to address Total Eclipse ’s omission from Number… since 1982. For starters, the band made the song a mainstay of the setlist during their Beast On The Road run, then they added it to the album’s track listing for both a 1998 CD release and 2022 vinyl reissue. It even replaced Gangland on the latter occasion.

In fairness, few would argue Gangland ’s a better song than Total… . The gloriously overblown stomper demonstrates Bruce Dickinson at his most wicked-sounding (especially as he cries, “Mother nature’s black revenge!” ), and would have segued seamlessly into the even more dramatic Hallowed Be Thy Name .

Hallowed Be Thy Name

Iron Maiden have made many, many long-running songs, but Hallowed Be Thy Name remains the measuring stick. This ever-expanding triumph conveys the thoughts of a prisoner being taken to the gallows, increasing in bombast and intensity as his death draws nearer.

Hallowed… remains a fan favourite four decades on, and Maiden themselves seem just as enamoured: the band have played this finale at almost every show since 1982. Bruce Dickinson’s likened singing the song onstage to “narrating a movie to the audience”. Metal Hammer ’s readers once even voted Hallowed… as the greatest Maiden song , proving both its staying power and you lot’s impeccable taste.

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.

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How Number Of The Beast set Iron Maiden on the road to heavy metal glory

With Bruce Dickinson in their ranks, there was no stopping Iron Maiden with their now-iconic album, The Number Of The Beast…

Paul Di’Anno reckons he quit. The official Iron Maiden line is that he was sacked. Either way, the result was the same: a band on a steep upward trajectory had to find a new singer at a crucial juncture, as they looked to start work on their third album, following the runaway successes of their first two.

Although this was one hell of a risk, such was the wind in Maiden’s sails that even this potentially calamitous change of personnel proved to be nothing but an upgrade. And that was always the intention – to fix a squeaky wheel before it caused a real problem.

His name was Bruce Dickinson , an educated lad from Sheffield with a larynx like a foghorn, who had finished university and immediately put his talent to good use by, um, singing in NWOBHM outfit Samson. Where his Maiden predecessor had fronted the band as a gritty hard man, with a pugilistic vocal style to match, Bruce approached it with a more bombastic, theatrical zeal, the perfect match for the more involved, epic music the band were making. Still, he was in at the deep end: Maiden were already veterans of European tours, as well as having American and Japanese stamps in their passports. Not to mention they were also by many factors bigger than Samson, who had never performed outside the UK and had enjoyed a success that could politely be called ‘respectable’.

His first show with his new band was in Bologna, Italy, where he admits, “I didn’t open my eyes for the first four or five songs.”

“The road crew, who’d all been touring with Maiden for a while, were all looking at me and sizing me up,” he remembers. “Everyone was looking at me like I had two heads! But I knew that’d happen, and I knew I just had to get on with it. I knew people had seen the band with Paul, so there was some baggage. And we weren’t just introducing me – we were playing stuff from Number Of The Beast that nobody had heard yet, so it was very different to what they knew!”

Whereas in Maiden’s early years, songs such as Sanctuary and Running Free had burst in to clobber you and get out with minimal fuss, on the new album their sights were being raised. More traditional-sounding songs like Run To The Hills and the title-track were done with class and skill, while the seven-minute Hallowed Be Thy Name, the album’s closer, ramped up the drama to levels the band had previously struggled to hit, thanks to Bruce’s magnetic telling of the story of a man on his way to the gallows from the point of view of the condemned. They weren’t in the Ruskin Arms anymore.

The verdict was quick and almost unanimous: the new, Bruce-fronted Maiden was a superior beast, and the album charted at Number One in the UK, news the band received while they were pushing a broken-down bus up a hill in Switzerland. Even Paul Di’Anno admitted that he’d been replaced by the right guy. “Bruce is absolutely the best singer the band has ever had,” he wrote in his autobiography, The Beast. “I think he’s got a bloody great voice, and it was just what the band needed at the time.”

But not everyone was so impressed. In America, church groups were up in arms about the album’s name, artwork and the lyrics to the title-track. Records and merch were burned – or, in some cases, smashed with hammers for fear of inhaling ‘evil’ fumes. Steve Harris was frustrated by the whole episode, observing that the point had gone entirely over these people’s heads. “They clearly hadn’t read the lyrics,” he said. Had they done, they’d have soon spotted that The Number Of The Beast is a cautionary tale of someone stumbling across a black magic ceremony in the middle of the night and turning in terror. Similarly, though the sleeve features Satan himself front and centre, controlling a puppet, he in turn is a marionette under the influence of Eddie. In fact, the most evil thing to occur in the creation of the album was when producer Martin Birch was involved in a car crash, and was presented with a repair bill for £666.

To look at it from a more business-minded perspective, though, the controversy simply meant this new, improved Maiden were growing ever bigger. And with Bruce a much more professional figure onstage than his predecessor, and better equipped to step up to the rigorous, seven-nights-a-week Maiden touring schedule, the hard graft of conquering first America and then the world could finally begin in earnest. Once the small matter of who was standing where onstage had been dealt with.

“Steve wanted to stand in front of everybody and run all over the stage,” recalled Bruce in his What Does This Button Do? memoir. “I wasn’t having it. I wasn’t going to sing to the back of the bass player’s head.” Things came to a head after a show in Newcastle where, following two hours of basically stepping on one another’s toes, Bruce and Steve had to be separated by Rod Smallwood backstage.

But what Maiden had was far more important than tiffs over microphone placement, and with cooler heads prevailing, a compromise over stage territory was reached. Because what Maiden had done with their new album and singer was put themselves firmly on the road to being the most important heavy metal band of the decade. And already, nothing could possibly stop them.

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Iron Maiden Return To North America With An Updated ‘Legacy Of The Beast’ Tour Critically Acclaimed Show To Be Even More Spectacular

23 Arena & Amphitheatre Shows Across North America In September & October 2022

Ticketmaster verified fan registration open now  here, general on sale starts december 10 th  at 10am local.

IRON MAIDEN will return to North America in 2022 to bring The Legacy Of The Beast World Tour to yet more cities, many of which the band has not performed in for many years. The show has already been seen by almost two million people across the globe, being hailed by fans and media alike as the most extravagant and visually spectacular performance of the band’s career to date, with a decades-spanning set list of fan favourites. The 2022 tour produced by Live Nation will also include some songs from their new studio album  Senjutsu  being played live for the first time. 

Very Special Guests on the 2022 dates will be   Trivium on all dates between El Paso and Spokane, and then Within Temptation on all dates from Sioux Falls to Tampa.

The full list of North American Dates are listed below.

Registration for first access to tickets is open now  HERE  via Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan platform and will run through 10:00PM ET on December 5 th . Verified Fan presale begins Wednesday, December 8 th  at 10am local. As always there will be an exclusive pre-sale for IRON MAIDEN fan club members beginning Tuesday, December 7 th  at 10am local. All presales end Thursday, December 9 th  at 10pm local.

Any remaining tickets will go on sale on December 10 th  at 10am local time.

Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood comments,

“Next summer we will finally get to play the huge European stadium tour for The Legacy of the Beast, and the new show will be even more spectacular so after our visit to Rock in Rio early September 2022 we decided to take it back to our fans in North America too, but in cities or venues we didn’t play in 2019, including some we haven’t visited in many years like El Paso, Spokane, Sioux Falls, Columbus, Hamilton, Ottawa and Greensboro. 

We’ll be making a couple of additions and changes to the production and setlist to include some songs from our new album Senjutsu and are making the 2022 version of Legacy of the Beast even more spectacular than the acclaimed original show. You can be sure that we will still be featuring all the “hits” and the key elements of the original tour like the Spitfire, Icarus, Hell, flamethrowers and pyro and the rest – but we will shake it up a bit and Trooper Eddie will have serious competition in the new Senjutsu ‘world’ we are adding.”

Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson adds,

“We’re really looking forward to our return to North America so we can bring The Legacy Of The Beast show to places we didn’t get to in 2019 and to other cities we’ve not played for many years. I’m really excited about the new additions  and changes to the stage production and we can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve got planned. The whole band has really enjoyed the Legacy Tour and now we just can’t wait get back out on the road to play live, have fun and see everyone again! ” 

The Legacy of the Beast Tour production and set list is inspired by Maiden’s award-winning free to play mobile game of the same name which is available on iOS and Android platforms at  www.ironmaiden.com/play

A Trooper VIP Hospitality upgrade package is currently being planned and details will be announced closer to the tour dates for any fans who might want to enjoy additional at-show benefits.

North American dates:  SEPT 11               EL PASO, TX                                    DON HASKINS CENTER SEPT 13               AUSTIN, TX                                      MOODY CENTER SEPT 15               TULSA, OK                                       BOK CENTER SEPT 17               DENVER, CO                                   BALL ARENA  SEPT 19               SALT LAKE CITY, UT                       USANA AMPHITHEATRE SEPT 21               ANAHEIM, CA                                 HONDA CENTER SEPT 25               CHULA VISTA, CA                           NORTH ISLAND CREDIT UNION AMPHITHEATRE SEPT 27               CONCORD, CA                              CONCORD PAVILION SEPT 29               SEATTLE, WA                                  CLIMATE PLEDGE ARENA SEPT 30               SPOKANE, WA                                SPOKANE ARENA OCT 03                SIOUX FALLS, SD                             DENNY SANFORD PREMIER CENTER OCT 05                CHICAGO, IL                                    UNITED CENTER OCT 07                COLUMBUS, OH                             NATIONWIDE ARENA OCT 09                DETROIT, MI                                   LITTLE CAESARS ARENA OCT 11                TORONTO, ON                               SCOTIABANK CENTRE OCT 12                HAMILTON, ON                              FIRSTONTARIO CENTRE OCT 15                OTTAWA, ON                                 CANADIAN TIRE CENTRE OCT 17                WORCESTER, MA                           DCU CENTER OCT 19                BELMONT PARK, NY                      UBS ARENA OCT 21                NEWARK, NJ                                   PRUDENTIAL CENTER OCT 23                WASHINGTON, DC                         CAPITAL ONE ARENA OCT 25                GREENSBORO, NC                         GREENSBORO COLISEUM OCT 27                TAMPA, FL                                      AMALIE ARENA 

Reviews From N. American Media About The Legacy Of The Beast Show Include:                                                

“Iron Maiden brings ginormous on-stage surprises and rocks through its hits at a sold-out Banc of California stadium” –  Orange County Register, Los Angeles, USA

“…epic stage props and visuals, endless costume changes for Bruce Dickinson, hit after hit, and never a dull moment…and the theatrics are all matched by an absurdly professional level of musicianship” –  Brooklyn Vegan website, USA

“…  one of the best shows I’ve seen from Iron Maiden in the last twenty years!  ” –  Illinois Entertainer, Chicago, USA

“…  a highly theatrical, action-packed and dramatic two-hour show ” –  Toronto Sun, Canada

“…  a terrifically entertaining, time-warping two-hour set of fan favorites and rarities….a tour de force of musicianship”  –  Sun Sentinel, Florida, USA

“ Legacy Of The Beast Tour Is The Pinnacle Of Heavy-Metal Escapism ” –  Rollingstone.com, New York, USA

“Iron Maiden will always put on a spectacle of a show. That said, their Legacy Of The Beast Tour handily puts every other tour they’ve embarked on behind it in terms of production and execution.” -Loudwire website, USA

About Live Nation Entertainment Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com .

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Iron Maiden Todd Nakamine|  [email protected]

Live Nation Concerts Monique Sowinski | [email protected]

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Iron Maiden’s Legacy of the Beast Tour Is the Pinnacle of Heavy-Metal Escapism

By Hank Shteamer

Hank Shteamer

A few songs into Iron Maiden ‘s set at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Saturday night, frontman Bruce Dickinson waged an onstage swordfight with a nine-foot-tall undead creature dressed as a British soldier. As the singer and the monster — a walking incarnation of the band’s trusty mascot, Eddie — dueled, the group’s five other members burned through “The Trooper,” Maiden’s pulse-quickening 1983 ode to the exhilaration and peril of 19th-century warfare. The scene was pure multimedia spectacle, absurd yet undeniably awesome — in other words, Iron Maiden in a nutshell.

It’s hard to imagine a more quintessentially Maiden-y Maiden show than the one that came to Brooklyn this past weekend, and will make its way across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico during the next two months. Titled Legacy of the Beast , the tour is, as Dickinson explained early in the night, pure fan service, a retrospective set with no songs newer than 2006 and most dating from the 44-year-old band’s 1980s heyday. (Though, during the same monologue, the singer promised that the band would eventually be back on the road with new material , a slightly touchy topic since Maiden controversially supported their ’06 album A Matter of Life and Death by playing it front-to-back on tour.)

Focusing on the past for this run has allowed the band to stretch out, touching on deep cuts like “Flight of Icarus,” which prior to Legacy of the Beast’s kickoff last year hadn’t been played live since 1986. But the show’s central element is really the staging, a gloriously over-the-top production — think EPCOT Center meets big-budget jukebox musical — that starts out at full bore, with a huge World War II–era plane replica soaring over the stage during the Battle of Britain–themed “Aces High,” and never skimps on the eye candy during the two hours that follow. Thanks to Dickinson’s tireless physicality and the band’s constant crowd engagement, the scenery never felt empty.

The Barclays Center stage transformed constantly, from a military bunker concealed by leaves and camouflage to a stained-glass-framed cathedral with chandeliers overhead, a spooky graveyard complete with rolling mist, and finally, during “The Number of the Beast,” what looked like the entrance to hell itself, with a sinister mouth flanking the band and, later, a big, blow-up Eddie-as-Satan head. (The character appeared on the backdrop in countless guises throughout the night, from Braveheart warrior during freedom-fighting epic “The Clansman” to the Wicker Man for the 2000 song of the same name, illustrating that no band has ever gotten more mileage out of a mascot.) “Flight of Icarus” came complete with an enormous faux-stone replica of the title character that, appropriately, took to the air above Dickinson — who wielded dual flamethrower gloves like some kind of Marvel supervillain — and came crashing down at the song’s end. Given all this insanity, is it any wonder that the band recently channeled its mythos into a mobile video game ?

What might seem on paper like a desperate attempt to hold on to a bygone standard of arena-scale dazzlement is an absolute blast to behold, thanks to a few interrelated factors. First, there’s the band’s unmistakable joy in performance. Dickinson remains his genre’s most charismatic, fun-to-watch frontman — the closest thing heavy metal has to an ageless Mick Jagger figure. From the second he bounds onstage to the moment he exits, the 60-year-old is a combination of diva, athlete, actor, and ham, inhabiting the songs’ high drama with a still-formidable rock-operatic belt — almost more poignant now because you can hear a hint of strain as he reaches into his upper register — and swashbuckling, Errol Flynn-like vigor, as though the stage were the set of his own personal action film.

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On Saturday, he brandished a sword during the set’s first, war-themed chapter (even making the rounds of the stage to give various band members a pat on the butt), held up an oversize illuminated crucifix during “Sign of the Cross” (one of two songs in the set from the mid-to-late Nineties era when Dickinson was temporarily replaced by Blaze Bayley), explored the stage wearing a silver plague-doctor mask and carrying a lantern during “Fear of the Dark,” and fled mini explosions on an elevated platform in the final moments of show-closer “Run to the Hills.” Meanwhile, his bandmates fanned out in attack formation across the stage, each member engaging the crowd in his own way, from Steve Harris’ faux-machine-gun bass moves to Janick Gers’ constant parade of stage-left antics — whipping his guitar around his body or skipping across the stage like a care-free child in a field — and Dave Murray’s crouching-with-one-leg-extended guitar-solo heroics.

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The other element of the live Maiden equation is of course the fans. They remain a massive — as Dickinson announced, close to 30,000 turned out this past weekend between the two Barclays shows — and exuberant tribe that on Saturday pogoed in sync with Gers and Harris, and happily complied with the singer’s frequent cries of “Scream for me, Brooklyn!” Along with the expected groups of middle-aged men, many couples and families with young kids could be seen beaming, hugging, high-fiving, and throwing the devil horns. If there’s still a memo going around regarding not wearing a band’s T-shirt to their own show, around 70 percent of Saturday’s crowd didn’t get it, many of them clad in NYC-specific Legacy of the Beast shirts showing Eddie flying over the Brooklyn Bridge and shooting flames à la Dickinson.

During one mic break, the singer expressed mock-amazement that so many people had turned out for a Maiden show in 2019: “Heavy metal? Still alive in the 21st Century?! Someone alert the media.” He paused, and then revised his statement. “Actually, fuck the media. … We don’t need the media; all we need is you .” Later, he scolded a front-row fan for filming him on a smartphone: “I’m a real person!” The takeaway seemed to be that it’s taken the band and its die-hards four-plus-decades to build this shared space apart from the mainstream, so let’s not allow intrusive technology to screw it up.

If the action on the stage and the enthusiasm in the crowd were the fire, the songs were the spark. With each passing year, Maiden’s music seems to stand further apart from the prevailing currents of heavy metal, which has trended toward the frantic rush of death and black metal, or a doomy post-Black Sabbath churn. In contrast, high-drama Maiden classics like “Where Eagles Dare” and “Two Minutes to Midnight” with their swaggering, almost jaunty cadences — driven by drummer Nicko McBrain’s crafty ride cymbal accents and masterfully unhurried feel — or “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” with its folk-like, chant-worthy guitar melody, almost seem closer to old sea shanties than anything resembling what metal has become, or, for that matter, the heavy blues-rock it sprung from.

That sense of the archaic also pervades slow-burning epics like A Matter of Life and Death’ s “For the Greater Good of God” and 1992’s “Fear of the Dark,” both of which juxtapose sing-song melody with raging hard-rock pay-offs. The relatively punky, immediate “Iron Maiden” — which led off the band’s landmark 1980 debut and closes the main Legacy of the Beast set — is the closest the 2019 version of the band gets to anything particularly earthy; for the most part this is a band that has always aimed at a loftier, more dramatic sound, and this show seems designed to drive home that core Maiden aesthetic.

After all the jumbo props, the set changes, the plumes of pyro, what else was there to do? During the “Run to the Hills” finale, a big red box labeled “TNT” appeared on the riser above McBrain’s drums. The song ended, and Dickinson jammed down the plunger that was attached, setting off a mini fireworks shower. It was a fittingly cheeky ending — more Looney Tunes than Grand Guignol — to a show that felt like the pinnacle of heavy-metal escapism, slapstick and sincerity in perfect yin-yang alignment. The standard rock narrative tells us that this kind of thing died off decades ago, as the excessive Eighties gave way to the tortured Nineties; the Legacy of the Beast tour would beg to differ.

Iron Maiden Set List “Aces High” “Where Eagles Dare” “2 Minutes to Midnight” “The Clansman” “The Trooper” “Revelations” “For the Greater Good of God” “The Wicker Man” “Sign of the Cross” “Flight of Icarus” “Fear of the Dark” “The Number of the Beast” “Iron Maiden”

Encore: “The Evil That Men Do” “Hallowed Be Thy Name” “Run to the Hills”

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Here's IRON MAIDEN's Setlist For The “Legacy of the Beast” North American Tour

• “Aces High”
• “Where Eagles Dare”
• “2 Minutes To Midnight”
• “The Clansman”
• “The Trooper”
• “Revelations”
• “For The Greater Good Of God”
• “The Wicker Man”
• “Sign Of The Cross”
• ‘Flight Of Icarus”
• “Fear Of The Dark”
• “The Number Of The Beast”
• “Iron Maiden”
• “The Evil That Men Do”
• “Hallowed Be They Name”
• “Run To The Hills”

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Iron Maiden legend Bruce Dickinson: 'You don’t need some rock star saying war is a bad thing'

Once the Iron Maiden frontman discovered the gift of music his life became a series of sky-high moments

Image: JOHN McMURTRIE

Bruce Dickinson was born in August 1958 in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. After fronting a series of bands in Sheffield and London, he became the singer of new wave of heavy metal band Samson in 1979, releasing three albums before leaving in 1981 to join Iron Maiden. His first album with Maiden was their third, 1982’s The Number Of The Beast, which became the band’s first UK number one. Over the following decade Maiden released a further five worldwide hit albums while establishing themselves as one of the biggest live draws in the world.

Dickinson quit Maiden in 1993 and released a string of well-received solo albums before rejoining the band in 1999 and embarking on their biggest tours to date while releasing a string of huge albums.

Away from music, Bruce Dickinson holds an airline transport pilot’s licence and flew Boeing 757s for the airline Astraeus, returned a group of British RAF pilots from Afghanistan in 2008, and 200 British citizens from Lebanon during the Israel/Hezbollah conflict in 2006, among other notable flights. He’s written two novels – The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace and The Missionary Position – along with his memoirs, 2017’s What Does This Button Do? He has also competed internationally at fencing and launched a series of beers.

Speaking to The Big Issue for his Letter to My Younger Self , Bruce Dickinson reflected on his schooldays, his time squatting in London and dealing with success.

By 16 I had been packed off to a boarding school and was fairly badly bullied because I didn’t really fit in. I was this kid from Worksop. My parents worked their fingers to the bone doing two or three jobs so they could send their kids to a place that would mean I didn’t have to work as hard as them. I never figured that one out. The only way I would have respect for myself is if I worked hard at something. But kids there were very entitled. The class system was embedded from the moment you walked in – there was a pecking order, you knew your place. But I refused to know my place and had a big mouth. So it was unwittingly character building. Although I’m not sure bullying ever does anything, really, except damage people. 

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I was rebellious, but not in conventional ways. Most people rebelled by smoking cigarettes. I was trying to blow things up. So I used to make weed killer and fertiliser bombs to try and blow up the cricket pitch. It was quite hazardous. At the same time, I reached the exalted rank of under officer in the cadets, which meant I had the keys to the school armoury. And back in the day, we actually had automatic weapons, World War 2 rifles, blank ammunition, two-inch mortars and smoke grenades. I would take a truckload of them into the woods so we could have a war on a Wednesday afternoon. 

This was the 1970s, so everything was a bit Life on Mars , you know? People were casually racist, things were settled by a thump in the mouth, grown-up men would get out of a car, whack somebody, then drive away. People drove drunk all the time without seatbelts. My dad told me seatbelts were dangerous and that he drove better after a few drinks, because he was more relaxed – which was how he totalled four cars! Every cliché you can think of was true. 

There was nothing to do. The youth club was dire. TV was just death by Bruce Forsyth. As I got into my teenage years, it was obvious that you could go to gigs or what was then called the disco. And the disco was just lots of young men throwing up outside, thinking they were going to ‘pull birds’ and lose their virginity. It was truly horrible. So my escape was into music. 

One gift boarding school did give me was music. Deep Purple were big for me. And we had an art teacher who was probably quite advanced in his smoking habits – he put on gigs at the school. We had Arthur Brown when I was 15, which blew my mind, Van der Graaf Generator did two gigs because the singer had gone to our school, and Magma, a crazy French jazz rock band that are still going turned up. We also had metal bands – including one called Wild Turkey, who were awesome. 

I decided to be the John Bonham of the bongos – but then realised I could sing! I tried acting and had loved it, but it was more like acting up. At least I knew I loved performing. So I stole some bongos from the music room to try to be a drummer. It didn’t work out, but in the process, I discovered I could sing. And singing and running around on stage felt like theatre. So that set me on my way – I kept the theatrical part, the prog bit, a bit from Arthur Brown, a bit of the Deep Purple vibe and then there was Sabbath and it all came together. 

Most of the plans I had about my future were a smokescreen – telling my parents stuff to keep them off my back. I just couldn’t wait to get out of boarding school. I couldn’t wait to get out of home. So I got myself into Queen Mary College in Mile End to study modern history. I said, it’d be useful if I join the army, but I was thinking, if I’m going to be a singer, I’ve got to be in London. I spent my grant buying a PA for the band I was in. They tried to kick me out for not doing any work – which was true – but I got the same degree as everybody else in the end because I crammed in the library for the last six months, mainly out of guilt because I’d taken all this money from the government and bought stuff for my band. 

I found a squat on the Isle of Dogs. There was polythene on the windows, they were all big pot smokers, so they’d all sit around smoking bongs then go back to their bedrooms and I used to roll myself up in a sheet and sleep on the couch. Luxury! It was one of these 1930s apartment blocks, and in a terrible state. Years later, after I’d joined Iron Maiden we did a song called 2 Minutes to Midnight . The video director said, we’re going to have these mercenaries holed up in a really disgusting flat. He showed me the picture of it, and I said, I used to live there!

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My younger self would have not believed any of this. And an airline pilot as well? Don’t be ridiculous. I was just trying to get my singing chops together, so the thought of a career was not really on the radar. But when Iron Maiden recorded Number of the Beast , we knew we were making something amazing. But we still couldn’t believe the avalanche that followed. And then we made a succession of great records in a short period, all of which stand the test of time. It was all the things I wanted to do with my voice and the songwriting. We didn’t plan it that way, but it all worked. 

What would most excite my teenage self would be standing in front of thousands of people and having them all cheer. But what excites me now is that, in spite of all the potential for turning into an absolute wanker, I’ve only partially turned into an absolute wanker. And somehow, I think, I’ve managed to be quite helpful for people in their lives, whether through music or other stuff. And that does mean a lot. 

Iron Maiden fans are on another level. And it’s a whole life term. I don’t support a football team but I look with astonishment at how supporters react. And I don’t think there’s a word for the level of commitment and devotion people have to a football club. And people have that same level of devotion to Iron Maiden. Part of me says, wow, that’s amazing. The artistic half of me worries that maybe we don’t challenge ourselves artistically because we have this devoted following and they’re happy with the way we are. One reason for doing solo records is to push the envelope of what you can do emotionally and get out of the tram line. The tram lines are great. They’re quite broad, but they do exist. 

I don’t know whether I’m qualified to advise my younger self about love. Because I’ve just got married for the third time. All I can do is just talk about my relationship right now because it’s the calmest I’ve ever had. And it’s great. We have fun, we laugh, but we’re not manic. We can be in the same room and not feel the need to go ‘are you all right?’ We are happy just breathing the same air. And getting married hasn’t changed that.

If I could relive one day, I’d go back to the day we played in Sarajevo during the war.   The difference that show made to people’s lives was beyond anything I could ever hope to achieve. They were down to three days’ supply of food, water and diesel, the siege had lasted longer than Stalingrad, people were living in houses that barely existed and had burnt the last of their furniture for firewood. And in the middle of it, we drove through a firefight in a truck driven by a second-year student from Edinburgh. We didn’t mention the war once. You don’t need some rock star turning up saying war is a bad thing. They’re in it, dude. Just play your music. It might just make people happy – and that’s the most useful thing you can do.

Bruce Dickinson’s new solo album, The Mandrake Project , is out now, along with a comic book series of the same name. He tours the UK this month

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income .

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IRON MAIDEN's BRUCE DICKINSON - "I Remember Me And Steve Had The Most Terrific Argument When We Finished Shooting The ‘Number Of The Beast’ Video... We Were Going To Go Outside And Sort Each Other Out"

May 13, 2024, 5 days ago

news heavy metal iron maiden bruce dickinson steve harris

In a new interview with The Quietus , Iron Maiden frontman, Bruce Dickinson, talks to author John Higgs about magical practice, the hallucinatory mandrake root, how to survive a rough childhood and why William Blake is an artist we should look to for inspiration. An excerpt from the feature follows...

At the heart of the alchemy that is Iron Maiden is the relationship between two very different men, Dickinson and band leader Steve Harris. Harris is a solid, steadfast, single-minded, no-nonsense bloke. He is the bass player who grounds the band. Dickinson, in contrast, is an airline pilot with a voice that soars above the guitar onslaught. They are earth and air. That vast distance between them is the territory that the rest of the band fill.

This difference between the two men is evident at the start of 1983’s Piece Of Mind album. It begins with Harris’s war film-inspired song, "Where Eagles Dare". This has straightforward, businesslike, descriptive lyrics, like “The confident men are waiting to drop from the sky”, and “The cable car’s the only way in, it’s really impossible to climb.” This song is then immediately followed by Dickinson’s "Revelations", which begins with a quotation from G.K. Chesterton’s ‘O God Of Earth And Altar‘ featured in The English Hymnal. Here are two men with, clearly, very different personalities, yet they are both equally ambitious, talented and unwilling to compromise. It is a volatile combination.

The two men clashed from the start. “I remember me and Steve had the most terrific argument when we finished shooting 'The Number Of The Beast’ video,” Bruce says. “We were going to go outside and sort each other out. I was like, ‘Roll up your sleeves, come on then, punch me.’ I remember Steve saying to our manager Rod, ‘He goes! He’s got to go!’ Rod just said, ‘He’s not bloody going!’ After that, we gradually settled into a bit of a truce.”

Yet Bruce and Steve need each other and in time they have come to accept this. Maiden has had other vocalists over the years, both before Bruce joined in 1981 and after he quit in 1993. These singers were often men more temperamentally similar to Harris. They have been good and sometimes great, but it is only with Dickinson that Maiden becomes more than the sum of its parts, and more than just another metal band. Their success requires the alchemy of both Harris and Dickinson for the band to truly become magic. For as Bruce’s hero William Blake wrote, “Opposition is true friendship. Without contraries is no progression.”

Blake is referenced many times in Dickinson’s solo work, not least on the album that may well be his masterpiece, 1998’s The Chemical Wedding. In the video for his most recent single, "Rain On The Graves", Bruce freely mixes the gothic melodrama of Hammer Horror with William Blake, at one point visually recreating Blake’s profound image ‘The Ancient of Days’. The video ends with Bruce prostrate on a replica of Blake’s grave. Dickinson is now the ambassador for the Blake Cottage Trust, who are attempting to raise money for urgently needed repairs to Blake’s cottage in Felpham. The replica grave marker will be auctioned as part of this.

“He’s an artist to whom you should aspire,” Dickinson says of Blake. “There’s a purity to what he does that is untrammelled by commerciality or anything like that. He was unpredictable, he was cranky, he was difficult to deal with. He’s uncompromising, he’s rude, he’s bellicose. But he’s incredibly powerful. He matters.”

Read the complete feature at TheQuietus.com .

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The Iron Maiden tour adds Phoenix date in 2024. Here's how to get tickets to the concert

I conic British heavy metal veterans Iron Maiden have added a Phoenix date to the North American leg of the Future Past Tour, playing Footprint Center on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, with Mongolian metal greats the Hu.

No further shows will be announced for North America.

The Hu issued a statement saying, “Iron Maiden is the master of the masters of rock music. They are one of the biggest inspirations to us! The way that they create and perform their music is majestic and we still remember the first time we heard their ‘Trooper’ song and felt the deep energy behind each word.”

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Iron Maiden last played Phoenix in 2019

Iron Maiden last played Phoenix on the Legacy of the Beast Tour in 2019 .

This will be their 17th performance in the Valley since playing Memorial Coliseum on June 4, 1981, as part of the Killer World Tour, their first time in the U.S.

Concert review: Iron Maiden make you wonder why more artists don't invest in 10-foot mascots

Future Past Tour features songs from 'Senjetsu,' 'Somewhere in Time'

The Future Past Tour, which features songs from Maiden’s latest studio release, “Senjutsu,” and 1986’s seminal “Somewhere in Time” alongside other fan favorites, played to more than 750,000 fans at more than 30 sold-out shows across Europe in the summer of 2023.

They also played Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver alongside their highly praised appearance at California’s Power Trip Festival in October, which had Consequence raving “Iron Maiden set the bar high at Power Trip” and The Desert Sun saying they “delivered a hard-hitting performance to open the festival on a high note."

The tour features one of the most spectacular stage productions of Maiden’s career.

How to get tickets to Iron Maiden at Footprint Center in Phoenix

Tickets for the Phoenix concert go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, March 29, at livenation.com .

Reach the reporter at  [email protected]  or 602-444-4495. Follow him on X  @EdMasley .

Support local journalism.   Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: The Iron Maiden tour adds Phoenix date in 2024. Here's how to get tickets to the concert

Watch: BRUCE DICKINSON Covers 'All The Young Dudes' At First Show Of 'The Mandrake Project' U.K. Tour

IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson kicked off his 2024 U.K. solo tour Thursday night (May 16) in Wolverhampton.

The gig at The Halls was the first of a six-date U.K. run, which is also making stops in Glasgow, Manchester, Swansea, Nottingham and London.

As was the case on his recently completed Latin American tour, Dickinson 's 17-song set opened with "Accident Of Birth" and closed with "The Tower" . There was also the inclusion of a couple of tracks from Bruce 's new solo album "The Mandrake Project" , among them the latest single "Rain On The Graves" , as well as two surprises in the form of the "Skunkworks" track "Faith" , which was performed live for the first time since 1996, and MOTT THE HOOPLE 's David Bowie -penned song "All The Young Dudes" , which was covered by Bruce for the first time since 1990.

The setlist was as follows:

01. Accident Of Birth 02. Abduction 03. Faith (tour debut, first performance since 1996) 04. Afterglow Of Ragnarok 05. Chemical Wedding 06. Many Doors To Hell 07. Gates Of Urizen 08. Resurrection Men 09. Rain On The Graves 10. Frankenstein (THE EDGAR WINTER GROUP cover) 11. The Alchemist 12. Tears Of The Dragon 13. Darkside Of Aquarius

14. Navigate The Seas Of The Sun 15. All The Young Dudes (David Bowie cover) (tour debut, first performance since 1990) 16. Book Of Thel 17. The Tower

After playing two warm-up shows at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California, Dickinson officially kicked off his first solo tour in more than 20 years on April 15 at The Observatory in Santa Ana, California.

Joining the IRON MAIDEN singer on the trek is his current backing band, featuring Dave Moreno (drums), Mistheria (keyboards) and Tanya O'Callaghan (bass),alongside the group's latest additions, Swedish guitarist, songwriter and multi-platinum-credited producer Philip Näslund and Swiss session and touring guitarist Chris Declercq (who played on Dickinson 's "Rain On The Graves" single). Bruce 's longtime guitarist and collaborator Roy "Z" Ramirez is not part of the touring lineup.

Prior to the April 12 Whisky A Go Go show, Bruce last performed with his solo band on in August 2002 at the legendary Wacken Open Air festival in Germany.

During an appearance on the April 16 episode of SiriusXM 's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" , Bruce was asked if there are plans for him to stage a full U.S. tour in support of his recently released solo album "The Mandrake Project" . He responded: "I brought the [booking] agents and the promoters, and everybody came down and saw the Whisky show [in West Hollywood, California over the weekend], and now they know what they've got to deal with in terms of doing a U.S. tour. So, we're looking at it, we're planning it.

"I absolutely wanna do a full U.S. tour with 'The Mandrake Project' ," he added. "I obviously can't do one for the rest of this year [due to commitments in other parts of the world and MAIDEN 's upcoming touring activities], but there's '25 and there's numerous opportunities that will crop up. So the answer to that is yes, of course, we wanna come and do the U.S."

Roy played guitar on Dickinson 's 1994 album "Balls To Picasso" and went on to produce, co-write and perform multiple instruments on Bruce 's subsequent three solo albums, "Accident At Birth" (1997), "The Chemical Wedding" (1998) and "Tyranny Of Souls" (2005).

O'Callaghan is an Irish musician who joined WHITESNAKE in 2021 and toured with the David Coverdale -fronted outfit the following year. She also hit the road with Dickinson last year as part of a performance of Jon Lord 's "Concerto For Group And Orchestra" on nearly a dozen dates in Europe and South America.

Californian drummer Moreno previously played on "Tyranny Of Souls" and has worked with BODY COUNT , Jizzy Pearl , Dizzy Reed and Steve Stevens , among others.

Italian keyboard wizard Mistheria has collaborated with an array of artists live and in the studio, including Rob Rock , Mike Portnoy , Jeff Scott Soto and Joel Hoekstra .

"The Mandrake Project" arrived on March 1 via BMG .

Bruce and Roy recorded "The Mandrake Project" largely at Los Angeles's Doom Room , with Roy doubling up as both guitarist and bassist. The recording lineup for "The Mandrake Project" was rounded out by Mistheria and Moreno , both of whom also featured on Bruce 's last solo studio album, "Tyranny Of Souls" , in 2005.

Dickinson made his recording debut with IRON MAIDEN on the "Number Of The Beast" album in 1982. He quit the band in 1993 in order to pursue his solo career and was replaced by Blaze Bayley , who had previously been the lead singer of the metal band WOLFSBANE . After releasing two traditional metal albums with former MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith , Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999 along with Smith .

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Legacy Of The Beast Tour - 2019

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