Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden are an English^England heavy metal^{heavy metal music} band from Leyton in East London^{East London, England}, formed in 1975. The band is directed by founder, bassist and songwriter Steve Harris^{Steve Harris (musician)}. Since their inception, the group has released a collective total of thirty albums: fourteen studio albums, seven live albums, four EPs^{Extended play} and five compilations^{compilation album}.

Pioneers of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, with such an original sound they achieved success during the early 1980s and after several lineup changes, went on to release a series of platinum and gold albums. These include the US platinum-selling landmarks The Number of the Beast^{The Number of the Beast (album)} in 1982, Piece of Mind in 1983, Powerslave in 1984, the acclaimed live album Live After Death in 1985, Somewhere In Time in 1986, and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son in 1988. Their second most recent studio effort, A Matter of Life and Death^{A Matter of Life and Death (album)}, was released in 2006 and peaked at number nine on the Billboard^{Billboard (magazine)} 200^{Billboard 200} and at number 4 in the UK. The album was certified gold in the UK. It is also one of the few rock albums to be certified platinum in India. Their newest album, The Final Frontier^{The Final Frontier (Iron Maiden album)}, will be released later this summer.

As one of the most successful heavy metal bands to date, Iron Maiden has sold over 100 million records worldwide.

Early years (1975–1978) Pre-Paul Di'Anno

Iron Maiden was formed on Christmas Day 1975, by bassist Steve Harris^{Steve Harris (musician)}, shortly after he left his previous group, Smiler. Harris attributes the band name to a movie adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask^{The Man in the Iron Mask (1977 film)} from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, which he saw around that time, and so the group was named after the iron maiden torture device^{iron maiden (torture device)}.

Steve Harris and guitarist Dave Murray^{Dave Murray (musician)} remain the longest-standing members of Iron Maiden. Original vocalist Paul Day was fired as he lacked "energy or charisma onstage". He was replaced by Dennis Wilcock, a Kiss^{Kiss (band)} fan who utilised fire, make-up and fake blood during live performances. Wilcock's friend, Dave Murray, was invited to join, to the frustration of guitarists Dave Sullivan and Terry Rance. This fueled Harris to temporarily disunite the band in 1976, A poor gig at the Bridgehouse in November 1977, with a makeshift line-up including Tony Moore^{Tony Moore (musician)} on keyboards, Terry Wapram on guitar, and drummer Barry Purkis^Thunderstick resulted in Harris firing the entire band. Dave Murray was reinstated and Doug Sampson was hired as drummer.

Rise to fame (1978–1981)

A chance meeting at the Red Lion pub in Leytonstone evolved into a successful audition for vocalist Paul Di'Anno. Steve Harris has stated, "There's sort of a quality in Paul's voice, a raspiness in his voice, or whatever you want to call it, that just gave it this great edge."

Iron Maiden had been playing for three years, but had never recorded any of their music. On New Year's Eve 1978, the band recorded a demo, The Soundhouse Tapes. Featuring only four songs, the band sold all five thousand copies within weeks. Their first appearance on an album was on the compilation Metal for Muthas (released on 15 February 1980) with two early versions of "Sanctuary^{Sanctuary (Iron Maiden song)}" and "Wrathchild".

From late 1977 to 1978, Murray was the sole guitarist in the band until Paul Cairns joined in 1979. Shortly before going into the studio, Cairns left the band. Several other guitarists were hired temporarily until the band finally chose Dennis Stratton. Initially, the band wanted to hire Dave Murray's childhood friend Adrian Smith, but Smith was busy with his own band, Urchin^{Urchin (band)}. Drummer Doug Sampson was also replaced by Clive Burr (who was brought into the band by Stratton). In December 1979, the band landed a major record deal with EMI.

Iron Maiden's eponymous 1980 release, Iron Maiden^{Iron Maiden (album)}, made number 4 in the UK Albums Chart in its first week of release, and the group became one of the leading proponents of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. In addition to the title track, the album includes other early favourites such as "Running Free", "Transylvania^{Transylvania (Iron Maiden song)}", "Phantom of the Opera^{Phantom of the Opera (song)}", and "Sanctuary^{Sanctuary (Iron Maiden song)}" — which was not on the original UK release but made the U.S. release and subsequent re-releases. The band played a headline tour of the UK^{Metal For Muthas Tour and Europe 80} then went on to open for Kiss^{Kiss (band)} on their 1980 Unmasked Tour's European leg. Iron Maiden also supported Judas Priest on select dates. After the Kiss tour, Dennis Stratton was dismissed from the band as a result of creative and personal differences. Stratton was replaced by Adrian Smith in October 1980.

In 1981, Maiden released their second album, titled Killers^{Killers (Iron Maiden album)}. This new album contained many tracks that had been written prior to the release of the debut album, but were considered surplus. With songs already created well in advance during tour, only two new tracks were written for the album: "Prodigal Son" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (the title was taken from the short story^{The Murders in the Rue Morgue} by Edgar Allan Poe).

Success (1981–1986)

By 1981, Paul Di'Anno was demonstrating increasingly self-destructive behaviour, particularly through alleged drug usage, although Di'Anno himself denies the charge. His performances began to suffer, just as the band was beginning to achieve major success in America. At the end of 1981 the band dismissed Di'Anno and sought a new vocalist.

Bruce Dickinson, previously of Samson^{Samson (band)}, auditioned for Iron Maiden in September 1981 and joined the band soon afterwards.
He then went out on the road with the band on a small headlining tour. In anticipation of the band's forthcoming album, the band played "Children of the Damned", "Run to the Hills", "22 Acacia Avenue" and "The Prisoner" at select venues, introducing fans to the sound that the band was progressing towards.

Dickinson's recorded debut with Iron Maiden was 1982's The Number of the Beast^{The Number of the Beast (album)}, an album that claimed the band their first ever UK Albums Chart #1 record and additionally became a Top Ten hit in many other countries. For the second time the band went on a world tour, visiting the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, UK and Germany. The tour's U.S. leg proved controversial when an American conservative political lobbying group claimed Iron Maiden was Satanic^Satanism because of the new album's title track. Piece of Mind includes the successful singles "Flight of Icarus" and "The Trooper".

Soon after the success of Piece of Mind, the band released Powerslave^{Powerslave (album)} on 9 September 1984. The album featured fan favourites "2 Minutes to Midnight", "Aces High^{Aces High (song)}", and "Rime of The Ancient Mariner^{Rime of the Ancient Mariner (song)}", the latter based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem of the same name^{Rime of the Ancient Mariner} and running over 13 minutes long.

The tour following the album, dubbed the World Slavery Tour, was the band's largest to date and consisted of 193 shows over 13 months.
This was one of the largest tours in music history - playing to 3,500,000 people over the course of 13 months. Many shows were played back-to-back in the same city, such as in Long Beach, California ( 4 consecutive sold out shows to summary audience of 54 000 fans), where most of the recordings were made for their subsequent live release Live After Death which has since become one of the best selling metal live albums and is often regarded by critics and fans as the one of the best hard rock/heavy metal live albums ever. Iron Maiden also co-headlined (with Queen^{Queen (band)}) the Rock In Rio festival, where they performed to an estimated crowd of 300,000 festivalgoers.

Experimentation (1986–1989)

Returning from their vacation, the band adopted a different style for their 1986 studio album, entitled Somewhere in Time^{Somewhere in Time (album)}. This was not a concept album, though it was themed loosely around the idea of time travel and associated themes - history, the passage of time, and long journeys. It featured, for the first time in the band's history, synthesised^synthesizer bass and guitars to add textures and layers to the sound. Though considered different from the norm of Maiden sounds, it charted well across the world, especially with the single "Wasted Years".

The experimentation evident on Somewhere in Time continued and was apparent on their next album, entitled Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, which was released in 1988. Adding to Iron Maiden's experimentation, it was a concept album featuring a story about a mythical child who possessed clairvoyant^clairvoyance powers. For the first time, the band used keyboards on a recording, as opposed to guitar synthesisers on the previous release. Critics claimed this produced a more accessible release. It became the band's second album to hit #1 in the UK charts. During the Donington Park Festival^{Monsters of Rock} on August 20, 1988, attendance was placed as 107,000; the biggest crowd attendance in the festival's history. Other performances in the festival include Kiss, David Lee Roth, Megadeth, Guns N' Roses and Helloween.

In 1990, to end Iron Maiden's first ten years of releasing singles, they released The First Ten Years, a series of ten CDs and double 12" vinyls^12". Between 24 February and 28 April 1990, the individual parts were released one-by-one, each containing two of Iron Maiden's singles, including the B-sides.

Upheaval (1989–1994)

In 1989, after touring with Iron Maiden, guitarist Adrian Smith released a solo album with his band ASAP^{ASAP (band)} entitled Silver and Gold^{Silver and Gold (ASAP album)}. During this break in 1989, vocalist Bruce Dickinson began work on a solo album with former Gillan guitarist Janick Gers, releasing Tattooed Millionaire in 1990.

Soon afterward, Iron Maiden regrouped to work on a new album, Adrian Smith left the band due to a lack of enthusiasm. Janick Gers, having worked on Bruce Dickinson's solo project, was chosen to replace Smith and became the first new team member in seven years. The album, No Prayer for the Dying, was released during October 1990.

The band obtained their first (and to date, only) UK Singles Chart number one successful single with "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", originally recorded by Dickinson for the soundtrack to A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. It was released on 24 December 1990, and was one of the first records to be released on several different formats with different B-sides. The single has the record for being the fastest release to rate number one and then lose any chart rating again over the following couple of weeks.

Dickinson performed a solo tour in 1991 before returning to studio work with Iron Maiden for the album Fear of the Dark^{Fear of the Dark (album)}. Released in 1992, the album was noticeably longer (due to this being Iron Maiden's first album recorded for CD^{Compact Disc} rather than LP) and had several songs which became fan favourites, such as the title track^{Fear of the Dark (song)} and "Afraid to Shoot Strangers". The disc also featured "Wasting Love," one of the band's softer songs, and the #2 single "Be Quick or Be Dead". The album featured the first songwriting by Gers, and no collaboration at all between Harris and Dickinson on songs. The extensive worldwide tour that followed^{Fear of the Dark Tour}, included their first ever Latin American leg (after a single concert during the World Slavery Tour), and a being the headline act of "Monsters of Rock Festival" in seven European countries. Iron Maiden's second performance at Donington Park, gathering near to 80,000 festivalgoers, originated the album and video release Live at Donington^{Live at Donington (Iron Maiden album)}.

In 1993, Bruce Dickinson left the band to further pursue his solo career. However, Dickinson agreed to remain with the band for a farewell tour and two live albums (later re-released in one package). The first, A Real Live One, featured songs from 1986 to 1992, and was released in March 1993. The second, A Real Dead One, featured songs from 1975 to 1984, and was released after Dickinson had left the band. He played his farewell show with Iron Maiden on 28 August 1993. The show was filmed, broadcast by the BBC, and released on video under the name Raising Hell^{Raising Hell (video)}.

Blaze era (1994–1999)

In 1994, the band auditioned hundreds of vocalists, both famous and unknown before choosing Blaze Bayley, formerly of the band Wolfsbane^{Wolfsbane (band)}. Bayley had a different vocal style from his predecessor, which ultimately received a mixed reception among fans.

After a two year hiatus (and three year hiatus from recording - a record for the band at the time) Iron Maiden returned in 1995. Releasing The X Factor^{The X Factor (album)}, the band had their lowest chart position since 1981 for an album in the UK (debuting at number 8).
The album included the 11-minute epic "Sign of the Cross", the band's longest song since "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". It also included "Man on the Edge", based on the movie Falling Down and "Lord of the Flies^{Lord of the Flies (song)}", based on the novel of the same name. The band toured for the rest of 1995 and 1996, playing for the first time in Israel and South Africa, before stopping to release The Best of the Beast. The band's first compilation, it included a new single, "Virus^{Virus (song)}".

The band returned to the studio for Virtual XI^{Virtual XI (album)}, released in 1998. Chart scores of the album were the band's lowest to date, failing to score one million worldwide sales for the first time in Iron Maiden's history. At the same time, Steve Harris assisted in remastering the entire discography of Iron Maiden up to Live at Donington (which was given a mainstream release for the first time) and released the set.

Reunion (1999–2005)

In February 1999, Bayley left the band by mutual consent. At the same time, the band surprised 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^{Eddie the Head}.

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^{Brave New World (Iron Maiden album)}. Thematic influences continued with "The Wicker Man^{The Wicker Man (song)}" — based on the 1973 British cult film of the same name^{The Wicker Man (1973 film)} — and "Brave New World" — title taken from the Aldous Huxley novel of the same name^{Brave New World}.

The world tour^{Brave New 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^{Rock in Rio (album)}.

Following their Give Me Ed... 'til I'm Dead Tour in summer 2003 (three months of touring across the Europe And America with 56 gigs to over 1 mlllion fans including Rock am Ring and Rock im Park headlining for combine audience of 120,000 and important, Download Festival premiere event, performing for 50,000 fans), Iron Maiden released Dance of Death^{Dance of Death (album)}. The release of their 13th album was met by critical and commercial success worldwide. Some critics also felt that this release matched up to their earlier efforts like Piece Of Mind and The Number Of The Beast, including their darker imagery rather than the more upbeat reunion album. As usual, historical and literary influences continued — "Montsegur" in particular being about the Cathar^Catharism stronghold conquered in 1244 and "Paschendale" relating to a significant battle during World War I. The supporting tour for this album, named Dance Of Death World Tour was another landmark for the band, as they played to over 750,000 fans during 50 dates over a period of 4 months in 2003-04. This included sold out dates in South America, Europe, North America and Japan.

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. The Early Days World Tour included many stadium headline dates and festivals including their historic performance at the Ullevi Stadium in Sweden, playing to almost 60,000 fans. This concert was also broadcast on satellite television all over Europe to over 60 million viewers.

Iron Maiden's last Ozzfest performance (20 August 2005 at the Hyundai Pavilion^{San Manuel Amphitheater} was at Glen Helen in San Bernardino^{San Bernardino, California}, CA to almost 50 000 people).

The band completed this tour by headlining the Reading and Leeds weekend festivals^{Reading and Leeds Festivals} on the 26th 28 August - two shows to combined number of people estimated 130 000, and Ireland 31st august to almost 40 000 fans at RDS Stadium. For the second time, the band played a charity^{charity (practice)} show for former drummer Clive Burr's Clive Burr MS Trust Fund charity.

A Matter Of Life And Death (2005–early 2007)

In Autumn 2006, Iron Maiden released A Matter of Life and Death^{A Matter of Life and Death (album)}. 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^{Sundance Channel (United States)} (USA).

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

The second part 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 playing to 20,000 fans. They made their first appearance in India with a concert in Bangalore aptly called Eddfest, playing to over 45,000 people at the Bangalore Palace Grounds. This event marked the first time any major heavy metal band toured the Indian sub-continent. The band went on to play a string of European dates, including open air festival performances and mostly stadium-sized gigs. In England, they headlined the Download Festival at Donington Park for the fourth time in their career. The show attracted a record breaking number of attendees, estimated as near to 80,000 die-hard festival-goers despite higher ticket and camp-place prices than in recent years. On the 24 June they ended the tour with a performance at London's Brixton Academy in aid of The Clive Burr MS^{multiple sclerosis} Trust fund.

Recent years (late 2007 onwards)

On 5 September 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 successes from the 1980s, with a specific emphasis on the Powerslave era for set design. The tour started in Mumbai, India on 1 February 2008 where the band played to an audience of almost 30,000. The first part of the tour consisted of 24 concerts in 21 cities, travelling over 50, 000 miles in the band's own chartered airplane "Ed Force One". They played their first ever concerts in Costa Rica and Colombia and their first Australian shows since 1992. On 12 May, the band released a new compilation album, titled Somewhere Back in Time. It includes 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 marked the first ever stadium headlining show in the UK by the band. A final part of the tour took 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. The band also played their third show within a span of 2 years in India, at the Rock In India 2009 festival to a crowd of 20,000. The final leg of the tour ended in Florida on April 2 after which the band took a break from touring.

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

During a Rock Radio interview promoting Flight 666, Nicko McBrain revealed that Iron Maiden had booked studio time for early 2010 and would be likely to be touring again late that year or the year after. At the 2009 BRIT Awards the band won the award for best live act.

During their live presentation in São Paulo, on 15 March 2009, Bruce announced on stage that the show was the biggest of their career. In fact, the crowd of 100,000 people was Iron Maiden's all-time biggest attendance for a solo show, without other bands. The attendance was bigger than Chile's show (almost 60,000 fans), according to the organisers. Nicko McBrain stated in a interview for Rock Radio that the new Iron Maiden album will be finished in 2010^{2010 in music}, and that a tour will follow in the late 2010 or 2011. On Classic Rock Magazine Awards, event that took place at a hotel, in London on November 2, Janick Gers confirmed to BBC News that the band already have new material written and will head to Paris, France, to start composing and rehearsing the bulk for the new album. The band will take time off for Christmas and New Year's Eve and then will go straight into recording the new album in January, probably at Sarm West Studios with Kevin Shirley producing it.
In another interview with heavy metal DJ Eddie Trunk, drummer Nicko McBrain confirmed that the band have finished writing eight songs for the new album which will probably be released in 2011.
In December 2009 Iron Maiden announced that they would headline a string of festivals in the Summer of 2010, Sonisphere Festivals in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Finland, Wacken Open Air in Germany,. They will also play at the Bergenhus Fortress in Norway in August.

Kevin Shirley stated that Iron Maiden have completed the registration of their 15th studio album. The new studio album has been recorded at Compass Point Studios, in Nassau (Bahamas).

On March 4th 2010, the new album title was announced as The Final Frontier^{The Final Frontier (Iron Maiden album)},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 as the third best heavy 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. Their music also appears in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band^{Rock Band (video game)} series of rhythmic video games^{music video game}. Iron Maiden songs have also appeared on the films Phenomena^{Phenomena (film)} (called "Creepers" in the U.S.), and Murder by Numbers; while MTV's animated duo Beavis and Butthead have commented favorably on Iron Maiden multiple times.

The band's name is named prominently (and repeated several times) in the song "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus.

Punk rock band NOFX released a song titled "Eddie, Bruce, and Paul" on their 2009 album Coaster^{Coaster (album)}. This track tells the story of Iron Maiden, and is performed in the style of their early work.

Weezer mentions them in the song "Heart Songs" from their 2008 self-titled "Red^{Weezer (2008 album)}" album. The verse goes: "Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Slayer taught me how to shred..."

The Sum 41 song "Fat Lip" contains the line "Heavy metal and mullets it's how we were raised, Maiden and Priest were the gods that we praised"

Claims of occult references

In the year 1982, the band released one of their most popular, controversial and acclaimed albums, The Number Of The Beast^{The Number of the Beast (album)}. This led to Christian groups, particularly in the US, branding the band as Satanic^Satanism and unholy^holy; smashing and burning the band's albums in bonfires became common. In the 90s the band was banned from performing in Chile for the same reasons (due to the influence of religious figures over the government), but contrary to this belief, the band is not Satanic nor does it believe in the occult. According to the band the devil imagery which is linked with the band due to a few songs and their album covers is not connected with their religious beliefs and is not the focus of their music. In an interview included on Iron Maiden's DVD The Early Days, Steve Harris set the record straight by saying that he is not a Satanist.

Possibly in spite of this controversies, the band's later albums moved away from those themes to notably less controversial ones, such as film and literature (the album Piece of Mind and songs like "The Prisoner", which was based on the British television serial of the same name^{The Prisoner}, "The Wicker Man^{The Wicker Man (song)}" and "To Tame a Land", based on the novel Dune^{Dune (novel)}) wars and world conflicts ("The Trooper", "Aces High" and "2 Minutes to Midnight") historical themes ("Alexander the Great" from Somewhere in Time^{Somewhere in Time (album)} and "Run to the Hills") and even human fears and emotions ("Hallowed Be Thy Name" and the album A Matter of Life and Death).Their influences include Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Cream^{Cream (band)}, The Who, Rush^{Rush (band)}, Thin Lizzy, Styx^{Styx (band)}, UFO^{UFO (band)}, King Crimson, Deep Purple, Triumph^{Triumph (band)}, Uriah Heep^{Uriah Heep (band)}, Wishbone Ash, Pink Floyd, ELP^{Emerson,_Lake_%26_Palmer}, Genesis^{Genesis (band)}, Yes^{Yes (band)}, and Jethro Tull^{Jethro Tull (band)}.in special Iron Maiden livery. (2008)
In October 2007, Iron Maiden commissioned an Astraeus^{Astraeus (airline)} 757 as transport for their 'Somewhere Back in Time^{Somewhere Back In Time World Tour}' tour in 2008. Lead singer Bruce Dickinson piloted the aircraft, "Ed Force One," since he is also a commercial airline pilot for Astraeus. The aircraft was converted into a combi configuration, repainted with a special Iron Maiden livery, had a list of all the places where the band was going to present in the tour Somewhere Back in Time^{Somewhere Back In Time World Tour}' and was used in this scheme until 28 May 2008 for commercial flights as well as use by Iron Maiden. The same aircraft (G-OJIB) was used again on the second leg of the Somewhere Back in Time tour in 2009. It plays a major role on the award-winning documentary Iron Maiden: Flight 666 which was released in movie theatres in 42 countries in April 2009 and appeared on DVD and Blu-Ray formats in the US in June 2009. Iron Maiden: Flight 666 debuted on British television on 4th March 2010 at 11:00pm on BBC4 as part of Heavy Metal Britannia.;BRIT Awards
*2009: Best British Live Act — Iron Maiden
;Ivor Novello Awards
*2002: International Achievement — Iron Maiden
;Emma-gaala
*2004: Yleisöäänestys (Finland) - Vuoden ulkomainen artisti (Foreign artist of the year) — Iron Maiden
*2008: Yleisöäänestys (Finland) - Vuoden ulkomainen artisti (Foreign artist of the year) — Iron Maiden
;Kerrang! Awards^{Kerrang! Awards}
*2005:Kerrang! Hall of Fame — Iron Maiden
;Metal Hammer Awards^{Metal Hammer Awards}
*2004: Best U.K. Live Act — Iron Maiden
*2008: Best U.K. Band — Iron Maiden
*2008: Icon Award — Eddie the Head
*2009: Best U.K. Band - Iron Maiden
*2009: Best U.K. Live Act — Iron Maiden
*2009: Golden Gods Award — Iron Maiden
;Metal Storm Awards
*2006: Best Heavy Metal Album — A Matter of Life and Death
;SXSW Film Festival
*2009: 24 Beats Per Second — Flight 666
;Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards^{Classic Rock (magazine)}
*2006: Album Of The Year - "A Matter Of Life And Death" Iron Maiden
*2006: Vip Award Special - Rod Smallwood Iron Maiden
*2009: Band of the year - Iron Maiden
;BBC Heavy Metal World Cup
*2009: The Winner: Iron Maiden - Greatest Metal Band Of All Time* Iron Maiden^{Iron Maiden (album)} (1980)
* Killers^{Killers (Iron Maiden album)} (1981)
* The Number of the Beast^{The Number of the Beast (album)} (1982)
* Piece of Mind (1983)
* Powerslave (1984)
* Somewhere in Time^{Somewhere in Time (album)} (1986)
* Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
* No Prayer for the Dying (1990)
* Fear of the Dark^{Fear of the Dark (album)} (1992)
* The X Factor^{The X Factor (album)} (1995)
* Virtual XI (1998)
* Brave New World^{Brave New World (Iron Maiden album)} (2000)
* Dance of Death^{Dance of Death (album)} (2003)
* A Matter of Life and Death^{A Matter of Life and Death (album)} (2006)
* The Final Frontier^{The Final Frontier (Iron Maiden album)} (2010)'Current members'
*Bruce Dickinson – lead vocals (1981–1993, 1999–present)
*Dave Murray^{Dave Murray (musician)} – guitar (1976–present)
*Adrian Smith – guitar, backing vocals (1980–1990, 1999–present)
*Janick Gers – guitar (1990–present)
*Steve Harris^{Steve Harris (musician)} – bass^{bass guitar}, backing vocals (1975–present)
*Nicko McBrain – drums, percussion (1982–present)
'Live members'
*Michael Kenney –keyboards (1986–present)

'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 (1980–1982)
*Blaze Bayley – lead vocals (1994–1998)
*Dennis Wilcock - lead vocals (1976–1977)
*Paul Day^{Paul Day (musician)} - lead vocals (1975–1976)