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Iron Maiden
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Miami Vice Performer
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Members (Classic)
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Bruce Dickinson (born 1958, lead vocals)
Dave Murray (born 1956, guitar) Adrian Smith (born 1957, guitar/vocals) Steve Harris (born 1956, bass and founding member) Nicko McBrain (born 1952, drums) |
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Active
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1975-present
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Iron Maiden is a British heavy metal band whose song "Only the Good Die Young" appeared in the episode "Line of Fire" of the series Miami Vice.
Career[]
The band was formed in 1975 by Steve Harris, later joined by guitarist Dave Murray in 1976 (Murray and Harris are the only two band members to have appeared on all Iron Maiden recordings), the other members of what would be considered the "classic lineup" came along later -- Adrian Smith in 1980, Bruce Dickinson in 1981, and Nicko McBrain in 1982. The group's self-titled debut album was released in 1980, and the band was considered one of the pioneers in the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" movement. They toured Europe with KISS and Judas Priest, then recorded Killers, their second album. In 1982, the band's third album, The Number of the Beast, launched the group to stardom, topping the UK album chart and reaching the Top 40 in America, despite protests by conservatives over the album's name. Three tracks; the title track, "Run to the Hills", and "Hallowed Be Thy Name" are frequently played at Iron Maiden concerts, with "Run to.." and "Hallowed.." often the final two songs played. Two more albums followed; Piece of Mind and Powerslave, and Powerslave's supporting tour was one of the most grueling ever done -- 193 shows over 13 months, playing to 3.5 million people. Their Long Beach, California, concerts were used in the live album Live After Death, viewed by rock critics as one of the best live metal albums ever. The group took a break from touring and recording, then released two experimental albums; 1986's Somewhere in Time and 1988's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (featuring "Only the Good Die Young"). The band's appearance at 1988's Monsters of Rock (along with KISS, Guns N' Roses, David Lee Roth, and others) drew over 100,000 fans. In the 1990s Iron Maiden released Fear of the Dark (which received the first of three Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance) and No Prayer for the Dying, but in 1993 Dickinson left for a solo career, adding to Smith's earlier departure, and the band took a nearly three year hiatus before returning to the studio in 1995, releasing The X Factor with new lead singer Blaze Bayley. 1998's album Virtual XI was their lowest charting and selling album to date, and in 1999 Bayley left and Dickinson and Smith returned, and their album Brave New World (featuring "The Wicker Man", which received the band's second Grammy nomination) was their highest charting and selling album in several years. The group released six more albums in the 2000s, each followed by a tour, and their 2010 album, The Final Frontier (featuring "El Dorado", which received the band's third Grammy nomination), was released, with a tour during 2010-11, footage of which was included in a concert video, En Vivo!, released in March 2012. In 2015 their album The Book of Souls was released, followed by a world tour, then in 2017 a mobile game was released, "Legacy of the Beast" and that also spawned a world tour in 2018-19. After the COVID-19 pandemic prevented a tour in 2020-21, they released a live album, Nights of the Dead, Legacy of the Beast: Live from Mexico City, and in 2021 their 17th studio album, Senjutsu, was released, and in 2023 they embarked on their Future Past World tour of 37 dates and over 1 million fans in attendance, then extended into 2024 with an additional 43 dates, with 30 of them in North and South America.