Fear of The Dark

OVO JE STRANICA BROJ NULA
OVI LAVOVI NA IDUĆOJ STRANICI (BROJ 1) TREBAJU BITI S DESNE STRANE

CERTIFICATE
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STJEPAN JURAS
Stjepan Juras
FEAR OF THE DARK
Translation, adaptation and proof-reading

Tina Bralić
Cover design and illustration
Violeta Šunić and Stjepan Juras
Layout
Stjepan Juras
Print
ITG d.o.o., Zagreb
Copyright © Stjepan Juras 2017

Published by Stjepan Juras. All Rights Reserved.
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excluded) may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
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Permissions may be sought directly from Stjepan Juras in his office in Zadar,
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Research Library of Zadar in Croatia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Cataloguing-in-Publication data available in the Online Catalogue of the
Research Library in Zadar under CIP 150807002
ISBN 978-953-98320-7-8
For information on all Stjepan Juras publications please

visit his website at www.maidencroatia.com
Printed in Croatia
Zagreb, November 2017
STJEPAN JURAS
Zadar, November 2017

GLOW IN THE DARK
EDITION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SHIN-IMAMIYA STATION 9
BE QUICK OR BE DEAD 21
1991 / 1993 30
HONEST MAN 63
BARNYARDERS 81
SECRET CABARET 89
A MAN WHO WALKS ALONE 103
MELVYN'S VISION 115
IRON MAIDEN 2.0 127
DEVIL'S BEND 139
FEAR OF THE DARK TOUR 149
SPARK OF HOPE 161
A GREAT UNKNOWN 171
REAL LIVE TOUR 187
REAL LIVE MERCH 207
END OF AN ERA 229
MAIDENCROATIA BOOKS 244
PHOTO CREDITS 254
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 255
WARNING!
Fantastic Iron Maiden fan websites such as Ironmaidencommentary,
Maidencroatia, Maidenlive, Maidenfans, Maidenrevelations, Ironmaiden-bg,
ironmaiden666, Maidenthebeast, MaidenSpainFC various other fan websites
and all their contributors deserve utmost hats down for all they did to
preserve the great legacy of Iron Maiden for all future generations. Iron
Maiden would have NEVER been so massive if there were no loyal fans
willing to spend months and years exploring all aspects of this amazing
band's history. As an author, they ALL have my immense gratitude for
making it quite easy for me to find certain facts, old interviews, lost
photographs and other bits and pieces all of which helped to make this
book. However, 'Fear of the Dark' is not, nor was it initially intended to
become an official printed document which would unite all of this trivia and
priceless knowledge. If that was the case, I could not nor would I want to call
this book my original piece. This book is a series of exclusive observations,
cross-references and brave speculations while delving into the most hidden
secrets and motives behind Maiden's album 'Fear of the Dark', thoroughly
discussed from all points of view, considering all the selected segments that
could have affected the creation of the album. Given that more than twenty
five years have passed since 'Fear of the Dark' came out, I tried to give it a
cool-headed evaluation it clearly deserved, while taking into consideration
both its strengths and weaknesses. Here you will find a large number of new
theses and speculations never heard before, sometimes even shocking
conclusions, while some old puzzles will be uncovered for the very first time.
I am convinced that this piece will be the harbinger of discussion and
controversy, quite possibly dismissing some of the statements given in this
book, but my answer to that is simple. I'm a fan, and this book is the content
of my direct observations of the album. This is my tribute to it, for it
introduced me to the epic world of Iron Maiden, a world without which my
life would surely be dramatically different. So here's to a happy twenty-fifth
birthday 'Fear of the Dark'!
STJEPAN JURAS
BETWEEN THE LINES
When it comes to bands and performers, various book authors try hard to
make their audience believe that while they aren't in possession of the official
product, they are buying something equally legit. The use of misleading PR is
common, trying to lure people into thinking they are actually paying for some
of the exclusive and never before seen materials seeping with deep insider
info about to shake the foundation of everything they believed they knew
about their favorite band or performer.
In this case, this is not necessary, because this ‘official’ adjective is what
makes a document seem more one-sided and devoid of all possible critique
or quality debate which enables us to learn from our own mistakes. ‘Fear of
the Dark’ record was a turning point for Maiden’s career back in the
nineties. Even though many remember it as the last one before Bruce left
the band as well as the first album to clearly give way to pointless intros and
outros watering down the music, it still presented us with five live hit songs:
‘Be Quick or Be Dead’, ‘Wasting Love’, ‘Afraid to Shoot Strangers’, ‘From
Here to Eternity’ and ‘Fear of the Dark’. Despite featuring their first ever
album sleeve without Derek Riggs’ illustrations and with Martin Birch not
being the one in charge of the whole production process for the first time in
over 10 years, this album left a legacy in the form of its title track which still
remains the band’s biggest hit up to this day.
A lot has been written about this album, but very little was said, except
carefully, between the lines. That is why I’m proud to conclude: this is not
an official book, nor is it intended to act as such, it does not feature
insider info, and neither is it trying to pile up all of the available Wiki
articles and Maiden-related fan sites info. It was not written
encyclopedically, factually, statistically, it’s not trying to create a
timeline of all the shows, bootlegs, various album editions, awards,
interviews and everything else. This book is a piece of my soul, a story of
an album which temporarily served as a closure for a very large chapter,
but in the end only served to prove what Iron Maiden will become and
look in the new millennium.. Are you afraid?
To the fans by a fan
IN MEMORY OF
NINJA ADMIN
SHIN-IMAMIYA STATION
When Iron Maiden first started their career, over forty years ago, nobody
could have even dreamed about the future they would help create, let alone
believe that this future would arrive sooner than anyone expected. Iron
Maiden are a band backed by an army of faithful fans, deep and complex
songs and often masterfully written lyrics. The person behind most of them
is Steve Harris, the man who created the band, and shaped it into what we
know today. This, however, does not diminish the contribution of all the
members of Iron Maiden from 1975 onwards.
Now in 2017 Harris is facing serious plagiarism accusations. This accusation

isn't directed at just any of his songs, but perhaps the most famous and
beloved song amongst Iron Maiden fans, and metalheads in general -
‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’. The fans have been so affected by this piece of
news that it has been a constant topic amongst them for over a year now,
and the song itself has been removed from the set list of the tour in 2017,
even though it has been previously performed. Allegedly, this is due to the
fact the song is not allowed to be played until the legal proceedings around
it have ended. I have written about this topic before the entire situation
escalated in my book ‘Steve Harris - The Clairvoyant’, where I also
interviewed the members of ‘Beckett’ whose songs ‘Life's Shadow’ and
‘Rainbows Gold’ contain the lyrics we an also recognize in ‘Hallowed Be Thy
Name’. To be clear, this is just a small part of the complete lyrics of the
entire songs, and I am certain that all things considered (and if they even
were different), the song would be just as popular and have just as large cult
following. But strictly speaking, despite the fact Steve Harris incorporated
the lyrics into his song more as a tribute to a band he loved, than any desire
to plagiarize someone else, he still used someone else's work, and as such
should have known that the original creator need to be credited, and even
reimbursed. But this is a long and arduous tale of all the copyright problems
and violations in Iron Maiden, and the lack of proper crediting of various
band members, and should be left for another time.
At the start of this text, I mentioned that forty years ago, or even thirty or
twenty, nobody knew that the future was just around the corner and how
the Internet would give answers to all the hidden and sketch questions left
unanswered by clever media manipulation of that time by those who were
in the position to do so. And Iron Maiden built their career on facts which
suited them. Man is a very curious creature, and it was the search for
answers which fuelled our progress and the ever faster evolution of
mankind. Popularity, availability and the prevalence of social media
contributed to fans joining up to research information, exchange opinions,
and conclude that not everything was black and white, and that something a
band representative has stated as an official fact in the media or their own
documentary need not be necessarily true.
Why I'm writing all this? Have you ever wondered what made ‘Fear of the
Dark’ so popular that it's the most famous Iron Maiden song ever? How is
this possible, if all the fans and critics agree that it's a rather mediocre song,
and many would like to see it removed from the concert set lists? Why don't
people want to see it live, and when it's not played they almost stop the
concert demanding to hear it (Chorzow 2005), and seem to fall into a trance
when the first riffs are played? Isn't it a little strange, especially if the song is
as ‘average’, as so many claims?
Thinking about this, the idea of subliminal messages came to my mind. For
those not familiar with the term, a subliminal message is a message that is
below the threshold of human perception, so our eye or full attention
cannot grasp them. It's signals or messages mostly inserted into other
objects with the purpose of circumventing our usual attention. They are
widely used today- in newspapers, movies, music, advertisements across
platforms, and even cartoons. The Band Judas Priest had a hard time proving
in court that they did not use subliminal messaging which was said to have
caused the suicides of two fans in America. I have often wondered, what
makes ‘Fear of the Dark’, so popular it worked its way into the mainstream
music. And then I travelled to Japan for the second time in my life.
It's spring 2016 and I am strolling through Osaka with my then fiancée, now
wife the day after an Iron Maiden concert. Our hotel was within short
walking distance of the train station and metro, the famous Shin-Imamiya
Station. Osaka is a beautiful city, as is the rest of Japan, and we couldn't miss
the opportunity of having or picture taken on the same spot Iron Maiden did
for the cover of their famous ‘12 Wasted Years’ video. One evening (we
were staying there several days) we went to the Shin-Imamiya Station to
catch a metro to the city centre and waited. At one point a train arrived, and
I heard a familiar melody from it's loudspeakers. ‘Fear of the Dark’, I
exclaimed to my fiancée, and she confirmed that it sounds similar to her,
but also reminds her of something else, but that she can't quite put her
finger on it. From that moment on until returning to Croatia, I couldn't get
the melody out of my mind, and the more I listened to it in my mind, the
more certain I was that it was a classical piece, and that far from being an
obscure composition, it had to be something easily found in an anthology of
classical music. I spent days and days browsing YouTube, but couldn't find
anything similar amongst the most famous classical compositions. But this
only served to fuel me on, and I spent an entire day searching for a
recording of the melody played as trains arrive to the Shin-Imamiya Station.
The second round of my research started by asking my Facebook friends and
acquaintances if any of them recognize the sound, and can tell me which
classical composition it is.
Several days later the keyboard player for Drakum contacted me. He is a
classical pianist, and he sent me the YouTube link to the piece which
haunted me. For those interested, it's: Antonin Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in e
minor, Op.95 'From the New World' - IV. Allegro con fuoco. Of course, I
listened to it, as well as the rest of his body of work, and guess what… I
finally understood how a song like that can become a hit, and how come so
many devout fans or those only marginally acquainted with his work can
sing along with the ‘oooo’ parts of the song as if they were cheering at a
football game. Classical pieces lose their copyright after a certain number of
years which varies from country to country (usually around 100 years), and
after that can be played and reproduced at will. Imagine if someone not only
reproduced, but modified this music and published it as their own, and if
that new song reached a wide audience which recognizes it subliminally, and
starts whistling and singing it, without hearing the song to the end. This is
just what happened with ‘Fear of the Dark’. As I cannot provide audio
examples in the book, I have included side-by-side audio clip comparison of
one part of this song on the accompanying DVD, and will let you discover
the other melodies yourself, because spending hours listening to
masterpieces of classical music is both instructive and interesting. What is
also interesting is that Iron Maiden first visited the Czech Republic (where
Dvořák is from) right around the time of making the ‘Fear of the Dark’
album, or the ‘A Real Live Tour’ in 1993. .
Antonin Dvořák 1840 - 1904.

Sisters of Mercy - 'Temple of Love' single (1983) back cover.
But this isn't where similarities end. If you ever had the chance to hear the
song ‘Temple of Love’ by Sisters of Mercy, a Goth rock super hit whose
popularity spans decades, you should know it was released as a single back
in 1983 (another coincidence) and re-released 1992, precisely 20 days
before the release of ‘Fear of the Dark’. In this case we probably can't talk of
any copyright violations, but I also included the starting riff of this song on
the accompanying DVD, so you can hear for yourselves where Steve Harris
got the inspiration for the intro to ‘Fear of the Dark’. It's always interesting
to see how often it's necessary to stray from standard opinions and
generally accepted facts to truly research where your favourite bands get
inspired to write their best hits. If it wasn't for the Internet, very few would
know of Beckett, or try to find traces of Iron Maiden in the works of Antonin
Dvořák and those like him.
The history of the Iron Maiden song composition is very interesting, and its
development and progress can be clearly traced, especially since Adrian Smith
and Bruce Dickinson joined the band. Even though all the members of Iron
Maiden come from similar backgrounds and were of a similar age, they all
listened to very diverse music, even though most of it fell into the rock 'n' roll
category. Neither of them was close to what Iron Maiden is today, but by
joining all these various influences, Iron Maiden became the closest a classical
musician would want to sound like, were he to come back to the land of the
living. And all this is done without exaggeration in their orchestration or
making their classical influences as blatant as, for instance Rhapsody did. With
their melodic and harmonic approach to every new album, the strived on
towards progressive music, and were an essence of all types of melodic rock
and hard rock, all of which led them on new and unexpected paths.
Many have expected Iron Maiden to experiment more with classical music,
even far back in the 80’s, like Deep Purple did before them, and like Metallica
and the late Michel Kamen did. After them, many smaller bands tried their
hand at it, from Dimmu Borgir and Accept, through Yngwie Malmsteen and
others, but Iron Maiden would only use artificial orchestrations and fake
choruses (‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son’) very conservatively. An example of
successful blending of classical and metal music, without even knowing it, is
the before mentioned ‘Fear of the Dark’, a song which showed both the fans
and the members of Iron Maiden which direction they should take, but
precisely the opposite happened. Iron Maiden decided to show they are more
than a cabaret act, as they liked to jokingly call themselves, but that they are
still the same boys from the hood, ready to take their instruments, and not
only play, but shred.
But objectively speaking, they never really had anything to prove to anyone,
except maybe themselves. This is a book about their ‘Fear of the Dark’ album,
a contender to become the greatest in their career so far, but in the end, it all
came back to bite them in the ass. But they had a good reason for every move
they made back then, and it is difficult to think it could have turned out any
other way. One fact however was clearly visible. The prolific Adrian Smith was
sorely lacking as their author, and this was clearly visible both on this, and
their previous albums. Many will agree that his departure did more harm to
Iron Maiden than Bruce Dickinson’s ever did. His creative presence always
served as the crucial weight on the scales, preventing the band from leaning
to one side over the other. As a mediator he always knew how to get the best
out of both Harris and Dickinson, the two most frequent song authors in the
band. He was as skilled with music as he was with the lyrics, and his live
performances gave the vocals a new dimension, serving as a perfect
supplement Harris could never provide, even though he often tried to sing the
backup vocals.
Since Adrian left Iron Maiden almost in the middle of recording their previous
album, his departure could really only be properly felt now, and it is no big
surprise that he showed up ‘suddenly’ on stage with Iron Maiden in 1992,
giving the fans hope that he might be finally returning to the band. But it
would take another seven years before that would truly happen.
Iron Maiden functioned very well as a band with multiple authors and a
reduced number of tracks on their albums, because they released them
annually. They also kept to the roughly 8 song format for an album length of
forty to fifty minutes to maximize the usage of a vinyl record. But as times
changed and a new medium, the CD was introduced to a far greater extent,
vinyl was toppled over. Even thought the Compact Disc was present for
several years, it was only then that it started to take the lead as a medium
with a greater capacity, which was also one of its main selling points. The
musicians started adapting to the new format, and compete with each other
to see who will deliver more tracks per album. Still, without underestimating
their musical abilities, one still gets tie impression that Iron Maiden, facing the
trend of more tracks and longer albums overreached them, and were
struggling to come up with new songs to fill the new, hour long, album format.
Let us imagine that the album they published in 1992 was the same one, but
with a reduced number of songs (for instance: 'Be Quick or Be Dead', 'From
Here to Eternity', 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers', 'Childhood's End', 'Wasting Love',
'Chains of Misery', 'Judas Be My Guide', 'Fear of the Dark'), it’s clear at a first
glance, that this would be a far better album.
And if you look at Epic Recods’s ad for this album, even before it was published,
you will see that, alongside announcing a tour with a name they later discarded,
they put songs 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers' and ‘Chains of Misery' in the first
place, and there is no mention of the title song or 'Wasting Love', both of which
were later released as singles. You can also find 'The Fugitive' highlighted in
some places, which is understandable since a movie with the same title was
published in 1993 and became an instant box office success, and is even now a
cult movie in the history of the musical industry. Even though Maiden based
their song on the eponymous TV show with the same story, the release of the
movie came as windfall, helping both the song and the album reach a far wider
audience. The story of Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) and the Oscar-winning
role of Sheriff Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) has become a part of our pop
culture. It’s a shame that the movie wasn’t published a year earlier (it was only
announced), because if the cover art featuring Eddie was created to reflect it,
the album sales would have soared even more.
Fugitive - 'Promotional CD single for radio stations.

This album is an excellent example of how American labels promoted some
songs, thinking they would have better sales, the European others, and that
the band and management themselves didn’t know what stance to take, but
instead spread themselves all over the place, hoping for success. They just
couldn’t pinpoint a song that they were sure of would be a hit.
The aforementioned excessive number of album tracks Iron Maiden faced for
the first time, showed that they would either have to churn out mindless
fillers (where they unfortunately wasted excellent ideas, as for instance, the
central melody for 'Weekend Warrior'), or water down potentially excellent
tracks like 'Fear is the Key', or base it of someone else’s work like 'Fear of the
Dark'
The Shin-Imamiya station event served to show me a whole new world of

classical music I only had a vague knowledge of. Through subsequent
exploration of the entire legacy of classical music of all the well-known and
lesser-known authors I discovered a whole series of examples deliberately or
unintentionally inserted into Iron Maiden's songs and these discoveries will
soon be a part of one of my future books.
Excluding four concerts (one in June and three in September), during 1991
Iron Maiden had a thirteen-month long break between the end of their tour
and release of their new album, and more than enough time to think about all
the positive and negative decisions they made after releasing 'No Prayer for
the Dying' album. They saw the way fans and critics reacted to their change in
image, they saw how everyone reacted to their ditching of theatrics and giant
stage props from their shows, something which, up until that point, was their
trademark. They saw how people felt about Dickinson’s change in vocals, from
a tenor to an angry rasp, and they also knew precisely how people felt about
their lack of long, epic songs which all went on to achieve a cult status. They
had all the figures. They saw, but did they learn anything? 'Fear of the Dark'
can be seen as, not quite identical, but certainly a twin to it’s predecessor,
showing that Iron Maiden decided to push on, despite everything, and nothing
could be done to stop or discourage them. Iron Maiden may not be as famous
as they are today without their song 'Fear of the Dark', no matter how painful
it is to admit it. They would just be another cult 80’s band.
Stjepan Juras - Fear of the Dark
20
BE QUICK OR BE DEAD
As 1992 approached, things were tensing up in the Iron Maiden camp, but
this tension was one of excitement. Everyone, including Dickinson, thought
they were on the right track this time, and that nothing could serve to stop
them from reaching the top, and shooting for the stars. Encouraged by the
success of Metallica, AC/DC and Scorpions, as well as trash metal fighting its
way into a higher class of metal, Iron Maiden were searching for their Holy
Grail. If 'Enter Sandman', 'Nothing Else Matters', 'Unforgiven', 'Wind of
Change', 'Thunderstruck', 'Moneytalks', and even 'Painkiller' do it, why not
Iron Maiden, who were always forerunners. The jeans wearing down to
earth Metallica guys did it, the Scorpions too. They all, just like Judas Priest,
played straight into your face music, and the theatrics Iron Maiden were
famous for, was toned down to basic rock ‘n’ roll, jeans, leather, and a
bunch of amps. The guys from Iron Maiden slowly became aware that
spandex tights were a thing of the past, and that the kids these days prefer
band members with a look and attitude they can identify with. Iron Maiden
learned a lot from the previous Monsters of Rock festival when Metallica,
AC/DC and Motley Crue showed what direction rock and metal are heading in
the 90’s. Their Russian concert with Pantera, played in front of around two
million-strong audience, also seems to have stung them a little, and they
wanted to repeat it next year. And it wasn’t difficult for Iron Maiden to arrange
to be the headliners of the Monsters of Rock festival. But as this festival turned
into a travelling tour in the previous years, they also knew that playing it was an
excellent advertisement for their upcoming album tour, and sold out concerts.
Thanks to all of this, the Iron Maiden camp was full of excited anticipation,
because they truly believed they have a killer album on their hands.
Musically speaking, it is a very confused album, and most of this confusion is
thanks to their calculations and observances of the changes in the musical
world. Steve Harris must have been very impressed with how well AC/DC’s
'The Razors Edge' album did, and their hymnical sing-along choruses fans
sang along with at the famous Monsters of Rock festival in Donington in
1991. The new age hit 'Moneytalks', and other similar songs must have
encouraged him to write a similar song, aimed specifically to be a concert
21
favourite to sing along with the fans with simple but meaningful lyrics, sure
to appeal to metalheads and the youth in general. The band went even so
far to have sent a press release to the media, announcing the entire tour will
be named for the song- 'From Here to Eternity Tour', only to have renamed
it shortly before it started to ‘Fear of the Dark' tour, even though they
already printed a certain amount of t-shirts and merchandise with the
previous name. But that will be covered in greater detail in one of the
following chapters. Meanwhile AC/DC announced a new live album from the
Monsters of Rock festival, so Steve probably thought - “Why shouldn’t we
do the same?” Bruce, on the other hand, after years of trying, came ‘into his
own’, and created 'Fear is the Key' with Janick as co-author. The song was
very contemporary and spoke of the AIDS epidemic, and Bruce started
writing shortly before the death of Freddy Mercury. The song carries a
Zeppellin sound Bruce was always eager to develop with Iron Maiden and
differs from the rest of the songs on the album greatly. 'Be Quick or be
Dead' on the other hand is quick and aggressive, an excellent concert
opening songs, and reminds of Judas Priest’s 'Painkiller' thanks to it’s force
and energy. It is also a contemporary song, covering the topic of greed,
corruption and bank frauds which shook Great Britain and the rest of the
world at the time and were another target Iron Maiden were aiming for.
'Afraid to Shoot' Strangers', a musical ballad developing into a faster and

more energetic song, reminds of the spirit and success of Metallica’s ‘One’.
They tried to mix it all with a pacifist message of ‘Wind of Change’, and add
a typical Maiden pathos, which became more and more prominent in their
songs in the coming years, especially their war-themed songs. One can sort
of recognize the spirit of the old Iron Maiden in that song, and this spirit is
also visible in the now almost forgotten ‘Judas Be My Guide’, which Iron
Maiden themselves never favorized and which remained in the shadow of
other, more prominent songs.
‘Wasting Love’ was their first ballad, or power ballad with Bruce Dickinson,
and it would be naïve to thik that they didn’t decide to record it when they
saw what 'Nothing Else Matters' and 'Unforgiven' did for Metallica. Why
shouldn’t Iron Maiden try something similar? And let’s be frank and say, why
not try their hand to some childhood fears, since Metallica was so successful
22
with 'Enter Sandman'. So many songs in the history of pop, rock and metal
covered fears, phobias and similar topics and went on to be incredibly
successful. Just look at all the records Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ set.
Before the album was released, they weren’t certain what the best way to
promote it would be, what song or tour name to choose and how to push it
to ensure it wouldn’t just be a hit, but a megahit, perhaps even reaching into
the mainstream. Iron Maiden wouldn’t dream of admitting it, even under
torture, but it’s a fact. They wanted a megahit, but not at any cost, without
catering too much to themselves, the publishers, the critics or the fans. A
difficult mission, for sure, but not an impossible one. It’s enough to read
their PR statements from that time before the album was released, and one
can understand that they deeply believed or said that they did, that the
album was the best one they ever created, and that they are taking a new
lyrical approach, radically different from their previous hits, and that this
one suits them better.
Even though, according to many, this album did not age well in the past 25
years, and opinions of it have changed after repeated listening, now that we
are all older and wiser, there is a large portion of Iron Maiden fans who
believe that what Iron Maiden did then was a brave step into something
new, a wish to experiment, modernize their sound, and explore new
possibilities. Now that Iron Maiden are back on top, it’s easy for everyone,
including me, to discuss and opinionated on what could have or should have
happened, but Iron Maiden were never close to mainstream with their
music and approach back in the 80’s, and the question arises if Iron Maiden
would ever advance if they continued following the same recipe, or if they
would still be just one of the cult, but never sufficiently appreciated bands
like, for instance, UFO. Sometimes you must fall so you can rise again, and
sometimes you have to see that some decisions you made were not so
good, so you can make new and better ones in the future. With that in mind,
‘Fear of the Dark’ had to be published, if only to shed light on the entire
situation. And what was the situation with Iron Maiden? It was that they
were loved precisely for being Iron Maiden, and that no matter their music
or style, it still has to contain the typical elements a fan will recognize them
in an instant and be able to exclaim - That’s Iron Maiden! It’s no wonder then,
23
that their tour quickly got renamed from 'From Here to Eternity Tour' to 'Fear
of the Dark Tour', and that it was precisely the title song, which contained
most of the typical Iron Maiden song elements became their greatest hit ever,
despite them pushing songs like ‘The Trooper’ to promote their beer of the
same name. We will reveal how this came to be throughout the chapters of
this book step by step, just like Iron Maiden themselves realized it.
Iron Maiden aren’t AC/DC, Judas Priest or Metallica, and no matter how
direct or rough their lyrics sometimes may be, we cannot imagine them
performing a song like Metallica’s ‘Sad But True’, or Pantera’s ‘The Walk’, or
Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name Of’, or even Sepultura’s
‘Roots’, no matter how popular such a musical expression or approach may
be at the time. Iron Maiden wanted to distance themselves from mythology,
history and similar 80’s topics, thinking they are too banal, and that the new
generations have a completely different world view, especially in the light of
all that was happening in the world at the time. And then we find ourselves
in 2017, when this book is written, and realize it’s been a quarter of a
century, and that today Iron Maiden follow the same recipe as they did in
the 80’s, and have never been more popular. Where are these new
generations with their new world views? Why do the many fans still feel
such a deep connection with them still? Three crucial music mediums
changed in those 25 years, borders have changed and shifted, the Internet
and smartphones changed the world irreversibly, we had tens of new wars,
landed an unmanned probe on Mars, soon to be followed by manned
vehicles, Great Britain exited the EU, Scotland and Catalonia almost seceded
from their home states, and Iron Maiden are still here. Their old and new
fans are still here, and Iron Maiden reverted to their old visuals and songs,
and have never been bigger and more popular. Why the hell did they think
that they wouldn’t be relevant to new generations with something they sold
millions of copies to only a few years before?
Keeping in mind that they divided the songs by genres before the album was
released, probably following the recipe of successful megahits I wrote about
earlier, it seems that this whole period, aptly named ‘Fear of the Dark’
(featuring three songs whose title have the word ‘fear’ or it’s derivatives in
it), Iron Maiden were mostly afraid of themselves and what they created,
24
and afraid of being able to keep this standard. But that’s just how it goes,
when climbing you look to the top, and never behind you, and when you’re
on top, you never want to go down.
A lot of critics pointed out Iron Maiden as examples of metal dinosaurs, and
said they would have to change or perish. It’s as laughable as journalists
announcing The Rolling Stones tour at the end of the 70’s being their last
one, and then kept repeating it for every subsequent tour, even until their
most recent one, while The Rolling Stones are announcing a new album and
a new tour! How could Iron Maiden be rock/metal dinosaurs only 12 years
after the release of their debut album? 25 years later in 2017 nobody can
say for certain when their reign will end and nobody is even thinking about
calling them rock dinosaurs of suggesting they change. But worst of all, even
though he claimed otherwise, Steve Harris was paying attention to what the
critics were writing, and when the reviews weren’t positive, he took it so
personally, he at one point rushed over to Kerrang offices to personally have
it out with the journalist who gave them a bad review during their Blaze era.
'Fear of the Dark' was an expected album name for a band like Iron Maiden,
partly because it’s as banal as it is catchy. The long-time cover art illustrator
for both full albums and singles, Derek Riggs, wasn’t green lighted for his
cover suggestion, which I will cover more later, while Melvyn Grant’s vision
was closer to what Iron Maiden were going for, something more serious and
brutal, unlike their previous covers which Iron Maiden found to be too
comic-book or parody like in this phase of their career. And as the lyrics for
this album were more direct, covering political and social topics, an Eddie-
less album cover would have suited their goals better, but they just didn’t
dare to go that far. They did, however, do it later with two of their three
singles, and a limited live album, the one from Donington.
And if we look at the timing for the release of this album, it was just perfect.
All the bands which had to release their super hits already did so, and Iron
Maiden had lots of manoeuvring space, to use to the best of their abilities.
'Be Quick or Be Dead' phrase from their first album single was accurate for
Iron Maiden as well. They had to act fast, and produce a hit that will push
them through the next decade, and be the cream of the crop. But the
25
question still remained - which song could be this super hit? Let’s be real
and say that Iron Maiden, a few months before the album release, and while
the working title for their tour was still 'From Here to Eternity Tour' never
even dreamed of their last, and longest song on the album, entitled, like the
album itself, 'Fear of the Dark' go on to become not only the most successful
song from that album, but also the most famous Iron maiden song of all
time, and the high point of every Iron Maiden concert from then on. No
matter how much it was sometimes forced on the audience in every Iron
Maiden tour (except the themed Eddie Rips Up from 2005), and no matter
how much fans grumble about wanting it removed from the set list, the
moment the first chords hit, everything is forgotten, and the spectacle of
the crowd singing in chorus is the only thing remaining.
Steve Harris property in Essex. Horse & Cart detail above the window.
To us, who never had the same status as Iron Maiden and were never in the
same financial situation, it’s hard to reason why Iron Maiden did what they
did at times and do so correctly, But we all know what we were like between
the ages of 20 and 30, and what we were like after 30, once the youth
hysteria of wild nights out and not caring about anything abandoned us, and
after we started seeing the world in a more relaxed and reasonable manner,
26
and started thinking about our own creature comforts. This is especially true
for those of us who settled down, married and had kids. I remember going
to a sold-out concert in Milan in 1999 without a ticket, money for a hotel, or
knowing how I will return to Croatia. Now I wouldn’t even dream about
going unless I have everything booked - a flight, a decent hotel, and of
course, a ticket.
Looking at it this way, I can understand why Steve Harris decided to act the
way he did. Since he had Lauren after he got married in the 80’s, and more
children followed later, it became more and more inconvenient to stay away
from home for longer stretches of time than the average sailor. It wasn’t
just that Iron Maiden were away from home when touring, but they would
leave for a month, so they can write the songs for their new album far away
from the rest of the world. It took them at least that long again to record the
album in locations as remote as the Bahamas sometimes, and after that all
the songs had to be practiced, and then the entire live shows needed to be
rehearsed, with all the bells and whistles. As other Iron Maiden members
got married and started having children, it became natural to them to
consider joining business and pleasure and working from home, or at least
somewhere close to home. This began with ‘Somewhere in Time’, which was
only partially recorded on the Bahamas, while a part of it was recorded in
the Netherlands. Their next album was entirely written, after many years,
completely in the UK, while the album was recorded in German, where the
rehearsals for the show were held as well, while ‘No Prayer for the Dying’,
was entirely written, recorded and rehearsed in the UK, at Steve Harris’
property. He didn’t have his own studio yet then, so he rented out a mobile
unit where the recording was to take place. They took it a step further with
‘Fear of the Dark’. Steve Harris decided to buy and build a completely new
studio on his property, and it was his plan to make it a place to both write
rehears and record songs for all future Iron Maiden albums. A brave idea but…
Martin Birch, who was their producer at the time, didn’t have any
complaints about their new studio, and said that it was equal to the studios
he worked at before, but Bruce Dickinson wasn’t taken with the idea of a
studio on Harrison’s property. He always had complaints, which started at
their previous album ‘No Prayer for the Dying’. Harrisons’ huge property had
27
anything you might want for your leisure, tennis and football court, sauna,
gym, pinball and electronic games room, a library, movie room etc, but
Dickinson said he felt very confined in the space. But as one can read
between the lines, it wasn’t the location itself which was the issue, but that
the problem stemmed from their roles in the band, and the domination
Harris was establishing over the other band members, in Bruce’s opinion.
This is confirmed by his statement “Fear Of The Dark was recorded in Steve’s
studio because he wanted it to be. He’d bought it and he’d paid for it and the
band were gonna pay him back for using his studio.”
Steve definitely wanted some peace, being close to home and his wife and
children, and he wanted to work without the label pressuring him, or about
counting the hours spent in the studio, and all the other frustrations the
recording of a new album brings. But apparently, he wanted too much,
because he thought that he learned enough himself by working with one of
the greatest rock producers ever, Martin Birch, and that he can produce an
album partly himself. He started by tuning up McBrain’s drums, because he
wanted a stronger, but less noisy sound, and was very satisfied with the
result. As the days went by, Dickinson had the feeling Steve Harris’ power
over them was becoming absolute, while Harris had the feeling his, in his
opinion excellent moves, were being sabotaged by the rest of the band, and
that the band was becoming divided. But, the album production continued
roughly according to plan, but unlike their previous album, there band was
once again becoming polarized. As I wrote before, while recording ‘No
Prayer for the Dying’, it seemed the creative differences between Harris and
Dickinson were settled once and for all (corroborated by his euphoric
statements), but two years later the divide was greater than in 1986. Harris
and Dickinson didn’t co-author a single song, and only Janick Gers, who was
still full of energy and happy to be able to finally contribute as an author to a
band he recently became a member of, didn’t have a problem cooperating
with them both. In fact, it seems almost like their later singles ‘Be Quick or
be Dead’ and ‘Wasting Love’ were only created because Janick inspired
Dickinson to create and write with his own attitude and energy. Dickinson
was already at a crossroads between the writing he did for Iron Maiden and
work on his first solo album, and he didn’t like the idea of having everything
he wrote for the Iron Maiden album be uniformed and fitting with the band
image. He was craving for artistic freedom and expanding his horizons, and
28
his work for the band, coupled with the feeling that Steve Harris was taking
sole control over everything was stifling him. Steve Harris presented this lack
of cooperation to the journalists as a non-issue. He stated that there was no
cooperation because Dickinson worked with Janick, and he had a few songs
ready. When Janick teamed up with Harris on two new songs, they had
more than enough for a new album, and there was no need to co-author
anything with Dickinson, which proved to be a mistake in the long run, as it
only served to encourage Dickinson to want to leave and start a solo career,
and Iron Maiden had lost the chance to take their place in the music scene
equal to that of Metallica or Guns ‘N’ Roses.
The recording was soon to begin, and they all moved to Harris’ estate. The
media story was slowly starting to brew, and everything was ready for Iron
Maiden to once again try to dominate the 90’s. But times they were a-
changing, predominately geopolitically, but following that, also musically.
The band who were their opening act during their 1988 American tour (Guns
‘n’ Roses) were now selling more records than they were, Metallica didn’t
fall apart after Cliff’s death, and in fact, went on to outsell Maiden, and
AC/DC, the Scorpions, Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Bon Jovi and other started
entering the mainstream through the door Metallica was opening. Good old
vinyl records, and even audio cassettes, were being replaced by the new
Compact Disc, and I believe it was very difficult in the Iron Maiden camp
those days, trying to decide which position to take and how to present
themselves in the new millennium. The band who claimed for years how
much they despised the mainstream, and was never interested in it, could
have easily committed media suicide if they tried for it now, especially if
they weren’t successful, so the only card they could play was an attempt to
modernize their sound (whatever that was supposed to mean), to cover
current topics in their songs, to add a ballad to their album, and wait for a
miracle to happen. The new world of the 90’s and the ever-growing
democracy had fewer and fewer restrictions, especially when it came to the
freedom of speech and expression, and ‘The Number of the Beast’ and
similar topics were no longer a big deal, or something which might attract
new fans, especially not compared to Slayer and those similar to them. It
became a greater challenge to write about truth, social topics and politics.
Iron Maiden were aware of the sudden changes in the world around them,
but I’m not sure how ready they were to deal with them.
29
1991 / 1993
The 90’s were the years of huge changes throughout all the different
segments across the planet. In the beginning of 1991 Maiden were in the
middle of their ‘No Prayer on the Road’ tour. While they were sailing the
global seas, the media’s attention was focused on the Gulf War, as well as the
near end of the Cold War which started way back in 1940. During this year as
many as fifteen countries had left the Soviet Union, with the consequences
being felt within numerous geopolitical disturbances throughout the world.
India started their move from socialism towards neoliberalism while the end
of Yugoslavia resulted in armed conflicts between Serbia and the states which
decided to walk their path of independence. Sieging and massacres in Vukovar
and Dubrovnik were witnessed across the globe, just like the great Serbian
protest against Slobodan Milošević. The wars lasted at least a decade, and Iron
Maiden waited until 1996 to visit Slovenia and 2003 to come to Croatia for the
first time since 1986.
Gulf War, burning oil feilds. Author:Tech. Sgt. David McLeod
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The Gulf War was a conflict between the coalitions of 34 nations under the
control of United Nations against the Iraqi forces which occupied Kuwait,
pushing towards annexation – and followed by the increasing growth of
communications technology it was the world’s first war to be (basically) live
streamed across the world so people could see the action from a soldier’s
perspective. This conflict also marked the beginning of a huge American
presence in the Middle East. Even though Steve Harris was unable to keep
himself updated with the course of the war itself he was still pretty interested -
just like the rest of the band were back in the day. ‘Afraid to Shoot Strangers’ is a
song just to prove this, having a great reception among Maiden fans and even
getting its own video, but with a new vocalist Blaze Bayley. The song was written
from a soldier’s perspective (just like the footage which was brought to our TV
screens), being dragged through the madness of war, sent to a far and foreign
land to kill people he doesn’t even know, questioning himself about the very
meaning of the bloodbath ordered by the politicians, businessmen and powerful
companies - for the reasons unknown to him. All of the recent war news as well
as the changes they were bringing absolutely put their mark on the songwriting,
especially in Steve’s in their following record, but also throughout the 2000’s.
The fall of the Soviet Union was at hand. Iceland was the first country to
recognize the Baltic state’s independence and many soon followed. Boris
Yeltsin was elected for the first Russian president, carrying on to pull apart
and ban the communist party in the country. The second biggest city in
Russia – St. Petersburg got its old name back after being called Leningrad
since 1924. Just before the collapse the Soviet Union managed to renew
their diplomatic relations with Israel for the first time since 1967. Despite
Maiden’s attitude recording ‘Mother Russia’ in 1990, the first chance to
conquer the market over there went to AC/DC, Metallica, Pantera and the
others, performing in front of a million people and securing a immense
number of new fans for themselves.
1991 was the year of deadly storms, tornadoes, earthquakes, airplane

crashes and naval disasters, but the worst one was probably the earthquake
in Pakistan and Afghanistan – killing over 1200 people. The Italian ferry
‘Moby Prince’ sent over 140 people to their deaths colliding with an oil
tanker, while the Egyptian oil tanker ‘Salem Express’ pulled over 450 people
to the bottom of the Red Sea.
31
Steve M. Clark's grave.
The year which marked the birth of Wolfgang Van Halen, bass player of Van
Halen, Eddie Van Halen’s son as well as the birth of one of the most popular
supermodels of our time Emily Ratajkowski took its deadly toll on the music
scene as well. In the beginning of the year Def Leppard’s guitarist Steve Clark
had left us and the son of the guitar virtuoso Eric Clapton fell to his death,
rd
falling from a 53 floor of a New York high-rise at the age of 4. The song
‘Tears in Heaven’ was dedicated to the boy. Legendary jazz trumpeter Miles
Davis passed away in September 1991 while the body of Robert Maxwell, a
media mogul and businessman was found floating in the ocean near the
Caribbean. His demise was the topic of numerous controversies which
ended up inspiring Bruce to write ‘Be Quick or Be Dead’, featuring Maxwell
on the cover being attacked by Eddie.
32
The end of November - the 24th to be precise was the day we lost two great
musicians. Both Eric Carr, the drummer of Kiss and Freddie Mercury, the
vocalist and pianist of Queen passed away - also leading Bruce to change up
the lyrics to ‘Fear is the Key’ (which is a song about AIDS) and add a line
saying: “And nobody cares till somebody famous dies”. These were the days
when Freddie’s disease together with the HIV positive diagnosis of one of
the world’s biggest basketball players Magic Johnson shook the world and
Bruce decided to point out the fact that it’s been a factor for quite some
time but the problem is rarely every acknowledged before someone famous
loses their life. Alistair MacLean wrote both the novel and the script for the
similar named Movie (the author who inspired Maiden to write ‘Where
Eagles Dare’). Iron Maiden shared the stage with Queen only once in their
career, and it was at the ‘Rock in Rio’ festival in 1985 - to this day the only
concert in the band’s history where they didn’t use lighting of their own but
someone else’s instead. Interesting fact - after Freddie’s death ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’ reached the very top of the UK charts once again, remaining the
only version of a song ever to reach #1 more than once, and it stayed there
for more than 14 weeks.
33
The heavy metal world witnessed the rise of new bands and brutal genres:
Behemoth, Belphegor, Marduk, Burzum, Emperor, Enslaved and Nevermore
were the bands who were at the very beginning of their career, while
Cradle of Filth remains one of the last truly popular metal bands hailing from
the UK to this day, which is a truly depressing fact for the British scene.
Brazil had Labyrinth and Angra to defend the honor of melodic power metal
while the American stoners Down already showed signs of a huge career to
follow. On the other hand, Death Angel, Whitesnake and Sanctuary were put
‘on hold’, just like the band Europe following the release of their ‘Prisoners
in Paradise’ record. Poison removed CC DeVille from the band after a
fistfight with Bret Michaels during MTV Awards 1991 and Per Yngwie Ohlin
(Dead) of Mayhem slit his wrists before shooting a shotgun shell in his head
– leaving a message saying 'excuse for all the blood'. The photo of his corpse
taken by his fellow bandmate Euronymous was used on the cover of the
bootleg album 'Dawn of the Black Hearts'
.
34
Metallica and Guns and Roses - Top albums 1991.
Whoever disputes my claim that the 90’s were just as successful for metal
and hard rock music as the 80’s, believing grunge wasn’t the thing to reduce
interest for some of the crucial metal bands out there such as Iron Maiden,
Judas Priest, Whitesnake etc needs to take a look at some of the facts here.
Metallica released the 'Metallica' album, also known as the Black Album –
which is the first metal album on the top of the Billboard charts and the
most successful album in their career as well as one of the biggest in the
history of music business. Skid Row's 'Slave to the Grind' had its debut at the
#1 of the Billboard's Charts. Skid Row didn't end up headlining Monsters of
Rock just because UK wasn't their home country as well as Iron Maiden
having a lot of 'background' in the UK, with a lot of people of their own
within the promotion business, leading them to headline, featuring Skid Row
as a support act. Guns 'n' Roses could have headlined it as well, releasing
their massive 'Use Your Illusion I' and 'Use Your Illusion II', conquering the
charts with hits such as 'Don't Cry', 'November Rain', 'Live and let Die', 'You
Could Be Mine', 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door’, 'Civil War'…'Terminator II -
Judgment Day' movie help quite a lot, featuring 'You Could Be Mine' and
putting the band under the spotlight. Both albums reached the very top in
the same year – #1 and #2, with is a feat no other band ever managed to
pull besides Guns 'n' Roses. This was just 3 years after they supported Iron
Maiden on their American tour.
35
Two years after, AC/DC joined forces with Arnold Schwarzenegger in 'The
Last Action Hero', bringing the music of both bands closer to the world, with
an amazing reception. Iron Maiden mostly fought their own battles and
didn't really try to follow in those footsteps. Truth be told, both Guns 'n'
Roses and Metallica, as well as many others wholeheartedly took the
opportunity to play at Freddie Mercury's memorial concert at Wembley
while Maiden were busy preparing the release of their new record. Had
their premiere been on April 20th at the Wembley Arena, let's say
performing a couple of Queen's songs and their new single 'Be Quick or Be
Dead', followed by 'Fear of the Dark' and with a 'Hallowed be Thy Name'
finale – one can only imagine the magnitude of their potential success. It
wouldn't have just been a marketing stunt, but the fact that it was two of
the UK's finest, bands with the most charismatic and unique vocalists in the
world probably. Sorry Iron Maiden, you let that one slip. Just take a look at
how Metallica skyrocketed, or Guns 'n' Roses legendary gigs – even Def
Leppard who were never a crowd favorite in the UK but still managed to get
#1 with their next album. Of course, there was Extreme as well, with their
'More than Words' hit becoming huge earlier in 1991 and just continued to
push more boundaries…
36
In order for you to completely understand the situation Maiden was forced
to exist in while trying to become big on both UK and USA scene it’s of huge
importance to accentuate the occurrences on the geopolitical, scientific and
even the sports scene - just to grasp their strategic decisions. It’s also
relevant to check out what the ‘competition’ was doing at the time within
rock and metal scene as well as the music scene in general.
At the time in 1991 John Lennon’s ‘Give Peace a Chance’ was one of the
most popular band aid songs, featuring stars such as Yoko Ono, Lenny
Krawitz, Peter Gabriel, Alannah Myles, Tom Petty etc. The song was a
musical answer to the beginning of the Gulf War. Interestingly enough, the
6th annual RNR House of Fame in New York happened on the same eve as
declaration of Gulf War, successfully running its course despite the tensions
in the air.
On the other side of the world, another edition of 'Rock in Rio' festival was
underway, headlined by Guns 'n' roses – among others. AC/DC had a concert
in Salt Lake City, sadly remembered for the accident where 3 fans died after
getting crushed. Charges against the eternal 'troublemaker' of metal Ozzy
Osbourne were dropped after a couple sued Ozzy, claiming their son
committed suicide inspired by his music.
In the alternative music world, The Smashing Pumpkins released their debut
album 'Gish', quickly imposing themselves as one of the leaders of the
alternative scene, while Pearl Jam released their debut album 'Ten',
immediately reaching #2 on the Billboard Charts - claiming an amazing 13
time platinum status in the United States. It wasn't long before Nirvana
appeared on the horizon, together with the grunge music explosion. Their
second album 'Nevermind' was released in July 1991, and it took over #1 in
1992, passing Michael Jackson's 'Dangerous' along the way, soon after
Michael signed a billion dollar contract with Sony Music. Just for
comparison, his sister Janet Jackson was the only artist in history to feature
five singles from the same record (The Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation) on
the Billboard's Top 5, signing a 30 million dollar contract with Virgin Records
and becoming the highest paid female artist in the world.
37
Aerosmith were also storming all across the planet and ended up signing a
30 million dollar contract with Sony Music as well. 1991 also marks the year
when Billboard joined forces with Nielsen SoundScan - the electronic
software which keeps track of album sales - the era of sales counting from
that day is called the SoundScan era. From that day onwards, 'Fear of the
Dark' is the highest selling Iron Maiden album in North America.
In the metal music world, besides Metallica and the other previously
mentioned bands, Iron Maiden were facing the increasingly aggressive
genres of metal music and while these bands never got close to selling what
Maiden could, they still chipped away at the 'casual' fanbase who wanted
something more brutal and direct than what Maiden had to offer. 1991 saw
the birth of some classics such as Death - 'Human', Cannibal Corpse -
'Butchered at Birth', Sepultura - 'Arise', Paradise Lost - 'Gothic', while
records such as Morbid Angel - 'Blessed are the Sick', Suffocation - 'Effigy of
the Forgotten', Darkthrone - 'Soulside Journey', Dismember - 'Like an Ever
Flowing Stream', Entombed - 'Clandestine', Bathory - 'Twilight of the Gods',
Autopsy - 'Mental Funeral', Bolt Thrower - 'War Master', Immolation - 'Dawn
of Possession', Anthrax - 'Attack of the Killer B's', Cathedral - 'Forest of
Equilibrium', Heathen - 'Victims of Deception', Atheist - 'Unquestionable
Presence' were basically dominating the extreme metal scene.
This turn of events, leaning towards a more aggressive expression forced

Maiden to make 'Be Quick or Be Dead' their most aggressive song ever and
as the time passed, their following album 'The X-Factor' became even
darker, even more depressing, brutal – even leading to censoring of the
cover art for the first time in the band's career. This could possibly be the
answer to why the band chose Blaze Bayley to join them with his dark and
brooding vocals – nothing like Bruce (and I know for a fact that there were a
lot of similar replacements). Picking a similar vocalist could have been
counterproductive, forcing the person to be under constant comparisons
and possibly ruining the whole thing. Even though Blaze was often
compared to Bruce it was clear that the comparison was pointless because
Maiden was heading in a direction no one expected them to.
38
Of course, there were more albums to highlight the year 1991 - Alice Cooper
- 'Hey Stoopid' and Motorhead - '1912' which was extremely successful,
establishing Motorhead as a big name in the business, and we must mention
Ozzy Osbourne's 'No More Tears', The Cult with 'Ceremony' and Rush - 'Roll
the Bones' as well. The cover for 'Roll the Bones' got the Juno Award for the
best cover art, and it was their first album since 1981 to enter Billboard's
Top 5 (at #3) as well as their last album ever to reach platinum status.
Rush - 'Roll the Bones' - album cover.
39
Just for you to see 'the big picture' regarding metal and hard rock albums of
that time I'm going to mention these:
Armored Saint - 'Symbol of Salvation', Dark Angel - 'Time Does Not Heal',
David Lee Roth - 'A Little Ain't Enough', Fates Warning - 'Parallels',
'Helloween - Pink Bubbles Go Ape' (which lost many fans with this album),
Iced Earth - 'Night of the Stormrider', Richie Kotzen - 'Electric Joy', 'Kyuss -
'Wretch', Loudness - 'On the Prowl', Yngwie J. Meshuggah - 'Contradictions
Collapse', Metal Church - 'The Human Factor', Monster Magnet - 'Spine of
God', Mr. Big - 'Lean into It', Overkill - Horrorscope', Prong - Prove You
Wrong', Savatage -' Streets: A Rock Opera', Soundgarden - 'Badmotorfinger',
Stratovarius - 'Stratovarius II', Stryper - 'Can't Stop the Rock', Tesla -
'Psychotic Supper', Type O Negative - 'Slow, Deep and Hard', U.D.O. -
'Timebomb', Van Halen - 'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge', White Lion -
'Mane Attraction'...
It's also interesting how unlike Slayer, who named their 1991 record 'A
Decade of Aggression' which can easily be related to the metal scene trends,
Mötley Crüe named their album 'A Decade of Decadence' which is also a
solid description of heavy metal and the glam scene from back in the day.
„Blood Sugar Sex Magik“ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers was released on the
same day as the cult classic of the decade 'Nevermind' but it was so
powerful and good that it didn't stop it one bit from becoming one of the
band's most relevant releases in history. The Cult's 'Ceremony' came out the
same day with a solid reception. Some of the albums from 1991 we should
have mentioned so far are U2 - 'Achtung Baby', Primal Scream -
'Screamadelica', My Bloody Valentine - 'Loveless', Sline - 'Spiderland',
Massive Attack - 'Blue Lines', Talk Talk - 'Laughing Stock' and A tribe Called
Quest – 'The Love End Theory'. If this short list left you confused with some
unknown names it's just to show how there was a lot of 'one hit wonders'
back in the day, just like today – reaching platinum statuses before quickly
fading away into mediocrity.
In 1991 the biggest music hits were Michael Jackson's 'Black or White' (After
his collaboration with Van Halen Michael quickly realized Slash was the
biggest guitarist of the year so it was him to contribute to immense
40
popularity working with Michael) 'Joyride' and 'Spending My Time' -

Roxette, 'Everything I Do (I do It For You)' - Brian Adams, 'The Fly' - U2,
'Losing My Religion' - REM, 'Wind of Change' and 'Send me an Angel' by the
Scorpions, 'Alive' - Pear Jam,'Don't Cry' i 'You Could Be Mine' by the Guns N'
Roses, Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' and 'Unforgiven', Red Hot Chilli Peppers'
'Give It Away' and 'Under the Bridge', 'Innuendo', 'Show Must Go On' and
the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen, Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit',
'More The Words' by Extreme, 'To Be With You' by Mr. Big and the tune
Maiden fans are well familiar with - 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"'
- Monty Python. For all of you who remember being bombarded by the
inevitable dance and pop hits from that time, radio and the TV stations
mostly played 'Baila Me' - Gipsy Kings, 'Do the Bartman' - The Simpsons,
'Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me' - George Michael & Elton John, 'Gonna
Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)' and 'Things That Make You Go
Hmmm...' - C+C Music Factory, 'Good Vibrations' - Marky Mark & the Funky
Bunch, 'I've Been Thinking About You' - Londonbeat, 'Let's Talk About Sex' -
Salt-n-Pepa, 'Move That Body - Technotronic and 'Senza una Donna' -
Zucchero & Paul Young,
There's a certain death from 1991 that shouldn't go unnoticed. On the

March 21 we lost Leo Fender, inventor and one of the most important
people in the electric guitar development. Imagining the sound of Iron
Maiden without a Fender is an impossible mission. Besides Steve Harris and
his Fender Precision Bass guitar, both Dave Murray and Janick Gers use
Fender guitars and it's hard to even picture them on the stage without
them. Without Leo Fender there would be no Maiden as we know them.
41
As far as grunge is concerned, 1992 kicked off the same was 1991 ended –
with a bang. Alice in Chains released their massive album 'Dirt' following
their successful EP 'Sap', reaching quadruple platinum status. Still, for each
successful grunge album there were at least a dozen solid rock and metal
releases; Bon Jovi - 'Keep the Faith', Def Leppard - 'Adrenalize', Dream
Theater - 'Images and Words', Faith No More - 'Angel Dust', KISS - 'Revenge',
Megadeth - 'Countdown to Extinction', Pantera - 'Vulgar Display of Power',
WASP - 'The Crimson Idol', Rage Against the Machine - 'Rage Against the
Machine', Warrant - 'Dog Eat Dog' and Ministry - 'Psalm 69: The Way to
Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs'. Some of the titles here such as Pantera's
'Vulgar Display of Power' were genre-defining records, just like 'Countdown
to Extinciton' which gave it a new dimension. Putting all of this into
perspective, it's absolutely clear that in this year grunge had no influence on
metal music whatsoever, because all of these bands either continued their
typical sales numbers or even ended up greatly increasing them.
It was the year of introduction for some new names which immediately
showed they were going to forefront their genre - P.O.D., Machine Head,
Black Label Society, Moonspell, Lordi, Edguy, Evoken, Gorgoroth and Stone
Sour, together with some highly original acts like Necrophagist or
Graveworm. Vince Neil has left Mötley Crüe and started the era of 'big'
vocalists leaving their bands. The 'on-hold' status turned into an indefinite
hiatus for some of the greats such as Europe, Ratt, Stryper and White Lion,
while Armored Saint was forced to follow due to their vocalist John Bush
going to Anthrax. Even Atheist was put 'on hold' after a band member died,
accompanied by a couple of other reasons..
42
During the work for their soon to be released 'Be Quick or Be Dead' single,
which was scheduled for April 1992, 'The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert'
which I've previously mentioned was announced. It truly was a shame that
besides all the major acts we've noted already, plus some relevant ones
such as Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Tony Iommy (Black Sabbath) or even
Roger Daltrey (The Who) – there was no room for Iron Maiden and even
Spinal Tap was there (being a heavy metal parody band). More than a billion
people watched the concert in front of their TV screens which one roughly
one fifth of the planet's population.
1992 has basically just begun and a lot of stuff was going on, both directly
and indirectly influencing 'Fear of the Dark' album. It was declared as 'the
year of space' by the UN and the CD sales surpassed the audio cassette sales
in the US. This is why Capitol Records called up Derek Riggs and ordered an
illustration of Eddie crushing a cassette tape while proudly presenting a
compact disc. Scientists confirmed the first official extra solar planet with
the discovery of several terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsar PSR
B1257+12, by Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail.
World weather organization published a shocking report about huge ozone

holes above the Arctic and Antarctica, and we've seen the launch of Space
Shuttle Atlantis - carrying the global warming measuring equipment into
space. Space Shuttle Endeavour started its maiden flight as a replacement
for the unlucky Space Shuttle Challenger. The pope sent out an official
apology for the treatment of Galileo Galilei by the hands of the Inquisition,
symbolically concluding the 'year of space'. Let's also mention it was the
final year for Atari 2600 after 25 long years, and the first one for Windows
3.1. The first text message was sent in England via Vodafone network and
we were oblivious to the world that was waiting around the corner in 20
years or so.
1992 was the birth year of the world's most expensive football player
Neymar as well as the scandalous Miley Cyrus, and the year of Isaac
Asimov's demise. Asimov was a famous writer and professor, author of the
robotics laws and one of the key inspirations for the 'Somewhere in Time'
album. We've bid farewell to Marlene Deitrich - a famous German actress as
43
well as British comic genius Benny Hill.Denmark beat Germany 2:1 in the
UEFA European Football Championship final at the Ullevi stadium in
Gothenburg (Sweden), long before Maiden even dreamed of selling out the
venue 13 years later all by themselves.
1992 was also the year of great controversies. After performing a song in
protest against the sexual abuse of children within the Catholic church
Sinéad O'Connor ripped a picture of the Pope in Saturday Night Live TV
show, with a lot of upset people picking up the phone and calling NBC to
express their anger. The stunt she pulled has put a huge dent onto her
amazing career. Also we remember Mike Tyson (Iron Mike), the World
Boxing Champion being sentenced to six years in prison for raping an 18
year old.
Far across the ocean in Norway Fanoft Stave Church near Bergen was
burned down to the ground. It was believed that lightning cause it or an
electical installation malfunction, but as Varg Vikernes of the one man black
metal band Burzum was found guilty of burning down Asane Church,
Stortetveit Church, Skjold Church i Holmenkollen Church, the Fanoft Stave
Church was added to his list. Still, he wasn't convicted for that particular
one. Later on he put a photo of the Fanoft Stave Church's burned
construction on the cover of his 'Aske' EP (meaning 'Ashes'). Vikerness is still
a proud white nationalist and a supporter of neo-völkisch movement, and
claims that the church burned because it was built on pagan grounds.
Fanoft Stave Church - The tower collapse.
44
Montreal riot 1991. Memorable pictures.
It wasn't long before another case of fire shook the metal scene. Metallica's
singer and guitarist James Hetfield ended up with 2nd and 3rd degree burns
during their gig at Montreal stadium after taking a wrong step in the middle
of pyrotechnic equipment. Guns 'N' Roses were also playing there and
ended up pulling off some bad decisions, resulting in the cancellation of the
gig and even riots across the city including millions in damages and a large
number of fans injured and under arrest. Metallica promised to come back
and make up for the gig and they did it the very next year. While James was
unable to play, John Marshall of Church jumped in and took over the guitar
duties. Even though Hetfield's injuries were serious, he was quickly back on
track. Dave Lombardo had left Slayer and Paul Bostaph replaced him while
Body Count was in the middle of a huge controversy thanks to their song
'Cop Killer' from their debut 'Body Count'.
45
South African market opened its gates in 1992 with Paul Simon being the
first 'big' name to tour across the country. Meanwhile, over here the war
was raging across Croatia and Bosnia. I was in high school, forced to run to
the shelter during the bombings of my home town Zadar, but nothing could
have stopped me from running to the record store and getting 'Fear of the
Dark' as soon as it was out. Our record publishing company Croatia Records
(previously 'Jugoton') had sold its huge printing facility and one of the last
records was actually 'Fear of the Dark' which was printed just in its original
edition. Today it holds a pretty high value on the market. A couple of days
before 'Be Quick or be Dead' single was released, the United Nations
acknowledged the independence of my country Croatia, together with
Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even though it was a time of war, it's
the times I still have a fond memory of.
While we were in the middle of a warzone, The Euro Disney Resort together
with Disneyland was opening its gates is Paris and Barcelona was hosting the
Olympic Summer Games. As a sixteen year old teenager I witnessed a match
I'll never forget - the American 'Dream Team' playing against my country, the
only team that could have made them sweat under the leadership of the late
Dražen Petrović. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley,
Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, Chris
Mullin, David Robinson i Christian Laettner… a once in a lifetime team.
46
British Queen Elisabeth II proclaimed 1992 as a 'horrible year' (Annus

Horribilis) and it wasn't without reason. 141 passengers died in a plane crash
in China while a coal mine in Turkey caved in in what was the biggest
disaster of this type in country's history – killing 263 people. Sadly, it wasn't
the only Turkish disaster of 1992. Ten days after this a massive earthquake
took the lives of over 650 people with over 2000 left injured. An earthquake
in Indonesia killed 2500 people and caused a 25-meter tsunami, while a
Kairo earthquake killed over 550 and injured approximately 6500. A big
naval disaster occurred in 1992 as well, when a Greek oil tanker Aegan Sea
hit the land under heavy storms near La Coruña, spilling over 80 000 tons of
raw oil into the sea. Still, the 'Annus Horribilis' didn't get its name after any
of these tragedies, but because of the scandals which hurt the Royal Family
name together with a huge fire at the Windsor castle, with damages going
well above 50 million GBP.
Many of you will remember various popular events from that time (Pablo
Escobar escaping prison, British Church allowing women to become priests,
Czechoslovakia dividing into Czech Republic and Slovakia, new diplomatic
relations between Mexico and the Vatican), but we should definitely note
the meeting between George H.W. Bush (USA) and Boris Yeltsin (Russia) at
the Camp David which marked the end of the Cold War.
47
While it might have seemed that Metal music was at a decline, it was
actually going strong. With all the cult classics we mentioned before, we
only need to take a look at the fan favorites across different genres to
understand that both black and death metal had their golden years in 1991,
1992 and later on in 1993 as well. Truth be told, all of these genres were
limited by default - in terms of radio appearances or wide audiences, but the
metal scene was branching out, and we witnessed a huge variations from
small unknown acts to the behemoths of their genre. This has set a
foundation for some major weekend music festivals with hundreds of bands
with different levels of 'fame' and this is exactly the type of festivals which
soon became the future of modern music (Hellfest, Wacken, Download,
Bruttal Assault, Summer Breeze, Graspop etc.) The one-day festivals with a
couple of big names such as 'Monsters of Rock' quickly became history,
together with the concept of metal scene producing a global mammoth
metal sensation. The bands which came closest to this (and still far from
their 80's or 90's counterparts) are Korn, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, Sabaton,
Prophets of Rage and a handful of others because – let's be honest, none of
these can sell out even a smaller stadium on their own. I'd dare say
Rammstein is a band that can, but they have been around for 24 years. Be
that as it may, let's take a look at the growth of subgenres in metal music in
1992 to witness the development of the scene's 'depth'.
The fastest growing in Europe and USA was surely the Death metal scene,
producing some amazing records in 1992 such as: At the Gates - 'The Red in
the Sky Is Ours', Autopsy - 'Acts of the Unspeakable', Bolt Thrower - 'The
IVth Crusade', Cannibal Corpse - 'Tomb of the Mutilated', Deicide - 'Legion',
Gorefest - 'False', Hypocrisy - 'Penetralia', Malevolent Creation -
'Retribution', Montrosity - 'Imperial Doom', Napalm Death - Utopia
Banished', Sadus - 'A Vision of Misery', Nocturnus - 'Thresholds', 'Unleashed'
- Shadows in the Deep, Vader - 'The Ultimate Incantation', Vital Remains -
'Let Us Pray', Obituary - 'The End Complete'…
The thrash scene of 1992 was very much alive, and we're going to mention
the very best, starting with Megadeth's very own 'Countdown to Extinction',
but also Exodus - 'Force of Habit', Kreator - 'Renewal', Sodom - 'Tapping the
Vein', Suicidal Tendencies - 'Art of Rebellion', Tankard - 'Stone Cold Sober',
Testament - 'The Ritual'…
48
Black metal bands which released their albums in 1992 basically started up
an avalanche or genre defining tunes: Burzum - 'Burzum', Celtic Frost -
'Parched With Thirst Am I and Dying', Darkthrone - 'A Blaze in the Northern
Sky', Immortal - 'Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism', Von - 'Satanic Blood'…
Experimental, progressive and crossover bands have showed us the

direction in which metal was surely going, lead by Body Count, Pantera and
Rage Against the Machine. We shouldn't neglect the massive success of
Faith No More. These made it to our list: Body Count - 'Body Count', Dream
Theater - 'Images and Words', Exhorder - 'The Law', Faith No More - 'Angel
Dust', King's X - 'King's X', Pantera - 'Vulgar Display of Power', Rage Against
the Machine - 'Rage Against the Machine'…
Gothic, industrial and doom metal bands brought forth an immense

potential and room for growth with: Fear Factory - 'Soul of a New Machine',
Oomph! - 'Oomph!', Paradise Lost - 'Shades of God', Nine Inch Nails -
'Broken' (EP), Tiamat - 'Clouds', Trixter - 'Hear!', Ministry - 'Psalm 69: The
Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs'.
Power metal had a quite modest 1992 with as much as three relevant
releases: Blind Guardian - 'Somewhere Far Beyond', Iced Earth - 'Night of the
Stormrider', Stratovarius - 'Twilight Time'.
It's safe to say both heavy metal and hard rock albums were definitely not so
dominant anymore: AC/DC - 'Live' (snatching the idea for their live album
recorded at Donington just under Maiden's nose), Black Sabbath -
'Dehumanizer', Bon Jovi - 'Keep the Faith', Danzig - 'Danzig III: How the Gods Kill',
Def Leppard - 'Adrenalize', Extreme - 'III Sides to Every Story', Kyuss - 'Blues for
the Red Sun', KISS - 'Revenge', Loudness - 'Loudness', Manowar - 'The Triumph
of Steel', Motörhead - 'March ör Die'', Rage - 'Trapped!', Rollins Band - 'The End
of Silence', Skid Row - 'B-Side Ourselves', Slaughter - 'The Wild Life', Steelheart -
'Tangled in Reins', Warrant - 'Dog Eat Dog' , WASP - 'The Crimson Idol'…
We can also give credit to the guitarist Tony MacAlpine for his utterly
interesting album 'Learning to Fly' while the 'guitar god' Yngwee J.
Malmsteen decided to return to the neoclassic metal roots with an amazing
vocalist on his album 'Fire and Ice'..
49
Green Jelly - Video screenshot
During 1992 the popular mainstream music featured two songs which
leaned way more towards hard rock 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' (Nirvana) and
'To Be With You' (Extreme) which entered the Top 5 singles together with
'Rhythm is a Dancer (Snap), 'I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston) and
'End of the Road' (Boyz II Men). Nirvana, Queen, Metallica, Guns N' Roses,
Bon Jovi… they all had a couple of popular hits from their 1992 albums, but
the ones who tagged along were actually Def Leppard with 'Let's Get
Rocked', 'Under The Bridge' by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, 'Viva Las Vegas' by
ZZ Top and Ugly Kid Joe's 'Everything About You'. It sounds a bit weird to
have a true parody song like 'Three Little Pigs' by the Green Jelly to go neck
and neck with these in the alternative scene popularity wise. What
remained of the short-lived band will later on form the mighty Tool.
Michael Jackson ruled the charts with several songs such as 'Heal the World'
while the dance and electronic scene was unstoppable in claiming the
mainstream throne. Dr. Alban's 'It's My Life' and many others, U.S.U.R.A. s
'Open Your Mind', The KLF's 'Justified & Ancient' , Snap with 'Rhythm is a
Dancer', Right Said Fred's 'I'm too Sexy', 2 Unlimited s 'Workaholic' and the
list goes on. Back in the day I was seriously irritated by this music as a young
50
metalhead but I'm forced to admit that it sounds like an angelic choir,
compared to the mainstream music of today. The clubs were still echoing
with 'Free Your Mind' by En Vogue – which is one of the best female club
hits with a beautiful message (in my opinion), but also Madonna's 'Erotica',
House of Pain's 'Jump Around', Prince's 'Sexy MF', 'Out of Space' by the
Prodigy... The TV stations were particularly fond of 'How Do You Do' by
Roxette, 'I Can't Dance' by Genesis, Elton John & Eric Clapton's 'Runaway
Train', 'Friday I'm in Love' by The Cure, 'I Drove All Night' by Roy Orbison and
the 'Man on the Moon' by R.E.M.
We need not explain the popularity of 'Barcelona', just like 'Temple of Love'
by Sisters of Mercy, which I've already claimed have possibly inspired Steve
Harris for the famous 'Fear of the Dark' introduction.
The Shakespeare Sisters had an intriguing video for their hit 'Stay', U2 were
rising in popularity with their monumental 'One', while the radio stations
were flooded with requests for 'You' by Ten Sharp, 'Would I Lie to You' by
Charles & Eddie and Elton John & George Michael's 'Don't Let the Sun Go
Down on Me'. R.E.M., Tori Amos, Dr. Dre, Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys
successfully released some of the highest selling records.
After a long wait in 1992, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame finally accepted the
greats such as Jimi Hendrix Experience, Johnny Cash and Yarbirds and David
Bowie finally married the supermodel Iman. John Frusciante announced he
was leaving the Red Hot Chili Peppers just before they were featured on the
cover of the Rolling Stone Magazine, forcing the publisher to digitally erase
him from the photo. David Isberg left Opeth just like Bill Wayman decided to
leave the Rolling Stones. This was just the beginning of a huge wave of
breakups cause we were just about to witness some of the biggest vocalists
leave their 'flock'.
The late Whitney Houston married Bobby Brown in 1992 which (according
to many) started her demise. The legendary Frank Zappa, globally famous
for his 'Bobby Brown' song had his last live gig in Frankfurt. Seriously ill with
prostate cancer Frank earned a solid 20 minutes of ovations on his last
concert.
51
The records were happening all over the music industry. 'November Rain'
became the longest song to ever enter the Billboard Top 20 with an
astounding budget of 1,5 million $ - biggest ever at the time. Soundtrack for
'The Bodyguard' went 17 time-platinum and was sold in over 50 million
copies – becoming the highest selling soundtrack of all times as well as one
of the highest selling albums. It's interesting that Boyz II Men beat a 36 years
old record by Elvis himself with their 'End of the Road' single, staying at the
top of US charts for 12 straight weeks, but not for long. Whitney Houston
quickly surpassed them with her epic 'I Will Always Love You'. Heavy metal
as a genre was really into movies like Wayne's World, with bands such as
Queen, Jimi Hendrix, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alice Cooper i Black Sabbath
appearing on the soundtrack, or the movie 'Singles' featuring Alice in Chains,
Pearl Jam, The Smashing Pumpkins, Jimi Hendrix and Soundgarden.
Seeing how some of the newer singers around like Whitney Houston were
conquering the market, Madonna released her most controversial record
called 'Erotica' with a coffee table book 'Sex' which explored and portrayed
her own sexual fantasies. Many were shocked by her explicit sexual photos,
featuring both her and various celebrities on 128 pages.
1992 marked the end of 'longbox' packaging when six of the biggest
publishers agreed on removing this sort of compact disc packaging from the
market from April 1993 due to impracticality. 'Fear of the Dark' is the last
Maiden album released this way. (There are even limited versions of 'A Real
Live One' as the very last longboxes on the market (see next page).
52
'A Real Live one' - rare Longbox.
Also in 1992, Ozzy Osbourne pranked over 17 000 fans on the final concert
of 'No More Tours' tour, making everyone believe he was going to retire.
After Sepultura as the support act, Black Sabbath came onto the stage with
Rob Halford on the vocals (Dio was already the 'former' vocalist in that
moment). Rob was just about to leave Judas Priest and he pulled off an epic
live performance – Ozzy joined in in the second half of the gig to replace
Halford and also announce the reunion of Black Sabbath. Still, during the
massive fireworks at the end of the show a huge black balloon rose up
above the stage with words „Ozzy Osbourne – I'll Be Back!“, quoting the
famous line from 'The Terminator' which was still fresh, stating that we
haven't seen the last of Ozzy's solo tour.
53
Ironically enough, MP3 format was developed in 1992, the same year
Compact Disc finally took supremacy over vinyl and cassette tapes, so it's
destiny was pretty much sealed even before it cemented its rightful place on
the market, which was just about to prove itself it the years to come.
With 1993 already underway and when the public found out about Bruce
Dickinson's soon departure from Maiden, some of the popular bands were
just starting their career. Korn, Children of Bodom, Nile, Dimu Borgir,
Rhapsody of Fire, Belphegor, Symphony X, Melechesh, Electric Wizard,
Abigor, Hammerfall, Dark Funeral… When we take a good look at this,
almost each and every one of these band represents a different genre of
metal, and the diversity is so intense it's safe to say that the 90's were the
years of fast evolution of metal music – and it was especially obvious from
1990 to 1993. 1993 saw the forming of Atheist, Dio and Dokken, while
Accept once again joined forces with Udo Dirkschneider on vocal duties for
their new album and new world tour. Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden, Rob
Halford left Judas Priest and Michael Kiske left Helloween. Together with Joe
Belladonna leaving Anthrax, the fall of the giants, or the 'dark age of metal
music' was about to begin.
54
This was the year Alex Skolnick and Louie Clemente left Testament, replaced
by James Murphy and John Tempesta. Skolnick transferred over to Savatage,
replacing the guitarist Chris Oliva who sadly passed away after a traffic
accident with a drunk driver. This all happened just when the band finally
started to get the credit they rightfully deserved.
Another tragedy struck the metal world when Euronymous, the guitarist of
the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem got killed in August by the hand of
Varg Vikernes (aka Count Grishnackh), who went on from church burnings to
a much more sinister act. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
In 1993 coincidentally a lot of bigger bands started to release their live or

compilation records, lacking fresh new material and just following the
'apathy' on the scene. As we know, Iron Maiden released as much as three
live albums, Def Leppard released 'Retro Active' Metallica did their 'Live Shit:
Binge & Purge' box set, Van Halen had 'Live: Right Here, Right Now', KISS
released 'Alive III', AC/DC did this already in late 1992, while Helloween
completely flopped with their new album 'Chameleon'. Vince Neil had a
good album in 'Exposed', showing glimpses or a potentially successful solo
career. Motorhead had a really good album called 'Bastards' but they did the
mistake of choosing a German promoter, which didn't even promote the
album outside Germany. Deep Purple released 'The Battle Rages On' which
was honestly a solid record, but the reunited 'Mark II' lineup was impossible
to keep together. Even though Ian Gillan returned to Deep Purple in late
1992, just like Ozzy to Sabbath, the year marked the definitive end of the
legendary lineup and the permanent leave of Ritchie Blackmore from the
band. Scorpions hit the mark with 'Face the Heat', but started to label
themselves as a 'political' band with their songs and attitudes. Their fellow
countrymen Accept released 'Objection Overruled' (with the legendary Udo
on the vocals again after 1986) had an amazing comeback and it seems the
Germans were holding the metal flag high.
The black metal front of 1993 were hitting hard with their newest releases:
Burzum ‘Aske (EP)’ and ‘Det som engang var’, Darkthrone with 'Under
Funeral Moon', Dissection's 'The Somberlain', Immortal with 'Pure
Holokaust' and Satyricon with the classic 'Dark Medieval Times' featuring
'Mother North' – the unofficial anthem of the black metal genre.
55
Besides the black metal scene, Sepultura took their chance and caught there
place under the sun with their cult release 'Chaos AD', while the other
thrash masters like Annihilator ('Set World on Fire'), Overkill ('I Hear Black'),
Voivod ('N° 8 The Outer Limits'), Sacred Reich ('Independent') and Metal
Church ('Hanging in the Balance') were doing surprisingly well – with Overkill
probably doing the best. Anthrax was under a lot of pressure after
Belladonna left, and their new release 'Sound of White Noise' got both the
critics' and fans' stamp of approval as the album had excellent sales – even
hitting gold status in the United States.
Death metal forces were not backing down, with some of the most
memorable releases of the 90's: Atheist 'Elements', the unforgettable
'Individual Thought Patterns' by Death, Carcass' 'Heartwork', Cynic's 'Focus',
legendary 'Covenant' by Morbid Angel, Dark Tranquility's 'Skydancer',
Entombed's 'Wolverine Blues', Pestilence's 'Spheres' – even an EP by
Cannibal Corpse - 'Hammer Smashed Face' was more successful than some
of the 'famous' death metal records out there. Yes, 1993 definitely was the
year of death metal.
There were obviously some of the lesser known metal releases such as
Mercyful Fate's 'In The Shadows', Monster Magnet's 'Superjudge', 'The
Missing Link' by Rage, Tony MacAlpine's 'Madness', Living Color's 'Stain',
Katatonia's dark 'Dance of December Souls', Steve Vai's ' Sex &Religion' and
an unexpected gem would pop out, such as Eyehategod's 'Take as Needed
for Pain', which contributed immensely to the genre.
Speaking of hidden gems, which later on proved that we witnessed the birth
of something extraordinary, we're bound to mention Tool's 'Undertow',
Type O Negative's 'Bloody Kisses' (first Roadrunner Records' album to go
both gold and platinum), My Dying Bride's 'Turn Loose the Swans','Icon' by
Paradise Lost, Crowbar's self-titled album… Rush with 'Counterparts' once
again had huge commercial success while Savatage somehow remained
underrated despite a solid album in 'Edge of Thorns', still learning to cope
with the death of their main guitarist.
The thing I'd definitely point out as the highlight of 1993 in the mainstream
music world would be the reunion of Cream for their introduction into the Rock
56
and Roll Hall of Fame together with Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Doors
and others. Also, we witnessed the legendary performance by Rage Against the
Machine on Lollapaloozafestival in Philadelphia where they decided to use all 14
minutes they had to protest for their big hit ''Killing in the Name' being banned
on the radio. The band members hit the stage completely naked with duct tapes
across their mouths, with the letters PRMC written on their chests.
Rage Against the Machine on Lollapalooza Festival 1993.
After Michael Jackson triumphing on Superbowl XXVII, the Superbowl

introduced a mandatory superstar performance in half time. Michael was
facing the children sexual harassment charges for the first time in 1993 and
his interview with Oprah became the most viewed TV interview on the
planet. While Nirvana was breaking popularity records with their famous
MTV Unplugged, Guns 'N' Roses called it quits after their Argentina gig,
much to their fans' disbelief. Meanwhile, Depeche Mode were already
massive, becoming the first British alternative band to reach Billboards #1
with their 'Songs of Faith and Devotion'. They were also the first band in
history to do a live Q&A with their fans via an AOL's chat session. Pearl Jam
sold almost a million copies of their 'VS' album in the very first week while
the pop sensation Rick Astley decided to retire at the very young age of 27,
57
after only 5 years on the music scene and with a simply astounding
accomplishment of over 40 million records sold.
In 1993 we lost the unbelievable musical genius with over 60 albums

released - Frank Zappa, who lost the fight with prostate cancer and left a
huge gap in the music world with still remains unfilled.
Among numerous successful mainstream albums in 1993 a couple managed

to stand out: Björk, Suede, Wu-Tang Clan, Blur, The Smashing Pumpkins, Dr.
Dre and Spin Doctors, while Nirvana's 'In Utero' together with Stone Temple
Pilots' 'Core' enforced grunge's domination across the world. As a teenager
spending most of my time in front of the TV screen I remember having to
watch hundreds of videos like 'All for Love' (Brian Adams, Rod Stewart,
Sting), 'All That She Wants' (Ace of Base), 'Mr. Vain' (Culture Beat), 'No Limit'
(2 Unlimited), 'Sing Hallelujah' Dr. Alban, 'Runaway Train' (Soul Asylum),
'Informer' (Snow), 'The Power of Love' (Celine Dion) before catching one of
these.
While Faith No More's 'Easy', Aerosmith's 'Cryin'', Mr Big's 'Wild World', 4

None Blonds' 'What's Up?', 'Are You Gonna Go my Way' by Lenny Kravitz
and Meat Loaf's'I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)' were
defending the rock's mainstream honor, Iron Maiden finally released the
'Fear of the Dark' single, which greatly contributed to the songs ultimate
popularity.
Besides the bands we mentioned, in 1993 the world lost a great athlete
Dražen Petrović, a famous actress Audrey Hepburn, and a legendary horror
actor Vincent Price. Brandon Lee, a well known actor and Bruce Lee's son
tragically died on the set of the cult movie 'The Crow'. Colombian drug lord
Pablo Escobar was killed soon after his escape from prison and Bill Clinton
became the 42nd president of the United States of America.
It was the year Hubble telescope started to send its first improved photos to
the world, Israel and the Vatican developed diplomatic relations, while the
sports fans will surely remember the moment from WTA Hamburg when the
match between Monica Seles and Magdalena Maleeva was stopped after a
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deranged Graf's fan stabbed Seles with a knife. The TV Show Star Trek
started the Deep Space Nine era and Beavis and Butthead with their AC/DC
and Metallica shirts additionally promoted hard rock and metal among the
young audiences. While the war in Croatia and Bosnia was reaching its peak,
the International criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was founded in
Hague, Netherlands and Steve Harris ended up writing a song inspired by
the war in that part of Europe in specific. Speaking of natural disasters, a
ferry sinking near Haiti and killing close to 1215 out of 1400 passengers, and
a Yaklovlev YAK-420 plane crashing in Macedonia with over 120 killed is
what i remember the most. The bombing attack in New York City was just an
omen of the things to come eight years later.
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These thirty pages featuring a short summary of the 1991 - 1993 period
when Maiden released one studio and as much as three live albums
together with a special farewell video of Bruce Dickinson just shows how
quick the world was changing, together with the music industry - and metal
music in particular. Most of the fans reading this book were possibly
teenagers or in their twenties when all this was happening, but in ten or
twenty years time it's going to end up in the hands of someone who wasn't
even around to see Iron Maiden during their time and this is why I believe
it's important to paint a picture of the world surrounding the band at the
time, the type of news on the television, explaining the reasons behind their
strategic decisions that could have helped but also damage the band's
future on their path towards immortality.
We firmly believe - and most people agree, that Iron Maiden never cared
about trends. They were a trendsetter themselves, at least for their loyal
fanbase and certain bands out there. Their tours are a testament to this.
When all the 'big' bands were working hard to find an appropriate support
act, someone who aspired for greatness (like Maiden pulled a 'clairvoyant'
move in 1988 by choosing Guns 'N' Roses) - Maiden had a number of
unknown bands for their Fear of the Dark tour like The Nod, Coda, Judge
Mercy or Face to Face, and the more popular ones only had a brief
appearance on the tour. W.A.S.P. only played one gig; Dream Theater also
did it once, opening the tour in New York. Thunder was never that
interesting to the wider populace but still supported Maiden five times;
Warrant wasn't doing so well either but ended up opening for Maiden eight
times. Testament is an excellent support act, but only played four gigs in
Europe with Maiden, while they played the entire American tour with
Corrosion of Conformity which was 24 gigs. Maiden knew very well that
things could go south next time around, choosing their two support acts in
these cities. Corrosion of Conformity did really good next year with their
new album so it's only logical to attribute this to touring with Maiden. Still,
they ended up falling short of a bigger commercial success.
'A Real Live Tour' was even worse in terms of Maiden's support acts.
Numerous Rojos, Zeus, Sexit… Do any of these names ring a bell? Not really.
Maybe if you were right there at the gig. The Almighty is the only support
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band bringing something relevant to the tour - even for casual Maiden fans.
The idea was probably that Bruce leaving the band was more than enough
to spark interest for the fans to see him for the very last time.
Iron Maiden decided to swim against the current a long time ago, and
refused to change their path of a classic rock band. 90's were the years
when both the stage construction and advanced technologies had a huge
impact on the concert visuals. Huge LED screens replaced backdrop
canvases, runways through the center of the crowd, 360 degrees stages like
Metallica use today... Still, 30 years and counting and Maiden changed
nothing. The same thing we had in the 80's is still around, with minor
alterations. Someone might call it being cheap, someone might see it as a
lack of creativity or fresh ideas after the 'key' people left, but one thing is
certain. To this day, Iron Maiden is still 'the' band which always comes to
mind when discussing the very pinnacle of quality live performances despite
all the evolution in the modern pop rock concert production which they
never did and never will use.
This is why we need to acknowledge this three-year period where the band
definitely had a chance for a huge takeoff with just a couple of right
decisions. I'm absolutely sure that (had they wanted to) Maiden could have
reached the numbers of Metallica if only they weren't against biting the
'mainstream bait' which was thrown to them, like some of the band which
sold way more than Maiden, only to fade away and disappear. Scorpions
sold more albums in 1990 in 1993 than Maiden did from 1988 to this day
and still Live Nation is having a hard time selling out an Arena with Scorpions
- which was never a difficult job for Iron Maiden.
Today I kind of realize the way the management did its job back in the day.
Kurt Cobain didn't need Eddie or a backdrop – he's just come to the stage
with a guitar and kick ass. Same goes for Eddie Vedder, Max Cavalera or
Chris Cornell. What Maiden wanted was to prove they don't need the visuals
either – and that's what they were going for at Donington, a raw live
production with raw live editing, believing this way the key for the new
decade and the future of rock and roll – and that they were more than ready
for it. But...were they, really?
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62
HONEST MAN
I will begin this chapter with a short story a fan by the name of Grzegorz
Krempa insisted on sending me. Today, with internet and social media linking
us all, we fans have opened a big window into a world where it’s no longer
difficult or unimaginable to find a friend you share the same passion for music
or just about anything with, who just so happens to live at the other end of
the world. Grzegorz is from Poland, even though he works and lives in the UK
now, and he first discovered Iron Maiden in 1994. This wouldn’t be strange,
unless I told you that he was one of the most famous Iron Maiden fans, who
followed them to just about every city and continent, who has a massive
collection and is known to just about every single Iron Maiden fan in the world
who is even the least bit active on the Maiden Fan Scene. But, Grzegorz is only
one of dozen, if not dozens and hundreds or hundreds of thousand fans who
discovered Iron Maiden just then, and to who Iron Maiden as they were then
were the band who dragged them into the sea of Iron Maiden love. The ones
who were with the band longer can cry for wasting love, or the good old Iron
Maiden from the eighties, but you can’t live in the past. It was the start of
nineties and Iron Maiden wanted to offer something new, different and more
modern for the new decade. Thanks to Grzegorz alone, who fell in love with
them then, they made tens of thousands of Euros, and he is only one of many.
Another famous name in the Iron Maiden fan scene, a researcher of Iron
Maiden’s history and the translator for the upcoming brazil edition of my
Steve Harris book, Ricardo Lira, considers ‘Fear of the Dark’ album one of his
favorites and one of the most important Iron Maiden albums. But let’s see
what Grzegorza Krempa has to say.
Everything started with the dark…
It was a cold February in 1994. A couple friends of mine and I were spending our
winter school break in my family house in Beskidy Mountains in Poland. The
winter was very cold. It was bloody freezing! The temperature dropped to -30°C,
and it was snowing very heavily too. I remember one morning we had to dig a
tunnel to get out of the house. The level of the snow was literally 1.5 m high, the
same height of the fence around the house. The day was short, and the night
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was dark, but there was no fear… And that’s how my story began. One evening a
friend of mine said: „Listen, I have a new cassette tape. Shall we play it tonight?”
It was something new. Something none of us had heard before. It was a great
unknown; something that changed my life forever. It was ‘Fear of the Dark’!!! I
remember we played that cassette over and over and over. I loved every single
song, every melody and guitar riff. It was love at first sight.
'Fear of the Dark' impression somewhere back in Poland in 1996.
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It took me a few more months to discover other great albums like 'Seventh
Son', 'Powerslave', 'The Number of the Beast' and 'Somewhere in Time'. It
took me a few more years to see Eddie and the Boys live. (picture below
with my Brother and our friend before Maiden show, Katowice 2000.)
It took me another few years to introduce the Maiden world to my family

including my wife Anthea (picture below before the Maiden show at
Twichenham Stadium 2008) and my children too.
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Me and my daughter Olivia before her first Iron Maiden show at The O2,
London in 2017.
But nothing of that would of ever happened if I didn’t discover what we call
the best band in the world on one very cold and very dark night in Polish
mountain back in 1994.
Grzegorz Krempa
(IMOC wydra77)
Maiden Poland
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‘Fear of the Dark’ album is a story of something which had to happen; the
end of Iron Maiden dominating the metal scene as the biggest band in the
world. As the first tensions the media noticed started, six years previously,
somehow it was known this would have had to happen, sooner or later. For
several years they tried to, through compromise, make peace between the
two polar opposites in the band, and this worked, but only artificially. In
those moments band statements were extremely affirmative and in fact,
frantic, and remained like that to the very end. Iron Maiden never, just like
the band on the Titanic, and I mean never showed that the ship they are on
is taking on water and sinking, and the forced number one chart hits like
'Bring your Daughter… to the Slaughter' single in 1989/90 or the 'Fear of the
Dark' album in 1992, as well as the repeated headlining ‘Monsters of Rock’
festival, were only patches which mimicked stability for a while, while
underneath it all, things were falling apart.
The never shorter American tour, in much smaller venues than they were
used to in the USA before, was bringing Bruce and Steve and all the rest
down, but the outwards PR always made it look as if Iron Maiden were
taking the biggest steps in their career, and like even greater things were to
come. But it wasn’t like that at all. Before the release of the ‘Fear of the
Dark’ album, Iron Maiden really did believe they will do something big, and
it was perhaps those great expectations which brought their downfall and
their frontman quitting. But let’s start from the beginning…
When asked to comment on the nineties, which had already begun, and if in
the nineties Iron Maiden will outdo the work of their past decade, Bruce
replied, without thinking about it too much:
„We had a really good time recording this album and we had great fun during
the tour that followed. Since Janick is in the band, I think that each of us has got
his enthusiasm back. I know that there's still a long way to go, but I'm convinced
that many people will be very surprised by 'Fear Of The Dark' and very surprised
that we could record such an album. When they'll listen to it, I hope they say,
"We thought that the last Metallica was good, but check THIS out, now!"
Bruce revealed where it (they) hurt the most without a doubt. Everyone could
only eat Iron Maiden’s dust for a long time, but now they themselves were in
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the same position with Metallica. Their huge success with their eponymous
1991 album ‘Metallica’ was an enigma to Iron Maiden, and they tried to do
something which they thought was on the same track, and even garner
greater success (according to Bruce). They didn’t hold back from covering
almost identical topics in their hits (compare ‘Enter Sandman’ and ‘Fear of the
Dark’), or to follow what Metallica achieved with 'Nothing Else Matters' and
'Unforgiven', and launch their own version of a power ballad with ‘Wasting
Love’. This situation was unusual for Iron Maiden, as they were constantly
growing and knocking down walls from the very beginning of their career and
overtook their idols and bands they used to be a supporting act for, and now
they were once again in a position to chase down someone.
Listening to Bruce’s statements from the time, they all sounded as if the band
was on a fierce upswing, never better, never more ready. He himself
picturesquely mentioned that they have come full circle now, and critically
reflected on their ‘Seventh Son…’ album and accompanying stage
performance, concluding that they were working on everything at the time,
but forgot the important thing…the music.
„Classic Maiden tracks like 'Killers' and 'Wrathchild' have a real groove. I
listen to my vocals on the new album and think "shit! I haven't sung on a
Maiden record like that for five or six years." ‘Fear of the Dark’ genuinely has
the possibility of being a breakthrough for us, and having a breakthrough
after ten years is pretty good! It's like having a second childhood. It's like
being sterile and told you can have children. It's almost as if the wheel has
come round full circle. Five years ago in America we were pariahs. As Iron
Maiden we were the great unwashed. We were the band that everybody
used to deride and say "Yeah, Poison's where it's at these days", and we
were a bunch of old fuddy-duddies still stuck with this old Heavy Metal stuff.
It sounds really 1990s, and there are people saying "Oh shit, there's no
reason why we can't play Iron Maiden now" and that's the key to it out here.
Getting your record out on the media. The only difference between selling
700,000 and selling 2,500,000 is whether sixty or seventy radio stations
decide to play one track from your record. It's that simple. Seventh Son was a
flawed album and the tour was too much. We were so keen to top each
stage show that we forgot what we were about. We forgot about the music.
That's why we've gone back to basics. “
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But, Bruce did not remember in the interview, what he was talking then in
those years about that, and how even then the popular album ‘Seventh Son’
rose to the heavens; how he praised the relationship in the band, pleased
with the joint work at that time, around the, as they say, “best songs ever”.
Steve Harris was in these statements on the same line, trying to make sense the
fact that the album Fear of the Dark accepts the reality and what is happening
around them, as something much more exciting for song themes. Of course, as
the new decade has started, it has become a 'scapegoat' for everyone, and
suddenly they remembered that there is a brutal and unjust world around them,
that had always been like that. But, after songs like 'One' or 'Sad But True' by
Metallica, everyday themes came to the big door, suddenly the allegorical
themes were not more interesting for the band. Steve Harris clarified it this way:
"Without any doubt, as this is the first Maiden album that really reflects the
personality of the band. On the previous albums, we used to hide our ideas
behind allegorical terms, or we'd use mythology and legends, this was
somehow masking our real feelings as human beings. This time, we show
these feelings and this gave our music another dimension“
Steve thinks that they never had and will not find a standard formula for
success, because he believes that that doesn’t exist. He is more hoping in
constant progress on every new album, concluding that after a while, they
have become much more direct, and that they are no longer afraid to show
their feelings. He mentioned that he thinks that during Maiden's career
they???, at least not globally, and remarkably said that he, every time the
band decides to issue a live album or a live video, feels as if he wants to turn
a career page and start working on some new projects and foundations.
In mentioning the video, he didn’t forget to mention that the band is planning to
take much more time to control and work around the video, allegedly because
they were unhappy with the atmosphere on the Live After Death video and
that's why Steve edited the 'Maiden England' video. He said that they had never
been satisfied with the people who worked for them and that there was always
something missing or was not done properly. From today's point of view, almost
30 years after the legendary 'Live After Death' video, which is so legendary and
unforgettable that, when it was re-released as a DVD video in 2008 again, it
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climbed to world charts, and it's almost unbelievable that in 1992, Steve Harris
said that for 'Hard Force' magazine. The well-known director Jim Yukich has
done such a good job, that this video is seen as one of the classic examples of a
perfectly directed rock concert, and that the critics and sales justify all the
praises that the video has received. By the way, the 2nd place on the Billboard
charts and first in the UK on the reprinted DVD version, and platinum editions in
1985 and 2008 in the US, should have been a good indication that giving such
statements is sometimes very unfortunate.
Just a quick look at the Wikipedia reviews speaks on its own. But, at the time
when the video came out, the band's statements were not negative. For this
reason, all statements in promotion periods must be taken with keep.
Although Steve edited '1981 Maiden England' and mixed the sound of a live
album in 1993, want alone with 'Donington Live 1992'. The work was given to
the director Samuel Bayer. Samuel is known for directing a video for Nirvana's
'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and many award-winning videos, like Metallica - 'Until
It Sleeps', Green Day - 'American Idiot' and 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams',
Rolling Stones - 'Anybody Seen my Baby' and 'Saint of Me', and dozens of
others. Iron Maiden took it in a bundle to make magic with 'Wasting Love' and
a live video from Donington, because they did not want to take any chances. If
he made a success with 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', they hoped he could also do
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something with Maiden. However, in their misfortune, if a video is getting to

be super-successful, also must be the song, so ‘Wasting Love’ was successful
only partial, mostly within the Maiden fan base, while the live video for 'Fear
of the Dark' from 'The Monsters of Rock' festival is most likely one of the main
reasons that this song has become so cult figured. The full video with slow
motion scenes and mostly made in black-and-white techniques, leaves a great
impression of a great hit and a big rock band, and I think that through the
introduction scenes from the song, the director has managed to catch the
spirit of this cult and unforgettable festival, at his best. That is why his
engagement was a good move. A Grammy nomination has arrived!
Though he did not recall the results of the previous mega successful albums,
'Fear of the Dark' album made a good foundation for his successor (under the
condition that Dickinson is included) be a mature and very successful album.
Steve said that they are not a band who wants to use only the usual metal
cliché, but their mission is to avoid stereotypes, and always try to reach
something new, both in music, and presentation of the band as a team. He
was very proud of it, and said that they were so good and that many bands
could learn something from them. He said in the media that he never
considered himself as a boss in the band, and that everyone has the right to
speak up, because the band doesn’t need a star, but a whole ensemble.
In interviews from 1992, Harris described the band as a good team with
excellent mutual relationships, all of them tending to a same cause. He also
mentioned that it was different back then, but nowadays everyone is grown
up and how the change that has happened in the music world brings a new
experience, in which they enjoy today.
Bruce also told for Metal Force magazine that the 'Fear of the Dark' album is
undoubtedly the best album ever recorded by Maiden. The journalist,
unable to believe what he just heard, noted that he might be a little
exaggerating, on what Bruce responded:
„But I'm being honest. I think it's the album that sounds the best in the
band's discography. As far as I'm concerned, I don't think I've sung so well
since Piece of Mind. I think that my voice has never so perfectly matched the
songs than on Fear of The Dark.“
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It is amazing how he spoke so easily and claimed that he was so honest, that
only a year later he had great objections to the studio and production work
of Harris, and ultimately problems with the complete sound of the album.
However, he did not stop there, but announced the future of the band as his
"new beginning".
„Iron Maiden are now focussing on the future. We don't look back anymore;
we don't compare what we're doing now with what we've done in the past.
It's really a new beginning for the band.“
The new beginning, let’s be honest, really did happen, but with a completely
new singer. Did Bruce already enigmatically announced that, or he really
believed in a new beginning, it is really hard to discern, as he later said that
his dissatisfaction was not something new. He also described the music of
Maiden at this time in these words:
„It's also true that we are now more direct and that there's no doubt
anymore concerning the topics we deal with in our songs. And the music's
really really heavy, much more than during the period covering Powerslave
to Seventh Son.... We are nowadays much more 'real',“
But despite the very positive tones, between the lines some tensions could
be read, Bruce was more and more involved in his numerous projects,
related and unrelated to music, that journalists begun to ask for Bruce’s
possible exit from the album. Steve Harris replied Raw magazine in this way:
„We haven't announced anything saying that we're going to be knocking it on

the head. There's none of this kind of farewell stuff shit to sell tickets and as far
as I'm concerned we'll be back in Britain in February next year, I hope. I mean,
you never know what might happen in the future as far as touring goes but
this time we're really going for it. Like I said, there won't be any plodding!“
But journalists had their points of references based on concrete issues. It was
evident that ticket sales were down, that smaller auditoriums were booked,
and they started asking about changes and even a possible farewell tour.
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In addition, for being much involved in audio and video production, Harris had
tried to find some new strength in the UK, and he wanted to do something
great, with his experience. The band on which he publicly commented on for
strongly supporting them, were, believe it, or not, The British Lion (for those
who do not know, and I believe there aren’t such, today's live solo project of
Steve Harris is called the British Lion). Other bands that he mentioned were
‘Gun’ and ‘The Almighty’, which played on Maiden tours, ‘Wolfsbane’, whose
singer Blaze Bayley later moved to Maiden, and ‘Little Angels’.
When the time came for the final goodbye, Bruce realized he'd better leave
the style, instead of leaving without notice, and just leave the fans after the
tour. In this way many Maiden fans would not close the door later, and he
knew that. He realized that most fans want to be permanently locked up in
the mold of Maiden's experience, and he could not, or would not, fight and try
to change that. The only exit he saw, was leaving. Very soon after saying that
'Fear of the Dark' was the best album ever, he corrected himself with the
statement: „I still think it's the best album we did since ‘Powerslave’, but I also
think I've been creatively sleepwalking for the last five years”. As the months
went by, that 'since' in his statements had more shorter interval each time.
Steve, on the other hand, believed that Bruce was doing the tour just
because it had been previously arranged, and was convinced that he wanted
to leave in great style, but that he knew that Bruce had no obligation to do
so, he would leave before the tour started. He also believes that he is more
likely to do in such way, than to be thrown out of the band because that
would not go in favor to his career.
“I was surprised, cos he seemed totally into the 'Fear of the Dark' tour's first
leg. I was actually the last one to know, cos I was out in Florida, mixing the
live album. They didn't wanna tell me, 'cos they knew it'd do my head in! The
reaction was disappointment, sadness, being pissed off... all at once!”
Bruce told for the media that Steve Harris is conservative with a little 'c',
very quiet and reserved when he’s not on stage, but in nature does not like
great changes and how their disagreements during the 1992’s were not a
novelty, and how it was much larger in 1981 when he came into the band. In
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his words, Steve wanted to throw him out after the first two weeks, but the
manager Smallwood told him he would have had to learn to live with Bruce.
But, Steve was in the band six years before Bruce, he founded Maiden, and
it was natural that he wanted to keep some control and guide the band in a
certain way. As his work in the band came to the end, Bruce could no longer
refrain, as something forced him to question himself is there something
different in the world he could do.
Steve said that at that time, in the band, they all thought that Bruce was
working on too many projects, and that was bad for the band, because he
could not give 100% anywhere, and Maiden demanded maximum. If he did
not give so much, then he just wanted to leave the band, he would not be
welcome there anymore. He also said, „if he back-tracked now and said he
wanted to stay, we probably wouldn't let him.” Not only because of all the
facts, but because the media also speculated that Dickinson leaving, was just
fake news to sold as many tickets as possible on the tour.
Live farewell was not mentally light, as Bruce initially thought, and therefore
he was feeling bad on this tour, and was like a stranger with people that he
lived almost ten years with. Bruce's work was emotionally demanding
because it was hard to get on stage and act like you want to be a part of
something you don’t. But almost everyone in the band blamed him that he
was doing everything good only in big cities, and where there was a huge
coverage of the press, because he was in favor of it. Production manager
Dickie Bell believes that Bruce was aware of everything, and played mind
games with the rest of the band, behaved as he wanted, pretending not to
understand what was happening around him. Dickinson captured Harris at
his worst moment, when saying he would leave, because Harris was in the
process of divorce from Lorraine, a woman he had four children with, and
who was his love since school-days. The worst thing about it, is that Steve
believed that Bruce would talk to him first before making any decision, and
as he was busy working on a live album, he didn’t sense something strange.
Bruce's mistake was that he first told the manager, and left him to deal with
Harris. Later he admitted that if he was directly informed, maybe they could
still match and maybe he would never leave the band. Let's see how Bruce
described the song 'Chains of Misery' from 'Fear of the Dark' album.
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„'Chains of Misery' is about the little devil that sits permanently on our
shoulder. This little devil who can ruin your life. For instance, you meet a girl,
you have a great relationship, and all of the sudden you do something stupid
with no apparent reason, and you wonder... "Why am I doing this?" You
don't really know why you act the way you do, but you feel that you have to
do it. Maybe it's a feeling of guilt that drives you; maybe you feel that you're
not "good enough" to deserve all this... In any case, you act against your
own interest without really knowing why.“
If we postpone this song and this explanation later in the context of his
departure from the band, it turns out that this song has best described his
departure, and that it gave the best explanation why he went. What Bruce
called 'Chains of Misery' much earlier Edgar Allan Poe called 'The Imp of
Perverse', and I wrote about it a little longer on the cover of my previous
book ‘No Prayer for the Dying’.
Also, for the rather ironic song ‘Judas Be My Guide’, he said:
It's about the dark side in all of us, and I decided to call this dark side
"Judas". It's this trend that would make anyone sell anything, that would
make them care about nothing, that's this little Judas who's inside all of us,
and if he becomes powerful enough to rule the world, then... bye bye, ha, ha.
Both thoughts about the songs shows very well how his state of mind then
were, and what Bruce was thinking at the time. While Harris, for his live
produced debut, said proudly “If someone hasn’t seen Maiden before and
was to ask, ‘What are Maiden about?’, I’d hand them this.”, Bruce was
thinking of going out and that shows best the state of things. And, how he
said in his book, he thinks the major role in his final decision to leave was
the song 'Original Sin', which he has not published until today, in which he
faces his relationship with his father. Then he thought, as this was the most
honest song he ever did, that he could stay with Maiden, but to know that
things would not change, or he could take the chance and go somewhere
else. Read the 'What Does This Button Do' book for more details.
But every story must have its own hero. In the 'Fear of the Dark' story it was
Dave Murray, a guitarist who speaks more with his instrument than making
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statements. When the band had rehearsals to practice their last tour with
Bruce, everyone else except him sat and held a sad meeting where Steve
suggested breaking the band. Davy Murray, who is often heard, had to come
out this time, and he described that meeting with these words...
“We were all really down, Steve especially, and we were even talking about
packing it in. And we were all sitting around talking. It was probably the first
real long, serious talk the four of us had had together in ages. I suddenly just
got fed up talking about it and went, ‘Look, why the fuck should we give up
just ’cause he is? Bollocks to him. Why should he stop us playing?’ I hadn’t
really thought about it. It just came out.”
That moment was crucial to everyone, and it gave Harris in particular

strength to continue and believe that many great things await them.
„Sex' has become a synonym for 'fear'" - said Bruce for the song 'Fear is the
Key' which main theme is AIDS, and continued: „As long as the virus was
confined to homosexuals or drug-addicts, nobody gave a shit. It's only when
celebrities started to die that the masses began to feel concerned.“ On the
other hand, the worst dreams of Steve Harris have just to come true, and
they will soon be forced to look for the 'X Factor' somewhere else. Similarly,
Bruce told for the 'Be Quick or Be Dead' verses: „Some people are supposed
to rule your life, deal with financial stuff, but you just can't trust them
because they try to cheat you at the first opportunity. But if you have no
choice but to work with them, then the only way you can deal with it is to be
more clever than them.“ But... Who was smarter in the Iron Maiden business
co-operation? The answer is in the book.
Already in the 1993 interviews, Bruce recalled the current state of rock and
roll and concerts, characterizing them as expensive and precarious. It
bothered him that people have to wait in large queues, and then someone in
the organization eventually comes to say where they should sit. He was
bothered by the fact that the US fans not have been free to express their love
for the band and let emotions overwhelm them. As soon as someone makes
the slightest move to show support, such as lifting a hand, security warns him
to calm down. He believes people have begun to persuade enjoying, and he
doesn’t think it’s strange that at the beginning of the nineties many young
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people and old hippies, and even metal fans, began to go to Rave Partys. Even
Bruce himself repeatedly visited them on several occasions.
„Rave parties are exactly what the rock concerts represented in the 70s. That's
where you find drugs, girls, and the freedom to react the way you really want.
The only place where you really can follow the vibe of an anti-fascist music.
Well, "fascist" is maybe a little bit excessive, what I mean is... In rock, the artist
on stage has all the rights; he's the boss for the night. The audience has no
prerogative and just waits passively for the show to end. In rave parties, each
individual can participate. It's no longer just a circus show for the crowd;
people are part of it... But between the dictatorial aspect of rock concerts and
the intense delirium of the rave parties, whose main drawback is not to be
totally live, I am convinced that there is a third way to explore...“
Shortly after leaving the band, Bruce said that while he was in Iron Maiden,
they have done everything they could do in this genre, and that they were
starting to repeat, and when he felt that it was time to leave. In his case, his
involvement in music allowed him to concrete the images in his head, and
he could paint these images with music, what he wanted them to be. But
that was not possible with Maiden, because when he came to the band, he
had different views on music, and the pictures he wanted to see were
painted with a firm rhythm and hard riffs. At the beginning of the nineties,
the time of feelings and harmony in music, and it was not always possible to
achieve that with Maiden at that time. "If you leave me in a room with Steve
Harris, nothing works anymore," he said and broke the hope of anyone who
may even have little faith in that Bruce might change his mind. He argued
that their views on music were completely different from the very
beginning, and that his first three albums with Maiden were so cult and
popular. He described that at back in the old times, he and Steve (who had
never been in the same wave-length) would wrestle in mud while one of
them not give up, and how all that energy of these battles can be heard on
those albums. But later, Bruce, according to the claims, decided to surrender
in those battles, even if it was not in his nature to be quieter than any of his
opponents. He ironically commented on the transformation of Steve Harris,
from a musical legend, into a god of metal. Bruce would rather say, a
dictator:
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“Steve is honest and straight all the way. He is Iron Maiden. It's his thing, his
creature, nobody else but him can claim the tiniest part of the band. Why
should he allow it? He's got his own recording studio, makes us rehearse
and record the albums at his place. The other members of the band are
delighted to work in such conditions, good for them. As far as I'm
concerned, I thought that a band was a collective thing.“
By reading all these words, 25 years ago and today, when Maiden is one of the
largest bands in the world, and Bruce, Steve and Adrian are cooperating
together, it is difficult to ask when Maiden was honest, and whether they ever
been honest? In moments when they were at the peak of major glory, in the
mid-eighties, and when all of them gave euphoric statements about co-
operation, success, communion, we find out that these were in fact endless
battles and quarrels. When it seemed that during the 'Seventh Son' album
they matched their aspirations and wishes, and finally they were all happy,
both with songs and co-operation (which was never backed up by statements
and interviews), a few years later we find out that in these times,
communication between the members has had a lot of problems, which has
culminated with the recent leaving of Adrian, and spitting of the songs and the
visuals, that they spoke at the time of release to be the best ever. When they
recorded 'No Prayer for the Dying' album they all were full of elan, energy and
full praise, for the new style and decision to record the album at Rolling Stone
Mobile Studio, so that a few years later, Bruce would regret the moment
when he had this idea came to mind. And even worse, just a year before the
statement about the departure of Dickinson, Steve and Bruce praised the
‘Fear of the Dark’ album and the direction they started, as something the best
ever, something that will give new strength and freshness, and bring them to
the new millennium, so that soon after Bruce first expressed his dissatisfaction
with the studio and with the sound production, and later he spit on the songs
he had previously praised, and he complained that there was no width in the
Maiden, and that his hands were crossed to write and create music how he
wanted. In the 1992 PR statements, they said that the relationships in the
band were ideal, but later Bruce said the whole thought from above.
And what should we think today in the 2017 and 2018? Iron Maiden are
again in tune, with full stadiums, halls, festivals and concerts that were
never bigger and more gorgeous. How do the same people who said these
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same things, can work together again, and today make statements how
everything is perfect and the best? 25 years later, and nothing changed.
Steve was still Steve, and Bruce was still Bruce, and today, we see that they
both have completely different personalities in the band. Who gave up at
the reunion, and said that he would no longer create problems? Did Steve
want Bruce back, or Bruce wanted to be in Maiden, even Maiden maybe
don’t needed him? Either they both realized that one cannot do anything big
without the other, and that they have to sacrifice a little more, to print the
history of the story in golden letters. Just look at this Bruce's 1993
statement, which was also one of the reasons for him to leave the band.
„I like shows when they are creative. There's nothing more boring than to repeat
50 times the same gig. You play the same songs, you move the same way, you
do the same things. I resigned myself to it out of respect for the audience, but
that was a meticulously prepared performance. It didn't go straight to the heart
of people, it was just a performance. In this way, to me, it had simply become a
job. Leaving actually scared me at first, 'cause it was a fucking good job.“
I wonder... Who put, in 2016 and 2017, his head in the ceremony kettle at the
opening of the concert 117 times, who 117 times reported the same way the
‘Book of Souls’ song (speech about fallen Empires), who 117 times announced
the 'Children of the Damned' in the same way (speech about how some fans
were even not born when this was a hit), who explained 117 times the term of
'Blood Brothers', who has been wearing the Mexican fight and monkey mask
hundreds of times, who had 117 times fooled Adrian Smith with a microphone
during the "Wasted Years", and who had ripped of Eddie's heart out for 117
times and dumped him in the audience? I did not, but I know who did it, and I
know that every time I enjoyed, even though I knew when would happen.
So, I'm kind of angry when I read all these statements from today's position. 'Fear of
the Dark' was an album as it was, the situation in the band was as it was. If something
was bad and if it had to be resolved, it had to be resolved long before it culminated,
and if everything were doing so, and it did not 'fall under the curb', everything would
be different. So we have only the possibility that remains for us, that the verse from
Bruce's last single (before the reunion) will come true, once and for all...
Maybe one day I'll be a honest man
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BARNYARDERS
I'm sure you recognize the visuals from the previous page, and if not, you
must have at least noticed the name of the pub: 'Horse & Cart'. Of course,
it’s the reversed name of the now legendary ‘Cart and Horses’ where Iron
Maiden played their first gigs in the mid-seventies. ‘Horse & Cart’ is a
private bar on Steve Harris’ Essex estate, whose interior you can see in
their ‘Holy Smoke’ video and many magazine issues, including the FC
Magazine.
The very estate is now for sale, and can be found on many specialized UK
real estate websites, and if you have the funds, you can buy your very own
slice of history. Whole 4 Iron maiden albums were recorded here,
alongside numerous videos and it was also a stage for many important
events in Iron Maiden’s history during the time the Harris family lived
there. According to some sources Harris has already sold this gigantic
estate, and a new owner is selling it now, and according to other claims
which recently popped up in the media, this estate situated close to
Stansted airport (and you can almost see it if you take the bus from the
airport to London), is going to be turned into a luxury boutique hotel by
Steve Harris himself, and is intended to become a real mecca for Iron
Maiden fans.
'Fear of the Dark' was also recorded in Steve’s newly built studio. In fact,
this was the first album recorded in this new studio where Steve was also
the producer. My, and I believe I can say so now, friend, Gino Micallef,
whose stories we already had a chance to read in 'Seventh Son of a
Seventh Son', as well as in 'No Prayer for the Dying' is bringing us another
interesting story this time, since he had the chance to be in the studio
while ‘Fear of the Dark' album was being recorded, mostly during 'Judas Be
My Guide', and Afraid to Shoot Strangers'.
Gino tells me with a smile how he always seemed to be in the right place at
the right time, and this was no exception. He was in London on business, and
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he called Steve to check in with him. As they were recording the abum at the
time, Steve invited him to join them at the estate, an invitation you don’t
decline. Gino remembers the large house full of Iron Maiden memorabilia, and
the pub they would relax and play pool in during the night, while Steve was
tending bar like a proper host. The estate is very large and has more than
enough bedrooms, so Gino stayed to witness the songs being recorded.
Gym and poll on Steve Harris' property
Steve’s estate came with a tennis and football court, as well as a pool, sauna
and gym. The gym walls as well as the poolside walls were painted by Luis
Royo, the famous illustrator. Steve originally planned for Derek to paint the
walls with a series of Eddies, but in the end, it was Royo who got the job.
„The atmosphere was always great at Steve’s. I never felt like a guest, and
Steve would do everything in his power to make me feel like one of the team.
Besides the band and martin Birch, Rod Smallwood would drop by, but he
never interfered with the creative song writing process, and of course, there
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was Michael Kenny. I spent a lot of time there in the nineties. Maybe I could
tell you, for your next book, what it was like when they were auditioning for
a new Iron Maiden singer, because I witnessed that too. That’s when I first
met Blaze. Unfortunately, Steve sold the estate last year. I think it went for
about 4.5 million pounds.” (Gino is one of those who confirmed the sale. I
didn’t want to ask him further, but since he is friends with Harris, I believe he
is more trustworthy than the media.”
„I joined them at the ‘Fear of the Dark’ session just as they were recording
‘Judas be my Guide’ and the atmosphere was just fantastic… we all thought
it would be a fan favourite even before it was on the album, it seemed so
great from the get go. I watched Nicko record the drums, and later that day
we played pool and Nicko beat me three times. Martin Birch is a great guy, I
enjoyed seeing him work, and I think he enjoyed co-producing with Steve. In
any case, the entire mood was great and we were making jokes all the time.”
Gino and Steve in 'Horss & Cart pub.
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„I have to clarify how Iron Maiden recorded their ‘Fear of the Dark’ album.
First they would do a full recording of everyone together, to get a real live
feel as the base, and after that they would record instrument by instrument.
What’s interesting is that I never saw a single bottle of alcohol while they
were recording, ever. Iron Maiden were grownups then, and knew how to
hold back, but nobody would stop them from having a few pints in the pub in
the evening. Oh yea, I almost forgot. The unforgettable roadie and drum
tech Steve Gadd (R.I.P.) was there too. While we were all on one side of the
barn, Dave and Janick were isolated on the other side and wrote songs, and
rehearsed before recording. Bruce was always in a good mood and made a
lot of jokes, and nobody could have guessed from how he acted that he
would leave a year later.”
Gino Micallef, Nicko McBrian an his wife Rebecca.
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„I liked ‘Afraid to Shoot Strangers’ from the very start, while they were still
recording it. I can’t remember if the others recognized its potential, but I
loved it from the get go. They still didn’t know what they would name the
album back then, but Iron Maiden had faith in it, and didn’t pay much
attention to the rapid success of bands like Metallica and similar at the time.
They respected everyone, but did their own thing. I remember Dave
Mustaine calling Steve once while I was there to just have a chat and
exchange plans and ideas. A lot of the great bands were their friends.”
“Once the album was recorded I was lucky enough to have been invited to
the ‘Fear of the Dark’ release party in London, since I was living in the UK at
the time. It was great, lots of food and drink Iron Maiden bought for
everyone. They also invited a lot of fellow musicians. Blackie Lawless from
W.A.S.P. was there, as well as the guys from Def Leppard and a lot of other
famous rock and metal people. I remember a fantastic magician at the party
too, and a lot of interesting, or to be precise, crazy giveaways and lots of
journalists. I still have my invitation and I’m sending you a scan of it.“
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Gino and Steve in friendly chat. Courtesy of Gino Micallef
„I remember my long conversations with Steve down to the last detail because
back then in the nineties, Steve and I would sit in his pub until the early hours
of the night and talk about a lot of things. Of course, I can’t reveal our private
conversations and they will stay between us forever. We became good friends
during those years. When Iron Maiden came to Malta, where I live, he stayed a
few days later, after the band left, to spend a few days with his friend and
relax, and I showed him the entire island, all the attractions and so on. Until
then I always kind of saw him as a rock star, but Steve is a really down to earth
person and I am lucky to be able to call him my friend.”
“To skip ahead a few years… and take my cue from Bruce’s approaching
band departure… Steve was very happy when Bruce and Adrian returned to
the band and started hanging out again. Janick stayed in the band based on
Steve’s suggestion. The last time I visited Steve in Harlow was during 2004,
when he had already decided to go live in the Bahamas and on Florida. After
that we would only meet during their European tours. “
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“We are all a lot older today, and things are nearing their end, and this
includes Iron Maiden’s career, but I have to say that we are all very lucky to
have lived at the same time as Iron Maiden existed. Some day this will all be
just a big story and myth, and if we live long enough, we will be able to say
we were a part of it. But their music will live on.“
***
Gino will try to remember all the details from the audition for the new
singer for the upcoming 'The X Factor' book, and I am very grateful to him
for sharing some very interesting moments relating to Iron Maiden with us,
and for promoting these books. In fact, to my great surprise, Gino sent me
an old tour pass from 1986 and Steve Harris’ guitar strings used while
recording 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son'. A new book on Steve Harris is
planned for 2018, and will contain a lot of stories about him told by his old
friends, and Gino is certainly one of them.
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SECRET CABARET
Who, when, how and why came to the idea of hiring the famous illusionist
Simon Drake as a special guest for their ‘Fear of the Dark’ launch party
st
which was held on April 1 , 1992, the so called ‘fool’s day’ isn’t known.
What is known, however, is that Iron Maiden were big fans of his television
show which showed the paranormal in a somewhat morbid light. After all,
the props from his show ended up as part of the ‘Raising Hell’ project, the
last concert Bruce Dickinson played with Iron Maiden in August 1993.
Simon Drake entered the world of Iron Maiden and showed some special
magic to the band’s friends, journalists and people from the music industry
at the album launch party. But when they hired him, Iron Maiden had no
idea that he would play a much bigger role in their career, and Simon didn’t
even dream that because of his work with Iron Maiden he will forever close
his doors to any cooperation with the television production. But, this is how
it all happened……
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It all started with an invitation in a black envelope signed by Eddie, in which

Iron Maiden invited the chosen few to come to their party, but also warned
them of possible abnormal situations, suggesting that they don’t take
responsibility for anything which might happen there.
This was intriguing enough to get the attention of all who were invited,
especially since the event was planned for ‘fool’s day’ when all tricks and
pranks are allowed. Even though ‘Fear of the Dark’ wasn’t supposed to be
th
released until May 11 , or more than 40 days later, Iron Maiden’s
management though that this kind of promotion would be useful, and
would serve to weave an even better story to serve as groundwork for
future UK album chart placement. But, Iron Maiden never had problems in
the UK, and they were already used to having their studio albums launch at
or near number one.
This album was no different. As soon as it was released it soon hit number
one, and as they were also scheduled to headline ‘Monsters of Rock’,
excellent promotion was guaranteed.
Iron Maiden always did know how to make a good announcement, but this
time, things were somewhat different. The unquestionable success on the
British charts was overshadowed by their failure on the American market,
for which they still didn’t have a solution.
But since fear was always a topic that would ‘sell’, they decided to precisely
that this time. Even though there are several songs on the album that cover
the topic of fear, Iron Maiden denied that this was a conceptual album. But
let’s go back to Simon Drake. Simon was very popular in those days, due to
his TV show, and because of his morbid approach to illusions, he was the
perfect person to bring in the media and music people and introduce them
to the music Iron Maiden wanted to present. His engagement for the launch
party started a chain reaction which soon leads to their public collaboration
on the ‘Raising Hell’ project, but Iron Maiden weren’t the first or the second
choice for it. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the launch party, the project may
have never taken place
90
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Simon Drake had an interesting and unusual performing musical career, but it
wasn’t until the nineties that he became famous in the UK with his show titled
‘The Secret Cabaret’ on Channel 4. The unusual performer Arthur Brown (who
I already wrote about, and whose flaming helmet was responsible for Eddie’s
head on ‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son’ album) had a lot of influence on his
development as an artist and performer. With his innovative approach and
twisted sense of tricks, as well as theatrical performances, he quickly piqued
the interest of many producers, and as he discovered himself, the members of
Iron Maiden were his fans. Simon, born in 1956, was performing illusions for a
long time and was sharing the stage with many bands and performers before
he started cooperating with Iron Maiden.
Ricky Jav, a famous card illusionist, and very popular and appreciated at the
time, recommended Simon to American producers who had the idea to
make a TV show with the concept of a ‘Party in Hell’, and with Ministry as
the accompanying band. But Simon refused to work with them, after which
the second suggestion, namely one ‘Ozzy Osbourne’ followed. But this was
also a mistake because at that time Ozzy returned from one of his many
rehab visits and wasn’t all there. As Simon had to be on very good terms and
cooperate constantly with the musicians for the show, Ozzy was out of the
game.
Simon never mentioned to the American producers how he worked with

Iron Maiden on April 1st, ‘Fool’s day’, and that he was a special guest at their
‘Fear of the Dark’ launch party, where only the selected guests and
journalists, but they still found out and asked him if there is a chance to get
Iron Maiden for the show. Simon asked them, and they said yes, because
they really needed an extra push in the USA, and they thought that this was
the real deal. There is hardly a better idea than to broadcast the show via
MTV in the US and pay-per-view in the UK. The idea was to release the video
material and start promoting it live in the USA. It seemed like the perfect
plan to be big in America again, and MTV would have been a great help
there, as their US sales shrung every year. But things changed drastically
soon. Bruce announced he was leaving the band, and the show became
about marking the end of his decade as a frontman for Iron maiden in the
proper and frightening way, and if Paul DiAnno was killed by Eddie on the
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cover of ‘Maiden Japan’, there was no other option but for Dickinson to
meet his end on the show. The question was, however, what kind of an end
he would meet. .
Iron Maiden 'Maiden Japan' - Venezuelan edition.
Simon’s friend, the famous radio host Tommy Vance brought him a bunch of
CDs to listen to (including Iron Maiden) so he would prepare as best he
could for the task at hand and find the proper background sounds for his
performances. The elaborate preparations took a full nine months, and this
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casts a new light to the potential moment when Bruce announced he was
leaving, or how much later Iron Maiden decided to make it public. If we do a
rough calculation, nine months show prep for a show that took place near
the end of August 1993 means the preparations started in December 1992,
and as the ‘Fear of the Dark’ tour ended in Japan in November 1992, this
time seems right as the moment for Bruce’s announcement. The official
band statement followed more than three months later.
Pinewood Studios was selected as the recording venue and it took several
days. Some scenes were recorded earlier and without a live audience, since
some more dangerous illusions were difficult to do, and Simon, as a co-
producer of the whole thing didn’t want to fake anything. Simon chose
music by Metallica and Cacophony as the background for his performance
and claims that the camcorder rehearsal tapes he has in his archives are
better and more exciting than the final product we know as ‘Raising Hell’.
His show ‘Secret Cabaret’ served as the backdrop for the Iron Maiden show,
which were modelled after those of an older illusionist George Covari, while
the creator of all the cleft heads was Neil Gordon, one of the most revered
special effect artists in the UK today. You can see the classical ‘Secret
Cabaret’ backdrop below.
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Iron Maiden fans probably remember every moment of this video, and
Simon especially points out the trick of sawing a woman in half while
'Bring Your Daughter… To the Slaughter' is playing, which Simon calls
disgusting. As there wasn’t enough time to do a proper rehearsal of it, the
trick was performed only once, and it was what the TV audience saw. As
Bruce shouts ‘Goodbye Sister’, and the woman’s sawed-off body splits in
two, guts spill out, and it was one of the scariest scenes ever performed in
a magic show, especially on TV, as the sawing itself wasn’t hidden behind a
screen or cover, but was done on naked flesh. The girl who assisted in the
trick, even though all went well, was frightened and shaking. Simon once
stated in an interview how it’s OK to die if it happens in an instant, so you
don’t even feel it, but if it’s as brutal as it is in the trick, when the circular
saw approaches your body and starts cutting, you have enough time to
think ‘oh shit’ and realize that you are being sawn in half and that in a
moment you will be just two halves of a dead body. Simon wondered what
could go through someone’s head at the time. It should be noted that
Simon already performed most of the tricks he did on ‘Raising Hell’ in his
show earlier, which can also be seen in videos available on YouTube, and
also on a photograph below.
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Perhaps the most ironic thing of all was that Bruce Dickinson’s ‘death’ in this
show could have easily been his real death. When the time was right, Simon’s
assistant pushed him into the torture device known to history under the name
‘the iron maiden’ and told him to stand still, but he didn’t take her seriously.
Some of his hair got caught in the moving mechanism and was pulled out by
the roots. Simon later had this to say: „That really was Bruce in the Iron
Maiden in the iconic scene at the end - and he nearly died an ironic death.“
Bruce's death in 'Raising Hell' video. (Screenshot).
During the entire recording process, Simon was very happy with all the
band members, especially Dickinson. They were all very cooperative,
highly professional, and excellent musicians. Even Rod Smallwood, a
notoriously difficult person, was on his best behaviour. Simon likes to tell
the anecdote involving Rod, how when the time came to perform a trick
where Dave Murray’s forearms get chopped off so he can appear on stage
with them and play a guitar solo. All the fans remember the scene where
masked henchmen kidnap Dave off the stage. At one point he is dragged
behind the stage, which was also a cover, where he was replaced by an
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identically dressed Simon’s Driver (they were of a similar build, and the
trick itself was somewhat risky and dangerous). Dave’s hands get chopped
off by a strange device who got bought by an Iron Maiden fan for his
personal collection. The scene was performed as the then current single
‘From here to Eternity’ was playing, and it was very important to Iron
Maiden for the focus to be on the music, and not the trick being
performed.
Dave's chopped hand. (Screenshot)
As Simon was performing his guitar solo, fans could see the over the top and
caricature posturing, as Simon was having a lot of fun, but Rod the manager
was very grumpy and hated that moment in the show. He didn’t like the
idea, so he stood next to the stage with a stop watch and called out the
remaining time for Simon before he had to move on, thinking that he would
have too much fun and stay too long. Not a second could be lost during the
live show, and Rod didn’t want it all to turn into a bigger parody than it had
to.
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Almost a quarter of a century after this cooperation, at shows during the

‘Book of Souls Tour’, when they were performing ‘The Book of Souls’, you
could see a scene where Bruce rips out the heart of Eddie the mascot, and
squeezes it in his hand, spilling (fake) blood over the first rows of the
audience. Does that seem familiar? In one sketch Simon Drake punched out
the heart from his paramour, who cheated on him with the drummer, and
brought it, still pulsing, t the audience and squeezed the blood out of it over
them. Just remember the shocked faces that were looking at him
incredulously, dodging the blood. Twenty-four years later the same scene
was repeated with Iron Maiden. Could it have been a coincidence?
Simon intended the sketch to be funny one when he says „This is what you call
tough love “, but the audience was silent, and it seemed everyone wanted him
to kill the unfaithful partner. He suddenly realized the audience didn’t
understand the parody. He had this to say to Metaltalk’s Liz Medhurst:
"I mean Bruce and the lads all understood it was a send up of the hormone
monster, and that was a major moment for me. It was a problem, and it was
too late, I'd already fucking done a lot of it. But that moment when I saw
them, looking down it was 'uuuugghhhhh... oh fuck', anyway... whoops!"
Even though, looking back today, a lot of the scenes in this joint
performance look very cheesy, some iconic scenes stayed in our collective
memory, like the end credits where Eddie is standing over a ‘dead’ stabbed
Simon holding Bruce’s head on a pike, while the end credits roll in silence.
Also, the gallows scene accompanied by ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ from this
show was often played, and in the end Iron Maiden decided to slightly
modify it and make it a part of their 2016 show.
In the past years Iron Maiden tried really heard to improve certain elements
in their show, when they realized the classical backdrop canvas, themed
stage props and floor, Eddie dolls and pyrotechnics are less and less popular
as a world-famous show, so now their performances are full of theatrics,
Dickinson’s acting alongside singing, frequent wardrobe changes and an
interaction both with the audience and with Eddie, who he always used to
move away from on stage. Perhaps Simon Drake and his show really did
teach Iron Maiden a thing or two they are greatly using today.
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Above: A screenshot where Simon is holding a heart gushing blood in 1992

and below: screenshot from Wacken Open Air festival in 2016.
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The story which took place after the show is as interesting as the show itself.
Simon realized what it means not to have creative control over a project he
created. His cooperation with the TV producers ended in the worst way
possible. As he was credited as a co-producer, he thought he would have a
bigger voice in decision-making. This was why they hired him, after all. His
work with the Americans was great at start, but the head producer informed
him that the musical part will use about 80% of his ideas. Even though he
didn’t like the sound of that, thinking it would violate his artistic vision, he
agreed, thinking it would be a compromise. But the opposite happened. In
the end, they used about 20% of his ideas, and decided on the rest
themselves. Everything they did in rehearsal was changed literally overnight
and during the morning.
The cremation scene was originally featuring a rough instrumental as a

driving theme which suited the scene perfectly. But they re-recorded it with
something Simon called a „fucking awful AOR library rock.“ Simon rushed
into the control room furious the first chance he had, still wearing the
costume and brandishing the large prop knife. As he stood before them in
the trailer, everyone thought he was acting at first, but he was looking at
them with, not hatred, but pure malice, as he later said. As he spoke to
them he told them that none of them better spend a moment alone with
him or he will stab them to death. He also called them cheating lying cunts
who he never wants to speak to, let alone work with, after what they did to
his show, which he was so proud of, and broke his heart.
After that he went out to cool off. He remembered he literally wanted to

hang himself then, if he had found something to do it with. He took it all
very emotionally and found himself in a bad place. And that was it. He
decided then and there to leave the TV business…forever. He was bothered
by the fact that if they agreed to use 80% of the music he chose, they turned
it around without consulting him and used barely 20%. If they knew they
were going to do that from the start, they could have just told him, try to
come to an arrangement and explain why they want things to be the way
they imagined. He believed that they could have come to an agreement.
But this way… he was straight-up ready to murder them, even though they
were all much bigger than him. He was incredibly angry and to stop himself
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from doing something foolish, he stormed out of the studio and walked
around it like mad until he calmed down.
In the end, Simon claims that the visual side of things went well and that he
is very pleased both with the tricks and the performance, even though some
reviews called it ‘too cheesy’. He claims that the overall impression would
have been a lot less ‘cheesy’ with the proper music and that he just can’t
watch the video. He starts feeling awful the moment he hears the sounds
and how those who called it ‘cheesy’ are right to do so. Only two scenes had
the music he had chosen; when the two girls are exiting his groin, the
moment when his hand gets stabbed and.. that’s it. He also pointed out how
the scene where his hand gets stabbed was made to Robert Lockhart’s
music, even though Cacophony is wrongly credited, and that Cacophony are
used in the groin scene.
Simon still can’t get over how something which was supposed to be a lot
better made was done so half-arsedly, and how the music just doesn’t fit
with the scene, story and idea, and what he wanted to do. So in the end this
just doesn’t look good and all the Iron Maiden Fans who say that the show is
a pile of crap are actually (under those circumstances) right.
Luckily, there are recordings from the first show where you can see how
each trick is performed exactly, and the actors aren’t costumed. Simon has
made it very clear all these years that he isn’t in it for fame and money; for
him it’s a calling and he is trying to break the ice, create something
unforgettable, which will stay with you forever. As ‘Raising Hell’ left a bitter
taste in his mouth, he would be ready, if the chance arose in the future, to
re-dub it according to his original idea.
After this experience Simon never again worked for a television or TV

production. This has never changed. He found his peace in his private work
at ‘House of Magic’, developing his knowledge and skill, and his freedom of
choice still brings him great pleasure. He can create his own world of
fantasies and illusions and advise other people in show business, especially
the film, based on his rich experience.
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Simon is the head of Simon Drake’s House of Magic in London, an illusionist

attraction you should definitely see, and meet him in person. Simon is
anexcellent host, and inside you cn see the props used for the ‘Raising Hell’
video. The tours are excellent, and he should definitely be one of your stops
when you visit London, and you can find out more at the official website
www.houseofmagic.co.uk ..
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A MAN WHO WALKS ALONE

´Fear of the Dark´ describes Bruce Dickinson and Steve Harris´ relationship at
the time when they were at loggerheads, and when Bruce was on his way
out, while Harris, preoccupied with producing the new album and full of
bold new plans, didn´t see his band was falling apart from the inside. His
relationship with their manager Rod Smallwood is also particular, especially
as he had his back ever since they first met and established a business
partnership.
For me personally, Steve Harris was and always will be synonymous with
Iron Maiden, a man who, with his fierce energy, dedication and artistic
vision forced me to write a few words about him, or, to be precise, my first
book in 2011 titled 'Steve Harris - The Clairvoyant'. To write a book about
this album without dedicating a chapter to him would be a big mistake,
because even though he had more to give on some albums, on this one he is
just as he described in ´Fear of the Dark´- a man who walks alone.
All these years, ever since the band´s very start, he was fighting to keep it on
the straight and narrow. He weathered the turbulent seventies, in which he
was already, due to many changes, the man around whom many band
lineups have changed. He weathered the unpredictable and undisciplined
Paul Di´Anno, the arrival of temperamental Bruce, who he clashed with in
the first few weeks, Clive´s departure where he was replaced with the
´craziest drummer in the world´, Nicko McBrain. He wasn´t beaten by Adrian
Smith leaving or arrival of Janick Gers, nor by a whole range of changes to
style and sound; and we will all agree that Iron Maiden changed a lot from
the classical metal sound on ‘Powerslave’, through the futuristically
produced ‘Somewhere in Time’, and the conceptual ‘Seventh Son of a
Seventh Son’, tempered by keyboards, all the way down to the raw and bare
‘No Prayer for the Dying’, but they still kept their core which enabled
everyone who heard even the first few seconds ‘This is Iron Maiden’. Steve
Harris was the driving force which could, wanted and managed to keep it all
together, who led Iron Maiden through all of their phases, and had all the
right to feel like the band’s leader, as the one entitled to make the final
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decision, to decide on the course their ‘ship’ was to head, and which port to
make a stop in, and which to skip. He should have been able to, and had all
the right to, but unfortunately, he didn’t do it right.
Little by little, Steve Harris started taking over the ropes of the band in his
own hands, thinking it’s the best and that he will make things easier on the
band, and cut unnecessary expenses. The business side of Iron Maiden
never presented a problem to Janick Gers in the first few years as he was
very happy to be there, especially looking at where he came from. As he was
given a chance to, even as a new member, coauthor the lyrics on this album,
he was preoccupied and delighted with the song-writing process. Dave and
Nicko would contribute as authors only rarely; Nicko almost not at all, and
Dave somewhat more often, but not enough. Losing Adrian Smith as an
author and backing vocal was especially felt during the writing process,
because the burden had fallen on Bruce and Steve, and Janick was new, and
nobody knew what to expect from him.
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Steve Harris contributed to this album with seven songs, four of which he wrote
himself. Besides the title song, “Fear of the Dark’, songs 'Afraid to Shoot
Strangers' and 'From Here to Eternity' became band favorites from this album,
which became band favourites for this album. In an article (prophetically named
after the title of their later compliation album 'From Fear to Eternity' )he had
this to say to Kerrang about 'Fear of the Dark' shortly before its release:
„The people who've heard this one so far all seem to really like it. It's the
album's longest track of over seven minutes and very strong closer.“
At no point did he predict the fantastic success he was known to prophesize

for some songs, including ‘Afraid to Shoot Strangers’ on the same album. On
both this and their previous album Iron Maiden avoided such epic songs,
because they thought them to be démodé and that they should focus on
shorter and more aggressive songs in order to survive in the new metal era.
But it soon became obvious that the fans loved and remembered them in
the past 25 years mostly for their epic songs such as: 'Fear of the Dark', 'Sign
of Cross', 'The Clansman', 'Blood Brothers', 'Nomad', 'Dance of Death',
'Paschendale', 'Brighter Than a Thousand Suns', 'When the Wild Winds
Blow', 'The Book of Souls, 'Empire of the Clouds'…
About 'Weekend Warrior' he had this to say in the same article: „Part of this
tend to remind me of The Who (band), which I really like. It's about the football
'ooligans. There's been a few things in a papers recently, but they generally
seem to have gone away, thanks god.“ A month later he continued with:
"When I was 13-14 I had the boots and braces, y'know? Never a skinhead haircut
though, I was never into the violence, it was more of a fashion thing, I suppose. I
never went out looking for fights because I was always more interested in the
football. If you're interested in the football, I always think it means you're not a
hooligan. As far as I'm concerned football 'ooligans are wankers."
From the very start of his career, Steve Harris put music first, right next to
his favorite club 'West Ham United' and football in general. We all know that
Maiden formed their own football team a long time ago, along with
professional sets of tracksuits and the like, and if something went wrong due
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to a technical error on stage during their show, a football wood appear

immediately, and Iron Maiden would be playing football until the matter
was resolved. ‘Weekend Warrior’ isn’t a memorable Iron Maiden song,
quality-wise, but it was still a true indicator of Harris’ thoughts in the
previous years, who wasn’t that bent on writing about topics we could call
‘traditional’ Iron Maiden topics such as war, battles, warlords, myths, films,
books and historical events, but he, along with Bruce Dickinson, brought his
personal and private goals, thoughts, worries and preoccupations into Iron
Maiden’s repertoire.
Shortly before the album release, he clarified how it was precisely that
creative contribution the others gave to the album which took a lot of weight
off his shoulder and enabled him to find melodies and themes for possible
future hits, and how this more relaxed mood made life a lot easier for him.
"I think it's great getting a load of help from all the others. I mean on the
first two albums I wrote nearly all the material and it was the same on the
next two. I've always been prolific I s'ppose, but really that put me under a
lot of pressure and it's really nice now to have all the others contributing a
load of stuff that's really good. It's meant that the pressure's relaxed a little
and I've been able to concentrate on a few other things too like a bit of
production."
I assume this opened new horizons for him, because now, devoid of
pressure, he could pour more of himself into the songs, and I have a feeling
that is precisely what happened. You have to take into account that during
the time they were writing the songs for this album Steve Harris was going
through a rough patch in his private life, which ended in a divorce from his
high-school sweetheart Lorraine, whom he also had two small children with.
I am a man who walks alone

And when I'm walking a dark road
At night or strolling through the park
If you take into account this difficult period in his life which led to a divorce,
then you have to see the above written words, first few lines of ‘Fear of the
Dark’ in that light. As I already said earlier in this chapter, ever since the very
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beginnings of Iron Maiden, up to that point (and beyond), Steve Harris was a
man who walked alone. In this song it almost seems like he was playing with
the lyrics of the famous Liverpool fan song called ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’,
Steve Harris clearly stated about himself: 'I am a man who walks alone'. In
fact, musically and lyrically speaking, the song was written reversible, from
the first lines I already mentioned:

And when I'm walking a dark road
…The same song ends in meaningful, reversed lyrics
When I'm walking a dark road

There is plenty of symbolism in all of this, and in a way it can almost seem as
if he is speaking to his soon to be ex-wife Lorraine, and possibly his soon to
be ex singer Bruce Dickinson. The rejection they soon afterwards sent to
their ex illustrator Derek Riggs. In the rest of the lyrics to ‘Fear of the Dark’,
it seems that Steve Harris’s fear of the dark is described in a symbolic and all
familiar manner, by using childhood fear in Derek Riggs’ excellent
illustration which he suggested to Iron Maiden. Harris commented on his
sketch, four years after ‘Fear of the Dark’ was released thusly:
"For 'Fear Of The Dark', he'd painted a kid lying on a bed, having a
nightmare, and you could see Eddie - like in a dream - appear behind the
bed, ready to take him away. The painting was excellent, and we may use it
in the future, but it didn't quite fit with what we had in mind at that time."
Who are the ‘we’ in Steve’s message and what was it they had in mind at
the time? We agreed already in the book that Melvyn Grant did a decent
enough cover, but it doesn’t differ significantly from what Iron Maiden had
with Derek before, not through the idea, or through technique or
realization. It also makes me wonder who was the one who gave their final
and decisive ‘NO’ to the offered artwork; management, the band itself, or
Steve Harris?
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Somehow it seems to me that it could have been Steve, who really did at the
time, as it turned out, go on ‘a dark road’ all by himself. But let’s return to
his short song descriptions and opinion on them…
'From Fear to Eternity - article from Kerrang 1992.
Next to 'Weekend Warrior', 'The Apparition' is one of the songs Iron Maiden
fans listen to rarely. As a new author, it wasn’t easy for him to cooperate
with Steve Harris, and many are now saying that an album without those
two songs, boiled down to ten songs only, would have a much greater
cohesion and gravity. But that brings us to the question how it can be
possible that Gers on the other hand, while cooperating with Dickinson
created two songs which became album hits, and the third one an almost
hit? Did Harris take him on as a coauthor just to prevent an author-clan from
forming and Dickinson having another way to dominate the band, or did he
really do it for artistic reasons? He had this to say about ‘Apparition’:
Again, there's a bit of Zeppelinned to the verse and the instrumental section
in the middle. Janick and I wrote it. I think, he is a great writer.
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Also, just like Steve said in his description of this song, it’s interesting that it
was he who tried creating something which reminds of Led Zeppelin’s work,
because his negative opinion about Bruce’s idea how Iron Maiden should
strive to be more like later Zeppelin and use more acoustics, unless they
want their time to be over and vanish to their own repetitiveness. At the
time Steve liked the diversity of the songs. He proudly stated to the press:
"To be a rock band isn't just about the usual Heavy Metal clichés. We don't
like stereotypes and we always try to renew ourselves. This is why we're good,
and I think that a few other bands should take a leaf out of our book..."
Also, even though many find ‘The Apparition’ a monotonous song, it is

advisable to read the lyrics, which, like in ‘Fear of the Dark’ can sound very
direct, but can also refer to something completely different. In fact, Iron
Maiden proudly stated that they took a break from allegoric texts, which
were usual for them, but the entire ‘Fear of the Dark’ album is full of
allegories (like ‘Wasting Love’ for one). In ‘The Apparition’ a spirit of the
deceased is speaking to a living person and teaching them about life.
In a world of delusion / Never turn your back on a friend

'Cos you can count your real true friends on one hand ..........through life
Live your life with a passion / Everything you do, do well

You only get out of life what you put in ..........so they say
And don't disbelieve it / No matter what your "friends" might say

We'll meet up again some place some way ..........one day
Of course, these are just some of the lyrics, randomly picked from the song,
but I can’t shake the feeling they are like a ‘just in case’ manual for Bruce
Dickinson, because his increased extracurricular activities resulted in the
press writing about his possible departure a long time before it actually
happened. The final line, ' We'll meet up again someplace some way
..........one day' was beyond prophetic. It was also prophetic to write ‘The
Fugitive’ only a few months before the filming of one of the biggest
cinematic hits of the nineties began and “The Fugitive”, which was released
shortly after the album ‘Fear of the Dark’, beat all movie records and won
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several Oscars. A small piece of trivia claims that the TV show ‘The Fugitive’
had an episode called ‘Iron Maiden’. It’s a shame that Iron Maiden didn’t
recognize the potential of the upcoming film and offer the song for the
movie soundtrack, because the history of Iron Maiden would have been a
lot different today. Steve Harris described it shortly before album release as:
„A heavy drum intro and lots of interesting things going on. There's an
instrumental bit in the middle that I really like. Lyrically, it is nothing too
deep or revealing, just about someone running out of chase.“ It turns out
he didn’t care about it a lot either. The promotional CD from Epic Records
(ESK 4648) 'The Fugitive', which was being sent out to American radio
stations and featured an interesting cover, is a prized rarity on the market
today.
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Fugitive promo CD - 1992.
Another interesting song went ‘under the radar’. It was Steve’s 'Childhood's
End', about which he said: „I really like the chorus of this one. It's different to
what we've done. Bruce spits out the words in storm, rather than having a
big melody.“
This song was never played live and that is perhaps the only reason why it
never got the recognition it deserved. Since the nineties, television became
increasingly important in fast information, especially in areas previously
covered only with a few obscure news articles, and it became increasingly
visible that the new world we all dreamed of was ravaged by wars, suffering,
hopelessness, pain, suffering, injustice, and a miasma of fear that seemed to
envelop everything. Pictures of children starving to death, while food surplus
was being thrown away on the other side of the world, alongside disgusting
statements made by world leaders who didn’t care about their people made
Harris address the grim present instead of glorifying the past battles. Pointless
wars and ‘natural’ disasters caused by a human factor led to people starting to
wonder if there is any point in procreating when the children would be left to
this horrible world where they were forced to grow up as soon as they were
born. Time left for childhood was drastically shrinking. Harris had this to say:
„I have become more aware of what's happening on the planet, and mostly
since I'm a father. Since I have kids, I think that I've become a better person,
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much more sensitive than I used to be. This is all due to my kids. It really
sickens me when I hear that there are lunatics who chop kids into bits with
an axe. Before, such a news would have upset me, but now that I have kids
of my own, it really makes me sick.“
The grim reality slowly started, after a ten year old glass bubble, to touch
the lives of Iron Maiden, and this was reflected in their album, and Harris, as
the band leader, was the first to face it. He showed it through a very
emotional and evocative song 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers'. He was never a
politically colored, or never showed it to his fans all over the world through
his songs and opinions. But where ever he could, during his Iron Maiden
concerts, he proudly displayed the British flag and stood behind his country.
When he wrote 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers', Epic Records announced in the
promo box, and later in an official media statement, how it’s a song about
the gulf war, which was very current then. Three years later, in a video with
Blaze for the same song, this was confirmed with images from the gulf war.
But back then, Steve Harris had this to say to Kerrang about the song, a
month before the album was released:
„This song is gonna be…I don't want to say a classic, 'cause this sound big
headed, but it could become a really big song of ours.’Afraid to Shoot Strangers'
is definitely one of the best songs we've written in long time .It's got a great feel
and good emotional kick. It is not written about Gulf War, it's about what's going
through someone's mind before they go to it. I tried to put myself in that
position. Although don't know how I'd feel when it come to the crunch.“
In it he unequivocally and openly said that this wasn’t what the song was
about, even though it’s a widely held opinion and fact today, even on
Wikipedia. This example shows us the power of PR (this time coming from
their American publishing house), who wanted to use the American
sensitivity to the topic and throw Iron Maiden into the water to sink or
swim. This showed Steve how it isn’t always enough to write a song in order
to be understood in a way he wants to. 'A man who walks alone', just as he
already said, Steve was entering Iron Maiden’s dark times after ‘Fear of the
Dark’ was released, which also reflected in their visuals, as well as the darker
tone of their songs. How correct this decision was (and he could have
chosen an easier path), can be clearly seen today.
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MELVYN'S VISION
I would like to sort out something right away, and I believe most fans will agree
with me. 'Fear of the Dark' album cover is one hell of a cover; a good drawing, a
good shadowing, a great color and a superb atmosphere, and I honestly believe
that 'Fear of the Dark' is one of the best illustrations Melvyn Grant ever did in his
career. It is actually board oil, 20 X 30 in, or 51 x 76 centimeters. All jumbo
posters, all advertising campaigns, T-shirts, posters etc., were created from this
little piece of board and fantastic Melvin creations. On the previous page you
have the opportunity to see a sketch for the album cover (albeit in a small
resolution) with a small (management demand) header, which later made
Eddie's facial expressions even more horrible and miserable, just like the name
of the album 'Fear of the Dark '.
We all know that former illustrator Derek Riggs also sent his solution, which did
not pass this time, and that Melvyn for the first time in the history of the band
replaced the original artist who not only wrote the covers of albums, singles etc.,
but invented Eddie as a creature and mascot of Maiden. Since Maiden and the
'Fear of the Dark' album did not want to give up Eddie, Melvyn's job was tough
because the fans anticipated much from him, he had to follow some directions
to make Eddie - Eddie, not some unimaginable zombie and monster which can
be seen on a variety of metal and other bands' covers. According to available
information, Maiden has ordered another version of the cover from a third
artist, but the name and the photographs never went public.
A short review of the album's PR-clip is announces a new collaboration with

Melvyn Grant, an artist who was supposed to take a big burden and prove
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himself after all that his predecessor Derek Riggs had done. Iron Maiden PR
machine revealed information that Derek Riggs' work became too much for
them, and considering the new and adult fans of Iron Maiden looking for
something more concrete, more realistic and sinister, they realized that Derek
would not get that the way they had imagined.
In the wrap-up proposal he

never finished, Derek had a
vision of Eddie as a daemon or a
nightmare that appears above
the bed, in which lays a strained
child covered with sheets. In the
background, you can see the
night sky, the inevitable moon,
the big bat, etc. Basically, the
illustration had not been
finished yet and only some
elements needed to be added.
From both illustrations for the
album we can notice a few
interesting things. The two were
in a vertical format, that is, they
did not work as a square in any
way, as for an album cover, CD,
etc. It is obvious that the artistic
directions from the side of the
label were such.
This leads us to think that placing the band's logo vertically, as it happened for
the first time on the 'Fear of the Dark', is not accidental or happened only
because Melvyn delivered only one finished product (for indeed it is his only
work related to that album that was then used). The artistic vision of the team in
charge of packing was such and such final works of art were delivered. At the
time, they could only satisfy the audio cassette and the longbox CD,
commercials in magazines and newspapers, as well as printing posters, patches,
etc. The second thing that is similar to both solutions was Eddie's looks. Namely,
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both authors had painted a toothy, evil monster positions (particularly arms) as
if it would attack, and their goal is to creep out. Although these works are
completely different, as Derek uses a winged monster and inserts an element of
the dominant bats, Melvyn's work is based on a traditionally 'scary wood' visual
deeply embedded in horror iconography. Such trees and forests can be seen in
illustrations and animated films, especially during Halloween, and also in the
form of walking trees from the Fangorn forest, the race of Ents, in their own way
they have been pictured in the legendary Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings.
Various myths, fears and legends can remind us of something deeply annoying,
such as photographs made in Bulgaria by Deyan Kossev as he wandered through
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the forests here. But even though works in the end do not match them, Melvyn
also submitted a sketch of an idea, which was later used by Eddie's head and
transferred to the final "Fear of the Dark" album. In that sketch, the conceptual
idea of what Derek sent was much closer, and only later could be seen that such
an idea, the dominant scary bomber or witty monster with Eddie's head, was
used during the 'Monsters of Rock' festival and in the design of the stage set.
Melvyn's vision of the monster bat.
Similarly, both artists depicted Eddie with a distinctly pointed spine, and
extremely red, demonic eyes, which was probably an art direction that the
illustrators had to follow. At that point, Maiden wanted to move away from
the comics and even somewhat semi-humorous portrayal of Eddie, so they
preferred something that more similar to the true photography, and I must
admit that Melvyn really hit the atmosphere in that sense. The second thing
that inhibited selecting Derek's work was the theme of the cover itself.
Namely, if you look at the design of the entire stage set for the Maiden
concert tour, then it's quite easy to imagine a set where Eddie appears from
the back of the stage as a monstrous tree with a background of the night sky.
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The same goes for the so-called walking Eddie, as well as painting the stage
floor. Derek's concept of beds, rooms, children, bats, nightmares was too
much for Maiden at that time, because in that part of the career they decided
not to invest too much in a rich stage set, but rather focus exclusively on
music, minimizing stage sets and still leave just as many scenarios that hard
core fans would not denied.
'Fear of the Dark Tour' - stage set.
Also, although Derek probably followed the song lyrics or perhaps just the
name of the album, his artwork solution was more than obviously similar to
something Metallica had made a year ago, which later became their global
and greatest hit. We're talking here about the song 'Enter Sandman'. Yes,
Derek's work really did resemble that at first glance and maybe that was not
what the management wanted. However, it is interesting to note that both
the song 'Enter Sandman' (1991) and the song 'The Fear of the Dark', which
both in general talk about childhood, as well as personal fears, have despite
the similar publishing time (nine months difference) become the most famous
song of two of the world's biggest metal band.
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Melvyn Grant was born in London. Experimenting with many styles and themes
of illustrations, from children to erotic fantasy works, Melvyn has always striven
to give his best and that his specific style becomes recognizable through all of his
works. "Fear of the Dark" is his first encounter with Maiden, both business and
with the band's music, although he states that he knew who Iron Maiden are.
When he got a job, the management handed him all albums, and earlier works
for covers and singles, and he listened to all their albums, because the initial
idea was to listen to all the works, to get a sense who and what Maiden are, to
be ready to embark on the adventure of creating the cover in a good mood.
Maiden fans remember Melvyn for the not so well-received cover for 'Virtual XI',
the album and illustrations for the live album 'Death on the Road', another
studio album 'Final Frontier', the single 'Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg' and a
compilation album 'From Fear to Eternity'. It is interesting that Melvyn was
asked to make the album cover for "The Wicker Man" single, but as they wanted
it delivered shortly, Melvyn could not follow the pace and gave up, and Derek
got the job, which he did fast. It is precisely the one important thing that
distinguishes Derek and him, and that was the difference between Derek and all
subsequent authors. Derek was a 'Jack of all trades', he worked as a fool, got
heavy demands and short deadlines, worked a number of designs for the so-
called event t-shirts and other merchandise, and besides the album cover, they
would include a series of illustrations for singles, tour book, FC magazine and
more. Other artists were not so quick and flexible, and the biggest problem was
that they were all ready for one, maximum two respectable illustrations within
the entire album cycle. Let's remember ... What was accompanying the album
'Fear of The Dark'? The album cover in various cut, 'Be Quick or Be Dead' single,
which was Derek Riggs' work, and a series of singles and promo CDs that were
not illustrations, but photos. Even the event t-shirts were poorly done and they
mostly relied on Derek's "Be Quick or Be Dead" album cover, just as it was
changed and overwritten as needed. Unlike 'Fear of the Dark' album, let's see
what Derek did for 'A Real Live/Dead One' period a year later.
In addition to two excellent album covers from his so-called red stage, we also
have an illustration for 'Fear of the Dark' single, Eddie's shredded head, cover for
'A Real Live Tour' and 'Hallowed be Thy Name' album cover. In that period, the
illustration of Eddie’s destroying the Capitol Records building and unpublished
illustration of Eddie's destroying an audio cassette and presenting a CD.
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Looking at just that difference (and not all of the illustrations from that period
on the previous page), we can start to imagine why Eddie and Derek were of
utmost importance for the overall image and merchandising of Maiden. But
Maiden, without realizing it, tried hard to get cheaper, so even for the DVD
"Raising Hell" they used an illustration that had already been used for live single.
If we exclude all the qualities of Derek's illustrations, which are unquestioned,
then their dynamics, imagination, vividness, detail, marketing potential,
purposefulness, creativity or even genius in the expression, and a very specific
humor that is often read in some small and irrelevant details which meant a lot
to fans - in spite of all that, only his delivery speed, the instinct for the real thing,
were almost of the highest quality to satisfy every customer. Let's take into
account the work on the back cover and all the accompanying details, and the
fact that he is the creator of Eddie, in this business there is rarely anyone who
can measure it, when talking of Maiden. I do not want to go in any comparison,
whether we are talking about a better album cover for 'Fear of the Dark' or 'A
Real Live One', because they are both nice and legendary, each in their own
way, of course, but the fact is that besides the illustration for the 'Fear of the
Dark' Melvyn did not deliver anything. Maybe Maiden did not ask for anything
else, maybe that would also be fine, but I do not think he could possibly have
done it in such a short time as Derek had finished everything.
Melvyn is of the opinion that Eddie is very important to the visual part of the
Iron Maiden, because today if you show Eddie in the world without any logo and
inscription (even a completely new illustration that has never been seen), most
people will immediately say ' Iron Maiden '. He really became the sixth band
member. He appears on album covers in various incarnations, since he can be
where he will, whenever he wants it, with whom he will, can do whatever he
wants and in a way he wants. While working on the cover, in his words, he tried
to do everything possible but at the same time entertain as much as possible.
When he was finished, he was satisfied and knew that the feedback would be
positive and in spite of the great shock of the fans for changing their favorite
illustrator, Melvyn had gone through the toughest task and succeeded. One
illustration got a good rating, but people were hungry and were looking for
more. And that was still not there and there were problems.
Melvin, like many contemporary artists, has practiced digital photography, but
the illustration for 'Fear of the Dark' album was oil on the board, because it has
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been in use for a number of years. According to Eddie's fanzine, Melvyn had free
hands to do what he wanted and the only thing the management had said was
the name of the album 'Fear of the Dark'. According to the statements in this
interview, Melvyn came up with a few unfinished proposals for the sketches
(which you can see on the previous pages), and they chose an illustration with
the tree. Although Melvyn planned to change the original sketch, the
management told him to stick to the original idea. At the very end, only the
head experienced some radical changes... On the other hand, in his interview for
the German Metal Hammer, which had the story of the album for the twenty-
fifth anniversary, he stated: “However, I was severely restricted by IM's
reguirements. They wanted to put bat wings on Eddie, but that didn't work.”
Melvyn also said that he proposed to the management a completely modified
concept of Eddie, which in his opinion would correspond to Rod's aspiration to
introduce Maiden visibly in the 1990s, but in the end, they refused and said they
did not want too much change. If we look at what we have today, we realize
that it's been 25 years since then and that nothing has changed. Even works by
Herve Monjeaud, the most talented Maiden illustrator after Derek, resemble
the style of the eighties.
Melvyn took into account who Eddie was and how he manifested himself
throughout his Maiden career, so he did not want to depart from it, even
though he wanted to go a step further, but he had a completely different
approach. Until now, Eddie served with sabers, guns, blades, bayonets, axes,
and such a way of eliminating his enemies, always pleased him. But Melvyn did
not care about this bloody, more direct approach; he was thinking of how Eddie
could do anything worse, frightening and diabolical, so that the fear could move
this time to a psychological base.
His idea was to place Eddie in the beautiful night-time scenery of a forest that
would probably in her beauty be inviting to someone to enjoy beautiful and
magical moonlight thinking that everything was so peaceful and beautiful. But a
road less taken will take that person straight to where Eddie is lying, and even if
they are not afraid of darkness by that time, they definitely will be now.
The double perception of the drawings in Eddie's fanzine, he tried to explain in

these words: „Part of the spookiness of Eddie in the 'Fear of the Dark'
painting, is that the image is really double-edged, Eddie's shoulders, head
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and arms, at first glance, fit the body fused to the tree in the sitting position,
but if you look further, they also belong the, less obvious, body coming down
the trunk. The dark branch at the top edge of the moon is a kind of tail and
the legs would carry on up the main trunk, or maybe his upward lower body
is more snake like. This begs the question ‘which body is which? If Eddie is
really coming down the tree and the other body is not Eddie’s, then who, or
what, is sitting in the tree?’“
To what extent the Melvyn's vision of Eddie's future development (first

rejected by the management, later accepted) was good or not, confirms the
year 2010 when Melvyn was given the task of illustrating the album cover
for "The Final Frontier", which he describes as his favorite work for Maiden.
Melvyn, who meanwhile painted five covers and several illustrations for
singles and merchandise, finally got the chance at the album to make Eddie
what he imagined as the visual future of Iron Maiden, a strictly specific
Eddie physiognomy. Fans today can not quite agree that Eddie is what they
know him and that there is no band logo that nobody would ever think of
Eddie. But this is Melvyn's vision....
On the next page you will find a collage of photos from the Maiden shows
where they uses the so-called 'Walking Eddie' according to Melvyn's vision.
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125
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IRON MAIDEN 2.0

On March 26th 1992, Epic Records, Iron Maiden´s American Publisher, gave
a statement which announced a new version of Iron Maiden, and their new
album in a very special way. The first part of their statement is as follows:
More than a decade after the release of their debut album, with worldwide
sales of 30 million records and over a thousand gigs behind them, Iron Maiden
remain a "new band" by virtue of their ongoing creative growth, their love of
change, and their vast reserves of pure hard rock energy. All this and more can
be found in the twelve stunning songs which comprise Iron Maiden's new Epic
album, 'FEAR OF THE DARK'. "Fear Of The Dark is the most consistently strong
and varied set of songs we've ever written," comments founder and bassist
Steve Harris, "and the sound of this record surpasses by far anything we've
done previously. With No Prayer For The Dying [the band's gold Epic label
debut, released in 1990], we took a year off, then dived in and recorded almost
live. This time, we spent a great deal of time and attention on the actual
recording process, much to the benefit of the album."
We can see at the very start of this statement that the publisher want to
show the changes Maiden did to their sound, style and lyrics as a constant
desire to change and advance, and that they want to, by using this
approach, remain a “fresh” band even 12 years after their first album
release. Steve Harris, the most frequent spokesperson for the band when an
album was to be described, repeated his traditional mantra which was there
since their second album came out, one claiming that the new album was
the best thing they ever made. This time he took a step further and claimed
that the sound on 'Fear of the Dark' „surpasses by far anything we've done
previously.“. This is supposed to mean “Well I’m not bragging but you know,
this is the first album where I am a part of every step of the production and
am also credited as such, and because of that the sound cannot be but
better than anything we did so far”. When such a statement reaches the
media, and when people read it, then they have expectations, and seeing
how, while working with Martin Birch as their producer, they created true
metal classics with an excellent sound production, they didn’t expect
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anything less from a ‘by far’ better album. Because… that’s what they were
told. Since Harris was never immune to critique, he was very taken by what
the critics were saying about the 'Seventh Son', namely that the band was
too focused on theatrics, that the production killed the energy, and that
they were too focused on the grand theatrics of their concerts, and forgot to
play, which was never even close to the truth. But, seeing how their sales
numbers decreased significantly after 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son', Steve
seems to have convinced himself that those were the precise reasons why,
and later went on to emphasize especially in his statements that the album
was recorded almost live, with no special production interventions. I believe
that the co-producer of this album, Martin Birch, wasn’t too thrilled to hear
that this was by far the best sounding album in the history of the band, so I
am not surprised he retired after it. The second part of this PR statement
focused on the recording and songwriting.
'Fear Of The Dark' was co-produced by Steve Harris and Martin Birch, the
band's long-time producer. Although Harris has always been integral to the
overall Iron Maiden sound, this is the first time he has been engaged in every
stage of album production. 'Fear Of The Dark' is also the first album to be
recorded at Harris' new Barnyard Studio in Essex. 'No Prayer For The Dying'
was recorded in Harris' barn on the Rolling Stones Mobile Unit; the building
has since undergone extensive renovation and the installation of a fully-
equipped, state-of-the-art recording studio. 'Fear Of The Dark' also marks
the songwriting debut of guitarist Janick Gers (a member of Iron Maiden
since January, 1991), who collaborated on five tracks. Founding guitarist
Dave Murray also doubled his normal song input, collaborating on two
tracks; all other songs were composed by Steve Harris and vocalist Bruce
Dickinson. In addition, Fear Of The Dark is the first Iron Maiden album not to
use a Derek Riggs illustration for the cover. After ten years of Riggs'
trademark artwork, the band felt it was time for a change and brought in
illustrator Melvyn Grant to create a new and even more menacing design.
But we can get a far better insight into what the Iron Maiden introducing
ourselves to us with this album are, and why we can find some new, uncommon
topics for Iron Maiden from Bruce Dickinson, who was perhaps the only one
who properly explained why Iron Maiden entered their phase 2.0.
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The songs on 'Fear Of The Dark' including the trenchant social commentaries
'Be Quick Or Be Dead', 'Afraid To Shoot Strangers'" and 'Fear Is The Key' took
shape after Iron Maiden came off the road and back home to England for an
extended period. The results: a new directness in Iron Maiden's lyrics, and
even more powerful and varied musical settings.
"I think being off the road and back in England for a time between records
made everyone realize that there's a big reality out there which needed
writing about, that's absolutely applicable to Iron Maiden," explains lead
singer Bruce Dickinson. "Our old lyrics were allegorical, if you chose to see
them that way. But Fear Of The Dark is such more straight-between-the-
eyes. That's where this decade seems to be going, and that's where Iron
Maiden is going as well."
In their special edition

Metal Hammer cover in
great detail what the
nineties brought to metal
and how it changed during
those years. Iron Maiden
perhaps had the intention
of making a turning point in
their career and never look
back, but little by little Iron
Maiden (with a certain
evolutionary shift) still
remained the way we
always knew them and how
they were during the
eighties. This was clear with
their next two albums
recorded with their new
singer Blaze (Cook) Bayley.
Metal Hammer called the
nineties 'Metal's craziest
decade'.
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After he clarified the band’s new guidelines and the vision of where Iron Maiden
was to go in the nineties in general, in his statement he also tried to clarify his
own vision of some songs he coauthored, making this perhaps the most relevant
opinion, past all analysis and interpretation. Seen in the context of his departure
from Iron Maiden, “Chains of Misery” somehow seems most interesting.
'Be Quick Or Be Dead'

"I wrote this song in reaction to all of the big business scandals that have
plagued and will I think, continue to plague the quote unquote
Establishment. I'm speaking of the BCCI case, the collapse of Robert
Maxwell's empire, the relations between the Japanese government and its
stock market, the U.S. Congressional bank scandal. There's so much
hypocrisy flying around. The song says the only way for a kid with ambition
to cut through it all is to be as fluent and wily as these guys but to use those
qualities against them."
'Fear Is The Key'

"This was a song written, very obliquely at first, about AIDS. Then Freddie
[Mercury] died halfway through the writing of the song. There's a line that
goes 'Nobody cares 'til somebody famous dies' - that's a reference to Freddie
and though he's still alive, Magic Johnson. There's a lot of people who think
they're safe 'cos they're heterosexual, though half of Africa is dying of AIDS.
The song says that AIDS has stolen the right to be spontaneous in sexuality."
'Wasting Love'
"Just what the title says, really. About people who spend their time screwing
their brains out to fill this empty space inside them. If they stood still a
moment, they might get in touch with their real feelings. I'm not
condemning, just empathizing - I've done it just as much as anybody else!"
'Chains Of Misery'
"It's the idea that whenever something good happens to people - like when
you meet someone special - almost inevitably there's some mechanism that
says 'Hold on, this is too good, let's screw it up!' I wanted to give a name to
this process, or create a character who sits on your shoulder and hauls on
these 'chains of misery' and pulls you back down from your high."
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Past Iron Maiden albums like 'Powerslave' and Seventh 'Son Of A Seventh
Son' drew upon mythology, history, and films for Maiden's lyrical inspiration.
But, as is clear from Bruce Dickinson's comments, many of the songs on
'Fear Of The Dark' deal with topics straight from today's headlines.
"When we started out, it was new and innovative for a metal band to do
those kind of songs," says Dickinson. "As we went on through these grueling
world tours, it became easy to fall back on those themes and ideas,
protected as we are on tour from so much of real life.“
This is precisely why Bruce mentioned how their longer vacation brought them
back to a horrible reality which needs writing about younger generations would
be warned in time. This new way of thinking was acceptable to everyone in the
band. ‘A new and in your face’ attitude. Iron Maiden were convinced that this
was where the new decade was heading, and that they were on the right track.
Maiden even had the need to clarify how they were the trailblazers of the
eighties generation, and how they fully intend to do so in the nineties, and
within their promo box they wrote a small introduction about what Iron
Maiden are. The fact they had the need to write something like that sounds
as if they are justifying themselves in advance for what they created, and
they are unsure if they did the right thing.
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Since their first album, the eponymous 'Iron Maiden', in March 1980,
Maiden, haave sold around 30 million albums and played well over a
thousand gigs to millions and millions of fans in most parts of the world.
They are legends in many parts of the world. They were at the forefront of
bands that turned the world back on to Heavy Metal in the early eighties.
Their history is well documented, from the colossal breakthrough of 'Killers'
and 'The Number Of The Beast', through the magnificently staged world
tours for 'Powerslave' and 'Seventh Son", to the stripped down ferocity of 'No
Prayer For The Dying'. A glittering career of gold and platinum awards and
sold out concerts. A heritage worthy of a Great British rock band.
But ask any of the current crop of metal and thrash acts who had their roots
in the early and mid eighties who influenced them the most. Iron Maiden is
invariably cited as a prime influence. Besides the obvious musical influence,
Maiden's 'Eddie style artwork ideas alone have been copied by many, and
totally ripped off by some. Yet an interesting fact is that a number of new so-
called 'alternative' bands - like The Smashing Pumpkins and Catherine Wheel
also cite Maiden as an influence. Howewer, this is not surprising when one
consideres that rock music should also be about attitude and integrity
qualities which Maiden have by the truckload.
So, considering a decade and more of continuing influence and success, what
keeps Maiden 'new', A listen to the new album 'Fear Of Thc Dark' goes some
way to answering this. There is a freshness of spirit, a 'newness' of sound
that belies the fact that this is the band's ninth studio album. The 'feel' is of
an excited new band who take pleasure in each others' company and are
eager for future conquests. A band who have enough experience to make a
technically great record but are fired by a naive enthusiasm for future glory.
It is not what one would expect of a band in its thirteenth (lucky for some?)
year. But then Maiden isn't your average band. There has always been great
pride and integrity in Maiden. Also great passion, humour And FUN. With
hands firmly on the tiller founder SteveHarris has steered Maiden through
line-up changes with An unerring Aim. The Aim not just to do well, but to do
it in his and Maiden's own way. No compromise. No watered down radio
fodder. No deflection from the right way, the Maiden way.
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The band line-up; Steve Harris (Bass), Dave Murray (Guitar), Bruce Dickinson
(Vocals), Nicko McBrain (drums), Janick Gers (Guitar) is arguably the finest
ever. The spirit in the band is unquestionably the best ever. This is a band at
the very height of its powers doing what every band should be doing every
day, every concert, every song - ENJOYING IT!
At the very beginning of the text you can see how they had the need to
emphasize that Maiden are legends in many parts of the world (which they
were), and how they were the first metal trailblazers in the eighties and have
the right of pretendership to the title of the 'Great British rock band’. They
didn’t fail to mention they were role models to many trash bands, but also many
other ‘alternative’ bands such as The Smashing Pumpkins who were enjoying a
lot of popularity at the time. They didn’t forget to mention that Eddie was
copied or even stolen as an idea or complete artwork. They mentioned all this
as a way of showing that even after all this time Iron Maiden were still a ‘new’
band, by which they meant that they are fresh and full of ideas, and give a
rebuttal to the statements of certain critics calling them boring, monotonous,
and uninventive or even an old fashioned band. They wanted to show how
they could have easily created a technically perfect album, but they decided to
enthusiastically, and with their full force, to invest in a fantastic future (which
is now happening, whether you like it or not, and which is showing that all
their brave decisions and sacrifice were worth it). During all this, in saying that
this was their thirteenth year, they completely ignored the first five years
before their first album was recorded. The emphasis on the band’s excellent
mood was very obvious, as was the fact that Steve Harris was put front and
center, in front of all the others, and even the band credits in this text began,
uncharacteristically, with him (bass guitar). With the statement that this
lineup, which were together for only two years, was without doubt the best
one ever, may not have been the best way to eradicate the memory of their
glory days a scant few years before and their lineup featuring Smith and Burr.
Just like, only a year later, Bruce Dickinson, one of the main links in the band,
who wasn’t really ENJOYING IT, left, as it later turned out. Time will always
show the truth. In the second part of this text, the Iron Maiden team said:
Iron Maiden release their eagerly anticipated studio album, 'Fear Of The
Dark', on May 11th on EMI Records. The album marks a number of changes
and firsts for the band. Firstly, founder member Steve Harris has co-produced
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the album with Maiden's long-time producer Martin Birch. Although Harris
has always been involved in the overall Maiden sound, this is the first time
he has been totally involved in every stage of the production of the album.
'Fear of the he Dark' is also the first album recorded at Steve Harris' newly
built Barnyard Studio in Essex. Although 'No Prayer For the Dying' was
recorded in Harris' barn on the Rolling stone Mobile studio it has since
undergone extensive building work with the installation of a state-of-the-art
fully equipped recording studio. The band expect to use this studio for all
future recordings as they are absolutely delighted with the sound of the new
album. The album is just under one hour in length and contains twelve tracks
- two more than any previous Maiden studio album.
Also, lyrically, Maiden have moved away a little from songs often relating to
history, books and films and are dealing here with topics relating to today;
greed and corruption in big business, ecology, the Gulf War, AIDS, growing
up in a savage world. The observational lyrical content is well balanced with
out-and-out rockers likc 'From Here To Eternity".
Due to the length, the vinyl album will be released as a double album in gatefold
sleeve for enhanced sound quality. However, the band have ensured that the
pricing is substantially less than that of a normal double album. As vinyl is
becoming less and less in demand, the double album will be 2 limited edition.
The CD will contain 2 de-luxe page booklet and the cassette will have an
extended inlay card. The album also marks the first time that a Derek Riggs
illustration has not been used for the cover. This does not mark the
permanent departure of Riggs, who will continue to be involved.
The band, however, felt it was time for a short break after over ten years,
and brought in illustrator Melvyn Grant, whose cover illustration gives, the
package a different, more menacing look. The World Tour, titled 'From Here
To Eternity' after a track on the album, will start in Reykjavik, Iceland on June
5th from where the band go straight to the U.S.A. and Mexico. Maiden will
they play their first comprehensive tour of South America, taking in
Argentina and Brazil and possibly Chile and Venezuela.
They then fly into Europe to headline the 'Monsters of Rock' festivals
including Castle Donington on August 22nd. The tour then continues in
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Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and ends up in South East Asia, where
they expect to play for the first time in such diverse places as Indonesia,
Korea, Taiwan and India. In this seven month period the band will play to
over one million people in thirty one different countries.
The Iron Maiden team didn’t fail to praise Harris and his contribution to the
recording as a co-producer, emphasizing how Harris always kept an eye on all
the segments of album production, but that this time, he had a hand in it
directly. Of course, they also didn’t fail to praise Harris’ new studio situated on
his property, announcing how all the future albums are to be recorded there. As
it turned out, Bruce didn’t support that idea at all, and this was one of the main
reasons he distanced himself from the band, and he also didn’t seem to support
the band’s new sound, as he later stated when leaving. He was, of course,
claiming something completely different as the album was released. They also
judged the album based on its quantity, and they didn’t miss stating the album
has 12 songs (bands back then were literally competing the fill the new compact
disc to the brim, and the albums were significantly longer than those on vinyl).
Looking at the song topics in the new album, you can notice how the Iron
Maiden team mentioned the 'Gulf War', a PR tidbit which confused m fans,
journalists and critics (just like the later video with Blaze, who had to endorse
this PR lie), since Harris stated firmly that the song 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers'
isn’t about the Gulf War, as I mentioned earlier. This was only inserted due to
it being a current event, and for the political correctness on the US market, in
order to cheaply garner brownie points.
Maiden also announced a double vinyl (due to the album length) which was to
be a limited edition (officially due to the decline in vinyl sales), but they
emphasized that the price would not be that of a double vinyl. They also
mentioned the absence and the reason for the absence of their illustrator Derek
Riggs, they also announced his return (which also happened, but only briefly,
since he parted ways with them almost forever since 1992). And, finally, they
also announced a new tour and its name (more on that in the next chapter),
where they, in conclusion, mentioned Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan
and India), which didn’t happen until fifteen years later. They first entered India
in 2007 (see poster on the next page), and the neighboring china in 2016. Still,
wishes are one thing, and the possibilities something quite different.
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136
Sometimes it’s difficult to understand why a person, or in this case, an entire

team, does something, if they look further ahead than you can imagine. Iron
Maiden definitely aren’t a band to whom things just happen by accident, nor are
they a band who will easily abandon their goals. The press release they issued
suggested they anticipated what the future might hold, and were creating
stronger foundations and a platform through which they will reach higher than
ever before, once the time comes. With that in mind, Blaze’s later joining the
team wasn’t an accident, nor were the return of Smith and Dickinson.
Maiden definitely had the chance to take on a commercially more attractive

vocals, and record something similar to what the rest of the music scene was
doing then, but they didn’t. They patiently, step by step, built new paths, and
through smaller concerts, with only a thousand or two fans, had the chance to
play venues they could never have reached before, and reach an audience they
never could have reached before. What we call 'Legacy of the Beast' today (and I
don’t mean the computer game), was rapidly being created then.
Did Iron Maiden believe Dickinson would stay? Yes! Did they believe that they
would record all the albums, until the end of their career in Barnyard Studios?
Yes! Did they plan to visit India back then? Yes! None of their announcements
then were a bluff, it just so happened that things turned out a bit differently.
Iron Maiden 2.0, that’s what I would name the entire process which started in
the eighties, only to have exploded in the shape they wanted it at the end of the
nineties, and only grew during the first two decades of the new millenium.
At the time Iron Maiden team was putting together the text I presented to you
earlier, the band was already on tour, a tour they came back from with one key
member less, but they also went back to a new, old US label, because it seemed
that, in part, they blamed the bad US sales in part on Epic Records. But that was
only the beginning of bad business results.
No matter how things went on to develop 'Fear of the Dark' was a good attempt
of adapting to a new time and new circumstances, and if Dickinson hadn’t
decided to leave the band, he would have brought long term results with their
next album in the nineties, but I fear that then Iron Maiden wouldn’t be the
band we know today.
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DEVIL'S BEND
Do you know who Laura Parr and the Phantom Truck Driver are? No? Well,
well... Let's go. Back in 1995, in his original illustration of the ‘Live After
Death’ album, Derek Riggs painted on the back a small detail in the
cemetery, of the famous Ghost Busters in the middle of a storm. Randomly
or not, even twenty-seven years later, a very unusual series of coincidences
linked Ghost Busters and Maiden again.
A tiny detail of the 'Live After Death' cover (the first version) zoomed-in.
Although in all interviews, the song "From Here to Eternity" is described as
nothing more than an amusing hit song with humorous lyrics, it has, in fact,
some interesting messages that are not noticeable at the first listening. When
Maiden published a video for this particular song, some things became a bit
clearer, but yet, not enough. Bruce Dickinson told about this song:
„It's just a good laugh, a joke. In the song, we talk about the return of
famous Charlotte the Harlot (from previous Iron Maiden songs), who's back
on a motorbike. There's nothing really important in this song, text-wise
anyway. However, it will be our second single, because it's got a really
catchy tune, even if the lyrics aren't very serious.“
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On the other hand, its author Steve Harris, did not even want to enter into the
details of the text, but just said a few words about the music and the recording.
„I think this'd make a good single. It is probably the straightest song I've
written, but it's got a good singalong chorus and I can imagine singing it. In
fact, some punters are singing on the corus, cos we got about 20-odd mates
of mates in to do it. That worked well and they sang surprisingly in tune.
But fans, like fans, literally analyzed every single word, every second of the
video with very fast sequences, and searched for some like secret messages
from the sage about Charlotte The Harlot, a prostitute who have had
appeared in earlier Maiden songs. In two certainly, while for the song 'Hooks
in You' there were only speculations. Charlotte is also mentioned here, and
the fans conclude that she dies in this song (so they assume she will not
appear later again), but when we look at the verses, we have the usual
ordinary song about the love and death of a girl and a biker, but my eye was
caught around this verse.
But like all dreams that come to an end

They took a tumble at the devil's bend
The beast and Charlotte they were two of a kind
They'd always take the line from here to eternity
This is why I asked you, in the beginning, do you know who Laura Parr and
the Phantom Truck Driver are? The Phantom Truck Driver is a murderous
spirit that attacked motorists on a stretch of road called Devil's Bend, and
Laura Parr was a girl murdered by him while she was getting back home to a
little town called Twin Ridges, about an hour away from the place Devil's
Bend. The Devil's Bend is an ominous sounding bend located somewhere in
Oregon. It became infamous for winding a lot in middle and motorists
running afoul of the Phantom Truck Driver. Somewhere in Oregon, Laura
Parr was on the road singing to 'I Cheat the Hangman' from the Doobie
Brothers' 'Stampede' album, as she made her way to her parents' home in
Twin Ridges. All of a sudden, her vehicle was hit from the back by a Phantom
Big Rig. The ghost's laughter could suddenly be heard on Laura's radio just
before he rammed into Laura's vehcle. She was forced off the road and went
down a slope into a bunch of trees. Laura died and manifested as a ghost.
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She became something of a phantom hitchhiker and told pedestrians about

her encounter, concluding her car was a total write off
Screenshot from video 'From Here to Eternity'.
Nearly 20 years later, the Phantom Truck Driver attacked a male motorist
Peter Venkman (one of Ghostbusters). In early July, Peter separated from
the others in New Mexico and went to Las Vegas to spend a couple days
away from Ray. He got lost somewhere in Oregon and followed directions to
take Devil's Bend through to Matheson and back on the Interstate but was
unaware Devil's Bend was haunted by a Phantom Truck Driver.Unaware of
the local lore and quickly proceeded to the Bend. Along the way, he picked
up a hitch hiker, Laura Parr. Peter agreed to take her northeast to Twin
Ridges, where her parents lived. They were soon pursued by the Phantom
Truck Driver and survived in the battle. When Phantom truck driver ghost is
imprisoned, Peter gave Laura Parr a ride back to her home. After they
arrived in Twin Ridges, Laura thanked Peter then vanished while he was
distracted. Unaware, Peter walked up to the Parr Residence and met Mrs.
Parr. She explained Laura died in accident nearly 20 years ago.
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In the fifth month of 2012, exactly 20 years after the release of the album
'Fear of the Dark', came out a comic strip by Erik Burnham and Tristan Jones
called 'Who Killed Laura Parr', released by IDW publishing; Ghostbusters 9.
This comic book is also issued as a library book by Spotlight, retitled
'Ghostbusters Volume Thee: Haunted America, Part 1'.
In this story Laura Parr and Twin Ridges are references to the David Lynch
show ‘Twin Peaks’, which centers around the murder of Laura Palmer in the
town of Twin Peaks, Washington. Also, Laura's vehicle has an Oregon license
plate, "979-THJ" The license plate is a reference to the movie ‘Cujo’.
When connecting some more details, the main conclusion is that this time,
someone in the Ghostbusters team was a Maiden fan, since how is it
possible that more than a few things match up in this story. Laura and
Charlotte, and their companion biker, Devil's band and their death, and
finally the Phantom Truck Driver who is in a comic almost identical to what
Derek Riggs drew and what Eddie drives.
Iron Maiden 'A Real Live Truck' and Phantom Truck Driver's truck.
Although Steve Harris has written this song in a joke and used the name
Devil's Bend as a kind of provocation in connection with Iron Maiden, whose
epitaphs even then were the 'Devil's band', which is why they had problems
in certain conservative media and environments. As both terms are read in a
way that sounds the same, the Devils' band was one of numerous jokes and
mockeries that can be seen on the sidelong video.
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At the end of this song, Bruce fumbles a sentence which many fans are trying
to interpret in their own way, but nobody (at least as far as I know), cannot
figure out what Bruce was going to say with that, especially what he said
afterwards. “Get on your M11, get on your bikes'. If you listen a little more
carefully, you'll hear 'we're in Essex, Maiden town, hahaha!' in the end.
If you try to link all this into a meaningful ensemble, keep in mind that the M11
motorway, which runs approx. from Stratford (where is famous Cart and Horses
pub), up to Cambridge, and by the way passes through Essex, more specifically
Harlow, where Steve Harris's estate is located, and the studio where they
recorded the album 'Fear of the Dark' is. Suddenly everything becomes clearer.
'From Here to Eternity' is the first studio single that misses Eddie on the cover.
The song in which (according to the lyrics, and video) Charlotte sits with the
'beast' on a motorbike and goes straight to hell, where this beast (who later
removes the mask and shows Eddie) and she gets married. They use photos
from studio on the cover, where a video was recorded for this song. The single
is released in several formats; 7" etched disc with the tracks on one side and
an image etched into the other, 7" cut to shape picture disc, 12" with fold-out
sleeve and a CD single. It charted and peaked at #21 on the UK Singles Chart.
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In addition to the compilation album 'From Fear to Eternity' in 2012, whose

name was based on the name of the mentioned song, and which included
songs released from the album 'Fear of the Dark', up to 'Final Frontier' from
2010, for the US market In 1992, a compilation video 'From There to
Eternity' came out. Since 1990s "The First Ten Years" compilation was not
released on this market, this new compilation contains the same material
with the addition of new videos from the latest album. It's about 95 minutes
videos from the song 'Women in Uniform' to 'From Here to Eternity'. The
updated video compilation came out in 2003 under the name of 'Visions of
the Beast'. In addition to 20 video clips showing a cross section of Iron
Maiden’s career, there are no additional documentaries, etc.
From There to Eternity video - cover.
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Do you remember the big Helloween hit ‘I want out’, in which Kai Hansen,
one of the key people in the band and the author of their greatest hits,
metaphorically sings about his desire to leave the band. That song was
actually their last single, before Kai left the band later. At that time, Rod
Smallwood, a peculiar manager of Iron Maiden, guess what, was also the
manager of Helloween. Four years later Bruce Dickinson wrote the song
'Wasting Love', which was also his last studio single before leaving Maiden.
A song that reminds me of a song 'The Price' by Twisted Sister, likewise,
regarding a different theme of the song, it has similarities and links to the
cult Maiden song 'Wasted Years'. But, let’s remember, once again, what
Bruce said about this song.
"Just what the title says, really; about people who spend their time screwing
their brains out to fill this empty space inside them. If they stood still a
moment, they might get in touch with their real feelings. I'm not
condemning, just empathizing - I've done it just as much as anybody else!"
Later on, more specifically, he added:
„It's about those who jump from one bed into another, those who sleep
with whoever comes their way, without giving or receiving whatever they're
looking for, because they are very lonely. They are lonely within themselves,
but they are continuously in action, collecting short-term relationships in
order to fill the void they feel. I've often seen people like that. Life on the
road is tough and I know that many musicians find it hard to emotionally
'open-up', because they have those worries and those feelings that they
cannot share with anyone, and that they keep buried within themselves.
They believe that, in their position, it is impossible to have 'true'
relationships with people, so they end up in bed with those of the opposite
sex without thinking any further. But, relationship within the world of music
is not warped, not all of them. To be honest, I think that, among all
relationships, those with the fans are the purest; because they're just fans
and that's it. They like the music and don't care about the rest.“
Bruce, although in French, spoke about the song from the stage, announcing it
before the performance in Paris. With the help of Alexando Faoro, who
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translated it, Bruce said that this song is much different from the other ones
they do, but very important for them, because it's a poem that speaks about
the heart. Love is not just sex, it is in the right shape only in our hearts.
'Wasting Love' video - screenshot.
In this dark and gloomy video, we see a sick man who suffers; makes love
with unknown girls, and then tattoo their names on his body. In addition, in
the video we see an angel in the face of a girl, and a bishop with a cruel
expression on his face, and the Maiden play in an empty hall illuminated by
fire. Like many songs on this album, and through this one, we see the fear of
getting stuck in a relationship, the fear of starting something new in life,
although, in general, this album is not conceptual with the fear theme, and
the band itself confirmed it al in the interviews. However, just like the song 'I
want Out' can be looked through a prism of rebellion (similar to punk songs
or hits like ‘We’re Not Not Gonna Take It' by the Twisted Sister and 'Breaking
the Law' by Judas Priest), against pressures from all sides, of what and how
to act, behave, think etc, so this song can be seen in a completely different
way. Let's try to analyze the lyrics a little.
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Maybe one day I'll be an honest man

Up till now I'm doing the best I can
If we start with the assumption that like Kai Hansen, Bruce doesn’t sing
about what he is talking about, but perhaps about himself, then the first
verses could be related to his feelings that persuaded him more to think
about leaving the band, while in the same the time, he wasn’t honest either
towards himself, or the band, or the media, because he gave completely
contrary statements from which it could be seen that he was happy in the
band, and that he didn’t ever intend leaving. During that time, as he also
says in the lyrics, he gave his best…
Long roads, long days, of sunrise, to sunset
This part could refer to permanent traveling, tours and days without an ending,
where both day and night, and the perception of normal life, were mixed.
Dream on brothers, while you can

Dream on sister, I hope you find the one
In these lyrics, he could be also talking to the fans, let them dream as long as
they can, but it may also be referring to the band, especially with 'I hope so
you find the one', if we think about a new singer.
All of our lives, covered up quickly

By the tides of time
This can be seen in a way that people have to follow their hearts, because life
passes away quickly, and Dickinson had back then many desires, plans and goals.
Spend your days full of emptiness

Spend your years full of loneliness
It may refer to his growing dissatisfaction towards the band, and 'loneliness'
to his lonesome in everything, despite being surrounded by people. Later,
after he left the band and could talk more about it, only then things got
much clearer.
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Wasting love, in a desperate caress

Rolling shadows of nights
This can be related to the Maiden who were all time fine in the media; it's all
wonderful, divine and perfect, but maybe it was not exactly like that.
Sands are flowing and the lines

Are in your hand
This can be understood as a remark, that time is going forward irreversibly, and
that they are no longer so young, that signs of aging begun to be seen relatively,
suggesting that people must, as far as they can, turn to what they like.
In your eyes I see the hunger, and the

Desperate cry that tears the night
This verse can also certainly refer to the band and the desperate hunger to
finally do something that will not be achieved much later, and which, after
the climax of glory in the eighties, more and more faded in the nineties.
***
This single was officially released only in the Netherlands, although there are
two promo singles; on a CD for the US, and on vinyl for Spanish radio
stations. This single also contains a scene from the video on the title side. On
the B side are three live performances recorded in London's Wembely Arena
during the 'No Prayer on the Road tour'; 'Tailgunner', 'Holy Smoke' and 'The
Assassin'. There is an extremely rare Australian CD-digipack release of the
album, featuring these three songs, released for the promotion of the
Australian Maiden tour from 1992.
The analysis of these verses does not have to mean anything, because
everyone has the right to interpretation, but in both bands who were then
managed by Rod Smallwood, modus operandi (unless it was a coincidence)
can be read. The last single in the band from which you want to escape, and
what's, in addition, called 'Wasting Love'.
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FEAR OF THE DARK TOUR

We find ourselves in the year 1992 when the Internet wasn´t properly
developed, and when Google wasn’t even planned. As Iron Maiden, along
with everyone on their team, going by the review of journalists’ who had a
chance to listen to the album before it was released, were more than pleased
with the feedback they received to certain songs, especially 'From Here to
Eternity', this, basically a generic term, seemed ideal to have the tour named
after it, because Iron Maiden were famous for their tour names which usually
played on their album names and their derivatives… For example 'Killer World
Tour', 'The Beast on the Road', 'World Pieces Tour', 'World Slavery Tour',
'Somewhere on Tour', 'Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour' and 'No Prayer on the
Road'. They would sometimes have a kind of subtitle tour name for certain
areas, one of the last ones being 'Intercity Express Tour' from 1989.
'Fear of the Dark' album could have generated a lot of interesting tour
name, such as 'Tour in the Dark', 'World Darkness Tour', 'Fear on the Road',
'Walking on a Dark Road Tour', but Iron Maiden decided on 'From Here to
Eternity Tour' for many reasons. They had great expectations from the song
of the same name. Even though they always claimed they didn’t want to
become mainstream, I am a firm believer that they wouldn’t mind entering
the Mainstream, especially if they are being the movers and shakers of a
certain part of it, the one dedicated to rock, hard rock and metal. 'From
Here to Eternity', even though the name sounds nice, bore the classical rock
and metal message whose chorus says:
Hell ain't a bad place

Hell is from here to eternity
The chorus was intended for, a large sing-along during their stadium
concert, with easy to remember melody, and even easier repetitive lyrics.
Iron Maiden really had high expectations for this song, and seeing how they
remained true to themselves lyric-wise and they didn’t cater to what they
called ‘Americanizing’ their songs, they really wouldn’t have minded if this
song was successful on a global level, outside of the hard rock and heavy
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metal music frame. In fact, this would have agreed with them because of the
message in the song and the lyrics, as it would mean they achieved all this
without changing or giving concessions.
The ‘From Here to Eternity’ title was also an excellent title for many
concerts, festivals, t-shirts and other merch, because it subtly suggested Iron
Maiden being victorious in the nineties, or, to send the message that: ‘In the
eighties we did all the hard work and achieved a status, but from here and
now on we will take a further step, one towards eternity’. A lot of festivals
used that line in their posters. Here’s an example::
The advert and tour announcement wasn’t just one of the ideas a band
member stated in the interviews before the tour itself, but was sent as a
printed PR statement to all the media, was advertised in all the journals and
magazines where Iron Maiden usually advertised, and was also announced
in the ‘Fear of the Dark’ promo box and printed on t-shirts. But as we know,
by the start of the tour it changed its name and was named after the album
name itself ‘Fear of the Dark Tour’, with no additional wordplay or puns.
As more and more critic feedback started rolling in, 'Fear of The Dark'
started to emerge as the true favorite, and the Iron Maiden team started
considering changing the tour name to 'Fear of the Dark'. A good argument
was also the knowledge that Iggy Pop did a tour in 1983 with the same
name, which someone dug up. I already said at the beginning- there was no
Google then, and it was harder to find things out.
.
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‘Fear Of the Dark Tour’ tour, aside from ‘Killers’ and 'Die with your boots on'
which weren’t a part of the standard set and were only played occasionally,
consisted of the following songs: Intro, ‘Be Quick or be Dead’, ‘The Number
of the Beast’, ‘Wratchild’, ‘From Here to Eternity’, 'Can I Play with Madness’,
‘Wasting Love’, 'Tailgunner’, ‘The Evil that Mend Do’, ‘Afraid to Shoot
Strangers’, ‘Fear of the Dark’, ‘Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter’, ‘The
Clairvoyant’, ‘Heaven Can Wait’, ‘Run to the Hills’, ‘Two Minutes to
Midnight’, ‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’, ‘The Trooper’,
‘Sanctuary’ and ‘Running Free’. The last two songs along with ‘Bring Your
Daughter… to the Slaughter', weren’t played at several US and South
American concerts.
This was a record breaking 20 songs, with four of them as an encore, and
eleven which belonged to the ‘new’ Iron Maiden, or albums released after
'Live After Death'. They visited seven new countries during this tour, Iceland,
Uruguay, Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Argentina and New Zealand. Also,
this was the first time that they, after only one festival in Brazil in 1985, did a
mini tour. The planned Chile concert was cancelled due to religious issues,
but Uruguay profited because of it, as they had a chance to organize an Iron
Maiden concert for the first time, on which more a bit later. Alongside
Russia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which were also new countries on
their tour, as a continuation of this tour, which they called 'A Real Live Tour',
Maiden added a whopping 11 new countries to their tour list, and planned
to visit India, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines, but this plan fell through in
the last moment. If they succeeded, they would have visited a record-
breaking 15 countries.
It was clearly visible at the very start of the tour in 1992 that this wouldn’t
be the only promo year for the album, because it was inconceivable for the
UK, Germany and Italy to have only one show during the tour, and this
proved to be true, as they copied the recipe from 1988 when the Monsters
of Rock festival was advertised as the only concert during that year. The UK,
Italy, France and Germany came ‘into their own’ in 1993. With eleven dates
in Italy, ten in the UK (2 of which were warm up shows), nine concerts in
Germany and France, seven in Japan and Spain, the number came up to
almost 60 concerts in only 6 countries during 1992/1993. By that count the
'Fear of the Dark' tour concert series was almost a 110 concert long in over
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30 countries, predominately European ones, and the tour as such could be

deemed very successful, and much more profitable than the previous one,
where Iron Maiden had a smaller number of concerts with a smaller
audience, and 11 of which were cancelled (without announcing a new date),
while 'Fear of the Dark' tour only had 3 cancelled concerts.
So, unlike the 'No Prayer on the Road Tour' where they played in 15
countries and had less concerts, for their next album tour Iron Maiden
visited 31 countries, so more than double, and played more concerts, but
one thing went completely wrong, and was one of the reason why their
break with Dickinson happened. For their 'No Prayer on the Road' tour Iron
Maiden played 33 US concerts, while they only had 20 for 'Fear of the Dark
Tour'. If we remember that only few years earlier they had about 100 US
concerts, things become clear. It becomes even clearer if you look at their
sales certificates:
1982: 3 X platinum in Canada and platinum in USA

1988: 1 X platinum in Canada and gold in USA
1990: 1 X platinum in Canada and gold in USA
1992: 1 X Gold in Canada
No matter what Iron Maiden did in the nineties, America no longer wanted
them. In the eighties it made them ‘larger than life’, and in the nineties it
made their life miserable, so them blaming Epic Records during the short
period they worked together wasn’t really grounded in reality. After their ever
longer tour breaks since 1987 they started listening to the grapevine and pay
more attention to certain critics, and decided they immediately had to
change, but the changes they made didn’t bring them expected results. Even
though all stories, interviews, authorized biographies and similar boil down to
the artistic differences being the reason someone left, mostly it was due to
the reduced cash flow or the balance of power, and in Dickinson’s case, both
of these were true, with the addition of artistic and production differences
regarding the band’s direction, as well as displeasure with the studio choice.
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'Fear of the Dark' tour was also used to record 'A Real Live One' across
Europe, as well as for 'Live at Donington'. The contrast between this tour
and the one which served as its sequel a year later is very interesting. Bruce
Dickinson gave his all both on stage and with his vocal performance, which
can be easily noticed if you listen to the available bootlegs.
The predominantly newer songs (they played five songs from their current
album) served as an indicator that Iron Maiden can offer the same strong
performance without reaching for their older titles. In fact, you can see the
frantic fan reactions to their newer songs, and that the fans already know all
the songs by heart. In fact, it looked as if Iron Maiden are gearing up to rise
as the world leaders in hard rock and metal music, as Metallica and Guns ‘n’
Roses already did their part last year. There hasn’t been a new large UK
band emerging for a long time, and Iron Maiden were the only ones who
could truly do it. They were on the right path, but still a step away from
becoming a huge legendary British band. Bruce Dickinson was incredibly
prolific at the time, and expressed his many interest in various ways, up to
the point that certain journalists, without Bruce showing it directly in any
way (in fact, he was very enthusiastic about Iron Maiden in his pre-release
statements), decided that such a dispersal of talent could result in his
departure from the band. They asked Steve Harris openly, a month and a
half before the tour, about the rising speculation Bruce might leave, and he
replied:
„Some people tend to question Bruce simply because he's doing all these
other things and they're all wondering whether he's going to leave. It's got
nothing to do with it at all. He's just a very hyper person and that's all. He
writes books on tour while the rest of us are sleeping or watching TV and he
just gets involved with things. I'd like to think that if he felt any different
about the Maiden thing he'd tell us, in fact, I know he would.“
Steve didn’t give a definite negative answer to the question, or deny Bruce’s
potential plans of departure, but it seems, judging from his answer, as if he
tried to speak to Bruce via the media and encourage him to come and talk to
the band, if he indeed is making plans. As Bruce didn’t do so, and was
preparing for the upcoming tour as usual, nobody thought that something
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bad will happen. But things were brewing inside of him, and Harris wasn’t
aware that he was to blame. All the reasons state in this chapter contributed
to it, but mostly it was Steve taking Iron Maiden under his wing which hit
Bruce the most. A year later he stated:
"It will probably become very much more Steve's baby now, and I certainly
don't think it'll plummet just because I've gone. Iron Maiden is like an old
warhorse; The Trooper, the charging, Roy of The Rovers, the straight arrow,
the ball at the back of the net... that's what Steve is. From a personal point
of view, I wouldn't like to see Maiden play Guildford Hall. I think that would
be very sad. But then again, if people are happy doing that, it's okay!"
st
Over a month passed between the launch event on April 1 in 1992 until the
album was officially released on May 11th, and it was another month before
the world tour started, which was almost unthinkable for the Iron Maiden
touring standards. In fact, all their album tours, starting with their first one
until then (with the exception of the ‘Seventh Son’ album) started before
the album was officially released. 'Seventh Son' tour started the same
month the album was released, and 'Fear of the Dark' had the longest
waiting period. In light of the large uncertainty regarding the success of the
album, which they all had high expectations for, they thought it was a better
tactical move to release the album and give it good PR before travelling to
the US. Of course, they did a trial show under the fake name 'The Nodding
Donkeys' in Norwich (The Oval Rock House) on June 3rd 1992 before heading
to Iceland, which had the most affordable US flights. It was also their first
chance to visit the country as a band, and play their first gig there.
But the real start of the tour was in USA, or New York, to be precise. 'The
Ritz' club wasn’t, capacity-wise, what Iron Maiden really wanted for their US
debut concert in 1992, but 'The Ritz' was so much more than that. With
enough space for about 1500 people 'The Ritz' was a club everyone played,
and where playing was a matter of prestige. At the time MTV produced a
series of very popular 'Live from the Ritz' shows, which featured bands like
Guns N' Roses, The Cult', Nik Kershaw, Iggy Pop and more.
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You can tell how important ‘The Ritz’ was by the fact Tina Turner held her
comeback concert there, U2 and Depeche Mode had their first US shows
there, and so did Sepultura (who were King Diamond’s special guests). Sting
had his debut in ‘The Ritz’ in 1985, and it hosted Duran Duran and Dead or
Alive on their first US tour in 1981. Ozzy Osbourne, Run-DMC, Iggy Pop, D.R.I
and Guns ‘n’ Roses recorded their live performances there, and Danzig
chose it as location for ‘Mother’ and ‘Twist of Cain’ videos. Steve Ray
Vaughn played his last New Year’s Eve show in 1989 there, while the Talking
Heads chose it for their last live show, also in 1989.
Maiden were in the position of having to go with the flow at the time, and if
something was hot, they had to be a part of it, which shouldn’t surprise it.
The prevalent fan opinion is that if everyone is doing one thing, Maiden will
to their own, but this wasn’t always the case…
Fear of the Dark Touring plans.
The above image shows the tour plan from their tour book, but as the tour
was all written in one column, I corrected the photograph into landscape
mode. You can see (even though it is in a small font) a note that there will
th
be additional dates for the US and Canada from November 6 until
th
December 10 . According to their schedule at the time, this meant another
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25 concerts. The question remains why this plan never came to fruition, and
you should also keep in mind that the same plan for additional concerts
wasn’t accomplished at the end of their 'Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour' in
1989. Was it due to the fact Bruce announced he was leaving Iron Maiden,
which, according to my theory elaborated earlier in the book happened in
December, or was the fact these concerts didn’t happen expedite his
decision? I think the latter is true. With only twenty or so US concerts at the
start of the tour and this additional 20, they would be far from their usual
number of concerts in the eighties, but still do very well.
On the other hand, this tour and it’s continuation next year showed how
appreciated they are in Europe and how Iron Maiden can increase the
number of concerts in countries like Italy, France, Spain, German and their
usual UK. Iron Maiden were big enough in Europe to have a band like Black
Sabbath as their special guest (see poster on page 161), and 'Monsters of
Rock' festival and the accompanying tour contributed heavily in making this
the most successful Iron Maiden European tour ever. With the Russian
market opening, and an increasing number of concerts in Japan, and finally,
with the opening of the Central and South American route, Iron Maiden had
to focus (as they later did) to grow further and today things would be (if
Dickenson stayed for the entire duration of this process) radically different.
Don’t forget that Iron Maiden played up to seven concerts per tour in the
mid-eighties in Poland, and three in Ex-Yugoslavia. After their starting
expansion, Poland vanished from their tour list completely, while war broke
out in Yugoslavia, so their absence there was justified.
But, USA are alongside Canada two most profitable market, and without a
good market share there, no band can consider themselves global or
relevant, and Iron Maiden didn’t have to lose that attribute, so, in their wish
to fix the situation, and increase sales, they only went on to make nineties
more uncertain, to the point where some media started speculating that the
bend is nearing its end. But, despite everything, 'Fear of the Dark Tour' is a
tour all Iron Maiden fans would love to see as a ‘history tour’ concert series.
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SPARK OF HOPE
It´s a bit sad to look at the poster from the previous page now, 25 years
later, which proudly declares ‘Monsters of Rock - From Here to Eternity’,
because in a way, this is exactly what happened. Many will say that this
incarnation of the 'Monsters of Rock' festival was the last ´real´ one, and
that the later, truncated incarnations were just the death rattle before the
final end. The one-day festival which featured top bands died forever,
leaving behind the Download Festival, Sonisphere, Hellfest and many others.
It was the second staging of the top UK festival which featured Iron Maiden
and the second where they were headliners. In fact, one got the impression
that they are by far the mightiest then the rest of the bands, and that the
festival was there for them, and not the other way around. 'Monsters of
Rock' festival, alongside the following European tour, did a lot to help Iron
Maiden both in 1988 and in 1998. Besides the enhanced promotion and
guaranteed increased number of visitors, this festival wasn’t designed like
those today, where the brand and festival logo take the center stage. This
festival served to promote the headliners, which is clearly visible on the
poster from the previous page. Next to the large band logo, the entire visual
was devoted to Iron Maiden. And now the promotion could truly start.
The modus operandi of this festival promotion, at least when it came to Iron
Maiden, was as same as the one from 1988. The festival was announced as
the only Iron Maiden concert in the UK in 1992, and besides being announced
in the media, this was also announced via stickers on Iron Maiden singles. For
the younger crowd.. This was a time before internet, and this was the only
way to get relevant information. But this time everyone knew that the UK tour
was just a matter of time, but this time the concert organizers weren’t going
for record sales, because, due to an accident in 1988, the number of tickets
was limited, and the difference between the tickets released for 1988 and
1992 was enough to fill a larger stadium.
Seeing how the loyal Iron Maiden fans were incredibly proud of their band
and their brand, whether the concert will have an excellent audience
response was never a question. Just like, despite AC/DC releasing their live
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album from the same festival, this didn’t stop Iron Maiden from doing the
same, because, as I already mentioned in the 'Seventh Son' book, the
intention was already there in 1988, but they were forced to postpone.
There was nothing stopping Iron Maiden to make this festival show a
successful one, but then this happened…
Adrian Smith on 'Monsters of Rock 1992. (screenshot)
Adrian Smith, the guitarist whose departure was long grieved by many fans,
who left the band in 1989, returned now, three years later. The fans were
bursting with excitement as they saw him walk on to the stage to play
'Running Free' at the end of the concert, and many fans eyes were filled
with tears, and they surely thought that this was the best moment to
announce a reunion. But Adrian didn’t come there by chance and just walk
onto the stage, as some members later said to the press. Adrian’s guest
appearance was known beforehand, just like it was known that Adrian will
not be returning. As the band members bowed to thrilled audience hugging,
Adrian didn’t stay with them after playing the song, but vanished to the
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backstage… The fan’s sweet dream didn’t last long, and the question
remained- why did all of this happen? If his appearance was known before
the concert, and this was to be used as promo, and if after this Adrian didn’t
triumphantly return to Iron Maiden (and this would have been fantastic PR),
there had to have been a reason. Some media wrote that perhaps Adrian
realized that he made a mistake by leaving (though it was not of his own
will) the band, and this was a way he wanted to return. Many have wrongly
interpreted the moment when Janick took a camera and recorded the
audience from the stage, and let Adrian take his place as his last moment on
stage with Iron Maiden. But this was not the case. Adrian announced to the
press that there was no intention of a reunion… he was just there, and it
seemed like a fun thing to do. There is no bad blood in Iron Maiden (or so it
seems). There were always tensions, but those are everywhere, and they
could never have an incident like Guns ‘n’ Roses had. Even though Adrian
left, they still stayed on good terms, and if you look at the faces of all the
Iron Maiden members on stage during their 'Running Free' performance,
you can see they are all in high spirits. In fact, they couldn’t stop grinning!
I would like to make an observation about the theory surrounding the 'A Real
Death One' album a lot of fans seem to favor, because it sounds legit, and that
is that the album name coincided with Dickinson’s departure, and that this
was part of the reason why it has gotten the name. And the band itself,
through statements and interviews, allowed for a theory to emerge that Bruce
informed the rest of the members just after New Year in 1993 that he will be
leaving, and they quickly organized the 'A Real Live Tour’, in order to do an
unplanned farewell tour and record enough material for 'A Real Dead One'
album. It’s a fact that both 'A Real Live One' and 'A Real Dead One’ were
planned well ahead; both in name and the concept, and that the additional
support tour was also planned ahead. Just listen to what Bruce is saying while
performing 'Running Free' at the 'Monsters of Rock’ Festival. He is promising
the fans to return, and a full UK tour next year. The only change in his plan
was that 'A Real Death One' was postponed. Both 'A real Live One' and 'A Real
Dead One' were planned to hit the market in a very short time span, similar to
what Guns ‘n’ Roses did with 'Use Your Illusion I' and 'Use your Illusion II'.
But, never mind the albums; we still don’t know why Adrian Smith came to
the stage, if not for the aforementioned reasons. As Adrian had a very solid
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fan base who still couldn’t get over his departure, and even went so far as to
boycott the albums featuring Janick, bringing Adrian was an excellent
marketing ploy to maximize the sales of 'Live At Donington' album and
video, but I would also dare to suggest that the main reason they invited
Adrian was an experiment Rod Smallwood decided to conduct. We all know
what Adrian’s music tastes are, and the chances he would just shop up to
'Monsters of Rock' are very slim. Adrian was invite. Furthermore, this
experiment seemed to consist of several points:
- Find out how Iron Maiden fans will react to the show
- Find out how Adrian will act on stage
- Find out how the fans will act once they see Adrian again
- Find out how the media would react to Adrian’s return.
A lot could be learned from that small, but well thought out move, and Iron
Maiden’s management could know how to react in the future if things
would go wrong, and a new/old member would be needed. But in my
opinion, the primary task was watching how Bruce Dickinson would react to
Adrian’s appearance. Bruce and Adrian were excellent song-writing partners
at the start of Iron Maiden’s career, and ever since Adrian left, an opinion
arose that iron maiden lost that special something, something people called
'The X Factor'. This is a very interesting idea, especially since we know that
Iron Maiden’s next album was titled 'The X Factor'.
It wasn’t easy for the media, fans or even the band members themselves to
predict Bruce’s departure from the band, because the tour itself ran so
smoothly, 'Monsters of Rock' was such a triumph and everything seemed to be
going steady. But, I am completely convinced that Rod Smallwood, dedicated to
a fault and a manager with a vision knew it before Bruce himself was aware of it,
and that he had contingency plan for every situation, including this one.
„We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor.
When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it
means danger, revolution, anarchy.“ Do you know who wrote this?
This interesting and painfully true statement comes from the American
writer by the name of Henry Miller, who died the same year Iron Maiden
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released their first album. He also coined another famous saying, which
Bruce saw as the TV statement of the day when he was in LA.
„All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without

the benefit of experience.”
This statement seemed to have been the tipping point in Bruce’s decision to
leave Iron Maiden and go find his own path. This happened between two
tours, and the first person Bruce informed was Rod Smallwood himself, but
it seemed he was already prepared for it, and he wasn’t the drama queen
someone might imagine he would be at that time. He didn’t ask Bruce to
reconsider, because he knew it was a done deal, but he wasn’t insulted
either and decline any possible future cooperation, but wisely decided to
keep Bruce under his own Management (in fact, Bruce himself offered it to
him), and gave him instructions on what he has to do in order to make his
‘divorce’ from Iron Maiden look idyllic in the media.
It was Rod who said he would speak to the rest of the band on Bruce’s
behalf, and that he will know best how to handle everyone, from
management and crew, to the band and media. However, at one point Nicko
McBrain did have a bad reaction, but this was also quickly resolved in the
media, which I will also expand on a little later. By the time when the PR
statement was written and the media bomb was about to drop, everything
was staged down to the last detail, and was served up to the fans and media
as a done deal, thus avoiding any possible soap opera style drama and
scandal the media was dying to find. How other band members truly reacted
to Rod’s news we will probably never know. But, let us take a step back first.
Bringing Adrian Smith was in a way a test to see if Bruce wanted to stay in
the band if Adrian returned. If his reaction had indicated that, I am sure that
Adrian would have already then become a new old band member, but Bruce
did not react in that way. His desire to leave was burning ever brighter, and
nobody, not even Rod, could subtly interfere to stop him. I am also certain
that he knew that Bruce would return to Iron Maiden, just like Smith. We all
know what Rod’s managerial superpowers are. If he wanted to make Bruce
bigger, trust me, he would have. This way he could have kept him at the
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slow roast of semi-success, and when the time came for today’s lineup to
return, he did it in a grand style. .
Rod Smallwood and Bruce Dickinson. Taken from www.maidenthebeast.com
Precisely because of all this I believe that Adrian’s one time appearance was
a subtle spark of home that his return could change everything. But in his
metaphor how the Pope knows all and the Pope is always right, Bruce
alludes to Steve Harris in his book even 25 years later, and this was perhaps
one of the most important reasons Bruce left. He told an anecdote from
1992, when they were returning to the Narita Tokyo airport after wrapping
up their world tour, happy, satisfied and in a good mood, about how he tried
to start a discussion about his displeasure with production and sound, and
insufficient critique of his own work within the band, but as he claims, not
only Harris, but all the other band members looked at him as if he had lost
his mind, so he give up on it.
I mentioned earlier how during all that time the only sharp comment came
from Nicko McBrain, who delivered a verbal pounding to Dickinson. In April
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1993 he had the following to say for Kerrang Magazine:
„He's going his way, we're going ours. Fuck 'im – let's get a new singer!
That's it... cut 'n' dried. My father, rest his soul, said to me once: "Son, if
anyone ever shits on the McBrain name, they'll only do it the one time". And
he did! He's fuckin' leaving the band, you dip-shit! Course he has! He's said,
"Fuck you, I'm off". If that ain't shitting on you, then what the fuck is?! I told
Steve what my old man said, and I think he thought it was a sensible
analogy! It seems to have been a culmination of things for Bruce. He's been
writing screenplays, books... He's got his fencing and his family. It could have
been pressure from his wife, for all I know. He hasn't said anything, but it's a
possibility. Plus, he went to LA, and y'know what the fucking wankers are like
out there!: "Oh, fuckin' Bruce Dickinson, you awesome mother-fucker,
duuude! Yeah, you'll make a great fuckin' career on your own! Leave that
bunch of fuckin' has-beens behind!"
But Nicko didn’t stop there, but had a lot more to say:
“I've worked with him for 10 years. I'll always be there for him, but I still feel
hurt, 'cos I know he don't like the band anymore. At this stage, that ain't
fuckin' cool.' Some nights, I see Bruce sing like he hasn't sung before. Tonight
wasn't one of them. Sometimes I can't hear him, and wonder whether me
monitors are fucked! He's skylarking about-that's okay, that's the way he
deals with it. But I eat, live, breathe and shit this band. And I do feel that he
don't really wanna be here. Everyone's felt a little of the same about Bruce's
effort and how he's performing. But we mustn't let it get to us. We've got so
much strength from each other, and from the whole fucking deal, that it's
bonded us together. To me, this is still a Fear of the Dark tour. It's not a
Farewell to Bruce tour. It's got fuck all to do with that. What I feel, although
in a positive way rather than a hateful one, is good fucking riddance! I can't
wait to get to the end of this tour and find a new singer. He and I have done
interviews together, where I've said stuff like, 'I'm gonna take him outside
and fucking do 'im!' It's a laugh, but there's also an element of truth in that!
In my heart of hearts, I don't want to be doing this. I want us to find a new
singer and do a new album. There's still a good fucking bit of mileage left in
this band. We ain't dead yet. Where there's a will, there's a fucking way. It's
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gonna work for us; I know it will. Everyone's so positive... It's like the Phoenix
rising. We will rise again, as a stronger and more positive bird...”
The public didn’t have long to wait for Bruce’s reply, and when the French
Hard Rock Magazine asked him how a farewell tour with the band can be
pleasant for him after some band members directed sharp criticism
regarding his departure, and how the band can function in private and on
stage in such circumstances.
You're referring to the Kerrang! interview... At times, Nicko opens his mouth
before he gets his brain into gear. The journalist who wrote that paper had
spend three days interviewing all five of us and trying to dig some dirt. And he
couldn't. In the end, he got Nicko a few drinks and, after about five hours, he
finally got three sentences out that made that bloke's day. I didn't mind, I've
known Nicko for too long. He's the one who looked stupid in the whole story.
When the first publisher’s and management’s PR statements started

reaching the media, Bruce’s departure almost seemed like a sideline. To
make the difficult news as painless as possible, Iron Maiden used the
strategy of listing all their accomplishments so far, along with the exact
numbers of sold copies for their latest album, tour info, upcoming live
albums and other band member’s plans, emphasizing that it was Steve
Harris who is the real head of the band, throughout the years and changes in
lineup. It was only at the end of their statement (as you can see in the
newspaper clipping from the previous page), they stated that it was mostly
Steve who was going through the hundreds of audition tapes which had
arrived. Then, to show that they had complete mastery and control of the
situation, they announced the start of work on a new album, also in the
Barnyard studios, and that the album was scheduled for fall of 1994, and
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that the accompanying world tour was to begin at the end of the same year.
But what really happened? We all know the album didn’t come out until a
year later. But at the time they were releasing the news of Dickinson’s
departure, it was of crucial importance to show that the band is soldiering
on, and that nothing could break them.
Did Steve suspect anything during that time? In the big interview he gave while
he was finishing the album mix for 'A Real Live One', the overjoyed Steve Harris
(which you can see in the above picture), had the following to say: „If Someone
hadn't seen Maiden before and was to ask „What are Maiden about?“ I'd hand
'em this. It really does convey the sense that we attack the audience.“ While
giving his interview, Bruce was still a band member. Later during that interview,
Steve gave a significant statement „It's a shame: Not matter what Paul DiAnno
does with his new material, it seems like Maiden is gonna be weight around his
neck forever.“ Doesn’t it seem like those words were directed to someone else
as prevention? Bruce’s departure just couldn’t be stopped. But they could do
(and did) everything so the door behind him wouldn’t shut.
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170
A GREAT UNKNOWN
A few years ago I became a judge for an international metal competition at
one of the most famous of all living metal festivals. Yes, you guessed it, it was
Wacken Open Air in Germany. The very same Wacken which is now nearing its
thirtieth year, is of an immense significance to the entire metal scene, and the
very same one where Iron Maiden had some very large milestones in their
career, and whose tickets get sold out almost a year ahead.
My job as a festival judge was to listen to about 30 bands from all over the
world, and then choose the best ones. The name of this competition is
Wacken Metal Battle, and in the previous 15 years it gathered hundreds of
excellent metal bands, and if you add semi-finalist concerts in their own
respective countries to that number, then the figure rises to thousands,
even tens of thousands of bands, counting all the applicants.
Amongst my fellow judges from all over the world were some very important
people who help fuel the metal scene across the globe, and were mostly
concert and festival promoters in their countries or regions, metal journalists,
presenters, record executives and similar. One of them was my colleague, an
associate and interlocutor in this book, Carlos Musetti from Uruguay
(Montevideo), who is also a huge Iron Maiden fan for decades. As he vividly
remembers the famous surprise concert Iron Maiden held in Uruguay in 1992,
and also keeps all the press clippings on the topic, as well as a concert ticket,
he decided to share his story from the concert with us, and at the same time
show us a different point of view when it came their concerts, and reveal to us
a story which was never published before, and was never before revealed.
I wrote of the forbidden Chilean concert from 1992 in my book 'Powerslave',

in the chapter called 'Rock in Rio', but some details bear mentioning. In the
following five pages I will share a part of the already written text, and
remind you of the basic story itself, so you can understand the Uruguay
episode better. We are lucky that the story has now reached the public, and
that it can shed a new light on the Iron Maiden’s South America tour, and all
they had to endure there.
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Iron Maiden playing at Rio 1985 was a massive hit, especially knowing that
they headlined the third edition of the festival while recording their famous
live album ‘Rock in Rio’ which most of the fans put almost on the same level
of fame as ‘Live After Death’ which got an entire chapter in this book - and
this has to mean something. Maybe you weren’t aware of this when
speaking of ‘Rock in Rio’ album, but the profits from the sale of the album
were donated to the Clive Burr fund, which would help the former drummer
pay mounting medical bills for treatment of his multiple sclerosis. This
festival was a clear announcement of Maiden coming not only to ‘conquer’
Brazil, but also the whole of Latin America which is exactly what ended up
happening. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Ecuador. Colombia, El
Salvador, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Venezuela… If we add
a couple of smaller countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Panama, Belize, Cuba, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, Bolivia on the
South American continent which were covered pretty good with Maiden’s
tour schedule it’s safe to say no band of such magnitude has ever put so
much effort into touring Latin America. Still, this didn’t happen immediately
after their first year at Rock in Rio. It was seven long years before Maiden
came back to Brazil triumphantly which just shows how much time they’ve
put into building their ‘net’ and possibly proves my hypothesis of them
playing for a reduced rate because Maiden had more interest playing there
in that moment than the promoter did inviting them in particular.
Today Iron Maiden has a fully developed market in Latin America, selling out
the biggest stadiums and that market is possible the most important one
because they don’t need open air festivals to reach ‘stadium attendances’
like they do in Europe. It’s all a result of a carefully planned strategy and
insight related to the functioning of music scene network on a global scale.
Reunion with Dickinson didn’t happen exactly then as a coincidence and
‘Rock in Rio’ wasn’t just a natural follow-up. It’s all been a part of a master
plan that the fans aren’t really aware of. The original ‘Rock in Rio’ happened
in 1985, the second was in 1991 and the third one 10 years later - in 2001.
The frequency of this festival was completely unpredictable which means
that the management had to have some serious insider info related to the
eventual planning of a massive festival such as this one in order for them to
even manage setting up everything - and their reunion was the ideal motive.
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Of course, everything is allowed when it comes to PR even if it’s not

completely true. This is a rule all of the labels and PR agencies lived by,
including Iron Maiden’s PR machine. After conquering Brazil, it was time for
the rest of Latin America. Maiden wanted to create their own ‘Eldorado’
which will bear fruit for a long time, even if Europe and United States fall
short. Maiden gave EMI their blessing to put out an animated video ‘Why
Music Matters’ where they wanted to show their fans how they fought
against them being banned in Chile in 1992, which they blamed the
government and the church for. The sweet revenge for that ‘witch hunt’
happened exactly 20 years later when they released ‘En Vivo’ after playing
Estadio Nacional in Chile, which is the biggest concert venue there - in front
of 50 000 fans. With this Maiden became the highest selling band in Chile,
selling over 226 000 tickets on 7 concerts played, surpassing even U2 (212
000) and Roger Waters (209 000). ‘Why Music Matters’ campaign was
created mostly as a fight against piracy but also served as a way of realizing
how much music means to all of us. In this particular case the idea failed
horribly, the criticism was overwhelming and the video got removed from all
the official sources but luckily a certain fan managed to save a copy and you
can find it at https://youtu.be/zsz3CSrsFII
Why Music Matters - Iron Maiden in Chile.
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The reaction was just around the corner… Chilean magazine Blitzkrieg stated
that the video is full of lies and placed a public statement online.
"Let me give you a summary of the video: Iron Maiden is a great band,
they’ve inspired millions. In 1992 they wanted to play in Chile, but the
Government banned them because they would be a bad influence for the
youth; it wasn’t until 2004 that Iron Maiden managed to play in Chile, giving
the poor and oppressed Chileans a taste of freedom of expression, “a means
of escape” and, perhaps, maybe even a little hope that things can change.
To say that they took a few artistic liberties doesn’t really cut it. In 1992 Iron
Maiden was not banned in Chile. It’s true, Christian organizations
complained about them and denounced them as satanic, which eventually
meant that no venue wanted to host the show, but the government didn’t
have anything to do with it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending (not by a
long shot) the bunch of idiots that claimed that Iron Maiden was a satanic
band, nor am I trying to say that having venues drop the whole show is good.
But it is different from saying that they were banned by the government,
since this simply didn’t happen.
Also, Chilean fans didn’t need to wait until 2004 to see the band. Iron Maiden
visited Chile in 1996… then in 2001, then in 2004, then in 2008, then in 2009 and
then in 2011. And, believe me; they haven’t exactly played in small underground
venues. For their last concert they played in the biggest venue available in the
country, the National Football Stadium in Santiago. The idea that Iron Maiden
shows up and gives us “a means of escape”, in a political sense, is just bullshit. In
terms of political freedom, Chile is no different from any other western nation.
So, why the BS? Well, teenagers have the attention span of a goldfish. You need
to hook them somehow. A short animated feature can do the trick, as long as
you tell them a compelling story. Sure, we could try to talk about how metal
inspired bands in Iraq under Hussein and how they struggled to keep their music
alive even after the US invasion of 2003… but that would be too complex.“
As Blitzkrieg’s editor said, Maiden didn’t play in 1992 but neither did they
had to wait until 2014 - they were there in 1996 playing in front of over 18
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000 people. That show is also seen in the YouTube hit ‘Blaze Gets Mad’ as
Blaze Bayley, who was Maiden’s vocalist back then gets furious at the fan
who spit on Steve Harris. In the time when Maiden were having a really
tough time with Blaze all across Europe and United States, while I was
watching them play in Pordenone, Italy in front of barely 2 000 people, they
had almost 20 000 in Chile and the same thing was happening in all the
countries in Latin America. Over 16 concerts on two different tours with
Blaze are a proof that Latin America basically saved Maiden’s ass in those
years. Without them, the band possibly couldn’t have made it and would
have come face to face with complete breakdown. The buildup surrounding
this continent started back in 1985 and in a way it managed to save Iron
Maiden so it’s no wonder they recorded two live albums on that soil already
- possibly even a third one knowing that the theme of ‘Book of Souls’ is
closely related to Latin America. Maiden also cleverly visited some countries
they’ve never been to before like Israel, Malta, South Africa etc., generating
the hype they absolutely needed no matter how bad they might have done
across Europe while adding an exotic touch to their tour. There was no
coincidences when speaking of Maiden’s management developing their
future strategy, not even the way they announced Bruce coming back to the
band. Today a lot of fans believe it was all a farce, if not completely then at
least partially. While it is true that bad vibrations among band members
were quite obvious in the 90’s, if Bruce and Adrian leaving changed anything
(probably related to Bruce more) it’s the fact that their return to the band
meant their word was valued more than it used to be, with the band finally
getting some wind beneath their wings for a new race to the top, fueled by
the hunger of all the fans waiting for some classic Iron Maiden.
Let’s go back to Chile once again. In 2009 Maiden sold out a show in front of
55 000 people 3 months in advance and the demand just kept growing so
the comment related to ‘Why Music Matters’ video on metalblast.net was
mostly justified. This is what they had to say about the whole situation:
For most people Chile is located either “somewhere around Mexico,

right?” or at “what the fuck is Chile?”, so it would be easy to concoct a
bullshit story about the country, knowing full well that the target audience of
the video wouldn’t know any better.
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Throughout the last few decades the record companies (as well as the movie
and software industries) have made numerous attempts to curtail piracy,
although by methods that have been stupid at best, and downright malicious
at worst. This new attempt does nothing to combat piracy or to protect the
rights of the artists. If anything, it just provides a 3-minute, bullshit-filled,
cartoon show that, at least, has a nice soundtrack.
Oh, and if the whole thing wasn’t bad enough, the best quote they could find
to say how influential Iron Maiden is comes from Tom Morello, of Rage
Against the Machine. That’s just adding insult to injury.
I’d like to add that it seems to me Maiden is working hard trying to get rid of
any legacy related to Blaze Bayley and Paul DiAnno. Up until recently they
weren’t even mentioned on the official pages which at least changed
eventually. In this video they are basically ignoring the gig with Blaze from
1996 and it’s pissing off a lot of their fans who don’t allow Maiden’s history
to be fabricated in any way.
The history of this band taught us of their slow and steady expansion of
dominance on different vastly populated areas that weren’t explored
previously like India, Dubai, Korea, Indonesia, recently adding China to the
list and these countries are going to be their priority marketing-wise, at least
as long as the band is active. Latin America is finally ‘conquered’ with the
‘Book of Souls’ tour while India, China and the others are just waiting to
follow with way more strength and enthusiasm from the band itself because
basically half of the world’s population resides in these two countries, and
they need to be ‘Maidenized’ for sure. Sadly - the time takes its toll. Had
Maiden been in this position as a ten year younger band, nothing would
have been impossible.
But take a step back towards the original ‘Rock in Rio’ from 1985. The story
surrounding Maiden’s ‘territorial’ strategy is important for the fans to
understand exactly how our favorite band paved their way towards the
status they have rightfully earned. The South American story started with
‘Powerslave’ and it’s marked in history even though they reached that
particular market 7 years after the festival.
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The previous page shows a newspaper article about the Iron Maiden’s
Uruguay concert, including a review. All the printed material we received is
available in high res on the accompanying multimedia DVD
“When I remember the concert in my country, the first thing that comes to
mind is that here were around four to five thousand people there, not more,
and that the ticket price was around 10 dollars. ‘Thunder’, a local band were
their opening act, and as far as I remember, their music reminded me heavily
of Led Zeppelin. There were no local bands that evening.“
Carlos’ concert ticket for their Uruguay show in 1992.
„Even though I remember this concert with a certain nostalgia, I want to

point out that things didn’t really go well for the band during that concert,
and I never saw this mentioned later in European or USA media. You have to
know that Janick playing with Iron Maiden was something completely new
for us, and that most of us had an image of Adrian and Dave in our minds,
two serious musicians and excellent guitar players, and you cannot imagine
the shock people had when they suddenly saw a blue-eyed boy singing,
dancing, doing the splits and similar. Ha, ha! I want to point out one thing
though; after a while some fans started to harass him and cause him trouble
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by shouting taunts at him. They were yelling in Spanish, but some gestures
and things are universal, enough for Janick to understand them and to
imagine what everything else meant. As he was still fairly young and new in
the band, he reacted by giving them the finger, which is when the real
trouble for him started. First, they started spitting on him. When Steve saw
what was happening, he tried to act like a gentleman and protect him by
standing in front of him on stage, and while he was there nobody would dare
to spit, but as as soon as he moved, the same thing started happening again.
This resulted in Steve getting his “share” in the end too. Bruce tried to put a
stop to it all, but it ended the same for him too.“
“And then about six to eight people started throwing pebbles towards the stage.
And when I say pebbles, I mean those rocks that you find next to the railroad
tracks, because the concert was in an old railway station. Later, people were
saying that it was a couple of punks who entered the concert without paying for
their ticket, but it’s difficult to judge now. I think it’s probable that through this
interpretation we all try to forget and cover up in our collective memory that
something like that could happen to Iron Maiden in our country.”
A newspaper report from the concert.
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“It all escalated by Janick throwing down his guitar and the concert was stopped.
Dave Murray followed him. It was interesting to see Nicko’s face, because he
had no idea what was going on. Bruce and Steve stayed on the stage and held a
very ‘non-friendly’ speech with a lot of gestures. I believe nobody could really
understand them, but it mostly involved the words ‘fuck’ and ‘shit’, so it wasn’t
difficult to understand what they were talking about. After a while the show
continued and everything was peaceful after that. But to make things worse,
after the concert someone from the Iron Maiden crew put up the Argentinean
flag on the stage scaffolding. Even though as countries we are ‘all time brothers’,
we are also ‘all time rivals’, so the flag had to be removed immediately.“
Steve Harris, Montevideo 1992.
“The first large rock concert ever held here was Van Halen in 1983. Since then
until 1992, when Maiden arrived, there were no world-famous acts in Uruguay,
so try to imagine how we all felt about the events that took place that night. We
thought it was the last concert ever in Uruguay. But when the albums ‘Real Live
One’ and ‘Real Dead One’ were released, and when we discovered there is a
photo from the airport in Uruguay there, we could breathe a little easier and
think that things will be OK, and Iron Maiden will come back some day.“
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“At that time, Maiden’s fee was around 80000 USD which involved the classical
Maiden show. That’s about how much they were paid in Argentina and Brazil.
Since the Chile was cancelled, they came here for only 40 000 USD and brought
only a few amps with them. The stage was really ridiculous by their standards
th
The Uruguay concert was held on July 28 in the now abandoned General
Artigos Central Railway Station which was a beautiful example of Victorian
architecture. It was opened in 1897 and built by the English, who at the time
were the owners and administrators of the Uruguay railroad network, and
were nationalized in 1945. The building was designed by the Italian architect
Luigi Anderoni. Iron Maiden band members were fascinated by the
architecture of the building because they didn’t expect to see British 19th
century architecture in the middle of Uruguay, and did an impromptu
photoshoot among the old locomotives and wagons (see photo on next page).
Alejandro Espina, in his article 'Heavy Metal is in Liquidation' criticized the

Uruguay concert and described it as : Anachronistic and pathetic due to absence
of ideas; a proposal lacking content and without any transgressive scope.
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From today’s point of view this can seem ridiculous, because globalization, and
especially the Internet, opened the eyes for many people, as well as broadened
their horizon, and all information is just a second away, no matter what
happened and where it happened. As travel became cheaper, the number of
fans willing to travel longer distances rose, so there isn’t an Iron Maiden concert
anywhere in the world, even in China, South Africa, India, Peru or any other
country where next to the indigenous fans, you can’t find hundreds who came
from all over the world. You can see names spelled wrong and mistakes which
bordered on comical in many of the media announcements, but this wasn’t rare
in the countries Iron Maiden were visiting for the first time. In the early nineties,
no matter how strange it seemed, the entire Central and South America was ‘A
Great Unknown’ for many bands, and someone had to be the first to explore it.
In the name of metal music, Iron Maiden did it first, and most thoroughly, and
can enjoy the fruits of their arduous work deservedly there today, because, as
we saw many times, they enjoy a godlike status.
Now, when there is no need to publish albums for that market with song titles
translated to Spanish, when two live albums were recorded in south American
countries, and when concerts there are held in their largest stadiums,
everything may seem easy and spontaneous, but Iron Maiden had to face
scenes such as the one described in the nineties, and only those where there at
the time know what really happened. Iron Maiden certainly never had the need,
or intention to speak of it in public, because they didn’t want the bad publicity.
In fact, the experienced first-hand how troublesome it was to displease an entire
nation, when they accused their USA and Canada fans of not understanding
metal music, which they didn’t forgive them in an entire decade. On the other
hand, they praised their South American tour (no matter what happened there
at the time), and this only gave them more gravitas in Canada and Europe, and
served to elevate them to deities in Mexico and further south.
I already mentioned it sooner, but it bears repeating, how incredibly important

it is that Iron Maiden managed to finally visit South America during this tour, but
also Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, New Zealand and so on. If this
happened during the Blaze era, when their popularity was in free fall, they may
have never had the chance to see the line-up featuring Bruce Dickinson, which
(and this must be said), had shows which were a lot more intense and filled with
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energy, because it’s not certain Iron Maiden would have survived long enough
to see their reunion. This way they had the chance to see the ‘True Iron Maiden’
(no matter how inaccurate this description is), which was the right incentive for
their fan base to grow. They secured a large new fanbase who, eternally hungry
for concerts they could never see before, during the most challenging time in
the nineties were a support they could have only dreamed of. The fans in central
and south America were A Great Unknown to Iron Maiden, and it seems that
this was also true for the fans regarding Iron Maiden.
The situation is drastically different today. Even I have experienced it myself.

At least a third of my books are sold to Central and South America, and near
the end of the year my Harris book will be published in Portuguese in Brazil,
and a Spanish edition is also in the talks. It’s not an accident that Iron
Maiden chose a theme and visuals close to their Central and South America
fans for their ‘Book of Souls’ album, which is directly connected to their
customs, mythology and ancient religions. Their ‘mining’ in the nineties,
some twenty years earlier, certainly bore fruit.
We’ll probably laugh, and speak of it the same way in some ten years (if Maiden
last that long as a band), but a very similar thing happened in China in 2016
where only a small crowd came to see them, and where the concert was under
restrictions, like the ban on flying the Union Jack while performing 'The Trooper'.
But Iron Maiden are at the end of their career today, and there are no
possible new large bands in sight. With the departure of Iron Maiden,
Rolling Stones, Deep Purple AC/DC, Metallica, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Black
Sabbath, Aerosmith, KISS, Scorpions, Queen and the like the last large
stadium filling bands are Foo Fighters, Guns 'N' Roses, RHCP, Rammstein,
Bon Jovi, Green Day, Linkin Park, Pearl Jam and perhaps handful of others,
while all the others aren’t brave enough to take matters into their own
hands and invest their knowledge, money, effort and creativity to conquer
the world. Everyone is playing it safe these days by playing festivals, and it’s
only thanks to them they can show their questionable greatness. Iron
Maiden proved themselves many times over in the last 40 years, and it’s a
bit absurd that now, at the twilight of their career, they still have to break
new ground for new and upcoming bands which they should have been
doing themselves a long time ago..
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REAL LIVE TOUR

‘Big Bad Eddie coming to get you, so you’re dead now!' – menaces a message on
the plates of a truck on the Iron Maiden´s tour program for their ‘Real Live Tour’
1993, done by Derek Riggs. Although he didn’t do the album cover, Derek was
fortunately still working for Iron Maiden and creating excellent illustrations,
which are still remembered. This time Derek was simply inspired by the movie
Duel by Steven Spielberg and transferred it to the movie screen as a huge truck
which, if you dare to pass, brings your death. Keeping in mind the more and
more obvious battle for prestige among metal bands, which was pretty strong at
that time and which was mentioned directly in a song called 'Space Station Nr. 5'
(which I will be writing about later on in this book), the whole illustration makes
a lot more sense. You cannot and should not pass us, and if you do ‘Big Bad
Eddie coming to get you, so you’re dead now!'. Seeing the collection of US
license plates this illustration would seem more appropriate for the first part of
their tour. 'Real Live Tour' had its special purpose and task..
Cut from the Spielberg movie ‘Duel’ with an identical truck in the leading role..
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As the live album ‘A Real Live One’, which mostly contained of newer songs as to
opposite the previous ‘Live After Death’, was released shortly before this part of
the tour they had to invest heavily into promoting it, and what better way to do
it than hit the road for another fifty concerts. Aside from the regular European
countries like Portugal, Spain, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, Sweden,
Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and naturally the UK, Iron Maiden also visited the
Czech Republic for the first time, followed by Slovakia and lastly Russia.
Do you remember my previous story about the additional part of the tour which
the manager Rod Smallwood envisioned following the release of 'Live After
Death', which never happened? The band almost burned out from their daily all
year round performances and wanted some time for themselves and their
families, and if Rod did insist on doing the tour which was highly demanded by
the fans anyways, maybe it would have been done, but the result would been
the band falling apart. 'Live After Death Tour', as an addition to 'World Slavery
Tour' never happened, which doesn’t mean that idea was discarded in Rod´s
mind. Promoting the album 'A Real Live One' was a great opportunity
considering the album was put together with a plan to publish it in two parts: 'A
Real Live One' with newer songs followed by 'A Real Dead One' with the older
hits. This meant that the additional tour which was supposed to be a promo tour
for the first part of the album should have had a different set list, which could be
used later on as a set list for the live album consisting of the older songs..
If anyone else didn’t know, between the lines, what could soon might
happen in the band when this tour was announced, it became clear to
globally everyone, regardless to the expected event denouement, and the
information that was released in the public caused great shock. Bruce
Dickinson is leaving the band!!! Somewhat ironically, but quite true, Bruce
threatened to leave the band 1985, in case if Rod nevertheless added that
tour sequel to promote the live album. Fortunately, that didn’t happen then,
but it just started to happen now. Of course, the prolonged tour wasn’t now
the reason for leaving, but it was an interesting coincidence. Even more,
there were plans for a second addition to the US ‘Real Dead Tour’, but
apparently, after Bruce's announcement that he is leaving, that part never
happened. The specificity of the route on this part of the tour, was the final
visiting the countries of the former eastern block, so Maiden finally could
visit the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and especially Russia, which has been long
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on their wishing list. All this happened at the right moment, especially after
Bruce announced his departure from the band, because, as things stand
nowadays, Bruce's departure was well-known to the band's management,
much earlier than the information was publicly released.
Accidentally or not, on his "last" tour with Maiden, Bruce visited Japan and
Australia once more, and for the first time New Zealand, Iceland, the Czech
Republic, Slovakia, Russia, and numerous Central/South American countries,
which are nowadays one of their largest markets. So with Bruce, in 1992,
Iron Maiden were also for the first time in Argentina, Uruguay, Puerto Rico,
Mexico and Venezuela, while unfortunately, they had to cancel the concert
in Chile. Of course, after a short trip to Brazil back in 1985, now seven years
later, they have returned to make a tour. Playing on all these new territories
was an intelligent move before Bruce's departure, as these countries gave
insight into what the classic Maiden were, in years when bands didn’t come to
the country, but they managed to create a growing number of fans in 1992.
Passionate and temperament, as they are in these areas, fans have had made
a band cult during Bruce's outbreak, and these countries were the only ones
who showed great support for the band, in times when Europe didn’t. While I
was 1995 and 1998 in Europe, watching Iron Maiden in front of 2 to 3000, and
sometimes 1500 fans, in South and Central America they played in front of
10,000 and more fans. This is the main reason why the opening of the market
(in political terms) in these areas was made in the right time, and today it is
clearly to see how it returned to them. But let's go back to the ‘Real One Tour’.
The 'Real One Tour' from 1993, followed immediately after a short break
from the 'Fear of the Dark' tour and began on March 25th. in Portugal. For
many fans it was a bitter taste tour, because what could be read between
the lines, this time has been shown public, between the break of the two
tours. Bruce announced his departure from the band at the end of the tour,
so it was characterized as his farewell. Many held that, according to that,
this was the reason why Maiden dramatically changed the set list, and
played some songs they hadn’t played for a long time, but it can’t be taken
out, that it was also in the time of the release of the second part of the live
album with the older songs, so a set list like that had actually quite another
justification.
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From the current album 'Fear of the Dark', Maidens played five tracks on
this part of the tour, and the final list was like this: 'Be Quick or be Dead',
'The Number of the Beast', 'Prowler', 'Transylvania', 'Remember Tomorrow',
'Where Eagles Dare, 'From Here to Eternity', 'Wasting Love', 'Bring Your
Daughter… to the Slaughter', 'Wasted Years', 'The Evil that Men Do', 'Afraid
to Shoot Strangers', 'Fear of the Dark', 'The Clairvoyant', 'Heaven Can't
Wait', 'Run to the Hills', '2 Minutes to Midnight', 'Iron Maiden', 'Hallowed be
Thy Name', 'The Trooper', 'Sanctuary' 'Running Free', and now and then,
'Wratchild'. Except local support bands such as Numeros Bojos, Zeus and
Exit, the band who mostly played with Maiden on this tour were "The
Almighty", in which the music market then, made great hopes. They even
followed Maiden in the 'X Factour', later in 1995 and 1996.
Although, mostly due to the fact that Bruce would eventually leave the band
at the end of the tour, this tour was well documented, with both audio/video
and photographs, many fans complained of Bruce's vocal performance.
Somehow, everyone seemed that Bruce made this tour because he had to,
and not because he wanted to leave Maiden in the best light. Simply, there
were the impression that he was despite, and did not want to sing as usual, so
many times he left it all to the audience, or he simply spoke instead of singing.
Since Maiden is best known for giving the maximum of maximum, this
situation on stage seemed somewhat tragicomic. As the band tried and gave
their best, Bruce was walking through the stage and sang 'over his ass', and
everybody who had seen Maiden then (and there are available many
bootlegs), could feel in the air, that the end is near.
The last two concerts on this tour were performed in conjunction with the
famous horror magician Somon Drake, and the last of the two concerts were
broadcast directly on TV, as a pay-per-view show (it has first served as a
general test by two hundred people). Both shows were held in London
Pinewood Studios, and took place about two months after the end of the real
tour, which ended with three concerts in a row, at the grand Moscow Olympic
Hall. In some ways, when this last concert happened, everything had actually
been ‘over time’, and this seemed like a small reunion, to make a real farewell
concert, and make an interesting show that would be sold through TV
channels to numerous fans. Maiden’s management have always had a nose to
sniff a good chance of earning, so Bruce's departure was quite cashed out, and
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since it was rare that a band singer on a breakout made farewell

performances, Bruce's departure has to be seen from a broader perspective,
and everyone should be wondered if, at that moment, this departure was in
'I'm leaving and I'm not coming back' style, or that it was a kind of semi-agreed
departure, in the style of 'I'm going, but I'll be back, never stronger, never
bigger’. Or, to paraphrase the lyrics from the song 'The Number of the Beast';
I'm coming back I will return, And I'll possess your body and I'll make you burn, I
have the fire I have the force, I have the power to make my evil take it's course.
Of course, according to expectations, a video of this unusual performance

called 'Raising Hell' was released later. Considering that (if you recall), after
the departure of Di'Anna from the band, in 1981, a special version of 'Maiden
Japan' was released, where Eddie holds, in today’s ISIS style, the decapitated
head of Paul Di'Anna (like an announcement of his departure from the band),
Bruce didn’t pass any better. In one of Maiden's unusual mix of performance
and TV show, at performing the last song, Bruce was ‘sacrificed and murdered’
in a torture machine called the Iron maiden, and later his head was
decapitated from Eddie's hand, as on the cover of the LIVE single ‘Hallowed Be
Thy Name', his body was speared in hell, of course, again by Eddie. In this way,
Maiden made a payoff with their former singer in a half joke.
Illustration for the live single ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’
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Another small tidbit regarding all the events surrounding Bruce's departure can
be noticed if you look at some statistics and remember some dates from
Maiden’s rich history. There is a license plate on the illustration on page 186,
which was used in ‘The Real Live’ tour’s tour book, on the bottom left. Other
license plates spell ‘Big bad Eddie coming to get you, so you dead now’, while
the last one says ‘U 238’. As there is nothing accidental when it comes to
Maiden, let’s do some speculating (keep in mind that this is pure fun, so don’t
take it seriously). Bruce was under Maiden’s eye at the big Reading Festival on
23/08/1980, where they played along with Samson (which Bruce fronted at the
time) and other bands. Although he had been under Steve Harris’ watchful eye
for a while, this was when band decided to hire Dickinson. As ‘A Real Live Tour’
was to be Bruce’s last with Maiden, ‘U238’ could be interpreted as ‘Under eye
23/08” which would, together with the other license plates in the illustration, tie
together Bruce’s arrival and departure. Let’s take a look at something else – at
the Reading Festival in 1981 there was just Samson (no Maiden), and it was held
on 28, 29 and 30/08.
Reading Rock Festival 1981 poster.
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Let’s take into consideration that in 1982 the festival took place on almost
the same date but this time Maiden were headlining it for the first time,
with Bruce on lead vocals. Bruce’s last show was held on 28/08/1993 (and
his last public appearance with the band was at an afterparty held on the
following day, 29/08, after the night of the show). It all looks pretty
incredible - coincidence would have it that Bruce enter and exit the band on
the same date, bringing a great story to an end.
Although ‘A Real Live One’ and ‘A Real Dead One’ were issued within a few
months of each other, they were re-issued in 1998 as a single double album,
‘A Real Live Dead One’. They were made up from 22 songs recorded at 17
different European shows, eight years after their first full-length live album,
‘Live After Death’, and five years after their last live video, ‘Maiden England’.
It was the band’s plan, at least according to their press statements, to
record a live album from multiple shows, so that as many people as possible
could say “I was here as well”. Of course, it was also a wise marketing move
because it could serve as a nice souvenir for some people who aren’t exactly
die-hard fans, and who did not plan to buy any Iron Maiden live album, but
who were at one of the featured shows. Usual visitors of Iron Maiden shows
are not only Iron Maiden fans. You can find there many heavy metal and
rock fans in general.
On this way they can pull not only visitors of these Iron Maiden shows, to
buy their live albums, but generally metal fans from all of listed contries. To
be honest it is unlikely that Iron Maiden will ever release live album
recorded only in Russia, Italy, Finland etc, so one or two songs from their
countries is treasure for every metalhead who live there.
Solid sales figures for a live metal album in the nineties were proof enough
that the management had it right. ‘A Real Live One’ was number three in the
British charts, while ‘A Real Dead One’ peaked at number twelve. The
former was followed by the cult live version of ‘Fear of the Dark’ in the form
of a single, which since had made it the most famous Maiden song among
the general public, and one of the most played songs at Maiden shows. The
single made it to number eight. The single from ‘A Real Dead One’ was
‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ which also made it pretty high, to number nine.
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On the other hand, there were some unfavorable comments about the way
the albums were clearly segmented, although it was the intention to mimic
a ‘real’ show - the audience levels were different between song and song,
Bruce was excellent on some songs, out of shape on others (or showed clear
lack of interest). All in all, the albums didn’t have the interconnection, the
atmosphere, the drama which rises at the beginning and dissipates at the
end. In production they tried increasing the audience levels to get an even
more ‘raw’ feeling than ‘Live After Death’.
In contrast to Martin Birch’s very pedantic previous live mixes, the guitars
here were very muddy and almost part of the background noise. Although
both these albums convey a solid live feeling, there was some critique
regarding the production, and many blamed Steve Harris who was a novice
at producing albums, taking over from Birch who retired after the ‘Fear of
the Dark’ album. Birch had stated in interviews at the time of his retiring
that he was leaving Maiden in the steady hands of his ‘apprentice’, Steve
Harris, which in my mind was a very gentleman thing to say by one of the
greatest rock producers of all time.
The band also wanted to prove with these live albums that they were still
second to none in Europe. The latest live album, ‘The Book of Souls: Live
Chapter’ from 2017, has documented the ‘Book of Souls’ tour in the same
way, but sounds and feels much, much better. This is really nice work of
producer Tony Newton. Another interesting fact is that ‘A Real Live / Dead
One’ albums are not among the latest vinyl box-set featuring the albums from
1990 onwards, which probably shows what the band and management think
about them. Fortunately, Maiden’s long-time illustrator Derek Riggs really
shined with his artwork, which was to be his last full-time job for the band, not
counting a few images now and then a mash-up of older illustrations for the
compilation album ‘Somewhere Back in Time’
There are a few more important facts regarding these two albums and the
'Real Live One' tour. The 'A Real Dead One' album was actually the first
Maiden issue to feature the band's official family tree, which (although with
some flaws and errors) had displayed for the first time the family tree.
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Iron Maiden - Family tree (small excerpt)
I will be creating a much more detailed family tree, featuring more precise
dates and facts, in one of my upcoming books, and in a much larger format.
Anyway, even this family tree (with some facts and dates omitted,
misspelled or forgotten), was the right thing to do at the time and fans were
thrilled to see it. Let’s not forget that before the expansion of the Internet,
the band had a different attitude and thought they could control the
“truthiness” of their own past and tell the fans their own version because…
a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth, as the saying goes. There is
a very confusing statement from Steve Harris for the no. 9/1993 issue of the
French Metal Forces magazine, where he told the reporter Saša Stojanović
the following: „During Maiden's early days, we had very few photos of the
band 'cause we couldn't afford them. Except from memories, we virtually
have nothing left from that time. Now, I have to say that I have many many
photos and films, but only from the Number Of The Beast tour onwards. The
beginnings of Iron Maiden are lost forever.““
Not only is this statement scandalous and very untrue from today’s
standpoint, it also tends to hide the band’s history and legacy. This was
during a time when people weren’t aware of the Internet’s power and
ability to shine a light at many band’s secrets, including their darkest ones.
Of course, who could have known that in 1993 - that’s why there was a
torrent of such statements at the time. For example, being aware now that
Bruce had announced his departure between the ‘Fear of the Dark’ and ‘A
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Real Live’ tours, one wonders how was it possible for Steve Harris to
respond regarding the atmosphere, unity, collaboration and the future of
the band in the following manner: "It's true that we really enjoyed the Fear
Of The Dark tour much more than any other tour. We are really looking
forward to tour again and to play gigs in towns that we couldn't visit last
year. Our huge enjoyment is obvious on the two live albums, and we're very
pleased with them. The energy of the band on stage is perfectly rendered.
There really was this little extra something during the last tour. Without any
doubt, as this is the first Maiden album that really reflects the personality of
the band. On the previous albums, we used to hide our ideas behind
allegorical terms, or we'd use mythology and legends, this was somehow
masking our real feelings as human beings. This time, we show these feelings
and this gave our music another dimension.“
Asked if this was the line-up for a brighter future (which finally started to
settle in), he stated:
„It looks like it and that's the feeling we all have in the band. We are a real
good team and we get on really well with each other. It's about five mates
pursuing the same goal. Before, it obviously was quite different, but now we
all evolve together and the musical changes that occur affect all of us. It's a
different experience, and quite an enjoyable one…“
„…We're pretty happy. We are very grateful for what's happened to us, and
what keeps happening. It's great 'cause each album was a step in a
progression. On top of that, we became increasingly popular. We never were
interested in anything else but music, and I am not ashamed of any of our
albums.“
Sometimes, reading old interviews, statements and press releases, I’m

flabbergasted by the fact that we as young fans could have taken or
accepted all of it for granted.
Take a look at the promo poster below from the magazines which were
advertising the ‘Raising Hell’ show at the time - even then a lack of originality
was apparent, and one could see that Derek Riggs would be sorely missed.
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Although the ‘A Real Dead One’ is something that, due to weird

circumstances, sounds like a name picked on purpose to reflect the current
state of affairs within the band, which was on its way of becoming a dead
one, it was chosen as a concept of sorts. As I’m sure you’re aware, Maiden
liked to play with album and song names such as ‘Live After Death’, ‘A
Matter of Life and Death’, ‘Death on the Road’, ‘Dance of Death’, and so on.
The album name was a clever way of hinting that ‘A Real Live One’ was an
album which was recorded 100% live, as there had been rumors (today
confirmed as facts) that some parts of ‘Live After Death’ were re-recorded in
the studio during the mixing process. This was never confirmed and Steve
Harris actually publicly denied any such wrongdoings.
This live album was Steve Harris’ baptism of fire as a producer. Had he had
some more experience at the time, one wonders if he would have chosen to
do some in-studio refinements - both of these 1993 live albums have a
number of live mistakes on them. The audience was much louder in the mix,
possibly to cover up some production flaws due to Harris’ status as a novice,
but his explanation was that he wanted to include the audience as an
additional segments of Maiden’s live sound. He also stated that the
audience level was intended to show the listener how the band experiences
the audience while playing onstage. Apart from his experiments in the
Florida studio, Harris’ own newly-built studio was a grown-up’s toy where he
was spending a lot of his time and improving his producer’s skills, but he
didn’t notice that it was driving Bruce away from the band, who had noticed
that Steve was taking over more and more segments of the band. He was
bothered by it, because he thought that the current working conditions
were insufficient for the band’s previously higher standards, which would
now impede them from achieving further greatness. In other words, Bruce
was annoyed by the stinginess of it all.
'A Real Dead One' was supposed to be a counterweight to the other album,
both in name and in the sense of the songs that it featured, and they were
supposed to make a whole. A classic marketing trick - if you buy one, you
have to get both, like it or not. And so it was - instead of selling one double
album, the band was selling two separate albums, resulting in larger profits.
In 1998, they sold the same album again, but this time as a double, with a
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silly name - ‘A Real Live Dead One’. But who cares - the same live album,
with a different cover and slightly remastered, was sold once more.
Including as much as six songs from the debut album (‘Prowler’,

‘Transylvania’, ‘Remember Tomorrow’, ‘Sanctuary’, ‘Running Free’, and ‘Iron
Maiden’) on a twelve-song live album was perhaps a message of sorts from
Steve Harris, a subtle way of telling everyone that Maiden was great before
Dickinson arrived and will remain to be great after his departure. Indeed,
although these albums are ranked among the weaker ones, they had
attracted a lot of younger fans at the time and did a great job, especially
when it comes to the live version of ‘Fear of the Dark’ which is considered to
be superior to the studio version.
These two live albums were like the opposite sides of the same coin, but it
turned out later that both had very similar market results, which isn’t
surprising when you think about the marketing strategy from the previous
paragraph. Furthermore, the subsequent release of ‘Live at Donington’ near
the end of 1993 looked like an attempt of striking the iron while it’s still hot,
namely while the fans still remember who Bruce Dickinson and Iron Maiden
are. No one could know how things would develop after his departure, so
the band seized the opportunity for some more cash. This album was also
produced by Harris, but the difference was that it was recorded at the same
show in its entirety, which the previous two lacked, so it was much more
natural and had a better energy to it. It’s a pity that it was issued in a limited
quantity and only on certain markets.
Let’s not forget the ‘Raising Hell’ video, issued in May 1994, the fourth
consecutive live recording issued by the band within just slightly more than
one year. The video was originally distributed on VHS and LaserDisc, and a
few years later it was issued on DVD in the United States. I already told the
story of Simon Drake and everything leading up to this show, and the
aftermath. Apart from Maiden’s show in China in 2016, this was one of the
rare moments when Bruce didn’t wave the Union Jack because the show
was being shown live on pay-per-view in the USA. The fans who won the
raffle and got to attend the show will surely remember it for their entire
lives.
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A year 1993 was an amazing year for Maiden, and from the moment when
the band announced the walkout of Bruce Dickinson from the band, they did
some things they, not even in madness, would agree to do. One such event
was recorded in Italy, where Maiden performed at the annual music event
'Primo Maggio', 01.05., which is organized each year by three worker’s
confederations, in the occasion of the working holidays, at Piazza di San
Giovanni in Laterano, Rome, opposite the Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano.
Between many musicians from the Italian, worldwide less known scene,
there are several foreign guests every year, who perform only a few songs,
which were broadcast live via national RAI television. Given that there are
around 800,000 visitors on the concert, and speculated that there were one
million visitors in 2006, it is not hard to conclude why Maiden (they was in
the middle of his own Italian tour) agreed to perform and (between the
foreign performers there also were Robert Plant and Johnny Clegg) to play
only two songs ('The Trooper' and 'Fear of the Dark') on, for them, an out
standard stage, in front of an audience that was mostly not theirs. If you
search YouTube for ‘Iron Maiden and Primo Maggion 1993’, you will see this
unusual performance that is well-documented and where 'Walking Eddie'
appears on the song 'Fear of the Dark'.
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I would like to end this chapter, where this tour really ended. I remember,
when I was a sixteen-year-old boy, that I had very emotional feelings about
the last song from the album 'A Real Dead One', 'Hallowed Be Thy Name'
from Moscow, when I heard long cheers: 'Maiden, Maiden!’, which became
quieter and quieter while fading away. Knowing that Bruce was leaving the
band, I was crying because a war was in my country, and my youth was
destroyed; as in my youth (same as today), music was everything to me.
Then, at that moment, I thought I would never have the opportunity to see
Maiden's majesty in the classic cast, with Dickinson and Smith, and for that
reason I was so much sad, that in Russia was a dream that Smith would once
return (as he appeared at Donington), which was now definitely lost.
Iron Maiden concert ticket, Moscow, 1993.
In searching the Internet for any information related to the Maiden Russian
concerts in 1993 (to close this chapter), I came across Igor Shamarina's blog,
who wrote some interesting information about this concert, and later made
it easier for me to find other information. Much before the announcement
of Maiden concerts in Russia (which later made to be the last real tour
concerts before Dickinson left the band), all albums of Maiden in the release
of Gala Records, were released for the first time in Russia in vinyl format
under an official license. Although initially scheduled for the 2nd, 3rd and
4th of April, concerts at Olympiakos (Olypiysky), which has the capacity of
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25,000 people in a case of a concert, moved to early June, but the tickets
that were then sold were not reprinted, and the visitors could enter the
concert with a ticket that had an old date on it. The Moscow Concert was
held thanks to the Stas Namin Centre Corporation. If the concerts were held
in April, the Maiden support band would have been the cult Russian thrash
metal band Korrozia Metalla (Corrosion of Metal), which is perhaps one of
the reasons why the concerts in Russia were moved for two months.
Information on Wikipedia about this band say:
In late Soviet years, censorship was lifted, and Korrozia became notorious for
lyrics and imagery that, although consistent with western shock
rock traditions, were quite provocative by Soviet Russia's measures. For their
live shows, they employed strip girls to dance on stage and decorated it with
pyrotechnics and 'satanic' imagery. Similarly, the band's lyrics consisted of
black humour and strong language, describing violence, supernatural and
sex. Korrozia Metalla albums were named 'Cannibal' (1990) or 'Sadism'
(1992), and their 'trademark' songs include such titles as 'Vampire's Panzer' ,
'AIDS, Eat in the Flesh', 'Dead Rasputin' etc.
Tickets cost 1000 rubles, with a special discount for schoolchildren, 3,000
rubles for students, and 5,000 to 35,000 rubles for all others, so there were
many schoolchildren at the concert. The last Maiden performances with
Dickinson were great and emotional. Interesting information is that there
were plenty of people at the concert, but there were still empty spaces, so
visitors were asked to get together, and come closer to the stage.
The Iron Maiden performance in Moscow closed this chapter, and the tour
actually ended in Russia, not at the London Pinewood studio. Even Bruce
Dickinson himself, said the following for the French Hard Rock Magazine, on
the day of his last appearance at Pinewood Studios:
„It's finally over... My last concert with Maiden was in Moscow at the end of
the European leg of the tour. This show at Pinewood for American TV has
nothing to do with the usual gigs. It's some representation... I think that it
will help the band un the US 'cause things haven't been going too good over
there for the past two or three years.“
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REAL LIVE MERCH

Although one might think that the 'stripped down' Maiden for this period meant
a reduced number of merchandise and collectible memorabilia, this idea would
not only be misguided, but flat out wrong. Iron Maiden were never at a loss for
ideas, and their skillful management team always had excellent ideas how to
promote their new albums in suggestive, lively, humorous and, for them, cheap
and efficient ways. Just look at the free matchbox which was used to promote
the new album in a genius way, and also offered a solution to the fear of the
dark. An even more ingenious is their idea for a fly swatter (see image on next
page) with the title of the song ‘Be Quick or be Dead’ (it is also a traditional
Japanese paper fan)
My readers Heiko Roedl, Rasmus Stavnsborg, Alex Yakovlev, Matthew Ward and
many others sent me a series of their memorabilia to show the readers the
variety of Maiden merchandise items that can now be found on the immense
Internet market. Judging by everything we have, this period is one of their
favorite ones just because due to the very nature of the album things were
much more obscure and less exposed, which means that they are now a lot
harder to obtain. On the next sixteen pages we will make a review of the most
sought-out Maiden souvenirs from the period of 1992 to 1993..
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The next in line of excellent

ideas connected to ‘Fear of
the Dark’ is their batch of
shrink-wrapped condoms from
1993, for all those afraid of
what might happen once the
lights go out. Some fans still
have theirs, even though it's a
very rare piece of memorabilia
of which a very limited
quantity was produced. Fear
of the Dark condoms were the
first Iron Maiden brand
condoms, and one of the first
brand merchandise of that
type in the music world.
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This is an ultra-rare 1992

UK promotional only Eddie
skull shaped candle for the
‘Fear of the Dark’ album.
Has two wicks for lighting,
one in each eye socket.
This is Eddie skull candle
which was made only 300
pieces for the promotion
in the UK due to ‘Fear of
the Dark’ announcement.
This candle was mainly
distributed at listening
parties who gathered only
officials and a small part
was distributed to record
companies, and press as
well. Several of them
leaked to the general
market but it is old that
was produced in 1992, and
the amount of runoff to
overseas is very small.
Very hard to find and
prices are mostly over 100
Euros and more.
‘Fear of the Dark’ horizontal pach.
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Longbox CDs are still much sought after pieces of memorabilia with Iron
Maiden fans even today, as is the “Fear of the Dark” skateboard.
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What would you say to a VISA card owned by Rasmus Stavnsborg from
Denmark? The card expired in 2011, but now at least you know what credit
card paid for the winning bid, if you ever competed with Rasmus on eBay.
He is one of the largest Iron Maiden collectors in the world, and is even in
the Guinness book of records.
For this book Rasmus sent us,

amongst his other Iron Maiden
Memorabilia, an enlarged
photograph of the back of the
‘Fear of the Dark’ where you
can see that a certain portion
of the proceeds were to be
donated to non –profit
organizations by the artist sin
the fight against AIDS. Looking
at the previous and later
actions, Iron Maiden were
always ready to support a
worthy cause.
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Amongst other interesting memorabilia, Rasmus also sent us this rare

promo display which served as an announcement of their upcoming ‘A Real
Dead One“ album from 1993, and others, of which I would like to present
the ‘A Real Live One’ and ‘Monsters of Rock 1992’ cotton shorts, and an
amazing long sleeved shirt which is (along its black version), one of the rare
festival merchandise where you can see the name Black Sabbath written
below that of Iron Maiden in a smaller font. At the bottom of the page is the
now traditional Iron Maiden scarf, but this time with the added bands they
performed with during their last ‘Monsters of Rock’ festival. Even though it
was readily available at the time, it became a very sought after piece after
throughout the years.
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This is a ‘Fear Of The Dark’, rare 1992 UK promotional-only 13" x 10" box set
with special glow in the dark 'Eddie' tree design as featured on the album
artwork. This box is limited on only 1000 copies. This great set includes a
promo NTSC E.P.K video, Bruce Dickinson interview cassette, 12-track CD
album with picture sleeve & merchandise insert, numbered biography with
matching numbered print.
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There is a lot of merchandise and promo articles from this era, most likely as
a result of the changes in the musical market, as additional promotion and
merchandising became very important, and the band situation itself
required a larger promotion than usual, partly due to the waning public
interest in classic heavy metal, and Iron Maiden itself, and partly due to
Dickinson’s announcement of departure, and the uncertain future of the
band. This lighter is a classic example of album merchandising, but there are
more atypical examples to follow.
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In the absence of collaboration with Derek Riggs, who, along with the central
album cover art, always provided a number of related artworks on which Eddie
would have been similar to incarnations from the cover of the album, this time it
could be noted that certain covers of singles such as' Wasting Love 'or' From
Here to Eternity 'used photographs instead of artwork, so Eddie disappeared
from many promotional material. But apart from the standard singles, promo
releases have been released for US, Canada, Spain, Brazil and so on and these
specimens are very much sought after today in the Iron Maiden fan community.
As the South American market opened up for Iron Maiden, and the rest of
the music world at the time, Iron Maiden songs became available on
Brazilian hit radio compilations. Iron Maiden's label decided to use the
power ballad „Wasting Love„ to conquer the market.
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Due to various promo editions, which are rare and sought after today, which
also include Japanese, Spanish, US, Canadian or other edition, some
unofficial figurines, sculptures and other interesting Iron Maiden items
appeared on the market, and were of such quality that they are still
collected by fans.
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Now we come to t-shirts and other apparel. Even though there were various
hoodies, jackets, trousers, shorts and similar, we cannot shake the
impression that there is a significant lack of ideas, inspiration or even
management vision, or that it was that it was just a big experiment
regarding the future of Iron Maiden. Many will say that the biggest reason is
the lack of Derek Riggs’ cover art. He was responsible for their cover and
single art, countless poster and apparel design, as well as other
merchandise, since the very beginning. But this isn't something we should
necessarily agree with. If a designer or illustrator quits, you can hire a new
one, which is precisely what Iron Maiden did with their album cover. It
wasn't hard to find and pay for a new illustrator, as Iron Maiden are doing
with Herve the past few years, so the valid question arises- Why didn't they
do it then?
Derek, except that he was extremely witty, unpredictable, detail oriented

and ingenious was also known for his quick delivery and an inexhaustible
source of ideas. There are a lot of illustrators out there, but it was difficult to
find all these qualities in one person. But Iron Maiden didn’t even try, or
care. I explained the band’s policy in detail in one of the previous chapters,
their experimentation with their visuals, and the wish to distance
themselves from everything they created so far (and to which they
repentantly returned, once they saw that it’s the best way). Iron Maiden
were ready to take it a step further, but the question was- Were the fans
ready for it? The answer was an obvious no. This came to light pretty
quickly, and Iron Maiden hired Derek again for their 'A Real Live / Death
One', and he produced some excellent cover art from his so called red
phase. It was only thanks to that that the merchandise was enhanced with
additional artwork, even though the apparel back was mostly derivative.
This is why, alongside the 'Fear of the Dark' artwork and 'Live at Donington'
vampire Eddie (Mark Wilkinson), we find some fairly simple motifs adorning
the back of t-shirts during that time. These include the full moon, traffic or
electrical danger signs, simple letters or simplified album covers such as the
tree shadow and bats, without Eddie. Only a couple of T-shirts on this tour
stand out as something worth mentioning, but they even rely on the work of
Derek Riggs and his ‘Be Quick or Be Dead’ cover artwork.
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But let’s take it one step at a time. Artwork for ‘Be Quick or Be Dead’ single
was used and commissioned before the album itself, and was also used for
the t-shirt, of which several types were made. Except for the standard t-
shirts, several feature an all-over print which differ in print detailing, as well
as witty newspaper headlines which differ from those on the single artwork
(see photos below). The largest Iron Maiden t-shirt collector in Australia,
Matthew Ward, sent us the following photographs.
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A special story involves the only two full-blooded so called event t-shirts
during this time, if we don’t count the 'Raising Hell' shirt made for Bruce
Dickinson’s farewell concert, which in itself is pretty impersonal (there’s a
classical, crew and rehearsal version). As we could see, Iron Maiden’s
management didn’t even try to hire a new artist for these shirts, but decided
to recycle Derek’s artwork again, so they replaced Eddie’s head with that of
a donkey for the hidden show where Iron Maiden performed under the
name The Nodding Donkeys, to fit with the shirt, while they used the Statue
of Liberty for their New York event. But a problem arose later, after New
York. As the Statue of Liberty t-shirt was only printed on the front, and
obviously didn’t sell in expected numbers, and since Iron Maiden didn’t
want to lug around unsold merchandise, and wanted to get rid of it, they
decided to add the dates for their Canada tour above a moon in the back,
with the expected farcical result. Had they added the New York date
alongside the Canadian ones, the shirt would have made sense, but this
version of it just showed a complete nonchalance and lack of respect for the
fans both in New York and Canada, which, we have to admit, wasn’t
something Iron Maiden were known to do. In fact, fans were always very
important to them. A lot of collectors lost all interest after this tour.
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The first shirt on this page is the white festival 'Monsters of Rock' shirt featuring
artwork, bands and the place and date of the festival, and was available to all,
while the second, printed at short notice, was just for the band and the crew,
and comes with a very interesting story. Their banned Chile concert I covered in
previous book, and mentioned earlier in this one as well, created an indignation
with the Iron Maiden management, and the crew and band were ordered to
wear this shirt at their concerts in South America in order to provoke the so
called Chilean secret police who were rumored to have been ordered to follow
Iron Maiden across the whole continent and note down their every move.
Rumor or truth, clever PR or not, it’s hard to judge today, but this t-shirt is a
crown jewel of any serious collection. The shirt at the bottom of this page is in
fact a promotional shirt, and not the official Mexico t-shirt, and it’s interesting to
note that it bears the never-used tour name 'For Here to Eternity Tour'.
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In conclusion ... on the next page you can see a promo display that Matthew
Ward also sent for this book, which is the only confirmed copy in the world
so far. It was used in the Virgin Megastore in Melbourne for their in-store
promotions. "Virgin has a store in Sydney, but it is unknown if there was a
copy there and if the band appeared there as well as in Melbourne,"
Matthew confirmed. More detailed images from all sides of this
memorabilia can be seen on the promo DVD accompanying this book.
I have to end this section dedicated to merchandise from this era with one
interesting conclusion. During all the years of Iron Maiden’s expansion, the
management tried to offer a wide choice of memorabilia and puns for the
bands, but as their expansion and growth came to an end, those who came
up with creative and bold merchandising and branding ideas were the labels
and music business professionals who cooperated with Iron Maiden. Iron
Maiden themselves would have stopped at t-shirts, a hoodie or two, jacket,
hat or trousers, but almost everything wroth collecting today, came from
other sources. This became especially obvious in the nineties, because, as
previously stated, not only did Iron Maiden start to waver in their diversity,
but the concern for the design, variety and uniqueness of the t-shirt tended
to dwindle and this period lasted for a while, only to change later, once they
realized they made a mistake, and put all their effort into offering a huge
array of memorabilia. Some fans still complain today about the large
amount of new memorabilia and editions they can’t keep up with, but it’s
certainly better to have those, than what we had back in the nineties.
Merchandising was always almost as important to the band as the music

itself, which is especially visible today and the proper exploitation of this
potential in financial terms can still support not only them but entire
generations. Of course, sometimes they can get their ideas from fans
themselves, who in the absence of Iron Maiden visuals created their own
solutions, which in some cases attracted a lot of attention. Even though this
was a difficult era for Iron Maiden, and maybe even a struggle for their life,
today they showed that they took the right path, and it led them to where
they are now. And as it so often happens, it’s interesting to see that their 'X
Factor Chair', their most sought after and most expensive piece of
memorabilia stems from their most obscure phase. But more of that later…
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END OF AN ERA
Even though it was clear at the turn of the decade, that the musical industry
is about to irrevocably change, many refused to believe it even two years
before this album got released. CDs were available since 1985, but neither
the reigning vinyl nor the cassette tape felt threatened by it, and then
suddenly, the CD took the throne.
The previous page shows another, symbolically unfinished and never

published illustration by the famous Derek Riggs from his 'Red' (A Real
Live/Death One) phase, commissioned by Capitol records. Today it's a part
of Rasmus Stavnsborg's private collection, and it shows Iron Maiden mascot
Eddie crushing the outdated audio cassette tape in his hand, while spinning
a CD on his finger, as the new preferred music medium. And if you take a
closer look, you can see that this sketch is a continuation of the 'A Real
Death One' live album cover, and is in a way Derek’s goodbye to Iron
Maiden. Of course, Derek cooperated with Iron Maiden a few more times in
the following years, but he was never again the author of an Iron Maiden
album cover art.
It was very difficult to watch the entire situation with Iron Maiden, and be a
part of it during that time. Bruce was still touring with Iron Maiden, even
though it was already known that he won’t be returning for the new album.
There was still hope that 'Fear of the Dark' album cover was just an
experiment by the management and that Derek Riggs might be hired again
to work on the new album. The fact Martin Birch let Steve Harris take over
the reins so easily also pointed that the legendary producer was sick and
tired of everything, and as seen later, wisely decided to go into early
retirement.
The CD became the new medium of choice without a visible expiry date, and
even though it was much shorter lived (as it became apparent), as vinyl is
having a new revival these days. Our habits changed. We listen to music
mostly on our smart phones, in which the robust CDs have no place. Mobile
devices are everywhere these days, to the point that we stopped using USB
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sticks and MP3 CDs in our cars, but instead go for USB or wireless mobile
phone connections. We buy albums as parts of our collections, and listen to
most of our music in its intangible form. It’s hard to imagine that any era in
the heyday of technological development can last this long, but there
doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. MP3, flac, cloud storage, streaming
services, bionic chips… And so much is yet to come!
And let’s not forget that it didn’t take Iron Maiden long to create their
official website www.ironmaiden.co.uk (now can be found on
www.ironmaiden.com), and to release a series of digitally re-mastered CDs,
and even release their own computer game 'Ed Hunter' in 1999, which was
almost 19 years ago.
One of the first articles published on the official Iron Maiden website in 1998.
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The official web page, even though published in January 1998, was
registered and created in 1996. The person who was in part most
responsible for this digitalization and modernization of Iron Maiden was
Blaze Bayley, the frontman who replaced Bruce Dickinson, and whose lyrics,
habits and attitude contributed to Iron Maiden being prepared on time to
conquer a new universe. Just remember the slogan and name of their
European tour, as 'Metal 2000', and their explanation for it- how they
wanted to be the ones to deliver metal to from the slump it found itself in
the 90 into the new millennium, and how they want to be the trailblazers for
all the other bands.
It’s true that the design

of their website wasn’t a
technological marvel in
the beginning, nor is it
now, and that their first
computer game was
outdated even at the
time of its release, and
their second one, ‘Melt’,
never even saw the light
of day, and that their
third, free online game
'Legacy of the Beast'
does look excellent, but
has yet to prove itself
and there is a lot of work
left to be done on it yet.
And no, their free
compilation album from
2009 didn’t offer
anything Iron Maiden
Fans didn’t already have,
and moving to the big
screen didn’t offer the
fans anything they didn’t already have in their home videos. They also aren’t
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pioneers when it comes to online free video streaming, such as their 'The
Book of Souls - Live Chapter' video, but throughout all entire evolution of
the music industry in the past 41 years, which is as long as the band exists,
Iron Maiden have always changed with the times, albeit in their own special
way. They always managed to stay fresh and relevant, but that doesn’t
mean they made a spectacle of themselves, or had staged large PR
escapades which would have clashed heavily with their style. We never saw
giant LED screens at their concerts, gigantic cranes, protruding stages etc,
but their basic Rock and Roll show was still one of the top acts in the world.
But let’s return to the 1992/1223 period. Even though they lost Adrian Smith
on their previous album, and were close to losing Bruce Dickinson, Iron
Maiden accomplished more than expected with their 'Fear of the Dark' album,
and one of the contributing factors was surely the 'Monsters of Rock' festival,
whose organizers closely cooperated with Iron Maiden’s management and
helped promote them time and time again as the need arose.
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That festival wasn’t even held the following year, due to a lack of a proper
headliner, speaks volumes about the state metal was in during the 90’s. But
if we look at magazines, books, biographies, reviews, opinions and similar,
the general conclusion seems to be that it was grunge who ‘killed’ metal,
only to be followed by electronic, mostly dance, rave and later trance, house
and similar music. But was that truly the case, did metal become less
popular because of another music genre, or did rock and metal commit
intentional or unintentional suicide? What did really happen from 1993 up
until the end of the nineties? Let’s try and give a small overview.
Guns 'N' Roses pretty much stopped publishing after 1993, Skid Row
released only one album after 1991, the 'Subhuman Race' in 1995, KISS took
a break between 1992 and 1997, Van Halen took a break between 1991 and
1995, Metallica did so between 1990 and 1997, Deep Purple between 1993
and 1996, Whitesnake between 1989 and 1997, and Motley Crew published
two mediocre albums in 2008, and after their excellent 'Get a Grip' 1993
album published only 'Nine Lives' in 1997, and Iron Maiden released two
albums with Blaze Bayley, their two most unsuccessful albums, sales-wise. If
we look at all the studio releases by hard rock and metal giants in the
nineties (after 1993), we come to see that they released on average, as
many albums in those seven years, as they did per year in the eighties, and
that they are generally considered to be their worst.
But let’s look at the ‘bush league’ bands. The Finnish HIM released their first
album in 1997, and their second in 2000, and the Swedish Europe seemed to
have been slipping into musical drabness with their 'Prisoner in Paradise' from
1991, and didn’t release their next album until 2004. Destruction’s first 90’s
album was released in 1990, and their second in 1998, while Manowar didn’t
follow up their 1992 'Triumph of Steel’ until 1996, when 'Louder Than Hell'
was released, and then didn’t publish again until 2002. Twisted Sister didn’t
release an album at all, and Alice Cooper’s excellent 'Hey Stoopid' (1991) was
followed by the far less noticed 'The Last Temptation' in 1994, and didn’t
follow it up with a new release in the nineties. The publishing break in hard
rock and metal music was obvious across the board and on all levels.
The rare bands which were active during the nineties, except Iron Maiden,
were Motorhead, Running Wild, Paradise Lost, Kreator, Sodom,
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Queensryche, Scorpions, Helloween, Saxon, W.A.S.P., as well as Anthrax and

Slayer, whose albums failed to thrill during that time. And since we’re on the
topic of trash metal, perhaps the most successful band at the time were
Megadeth, whose successful albums conquered the charts on both sides of
the ‘pond’, and the newcomers 'Pantera' and 'Sepultura' also used that time
to fill the charts and create a solid background for the years ahead, sneaking
past the sleeping giants. Black Sabbath were also active during that time,
but it is considered to be their worst period, which included the departure
of their key members, and this trend of departing frontman were something
which Iron Maiden, Helloween, Judas Priest, Anthrax, Guns 'N' Roses, Skid
Row and others also experienced.
But who could claim the nineties were off to a bad start for metal and hard
rock? You’d have to be mad. With albums such as 'The Razors Edge', 'Crazy
World', 'Metallica', 'Painkiller', 'Use Your Illusion I i II', 'The Crimson Idol',
'Slave to the Grind', 'Seasons in the Abyss', 'Persistence of Time', '1916',
'Vulgar Display of Power', 'Revenge', 'Get a Grip', 'Keep the Faith', 'Hey
Stoopid', 'Chaos A.D.', 'Countdown to Extinction', 'Empire', 'Coma of Souls',
'Blazon Stone' and many others, it seemed hard rock and metal were picking
up speed in the nineties. Iron Maiden’s ‘Fear of the Dark’ became the band’s
most popular song to date, and emerged as their trademark. Yes, the early
nineties were excellent years for metal music, and it was only the lack of
new albums by the bands themselves, that went on to be their career near-
suicide. Let’s take a look at the facts before us…. The aggressive and
alternative sides of metal took over while the stars were taking a break or
busy losing their key members, which is clearly visible by the rise of bands
like Pantera, Sepultura, Korn and many black and death metal bands, while
some of the greatest hard rock stars tried their hand at that whole pop
music industry and mainstream, which brought us the new, 90’s Bon Jovi
and Aerosmith. But the extreme genres were never the ringleaders, and
they soon fell behind the genres closer to the mainstream like grunge and
other types of alt rock. You have to ask yourself what Metallica was thinking:
their 1991 album sold 20 000 000 copies and it took them until 1996 to
release a new one. What were AC/DC thinking, to have published as late as
1995 when their stellar comeback with 'The Razors Edge' in 1990 which sold
over 6 000 000 copies. Why did Judas Priest let Rob Halford go after they
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peaked with 'Painkiller'? The same thing goes for Iron Maiden. When the
time came for all these bands to reach out and grab the world offered to
them, they all decided to take long breaks or to change their lineup. The
same thing happened to them that happened to their colleagues in the
seventies, who grew too big and couldn’t handle the ‘monster’ they created.
That’s how punk and NWOBHM killed, or at least overtook the first
generation of hard rock giants, and many other bands like ELP, Yes, The
Who, Led Zeppelin and others and left them to live in the past. The same
thing was happening to them now, and there was a real fear that some of
them would never be able to make a comeback, which almost happened
with Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Whitesnake and many others. The nineties
almost became their grave, and bands like 'Nirvana', 'Pearl Jam', 'Ugly Kid
Joe', 'Stone Temple Pilots', 'Soundguarden', 'Alice in Chains' and others were
far from harmless. All the aforementioned metal bands grew at an
undeniable speed, and easily sold millions, while the management drained
them with a pace of an album and world tour per year, and because of that
mad schedule, something had to give. But I repeat… it wasn’t grunge that
destroyed metal and hard rock, it devoured itself from within, and a total
breakdown had to happen, just as their long breaks and breakups had to
happen. Their rogue members still naively believed they could succeed, but
nobody was ready for the new age, or what the new millennium would
bring. Metallica played it safe and appeared at the Wembley stadium in
1992 at the Freddy Mercury tribute concert, alongside some other
mainstream events. The success of 'Load' is a reflection of both that and
their other PR moves. Guns ‘N’ Roses also used their momentum and it’s a
shame they temporarily broke up shortly afterwards, because otherwise
they would have taken over the world (just look at them now). Even though
‘Fear of the Dark’ is ranked as one of their worst by Iron Maiden fans, their
1992 live video single for the song was an excellent move, but they did come
perilously close to mainstream, giving in to its demands despite the
announcement of Adrian Smith’s departure, and if they managed to
weather it out for another album, it’s my opinion they would have closed
the deal of the decade, if not century. The Rock ‘n’ Roll story of planet Earth
would have been a lot different. I repeat again that I read a lot of
statements from the Iron Maiden camp how the nineties were bad for metal
due to grunge, and how metal is returning with a vengeance at the end of
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the decade, and how it was never fiercer or more dangerous. Metal never
really returned, it was always here, and the only thing which returned were
the old players, who realized it’s pointless to push their own agenda. Adrian,
Bruce, Slash, Axl, David Lee Roth, Dee Snider, Ozzy, Plant, Page, Kiske and
many others who returned and reconciled, or were about to reconcile and
return. New kids are always coming, and new ones are always born, and
those in the nineties didn’t have time to wait for some band members to be
on speaking terms again, or for a band to release a new album after five or
six years. Someone else came along and gave them what they wanted, and
they took it. That’s why hard rock and metal, (and especially heavy metal)
reached their low point in the nineties.
Conspiracy theorists will always think some things were planned ahead, such
as Dickinson’s departure, with the idea that he should “leave for a few years,
and then come back so we can slay”, because according to stories surrounding
each album, it seems that Iron Maiden became exhausted and fatigued, and
needed a change, even if it was one for the worst, to give people time to
breathe, and reclaim what they thought they lost for good. All metal and hard
rock bands who did so came back bigger and stronger. Just look at Judas Priest
or Guns 'N' Roses, or the freshly reunited Helloween!
236
That’s why many fans still can’t comprehend why it was Blaze Bayley who
was chosen, when there were so many vocalists with a range similar to
Bruce Dickinson’s. Even though I am friends with Blaze, and I am a big fan of
his vocals, as well as his work and creative contribution to the band, I can
offer an objective opinion that hiring Blaze Bayley after Bruce Dickinson left
was anything but a commercial move. Of course, this makes the conspiracy
theorists I already mentioned ask a completely valid question: “what if this
whole Bruce Dickinson thing was just one big hoax, a show for the masses
and a scripted story, whose end at the new millennium was already
known?”
The instances where a band staged a farewell concert for their vocalist,
especially like Iron Maiden did with 'Rising Hell' are rare in the history of
metal, and rock music in general. Also, keeping in mind that after he left,
Dickinson was still under the same management and worked with the same
people, many were right to ask if the nineties slump was staged to break the
weariness which appeared at the beginning of the nineties and create a new
hunger which would result in what Iron Maiden became today, world-
renowned as one of the largest living bands of all times.
Even though few will think it, and even fewer speak it, Iron Maiden wanted
to, if you look at their PR and all that was going on at the time, have their
cake and eat it too. They didn’t want to approach mainstream and give it
concessions which would have been very profitable, but instead danced on
the edge, and that’s why it didn’t pay off for them as it did for Metallica, but
they did managed to garner a lot of attention with 'Fear of the Dark' from
those who never heard of the band before. Just think back to 'From Here to
Eternity', how it seems to have been written for large stadium concerts
similar to the songs of AC/DC, with a structure designed to for interaction
with large audiences, and 'Afraid to Shot Strangers', whose central theme
and structure seems to question if there is place for another title like 'One',
which Metallica launched near the end of the 80s, on the mainstream
market, and which put them in the mainstream media spotlight. We can
even look at 'Wasting Love', the first Iron Maiden song of that kind ever
written, one meant to carry the entire 'Fear of the Dark' album, also
focusing on children’s fears and adult phobias. Didn’t 'Enter Sandman' cover
237
a similar topic the year before? Didn’t it? Isn’t that perhaps precisely the
reason why Iron Maiden’s management rejected Derek Riggs’ cover art, as
they seem invoke the lyrics to 'Enter Sandman', and could just as easily serve
as its cover art? You can see the unfinished artwork on the next page, and
the outlines of a scared child in bed, hiding from its fears beneath a bed
sheet, just like in 'Enter Sandman'.
Have you ever wondered why Iron Maiden didn’t feature Eddie on their
'From Here to Eternity' and 'Wasting Love' singles for the first time ever (not
counting their live 'Running Free’ single, where Eddie can be seen in the
background)? The answer has nothing to do with a lack of an artist to do the
cover artwork. After all, Derek Riggs made the cover for 'Be Quick or Be
Dead'! Iron Maiden were at a crossroads as to which path they should take
to reach a wider audience, just like Metallica already did. They changed their
whole image, replaced their spandex tights with black jeans and leather,
played the Eddie imagery down, both on stage backdrops and cover art, to
the point that for the cover of 'Live at Donington' he turned into a hybrid
bat, a vampire which looked cool even to those who didn’t know who or
what Eddie was. Iron Maiden gave it their best shot.
How much their silent, but ever more obvious competition with Metallica
(who exploded the previous year) was taking effect, can be seen on the B
side of 'Be Quick, or Be Dead' called 'Space Station Number 5 (Montrose),
where Bruce is imitating a TV announcer at the horse races and mentions
Metallica in an announcement that can be interpreted in multiple ways: „It's
getting faster lads! Hurry up! Here comes Metallica in the rear-view mirror!
And it's also a by ... At the finish it's prick... It's... And at the finish it's prick
followed by the wanker, followed by cunt with arsehole finishing a close
fourth“.
I am of the opinion that Iron Maiden wanted to have it both ways in the
early nineties; they wanted to stay true to their fans and tradition, but still
go with the flow and rise up above anything they accomplished so far, the
pinnacle of metal music. They lost themselves during that period, since it
was impossible to sit on two chairs at once
.
238
239
Was Blaze Bayley already chosen to be the next Maiden frontman while he was
in Wolfsbane as their supporting act during their 1990 UK tour, almost three
years before Bruce left? Did they invite Wolfsbane as their support band only to
scout Blaze’s performance and see how Iron Maiden fans would react to him? I
would express my doubts, but when it comes to Iron Maiden, every fan knows
you never know where you stand with them. It’s a fact that Iron Maiden weren’t
the least bit concerned with the departure of Adrian Smith, their guitar player
and excellent author, and that they had a replacement practically the same day.
There was no drama after Bruce left either. The audition fans talk about really
did happen, and we are lucky that Gino Micallef was there, who already shared
some interesting stories with us. Even though he was a great friend of Harris’,
the decision to make Blaze Bayley the next singer, after Bruce Dickinson, didn’t
sit well with him. He had his own favorite, a singer who came to the audition all
the way from the USA, but the band wasn’t keen on choosing anyone outside of
the UK. He remembered how there where excellent singers from all over the
world who could have been a more than worthy replacement for Dickinson, and
who, in his opinion, were a much better choice than Blaze, but the band held
the audition mostly pro forma, and didn’t cave in to label demands and other
factors who were pushing for their own solutions. And then we come back to
the theory that Blaze was chosen, without his prior knowledge, much earlier,
back in 1990, and that it was only a question of time when he would join the
band. Now the theory doesn’t seem that crazy anymore. Or course, I don’t think
that he was literally chosen, but that Bruce’s departure was starting to become
a real possibility and a question of time, and that certain preparations had to
have been made in advance, so that Iron Maiden wouldn’t be caught off guard…
240
The photo on the previous page shows, by accident or design, Blaze and
Dickinson hugging on the Maiden stage. It may have seemed like a fun gimmick
at the time, but looking at it today, it seems ominous. You will have the chance
to read my new book, 'The X Factor' soon, and you will have a chance to read a
lot more about the Bayely era, since Dickinson’s departure onwards. Dickinson
leaving the band isn’t the main event which marked the end of an era. There are
a lot more factors involved, which I elaborated by writing about how, why and in
which way music irrevocably changed in the metal world from that moment on.
In that period, it was perhaps the departure of their producer Martin Birch, and
the termination of cooperation with their illustrator Derek Riggs what changed
Maiden more than their cult singer leaving. And what it would all look like had
they all stayed in the nineties is something we will, unfortunately, never know.
I also have a short, personal story to share with you at the end of this Iron
rd
Maiden chapter. On the first day of fall, on September 23 2017, I married a
beautiful girl named Violeta, who also designed all the cover art for all the Iron
Maiden album books, and the girl making sure all the books are shipped. As
we were looking for Iron Maiden lyrics to engrave on our rings as a permanent
reminder of our wedding day, we didn’t doubt for a moment that the lines we
would have with us from now until death do us part were To be (my ring) „I'll
take you on a ride“ and (her ring) „From Here to Eternity“.
241
IRON MAIDEN ALBUM COLLECTION

make their audience believe that while they aren't in possession of the
official product, they are buying something equally legit. The use of
misleading PR is common, trying to lure people into thinking they are
actually paying for some of the exclusive and never before seen materials
seeping with deep insider info about to shake the foundation of everything
they believed they knew about their favorite band or performer.
'Climb like a monkey', the phrase that Bruce Dickinson used in the song 'Death
or Glory' from the album 'Book of Souls', had never in the history of the group
Iron Maiden been more appropriate to describe their surging growth and
expansion than during 1984 and 1985, when following the release of the
album 'Powerslave' the band left for their gigantic 'World Slavery Tour' and
made their unstoppable march into immortality. Ancient Egypt, mummies, the
Sphinx, Anubis, the pyramids, the curse of the Pharaohs, Valley of the Kings,
scarabs and enigmatic hieroglyphics served as a mysterious invitation for the
fans to step into the unknown and explore the arcane frontiers, joining Eddie
from the 'Powerslave' cover in making a mark for all times.
Even though at first glance this album doesn't hold a connection to AC/DC's
'Powerage' record from 1978 besides the similar name construction, it is
officially their fifth studio one (including the Australian editions), followed by a
live album after which came the commercial success and finally the pinnacle of
their career - also marking the end of the classic era. Doesn't that path sound
familiar? 'Silly' trivia such as this one can't find its place in 'serious' books. That is
why I’m proud to conclude: no, this is not an official book, nor is it intended to
act as such, it does not feature any exclusive insider info, and neither is it trying
to pile up all of the available Wikipedia articles and maiden-related fan sites info.
It wasn't written encyclopedically, factually, statistically, it’s not trying to create
a timeline of all the shows, bootlegs, various album editions, awards,
interviews and everything else. This book is a piece of my soul, a story of an
album which truly is a legit 'Powerage' moment, marking its moment in history
as the era of Maiden rapidly building up their power and unrelenting glory!
242
243
244

This is in fact a book about an album, yes - an album, which opened a new
dimension of space and imagination as far as thirty years ago, taking a ten
year old boy to a neverending journey. This is also a story of a renegade
album, a black sheep, a bastard child, who their creators never gave the
credit it deserved. I have waited for so many years, eagerly awaiting a
Maiden 'history' tour but today, thirty years after the album release, my
hopes slowly started to fade away, accepting that it will never be
appropriately presented to the public that waited decades for its missing
acclaim. This is why this book is actually a cry for Iron Maiden to remember
the jewel they've left in the dust, allowing their own vanity to submerge it
into oblivion.
Dear Iron Maiden, you may have forgotten the album 'Somewhere In Time'
but there are several millions of us who have not. Millions of us who bought
it, worshipped it, collected all available merch, and listed numerous
petitions asking for a live performance of the album's long forgotten songs.
That is why I’m proud to conclude: no, this is not an official book, nor is it
intended to act as such, it does not feature any exclusive insider info, and
neither is it trying to pile up all of the available Wikipedia articles and
maiden-related fan sites info. It wasn't written encyclopedically, factually,
statistically, it’s not trying to create a timeline of all the shows, bootlegs,
various album editions, music awards, interviews and everything else I’m
sure you already know about. This book is a piece of my soul, my scream to
Iron Maiden… Get your copy of my first 'album related book' and fulfill your
collection. Order on www.maidencroatia.com/somewhere-in-time-book
245

This is a book about an album which represents not only the very pinnacle of
British heavy metal, but also whose release marked the last huge impact of
British rock and metal on the scene worldwide. 'Seventh on of a Seventh son'
is the last triumphant march of British rock towards the throne with the royal
attitude similar to their predecessors such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The
Who, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Queen, Pink Floyd, Genesis,
Police, The Kinks and others respectively. British rock music has had its
moments later on, mostly heavily supported by the media trying to find new
Beatles among bands such as Oasis or the Arctic Monkeys, but the saga about
British rock dominating the worldwide scene ended with this amazing story.
When I look at the youth in today's world, as well as the music available to
them during that time, I can't help but feel extremely happy for growing up in
a time where I had the chance to eagerly wait in front of a record store to get
my first 'new' Maiden album as a twelve year old boy, knowing that the album
in question was exactly 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son'. That is why I’m proud
to conclude: no, this is not an official book, nor is it intended to act as such, it
does not feature any exclusive insider info, and neither is it trying to pile up all of
the available Wikip articles and maiden-related fan sites info. It wasn't written
encyclopedically, factually, statistically, it’s not trying to create a timeline of all
the shows, bootlegs, various album editions, awards, interviews and everything
else I’m sure you already know about. This book is a piece of my soul, a story
of an album which marked the end of my childhood while introducing me to the
grown up world forever, maybe even too soon. Sweet imaginations of a child
got replaced by a cruel war. But more of that in the next book!
246
247
248

make their audience believe that while they aren't in possession of the official
product, they are buying something equally legit. The use of misleading PR is
common, trying to lure people into thinking they are actually paying for some
of the exclusive and never before seen materials seeping with deep insider
info about to shake the foundation of everything they believed they knew
about their favorite band or performer.
But what if the book is written by a fan (14), whose life at the time was such that
he actually lived this album? Could this kid truly understand what his favorite
band was singing about, the messages they were trying to send? 'No Prayer’
may not have lived up to the fan’s expectations, but honestly, which of the
previous Maiden albums - apart from the debut one - was ever anything like the
fans expected it to be? But in this case, the expectations were reversed: Riggs’s
imaginative visuals replaced by a solution so simple he never even bothered to
sign it; the extravagant melodic epics Maiden was famous for, replaced by short
songs of largely social, political and cynical nature; Smith replaced by Janick
Gers, all the lavish concert scenery replaced by walls of Marshall stacks. Was this
the way Maiden regarded metal music of the nineties? Did they think that only
by stripping themselves raw they would be able to compete with the upcoming
Nirvana, Metallica, G’n’R, Pantera and all the other ordeals that were to follow?
The band could never lose until they started looking back and had they
not done so, they would have been invincible. Their fans could feel their
fear. That is why I'm proud to conclude: this is not an official book, nor is
it intended to act as such, it does not feature insider info, and neither is
it trying to pile up all of the available Wiki articles and Maiden-related
fan sites info. It was not written encyclopedically, factually, statistically,
it's not trying to create a timeline of all the shows, bootlegs, various
album editions, awards, interviews and everything else. This book is a
piece of my soul, a story of an album underestimated by so many, liked
by even less… And yet in my opinion, the album that is perhaps the most
responsible for Maiden being as great as it is today. Allow me to explain!
249
ADRIAN SMITH BOOK - STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND
This is the story of Adrian Smith, the guitar player and IRON
MAIDEN's (H)eart and (S)oul of rock, told from memories and
numerous anecdotes of friends, associates, family members and
fans. The man who gave metal music some of its finest melodies
and most touching lyrics will be presented in this book for the first
time. A stranger in a strange land, untouchable somewhere in his
time, in a book he deserved to get a long time ago.
FIND ADRIAN SMITH BOOK AT

WWW.MAIDENCROATIA.COM
250
STEVE HARRIS BOOK - THE CLAIRVOYANT
This is a warm and intriguing story about Steve Harris and speaks
about one of the most important people in the history of metal,
and of rock in general. It comes from the mouths of his friends,
music and business associates, family members and faithful fans.
All of them shared their tales, memories, feelings and anecdotes
from their encounters with Steve Harris in order to make this book,
and to give him recognition he truly deserves.
BUY STEVE HARRIS BOOK AT

251
NO MATTER HOW FAR - IRON MAIDEN FANS WILL BE THERE
‘No matter how far - Iron Maiden fans will be there’ is the first book
ever written exclusively about fans of a music band. More than 200
fans from more than 80 countries are included in this amazing book
project. If anyone deserves to be the subject of this first book of its
kind, it is the fans of IRON MAIDEN, without a doubt. They are a
family above their own families, a religion above religions, a love
above love, a nationality above nationalities. This is their story.
BUY BOOK ABOUT IRON MAIDEN FANS AT

252
IRON MAIDEN FOR MAIDEN KIDS - BOOK
Welcome to the first ever book for kids based on the works of a
heavy metal band. Normally, Iron Maiden! While thinking about
how Maiden have, since the late ’70s, brought up generation after
generation of fans, some of which are now parents of young kids
who also might be Maiden fans, I decided to write a book which
would be a cross between a picture book, an ABC book and an
encyclopedia for children between 7 and 15 years of age.
BUY IRON MAIDEN FOR MAIDEN KIDS BOOK AT

253
PHOTO AND LYRICS CREDITS
I have received some of the private photos (from shows, etc.) from the
interviewees via e-mail, or have been given permission to download them
from their Facebook pages and use them in this book. Although I have
always insisted on getting the author's name, sometimes it was unclear who
took the photo during a show or other occasion. In such cases, I have
credited the owner of the photo in good faith, to the best extent of my
knowledge. I always aimed in this book to respect the author's intellectual
proprety and state a photo's true author.
Most of the images used in the book are from my private collection or
courtesy of the people I’ve interviewed. All of them gave me permission to
use some of the images originally posted on their personal Facebook or
Twitter profiles or from their websites. I have asked for permission to use
each of them and if the author should be mentioned. Also, most of the
images are more of private than public character. Those which don’t have
captions are explained in this list, sorted by page number:
Page 14 - Iron Maiden in Burrn Magazine

Page 16 - 'Fear of the Dark' ad
Page 80 - Steve Harris property
Page 88 - Simon Drake on Raising Hell
Page 102 - Steve Harris on Superrock Festival 1992
Page 114 - Melvyn Grant's sketch for 'Fear of the Dark' cover
Page 125 - Walking Eddie, pictures from several shows
Page 154 - Bruce Dickinson on Superrock Festival 1992
Page 182 - Iron Maiden in Uruguay, promo picture
Large number of PR Photos together with press releases and press clippings
for this book I received from Iron Maiden fans and collectors and my
collaborators with their permission to use. Huge thank you to all of them.
Posters, illustrations, visuals, postards, tour programmes, ad design, t-shirt
and merchandise design courtesy of Iron Maiden.
Fragments of Iron Maiden Lyrics - courtesy of Zomba Music Publishig Ltd.
254
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book wouldn’t have seen the light of day, hadn’t it been for the
immense and complete support from the members of both the Croatian Iron
Maiden fan club and the Iron Maiden online club. I have created this book
thanks in part to their advice, questions, suggestions and guidelines and I
hope the final product will please them all.
I would like to thank every person whom I’ve interviewed, including those
who decided not to extend me that courtesy. Thanks to my parents and my
brother for their patience, Tina Bralić for translating this book into English. A
very special thank you to Fani Plosnić, Branimira Mrak, Ines Marija Slobođan
and Ranko Čop for huge 'last minute help' and sleepless nights. Thanks to
Christian Sorkalla, Alex Yakovlev, Matthew Ward for all thoughts and advices
and also thanks to Anastasio Guerero, Heiko Rödl and Rasmus Stawnsborg
and Ben Mistri for their contribution with Maiden memorabilia pictures. I
also owe my gratitude to Violeta Juras for her unbeliveable creative
contribution in book design, layout job and packing. She is also my good
spirit behind all orders and shipping activities. Thank you (last, but not least)
to ITG stuff for for their very important help.
Finally, a big thank you to every member of Iron Maiden, past and present,
and every person who ever worked for the band. Keep doing the greatest
job in the world. We, the fans, will always support you!
255
Croatian Iron Maiden fan club; www.maidencroatia.com
256

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OVO JE STRANICA BROJ NULA

OVI LAVOVI NA IDUĆOJ STRANICI (BROJ 1) TREBAJU BITI S DESNE STRANE

Confirming this information with my signature:

Translation, adaptation and proof-reading

Copyright © Stjepan Juras 2017

No part of this publication (pictures, photos illustrations and graphics are

Research Library of Zadar in Croatia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

For information on all Stjepan Juras publications please

Zadar, November 2017

Now in 2017 Harris is facing serious plagiarism accusations. This accusation

Antonin Dvořák 1840 - 1904.

Fugitive - 'Promotional CD single for radio stations.

The Shin-Imamiya station event served to show me a whole new world of

'Afraid to Shoot' Strangers', a musical ballad developing into a faster and

Gulf War, burning oil feilds. Author:Tech. Sgt. David McLeod

1991 was the year of deadly storms, tornadoes, earthquakes, airplane

Steve M. Clark's grave.

Metallica and Guns and Roses - Top albums 1991.

This turn of events, leaning towards a more aggressive expression forced

Rush - 'Roll the Bones' - album cover.

popularity working with Michael) 'Joyride' and 'Spending My Time' -

There's a certain death from 1991 that shouldn't go unnoticed. On the

World weather organization published a shocking report about huge ozone

Fanoft Stave Church - The tower collapse.

Montreal riot 1991. Memorable pictures.

British Queen Elisabeth II proclaimed 1992 as a 'horrible year' (Annus

Experimental, progressive and crossover bands have showed us the

Gothic, industrial and doom metal bands brought forth an immense

Green Jelly - Video screenshot

'A Real Live one' - rare Longbox.

In 1993 coincidentally a lot of bigger bands started to release their live or

Rage Against the Machine on Lollapalooza Festival 1993.

After Michael Jackson triumphing on Superbowl XXVII, the Superbowl

In 1993 we lost the unbelievable musical genius with over 60 albums

Among numerous successful mainstream albums in 1993 a couple managed

While Faith No More's 'Easy', Aerosmith's 'Cryin'', Mr Big's 'Wild World', 4

Everything started with the dark…

'Fear of the Dark' impression somewhere back in Poland in 1996.

It took me another few years to introduce the Maiden world to my family

something with Maiden. However, in their misfortune, if a video is getting to

„We haven't announced anything saying that we're going to be knocking it on

Also, for the rather ironic song ‘Judas Be My Guide’, he said:

That moment was crucial to everyone, and it gave Harris in particular

Maybe one day I'll be a honest man

Gym and poll on Steve Harris' property

Gino and Steve in 'Horss & Cart pub.

Gino Micallef, Nicko McBrian an his wife Rebecca.

Gino and Steve in friendly chat. Courtesy of Gino Micallef

It all started with an invitation in a black envelope signed by Eddie, in which

Simon never mentioned to the American producers how he worked with

Iron Maiden 'Maiden Japan' - Venezuelan edition.

Bruce's death in 'Raising Hell' video. (Screenshot).

Dave's chopped hand. (Screenshot)

Almost a quarter of a century after this cooperation, at shows during the

Above: A screenshot where Simon is holding a heart gushing blood in 1992

The cremation scene was originally featuring a rough instrumental as a

After that he went out to cool off. He remembered he literally wanted to

After this experience Simon never again worked for a television or TV

Simon is the head of Simon Drake’s House of Magic in London, an illusionist