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Iron Maiden was formed in 1975 by the current bassist Steve Harris. The original band consisted of Steve Harris on bass, Paul Day as lead singer, Dave Sullivan and Terry Rance were the guitarists, and Ron Mathews was the drummer. The band would undergo several changes before achieving wide stream success.

Iron Maiden is a British heavy metal rock band that is famous for such hits as “Run to the Hills”, “The Trooper”, and “The Flight of Icarus”. The name “Iron Maiden” was taken from the name of a medieval torture device, and the most recognizable member of the band is the zombie “Eddie”, who is found on virtually all Iron Maiden merch.

The first album released by Iron Maiden was aptly named “Iron Maiden”, which was released on April 14, 1980. By this time, the lineup had changed to Steve Harris on bass, Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton on guitar, Clive Burr on drums, and Paul Di’Anno on vocals. Shortly after the release of Iron Maiden, the band opened for Kiss on the European leg of their “Unmasked” tour. Shortly After the tour, guitarist Dennis Stratton was fired from the band due to creative and personal differences.

Bruce Dickenson was brought in as the lead singer, and after the third album “The Number of the Beast” was released in 1982, the success of Iron Maiden skyrocketed. The album kicked off a world tour. The protests, along with album burning parties gave Iron Maiden even more publicity, and may have contributed even more to the bands success.

The follow up album “Piece of Mind”, released in 1983 was the first album to go platinum in the United States. The band continued wide stream success during the eighties with albums “Powerslave”, “Somewhere in Time”, and “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”. Iron Maiden video and other merch was selling very well.

Bailey’s vocals were very different than Dickerson’s, and his inclusion in the band met with limited success. The album “The X Factor” suffered from poor sales, and a follow up album “Virtual XI” released in 1998 suffered the poorest sales ever.

In 1999 Bruce Dickenson and Adrian Smith rejoined the band, and they embarked on a world tour. Once again you could see Iron Maiden merch everywhere. During April this year the band released the film “Iron Maiden: Flight 666″, which follows the band on their first leg of the “Somewhere Back in Time Tour”. In Sau Paulo Brazil on March 16, 63000 people attended the show, the most ever for an Iron Maiden concert.Fans are waiting for their new album due sometime this year. Needless to say Iron Maiden is expected to add a new generation of fans to the huge legions of old fans.

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