Iron Maiden

1979
FEB The band has £12,000-worth of equipment stolen from its van. Ilkay Bayram from London is later convicted of the theft, and most of the equipment is returned.

MAY DJ Kay organizes his "Heavy Metal Crusade" at London's Music Machine. Iron Maiden appears in what is recognised as the first concert of the "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal".

JUNE Paul Di'anno is arrested for carrying a knife.

Roderick Smallwood from the MAM Agency hears the band's demo and invites them to play at the Windsor Castle and the Swan pubs, subsequently finding nationwide UK gigs.

OCT A showcase at London's Marquee is ignored by every major label.

NOV The Soundhouse Tapes is released through mail order, having been recorded a year earlier in Cambridge.

New guitarist Tony Parsons joins and they record two tracks for the compilation album Metal For Muthas, released through EMI.

[28] The group finally signs with EMI Records.

1980
JAN Parsons is replaced Stratton.

Sampson leaves for health reasons and is replaced by Clive Burr

FEB Debut single, Running Free, reaches UK #34.

The band refuses to mime on BBC's Top of the Pops, becoming the first act to play live on the show since the Who in 1973

APR [26] Self-titled debut album peaks at UK #4, spurred by a UK tour with Judas Priest

JUNE The single Sanctuary reaches UK #29. On it's sleeve, Derek Riggs, the group's artistic designer, depicts Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie, knife-slashing PM Margaret Thatcher. After legal action is threatened, her eyes are blacked out.

EMI holds a special Iron Maiden party at Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors.

[20] The band plays at the Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London.

AUG Iron Maiden is featured on ITV's "20th Century Box" special on the NWOBHM, as it begins a European tour supporting Kiss

[23] The group appears at the "Reading Festival", Reading, Berks.

OCT Stratton is fired, and is replaced by Smith

NOV The single Women In Uniform, with picture sleeve featuring PM Thatcher holding a machine gun, waiting for revenge on Eddie, climbs to UK #35.

Eddie is introduced as a permanent feature of the band's live act.

1981
FEB [28] The album Killers reaches UK #12

MAR The single Twilight Zone/Wrathchild reaches UK #31

MAY Begins a sold-out Japanese tour, as part of its "The Killer World Tour", set to play in 15 countries (including Yugoslavia), during which the band will make its US debut, again opening for Judas Priest.

JUNE The single Purgatory makes UK #52

SEP At the end of the tour Di'anno leaves

OCT Bruce Dickinson joins in place of Di'anno

A live EP Maiden Japan peaks at UK #43 and US #89

NOV [15] Dickinson makes his live debut with Iron Maiden

DEC The group plays a pub gig as Genghis Khan

1982
FEB [25] "Beast on the Road" tour begins in Dunstable, Beds., set to end 11 months later in Niggata, Japan. During the 179-date, 16-country sojourn, they will play to over one millions fans

MAR The single Run to the Hills hits UK #7. The video is the band's first to be shown on US MTV

APR [10] The album, The Number of the Beast, hits UK #1. It will reach US #33 where it will have a 65-week chart run.

The group relocates to the Bahamas for tax purposes.

MAY The single The Number of the Beast reaches UK #18.

[11] Begins a six-month US leg of the "Beast on the Road" tour in Flint, MI, set to end on Oct 23 in Rochester, NY.

JULY A soccer match with the Scorpions ends in 0-0 tie.

AUG During the US tour, the band flies to London, to make a one-off performance at the annual "Reading Rock Festival".

1983
JAN Drummer Burr quits to be replaced by Nicko McBrain

MAY The single Flight of Icarus at UK #11.

The album Piece of Mind hits UK #3 and US #14 (where it will go platinum)

[2] A four-month "World Piece" universal tour, including the group's first headlining US dates, begins at the City Hall, Hull, Humberside

JULY The single The Trooper reaches UK #12

DEC Kerrang magazine readers vote Piece of Mind and The Number of the Beast the top two heavy-metal albums of all time.

Iron Maiden wins a soccer match against Def Leppard in Germany 4-2

1984
AUG The single 2 Minutes to Midnight reaches UK #11

The "World Slavery" tour begins in Poland, running through to a July 1985 finale in Califonia after 200 shows

SEP [11] The UK leg of the tour begins at the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland

OCT [8] The group plays the first of four sellout dates at London's Hammersmith Odeon, at the end of the 24-date UK leg

NOV The single Aces High peaks at UK #20.

The album Powerslave hits UK #2 and reaches US #21

1985
MAR [14-17] The group plays sellout dates at the Long Beach Arena, CA, during the US leg of the tour

APR The "World Slavery" tour continues throughout South-East Asia

JUNE The album Iron Maiden is re-issued, reaching UK #71

JULY [5] The "World Slavery" trek ends in California with a "British Independence Day Celebration" concert

OCT The single Running Free (Live) makes UK #19.

The double album Live After Death hits UK #2 and US #19

DEC The single Run to the Hills (Live) makes UK #26

The group plays a gig at London's Marquee club as the Entire Population of Hackney

1986
SEP The single Wasted Years peaks at UK #18

The album Somewhere In Time hits UK #3 and US #11 and marks the start of another tour

NOV The single Stranger In A Strange Land peaks at UK #22

The band performs a charity benefit gig at London's Hammersmith Odeon with special guests, the heavy metal-pastiche combo, Bad News

1987
JAN Dickinson is belatedly arrested in Lubbock, TX, for allegedly hitting someone with a microphone and the attempting to strangle him with its cord, back in March 1985

MAY Iron Maiden finishes a seven-month world tour and begins work on a new studio project

1988
The experimentation on Somewhere in Time resulted in Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Adding to Iron Maiden's experimentation, it was a concept album featuring a story about a mythical child who possessed clairvoyant powers. For the first time, the band used keyboards on a recording, as opposed to guitar synthesisers on the previous release. Critics claimed this produced a more accessible release. It became the band's second album to hit #1 in the UK charts.

During the Donington Park Festival on August 20, 1988, attendance was placed as 107,000; the biggest crowd attendance in the festival's history. Other performances in the festival include Kiss, David Lee Roth, Megadeth, Guns N' Roses and Helloween.

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

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

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

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

1991
Dickinson performed a solo tour in 1991 before returning to studio work with Iron Maiden for the album Fear of the Dark.

1992
Fear of the Dark is released, the album was noticeably longer (due to this being Iron Maiden's first album recorded for CD rather than LP) and had several songs which became fan favourites, such as the title track and "Afraid to Shoot Strangers". The disc also featured "Wasting Love," one of the band's softer songs, and the #2 single "Be Quick or Be Dead". The album featured the first songwriting by Gers, and no collaboration at all between Harris and Dickinson on songs.

The extensive worldwide tour that followed, included their first ever Latin American leg (after a single concert during the World Slavery Tour), and a being the headline act of "Monsters of Rock Festival" in seven European countries. Iron Maiden's second performance at Donington Park, gathering near to 80,000 festivalgoers, originated the album and video release Live at Donington.

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

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

1995
After a two year hiatus (and three year hiatus from recording - a record for the band at the time) Iron Maiden returned. Releasing The X Factor, the band had their lowest chart position since 1981 for an album in the UK (debuting at number 8). Chief songwriter Harris was experiencing personal problems at the time with the end of his marriage, and many fans and critics feel the album's sound is a reflection of this.

The album included the 11-minute epic "Sign of the Cross", the band's longest song since "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". It also included "Man on the Edge", based on the movie Falling Down and "Lord of the Flies", based on the novel of the same name.

1996
The band toured for the rest of 1995 and 1996, playing for the first time in Israel, before stopping to release The Best of the Beast. The band's first compilation, it included a new single, "Virus".

1998
The band returned to the studio for Virtual XI, released in 1998. Chart scores of the album were the band's lowest to date, failing to score one million worldwide sales for the first time in Iron Maiden's history.

At the same time, Steve Harris assisted in remastering the entire discography of Iron Maiden up to Live at Donington (which was given a mainstream release for the first time) and released the set.

1999
FEB Bayley left the band by mutual consent.

At the same time, the band surprised their fans when they announced that both Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith were rejoining the band, and that Janick Gers would remain.

Iron Maiden now had three guitarists and a hugely successful reunion tour, The Ed Hunter Tour. This tour also supported the band's newly released greatest hits Ed Hunter, which also contained a computer game of the same name starring the band's mascot.

2000
Iron Maiden's first studio release after the reunion with Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith came in the form of Brave New World. Thematic influences continued with "The Wicker Man" — based on the 1973 British cult film of the same name — and "Brave New World" — title taken from the Aldous Huxley novel of the same name.

The world tour that followed consisted of well over 100 dates and

2001
culminated on 19 January 2001 in a show at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil, where Iron Maiden played to an audience of around 250, 000.

2002
This performance was recorded and released on CD and DVD in March 2002 under the name Rock in Rio.

2003
Following their Give Me Ed... 'til I'm Dead Tour in summer 2003 ( three months of touring across the Europe And America with 56 gigs to over 1 mln fans including Rock am Ring and Rock im Park headlining for combine audience of 120,000 and important, Download Festival premiere event, performing for 50,000 fans),

Iron Maiden released Dance of Death. The release of their 13th album was met by critical and commercial success worldwide. Some critics also felt that this release matched up to their earlier efforts like Piece Of Mind and The Number Of The Beast, including their darker imagery rather than the more upbeat reunion album. As usual, historical and literary influences continued — "Montsegur" in particular being about the Cathar stronghold conquered in 1244 and "Paschendale" relating to a significant battle during World War I. The supporting tour for this album, named Dance Of Death World Tour was another landmark for the band, as they played to over 750,000 fans during 50 dates over a period of 4 months in 2003-04. This included sold out dates in South America, Japan, Europe, North America and Japan.

2005
Their performance at Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany, as part of the supporting tour, was recorded and released in August 2005 as a live album and DVD, entitled Death on the Road.

In 2005, the band announced a tour to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the release of their first album, Iron Maiden, and the 30th anniversary of their formation. The tour also was in support of the 2004 DVD entitled The Early Days and as such during the tour they only played material from their first four albums. As part of the celebration of their early days, the "Number of the Beast" single was re-released and went straight to number 3 in the UK Chart. The Early Days World Tour included many stadium headline dates and festivals including their historic performance at the Ullevi Stadium in Sweden, playing to almost 60,000 fans. This concert was also broadcast on satellite television all over Europe to over 60 million viewers.

At Iron Maiden's last Ozzfest performance (20 August 2005 at the Hyundai Pavilion at Glen Helen in San Bernardino, CA to almost 50 000 people), Sharon Osbourne interrupted their performance by turning off the PA system, after which the MC chanted: "Ozzy! Ozzy!". Someone threw eggs at the band, and it was later determined that Kelly Osbourne and her associates were the culprits. The performance was temporary stopped while crew cleaned McBrain's drumkit, Bruce Dickinson's microphone stand, and the stage floor. After several more disruptions with the PA, Iron Maiden ended their set and Sharon Osbourne came on stage. She During some of Maiden's best-known numbers, the band's PA system wavered. On the accused Bruce Dickinson of disrespecting Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, and the production quality of the Ozzfest tour, while praising the rest of the band and their crew. Iron Maiden fans in the audience booed her offstage and chanted "Maiden" as 10,000 of them left Ozzfest in protest of Sharon's antics. Many of them later complained to the Ozzfest Production Management, demanding compensation for ruining the Iron Maiden performance.

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

2006
In Autumn, Iron Maiden released A Matter of Life and Death. While the album is not a concept album, war and religion are recurring themes in the lyrics throughout, as well as in the album's artwork.

A successful tour followed, during which they played the new album in its entirety; though response to this was mixed.

Iron Maiden recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for Live from Abbey Road in December 2006. Their performance was screened in an episode alongside sessions with Natasha Bedingfield and Gipsy Kings in March 2007 on Channel 4 (UK) and June 2007 on the Sundance Channel (USA).

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

2007
The second part of the "A Matter of Life and Death" tour was dubbed "A Matter of the Beast" to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Number of the Beast album, and included appearances at several major festivals worldwide. The band announced plans to play five songs from A Matter of Life and Death and five from The Number of the Beast as part of their set but in fact played only four songs from The Number of the Beast.

They played in the Middle East for the first time at the annual Dubai Desert Rock Festival in 2007 playing to 20,000 fans.

They made their first appearance in India with a concert at Bangalore playing to over 45,000 people at the Bangalore Palace Grounds. This event marked the first time any major heavy metal band toured the Indian sub-continent.Band has played a string of european dates, including open air festival performances and mostly stadium - sized gigs.

In England, formation headlined the Download Festival At Donington Park for the fourth time in their fabulous carrier. Show attracted record breaking number of audience, estimated as near to 80,000 die-hards festivalgoers despite higher ticket and camp-place prices than few years ago.

On the 24 June they ended the tour with a performance at London's Brixton Academy in aid of The Clive Burr MS Trust fund.

On 5 September 2007, the band announced their Somewhere Back in Time World Tour, which ties in with the DVD release of their Live After Death album. The setlist for the tour consisted of successes from the 1980s, with a specific emphasis on the Powerslave era for set design.

2008
The tour started in Mumbai, India on 1 February 2008 where the band played to an audience of almost 30,000.

The first part of the tour consisted of 24 concerts in 21 cities, travelling over 50, 000 miles in the band's own chartered airplane "Ed Force One".

They played their first ever concerts in Costa Rica and Colombia and their first Australian shows since 1992.

On 12 May, the band released a new compilation album, titled Somewhere Back in Time. It includes a selection of tracks from their 1980 eponymous debut to 1988's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, including several live versions from Live After Death.

With the sole UK headline show at Twickenham Stadium, this tour also marked the first ever stadium headlining show in the UK by the band.

2009
A final part of the tour took place in February and March 2009, including the band's first ever appearance in Peru and Ecuador, and their first performances in New Zealand for 16 years.

The band also played their third show within a span of 2 years in India, at the Rock In India 2009 festival to a crowd of 20,000. The final leg of the tour ended in Florida on April 2 after which the band took a break from touring.

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

During a Rock Radio interview promoting Flight 666, Nicko McBrain revealed that Iron Maiden had booked studio time for early 2010 and would be likely to be touring again late that year or the year after.

At the 2009 BRIT Awards the band won the award for best live act.

During their live presentation in São Paulo, on 15 March 2009, Bruce announced on stage that the show was the biggest of their career. In fact, the crowd of 100,000 people was Iron Maiden's all-time biggest attendance for a solo show, without other bands. The attendance was bigger than Chile's show (almost 70,000 fans), according to the organisers.

During the Somewhere Back In Time tour, Bruce Dickinson said that there are plans for Iron Maiden to write and record a new album, most likely to come out in 2009, and in an interview with Metal Edge, Steve Harris said there definitely would be another album, stating that, "I always had this vision that we would do 15 studio albums, and the next one would be the 15th. Hopefully, we'll do another one or two for luck, but we'll see how we go, really." Dickinson has also informed audiences that future tours would feature more recent Iron Maiden material. Asked about the possibility of a new album and Harris's fifteen-album limit, Adrian Smith commented that "we're musicians. We'll carry on. The great thing is that there's clearly a huge audience out there waiting to hear what we do right now", renewing hopes that a new album is forthcoming.

Nicko McBrain stated in a interview for Rock Radio that the new Iron Maiden album will be finished in 2010, and that a tour will follow in the late 2010 or 2011.