Iron Maiden

Leyton, a demo tape and an EMI contract

Bassist Steve Harris formed Iron Maiden in Leyton, east London, in the autumn of 1975, taking the name from a film adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask. The band played its first billed show at St Nicks Hall on 1 May 1976 and became semi-regulars at the Cart and Horses in Stratford. On New Year's Eve 1978 they recorded a demo at Spaceward Studios which circulated through the Bandwagon Heavy Metal Soundhouse club and was issued as The Soundhouse Tapes. EMI signed them in December 1979.

The line-up churned hard in those first years. Paul Di'Anno had joined on vocals in November 1978 and Clive Burr replaced Doug Sampson on drums in December 1979. The self-titled debut arrived in 1980 and reached number four in the UK. Guitarist Dennis Stratton was dismissed that October and replaced by Adrian Smith. Di'Anno gave way to Bruce Dickinson in September 1981, and Nicko McBrain took over the drum stool in December 1982. That configuration — Harris, Dickinson, Smith, Dave Murray and McBrain — is the one most of the tour's material was written for.

The nine albums everything still rests on

The Number of the Beast, released in 1982, went to number one in Britain and has sold somewhere near 20 million copies worldwide. Piece of Mind followed in 1983 and Powerslave in 1984, the latter carrying the World Slavery Tour — 193 shows across 28 countries, the most punishing schedule the band has ever attempted. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son in 1988 closed out that run of records, and it is those nine albums, debut through Seventh Son, that the current tour draws from exclusively.

The end of that era was messy. Adrian Smith left during pre-production for No Prayer for the Dying in 1990 and Janick Gers came in. Blaze Bayley fronted the band from 1994 to 1999, a commercially difficult stretch of falling chart positions and thinner sales that the band has never much romanticised.

The repair, and the long second act

Dickinson and Smith both returned in January 1999, leaving Iron Maiden with three guitarists — Murray, Smith and Gers — a formation they have kept for over a quarter of a century. Brave New World in 2000 restored their critical standing, and the later records did better commercially than anything since the 1980s: The Final Frontier (2010), The Book of Souls (2015) and Senjutsu (2021) each charted at number one in more than 25 countries. Senjutsu remains the most recent studio album.

Total sales run past 130 million albums with more than 600 certifications. The industry recognition came slowly and out of order: an Ivor Novello International Achievement Award in 2001, a Brit Award for Best British Live Act in 2009, and a Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 2011.

Where they stand in September 2026

The Run For Your Lives World Tour opened on 27 May 2025 in Budapest and is scheduled to end on 25 November 2026 at K-Arena Yokohama — 91 shows in total. It is the first major tour since 1983 without Nicko McBrain, who announced his retirement from touring on 7 December 2024, the night of his final show at Allianz Parque in São Paulo, following a stroke in January 2023. He remains in the band for studio work. Simon Dawson, Harris's rhythm-section partner in British Lion since 2012, took the touring seat.

The commercial numbers are the largest of the band's career. The first 32 European shows in 2025 sold over a million tickets. Pollstar placed Iron Maiden fifth among the highest-earning artists for November 2024 to October 2025 on $128 million, and Billboard's Top Rock Tours listing for 2025 recorded roughly 1.5 million tickets and $150.9 million.

On 14 April 2026 the band were named in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2026 class alongside Oasis, Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Wu-Tang Clan and Joy Division/New Order. Manager Rod Smallwood issued the statement, thanking the Hall while noting that the relationship with the audience has always mattered more to the band than awards. They will not attend the ceremony on 14 November at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, because they are booked in Australia on 13 and 15 November and have said the shows go ahead.

Their only UK appearance of 2026 was EddFest at Knebworth Park on 10 and 11 July, a two-day event built around the band's mascot with The Darkness, The Hu, Airbourne and The Almighty in support, an Infinite Dreams Museum Experience of stage props and relics, and a crowd of more than 60,000. After Yokohama the band intend to take 2027 off the road.

Inside the current show

The set runs 17 songs and does not touch anything recorded after 1988. Doctor Doctor and The Ides of March play from tape, then the band open with Murders in the Rue Morgue, Wrathchild and Killers — three songs that signal immediately this is not a greatest-hits night. Phantom of the Opera, The Number of the Beast, Infinite Dreams, Powerslave, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Run to the Hills, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, The Trooper and Hallowed Be Thy Name follow, with the title track closing the main set. Churchill's Speech leads into an encore of Aces High, Fear of the Dark and Wasted Years, and the house tape is Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.

The talking point is Infinite Dreams, which Dickinson has told crowds the band had not played since 1988 and which displaced The Clairvoyant for the 2026 dates. The staging changes with the album era being played — London alleyways, padded cells, cemeteries, Egyptian pyramids — and at Knebworth ran on a digital backdrop reported to have cost £2 million, with Dickinson vanishing into the screen during Rime of the Ancient Mariner to fight an avatar of death, a Spitfire-flying Eddie for Aces High and a sword-wielding Eddie on The Trooper.

Reviewers have been consistent about Dickinson, who is 68: the high notes were called razor sharp at TD Garden in Boston on 9 September, with Dawson keeping the back end crisp. The only real friction reported was at Knebworth, where part of the crowd drifted off to watch a World Cup quarter-final.