OUR MAIDEN VOYAGE

From pub gigs to super-stardom, bassist Steve Harris chats to GARRY BUSHELL about Iron Maiden's 50-year odyssey

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JUST months after headlining a sold-out London Stadium with Iron Maiden, Steve Harris is playing a nearby pub with his other band, British Lion. Why? Maiden have had bigger dressing rooms. "I love playing smaller venues, I like to see the whites of their eyes," Steve, 69, grins.

The Cart & Horses in Stratford is also where football-crazy Maiden kicked off 50 years ago.

The East End metal band are renowned for their lavish stage shows, complete with monstrous mascot Eddie.

But, as Steve reminds me, Eddie’s earliest incarnation was a humble face mask, surrounded by light bulbs, which erupted during their anthemic set-closer, Iron Maiden. “We used a fish tank air pump to make fake blood spurt from his mouth,” he recalls. “We've always tried to put on a good show, even when we were using bubble machines and making dry ice with a kettle.”

Did anyone who witnessed Maiden’s raucous late 70s beginnings imagine they'd be selling out stadiums half a century later? In 2023, Royal Mail even issued a set of stamps in their honour.

Maiden, heavier than the Hulk in concrete boots and as British as the beer they drink, have sold 130million albums worldwide and played more than 2,500 gigs.