On This Day 04/06/1980 Iron Maiden

Images may be subject to copyright

On this day. 4 June 1980, heavy metal giants Iron Maiden played Cardiff’s Top Rank

The Iron Maiden Tour was in support of their eponymous debut album. The band's first solo headlining tour, it followed the co-headlined Metal for Muthas Tour from earlier in the same year.

Although Iron Maiden have since criticised the quality of the album's production, the release was met with critical and commercial success, peaking at number four on the UK Albums Chart and helping the band achieve prominence in mainland Europe.

The tour commenced with a British leg from 1 April to 23 August, although this included one concert in Finland, before the band supported Kiss on their Unmasked Tour from 24 August to 16 October, immediately following which guitarist Dennis Stratton was sacked and replaced with Adrian Smith.After Smith was hired, the band decided to undertake another British tour, taking place from 21 November to 21 December.

Setlist

The Ides of March

Sanctuary

Wrathchild

Prowler

Remember Tomorrow

Killers

Running Free

Another Life

Drum Solo

(Clive Burr)

Transylvania

Strange World

Charlotte the Harlot

Phantom of the Opera

Iron Maiden

Encore:

Drifter

On This Day 31/07/2015 British Lion

On this day, 31 July 2015, English hard rock band British Lion a band formed by Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris played Cardiff University. The support band was The Raven Age, which included George Harris, son of Steve on guitar.

Steve Harris formed the band to play in small venues, as opposed to the large arenas typically played by Iron Maiden, and as an outlet for shorter hard rock-oriented songs in which he can experiment with different bass guitar styles. The band also includes singer Richard Taylor, guitarists David Hawkins and Grahame Leslie, and drummer Simon Dawson.

Harris had first met Leslie in the early 1990s after Leslie sent him a demo tape, and Harris mentored the careers of Leslie and Taylor for several years until deciding to include them in the British Lion project.[6] The band's tours are typically scheduled after the conclusion of Iron Maiden tours, when Harris becomes interested in playing in clubs and theaters as he did in Iron Maiden's early years.

The album British Lion, released in 2012, was marketed as a solo album by Harris with the other musicians described as his backing band. The project was then re-positioned as a self-contained band with most songs written by Harris, Taylor, and Hawkins.

Their second album The Burning was released in January 2020. The album was voted Album of the Year by Paul Stenning for BraveWords.

On This Day 15/05/1983 Iron Maiden

Images may be subject to copyright

On this day, 15 May 1983, heavy metal rock band Iron Maiden played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on their World Piece tour in support of their fourth album, A Piece Of Mind.

The band were supported by Grand Prix.

In 1983, they released their fourth studio album, Piece of Mind, which reached the No. 3 spot in the UK, and No. 14 on the Billboard 200.

Piece of Mind features the successful singles "The Trooper" and "Flight of Icarus", the latter being notable as one of the band's few songs to gain substantial airplay in the US.

The other notable songs of the album are "Where Eagles Dare" (based on so same entitled movie with Clint Eastwood starring), "Revelations", "Die with Your Boots On" and an epic "To Tame a Land" based on Frank Herbert's novel titled "Dune".

Iron Maiden played 151 concerts in Europe and North America as a part of World Piece Tour. For the very the first time they booked a massive North America tour as headliners.

Nearly 90 shows took place in 10,000 + capacity arenas, and the band sold out Madison Square Garden with a crowd of 20,000.

In London, they played four consecutive nights at the Hammersmith Odeon, then toured many large venues across Western Europe, including an extensive German leg.

The World Piece Tour was summed up by two headlining performances at the Rock & Pop Festival at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund. The show was broadcast live to 300 million people with the exception of the song "Iron Maiden" due to the band's "violent behaviour on stage".

The final night of the tour in Dortmund saw the band "kill" their mascot Eddie after the song "Iron Maiden". Bruce Dickinson took the brain out of Eddie's head while the rest of the band kicked and pummelled the mascot, while guitarist Dave Murray smashed his Fender Stratocaster on Eddie's neck and a nearby amplifier.

Setlist

1 Intro – theme from Where Eagles Dare

2 "Where Eagles Dare" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

3 "Wrathchild" (from Killers, 1981)

4 "The Trooper" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

5 "Revelations" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

6 "Flight of Icarus" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

7 "Die with Your Boots On" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

8 "22 Acacia Avenue" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

9 "The Number of the Beast" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

10 "Still Life" (from Piece of Mind, 1983) (Dropped after 12 June 1983)

11 "To Tame a Land" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

12 "Phantom of the Opera" (from Iron Maiden, 1980) (Dropped after 12 June 1983)

13 "Hallowed Be Thy Name" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

14 "Iron Maiden" (from Iron Maiden, 1980)

15 "Run to the Hills" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

16 "Sanctuary" (from Iron Maiden, 1980)

17 "Drifter" (from Killers, 1981)

18 "Prowler" (from Iron Maiden, 1980)