Number Of The Beast: 50 Years of Iron Maiden Touring Dominance (Special)

Iron Maiden’s place in rock history has long been established, with genre-defining classic albums, iconic imagery and lifestyle elements and decades of massive worldwide touring success adored by fans across the globe and respected by the music industry.The most remarkable part, 50 years on, might be that the Iron Maiden machine — on tour, at festivals, and at Eddie’s Dive Bar — continues to grow.

“The last two arena tours in the UK have been their biggest ever, so it’s kept growing,” says Andy Copping, Live Nation’s UK executive president of touring, who’s worked with Iron Maiden for more than 30 years. “On the last run we sold out London Stadium, 70,000 tickets literally sold out in a day, so demand was really high. After a 50-year career they’re bigger than they’ve ever been.”

POLLSTAR’S IRON MAIDEN 50TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL
How Rod Smallwood Helped Take Iron Maiden To The Masses
Merch Meets Demand: Iron Maiden As A Visual Entity, Fashion Statement & Beer Brand
For The Rockeros: How Iron Maiden Became A LatAm Touring Force
Iron Maiden Extracurriculars Run The Gamut
Iron Maiden To Bring ‘Run For Your Lives World Tour’ To North America With Megadeth
Stateside Debut Of Eddie’s Dive-Bar

The data backs up that claim worldwide, with the band’s biggest boxoffice reports to date coming mostly in the last couple of years, at venues in Chile, Brazil, France, the UK, Sweden and others seeing ticket sales as high as 60,000 per night. Based on data reported to Pollstar dating back to 1982, which includes more than 900 shows, Iron Maiden has surely grossed more than $1 billion, all while known for a reasonable ticket price and appreciation for its fans.

Formed on Christmas Day 1975 by founder and bassist Steve Harris in East London, Iron Maiden remains in a very exclusive class of rock bands able to play stadiums across the world, often mentioned alongside only elder statesman classic rockers AC\DC, American contemporaries Guns N’ Roses and thrash pioneers Metallica. In their native England, they remain in a class all their own, at the top of their game, with band members still finding time for their own solo projects and other endeavors.

Known for delivering an always-original, high-energy show with striking visuals, trademark stage theatrics and varying setlists, led by Bruce Dickinson, the high-flying, charismatic frontman with a flair for the dramatic and a powerful, semi-operatic vibrato, Iron Maiden has long transcended the mantle of leaders of “the new wave of British heavy metal” and have become one of the most successful and influential rock bands of all time. If Sabbath gave way to the Prince of Darkness, and AC/DC retains its Problem Child swagger, Maiden’s blend of theatric sonic abilities, acrobatic flair and light-hearted, blue-collared Eddie ethos add up to a unique appeal.

“The band is very, very driven,” says Adrian Smith, guitarist for the band during the ‘80s and since its reboot in 1999, following a brief hiatus. “Steve Harris started the band in the mid ’70s because he wanted to play his own music his own way and the band has stayed true to that. It’s a unique sound, we don’t sound like anyone else. We always put a lot of money back into the shows, production-wise. It’s never a bank raid, and I think that contributes to the longevity of the band.”

Smith met Harris and guitarist Dave Murray as a teenager, playing in other bands but remaining friends before joining up in 1980, becoming a core piece of the band credited with co-writing favorites like “Flight of Icarus,” “The Prisoner,” “2 Minutes To Midnight” and an integral part of Maiden’s signature harmonized dual-guitar attack.

“I’ve got a bit of a unique perspective because I actually left for nine years and came back,” says Smith. He jokes that he was “virtually starving” when he first joined the band. “That’s why I say I almost appreciated it more when I came back, because I could see it from the outside and I knew how special it was.”

Dating back almost as far as Smith, Harris and Murray and credited with much of its success, is manager Rod Smallwood of Phantom Music Management. Even the name of the firm is devoted to the band, an homage to one of its earliest epic tracks “Phantom of the Opera” from its self-titled 1980 LP. He’s largely credited with guiding on its own terms, without the help of terrestrial radio or compromising artistically or aesthetically.

“We got the band back together again in the early 2000s, and literally every tour since just got bigger and bigger and bigger,” says Smallwood. “That speaks to the quality of material, the quality of the band and their very close relationship with the fans. It’s just been great. The whole thing. We’ve had a lot of fun. We’ve seen a lot of things. We’ve been a lot of places, met a lot of people. It’s been quite an astonishing career, really, and something the band have always had complete control over. Steve and the band write what they want, how they want, we package it and deliver it. It’s been a pleasure.”

Those travels have forged deep relationships.

“We’ve done over 133 shows together with Iron Maiden,” says Ossy Hoppe, founder of Wizard Live in Germany. Like many in the band’s touring orbit, his time dates back to their support dates opening for KISS during the 1980 “Unmasked” tour, growing the band organically and quickly to the largest venues in Germany.

Hoppe fondly refers to the band and its team (and their families) as personal friends, giving props to Steve Harris’ football skills. “Iron Maiden
is actually one of the very,

very few rock bands in the world that are capable of selling stadiums on a worldwide basis,” he says, noting that Iron Maiden can consistently do five to seven stadium shows in Germany per touring cycle. “You have a lot of bands that are big in one country, or maybe two or three, but you don’t have bands like Iron Maiden that can sell out stadiums two or three times over across the world. This last tour alone shows they are humongous. In Germany, they are amongst the very top – it’s the Stones, Metallica, and then you have to think, you know?”

Hoppe largely credits the band’s fan-first attitude and attention to detail, ensuring a good show and access for all fans, which means keeping ticket prices affordable.

“They really are always concerned not to overdo it and really stay focused on their fans and really say, ‘Our fans are the most important thing. And we are only here because our fans, they made us, they created us. They were the ones that we have to be thankful.’ That’s what I love about the band.”

In Northern Europe, the story is similar.

“Hard rock has always been big in the Nordic countries, and bands like Maiden broke here before other parts of the world,” says Thomas Johansson of Live Nation Sweden, who met Smallwood at an agency at the time called MAM, before he took on Iron Maiden as a management client. He too started working with the band when they were supporting KISS, but quickly moved up to arenas and festivals, now doing stadiums throughout the region, from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Czech Republic and Poland. “They are different because they’re not just another rock or heavy metal band. It’s very sophisticated music, structured music. Each song tells a story.”

Translating to a largely non-English-speaking continent is no small feat, but Maiden’s work in overseas markets, particularly South America, put them ahead of the game on the worldwide circuit and developed loyal fans in rock-starved locales, early on.

“Probably the most impactful gig we ever did was Rock In Rio ‘85, when Bruce banged his head against the guitar, cut his head open a bit, and blood was gushing down,” says Smallwood. The first Rock in Rio festival in Brazil saw Iron Maiden as support for Queen. “He came to the south stage and said, what should we do? I said, see that camera with the red light on? Go and get your face right in front of the fucking lens!” Dickinson’s spirited performance as the band pummeled through a frenetic set of instant classics was broadcast live to millions on the continent. “There were over 300,000 people there, but it was really the impact on the TV, because Maiden have never played anything else but stadiums in Chile, Buenos Aires, most of Brazil. To be playing stadiums across the whole continent without ever going there prior is just outrageous. In life, that doesn’t happen, does it? But it did.”

Perhaps Latin America notwithstanding, Iron Maiden grew its worldwide touring prowess without a viral moment or even radio, at a time when music videos
and disposable pop music were king. Some early looks and support slots were key.

“We were very lucky to have the KISS tour, and they were brilliant to work with at the time,” says Smallwood. “We got a following almost immediately by supporting. My aim was always to develop the international side of things, because metal’s an international music anyway, and in America we were able to support Judas Priest in 1981.” More dates included dates with Rainbow, Scorpions, .38 Special and others. “So we were in front of people all the time,” Smallwood said, and with Dickinson joining as frontman for 1982’s landmark The Number of the Beast, “We just went for it. We went off of that to do arenas across America, like the Madison Square Gardens, so it was pretty remarkable to say we hadn’t got the usual media support. It was all about how good the band were live and how strong the material was.”

Always a strong draw in the United States and Canada, the band continues to grow there as well, and finding new audiences thanks to younger generations appreciating not only classic heavy metal but new bands having big moments in heavy rock.

“They’re the leaders of the genre, their show continues to grow, their audience has gotten younger, the merchandise and what they’ve created beyond the show as a global artist is beyond anything anyone else has done,” says Rick Roskin, co-head of music at CAA, repping the band in the United States and Canada. He admits the band’s touring business in the U.S. and Canada is smaller than in other continents, but that is largely due to being true to themselves. “You were either into Iron Maiden or you weren’t, you weren’t going to find it on the radio or on MTV. It just wasn’t what they were about. They’ve always been true to who they were, the music they made, and now the U.S. is finally getting caught up.”

Iron Maiden just announced North America dates for the “Run For Your Lives World Tour” celebration of 50 years since the formation of the band, with dates across the continent including stadiums like BMO Stadium in Los Angeles (two nights), The Alamodome in San Antonio, Hersheypark Stadium and Sports Illustrated Stadium in New Jersey. A “once-in-a-lifetime” setlist comes from the band’s first nine albums, with added firepower with support from American thrash mainstays Megadeth, who announced a farewell tour and final album for 2026, who will also be joined on the larger shows by fellow American thrash colleagues Anthrax.

The concept at its heart remains simple, according to American promoter Rich Best of Live Nation Global Touring.

“The first thing that goes into it is ‘Where is it going to be a great experience for the fan? Where’s it gonna be a great experience for the band?’ Those sort of fundamentals haven’t changed,” says Best, who has been working with the band since the early 2000s, carrying the torch for Los Angeles-based promoter Brian Murphy, who passed away in 2018. “Those are our front-and-center in every conversation we have. What we certainly saw in Europe with the announce of this tour and how it’s being presented, we anticipate it’s going to be big, but again it’ll lead with the fan and artist experience. To this day, they’re one of the best live bands on the planet, bar none.”

The “Run For Your Lives World Tour” began in 2025, with massive shows in Europe including Germany, Switzerland, France, Northern Europe including Sweden and the band’s native UK. That is already to be followed up in 2026, with more stadiums in Greece, Bulgaria, Slovakia, some repeats like France and Germany, and a massive special UK show at Knebworth Park including The Hu, The Almighty, The Darkness and Airbourne.

“Knebworth Park has a history of major artists playing, so Rob and I discussed and thought wouldn’t it be great to put our names next to match?” Says K2’s John Jackson, who represents the band worldwide outside of North America. The event encourages camping and promises the largest Eddie’s Dive Bar yet.

“I can’t go into all the details, because we have some surprises for the fans yet, but we’re created sort of a Maiden World for it, so it’s going to be very interesting,” Smallwood adds.

Alongside Smallwood and merchandise pioneer Barry Drinkwater, Jackson was instrumental in building band’s touring business from nearly the very beginning.
He calls Iron Maiden “a complete one-off” in its unique ability to tour globally, noting the 1985 Rock In Rio performance as a game-changer and somewhat of a risk at the time for the mega-event’s Roberto Medina and Phil Rodriguez, who wanted Maiden specifically for the event. Jackson says the strategy in the early days was simply to get the band in front of people “because the band do the rest. They are such an amazing live band,” but being patient and knowing when to move was crucial.

“Monsters of Rock was an iconic heavy metal rock festival that every band wanted to play,” said Jackson of the long-running event at the historic Donington Park from 1980 to 1996. “Each year it came around the promoter would ask me if Iron Maiden will play. I said, ‘Are they headlining? No? I’ll wait.’” After securing a headline slot in 1988, the event sold out tickets and broke its own attendance records. “That worked out, as well,” Jackson said.

For a band that’s been around 50 years and in a business built on trust and personal relationships as much as any dollars and cents, it’s no surprise that Iron Maiden’s team remains tight-knit and focused, apart from physically fit and creatively inspired with extracurriculars from football to solo projects to moonlighting as a commercial airline pilot. The relationship between band remains consistent.

“Steve’s got complete control over the music, and I sort of have control over live to an extent. We both argue against the other, but we’ve never fallen out,” says Smallwood. “The guys leave the plotting pretty much to me, and the guys take care of the music. We’ll work on the artwork together, myself and Steve. Bruce is always involved in everything as well. Different members of the band are more involved in different things, but generally it hasn’t changed that much.”
Touring regularly — and in some markets with limited venue options at the necessary size – means the variety comes from the music, themed production and stage design (credited in part to tour director Ian Day).

A newer member of the team, and publicly credited with recent touring success by the band members themselves, is front-of-house engineer Ken “Pooch” Van Druten, who joined full time in 2017. “Pooch”, who, like many on the team was a fan first, says the task of mixing a three-guitar sonic assault of one of his favorite childhood bands was daunting, but has been fully embraced by the band.

“One of the hardest things to step into is working a band that you’re a fan of – I was listening to Killers when i was 11 or 12 years old,” says Van Druten, who’s worked with artists ranging from Travis Scott to ZZ Top. He’s also traveled with Dickinson’s solo project, Mandrake, which was active on the road this year. “You have your own expectations upon yourself about how it should sound and how it should be.”

He says the band’s three-guitar onslaught becomes more like four when you consider Harris’ bass guitar style – Iron Maiden’s guitars largely in standard tuning may resemble more progressive rock than today’s downtuned heavy metal – making a good mix crucially important in a live setting and ensuring each instrument is pronounced and represented properly. He says the band has been more than supportive and appreciative of his work, and is ready for a busy 2026.

“We’ll be working for most of the year, and stoked,” Van Druten says. “These guys are that band, to me, that as long as they’ll have me around, I’ll stick around. They treat me well, they’re respectful and we have a great rapport. It’s a great environment.”

Always moving forward and continuing to grow after 50 years is remarkable and keeps everyone busy and focused on the task at hand, meaning it can be difficult to pin down those in its inner circle about Iron Maiden’s place in music history.

“Maybe we’ve all still got something to prove,” says the band’s Smith. “Never rest on your laurels. Every show’s important. It’s what you do and you’ve got to do it the best you can. I suppose that’s our motivation and everyone pretty much the same, knowing Bruce keeps himself in shape. I mean, he’s incredible and he still runs around the stage like a teenager, a man possessed, so does Steve. Steve still plays soccer and I won’t say how old he is, but he’s defying science, he’s incredibly fit, you know. I should think we’ll do it for a little bit longer here.”

Smallwood admits he didn’t know it was always a sure thing, but Maiden continues to shape heavy metal and reflect an intelligent rebellious — and growing — counterculture.

“Fashion changes, but we don’t,” Smallwood says, mentioning the prevalence of grunge music that exploded onto the popular music scene in the early ‘90s bringing a different energy to heavy music. “We’ve spent most of our career as unfashionable, so why would we start worrying about that now? It does surprise me now that heavy metal — I’m told, because I’m not checking it out all the time and going to shows — the metal’s getting stronger, heavy rock’s getting stronger.

“There’s so many girls now — we didn’t have that in the ‘80s – young people, 20s and early 30s. It’s four generations of Maiden now,” Smallwood says. “The atmosphere of the gigs is just very joyful, very social. We never have trouble. It’s just, just lovely, really.”