Iron Maiden

21st Century Appearances: 2005 Main Stage Headliner

The Defining Moment: Coming back after having their sound cut and eggs thrown at them by Sharon Osbourne at Ozzfest in the States, by acknowledging some anti-Osbourne crowd signs before launching into “The Trooper”, complete with Bruce repeating his epic “These colours don’t run” one liner while holding the Union Flag.

On first inspection Iron Maiden don’t seem like much of a Reading Festival band of the 21^st century and though they might have a greater association with the heavier UK festivals like Download, Sonisphere, Monsters of Rock et al they have found their way onto our list. The band had actually played Reading Festival once before prior to their 2005 headline show, long before, back in 1982! So the legacy was there.

When Maiden were first announced to headline the festival in 2005 it left a lot of people surprised but when the time came around you couldn’t move for Maiden t-shirts, they seemed to come from nowhere overnight.

The band’s set that festival also had a classic vibe to it as they supported their ‘Early Days’ DVD release by playing only songs from their first four albums, Iron Maiden, Killers, Number of the Beast & Piece of Mind. Where this might limit some bands it just allowed Maiden to play legendary songs like ‘Run to the Hills’, ‘The Trooper’ and the epic ‘Phantom of the Opera’ giving the crowd a flavour of what it might have been like to see them play way back when they first played the festival over 20 years earlier. Adam McCartney

What truly made this set special, and helped to transform Iron Maiden into “a real Reading band”, was Bruce Dickinson’s on stage banter. He held the crowd in the palm of his hand as he told these fantastic tales. He talked about how he remembered being in the crowd watching the original Iron Maiden, and then what it felt like supporting them as a member of Samson. Each track had it’s own backstory which both imbued the set with a new sense of charm and emotion, as well as helping to forge this unforgettable bond between artist and audience.

The undoubtedly highlight came, when Bruce described his fear and apprehension about auditioning to become the band’s new singer. He talked about how he didn’t think his operatic vocals would quite fit in with the band, and he said to win his place, and win them over, he purposely chose what he believed to be the band’s toughest and greatest song, the track that had taken his breathe away and made him say, “I’ve got to be in that band”. The song was “Phantom Of The Opera”, Maiden back in 2005, launched straight into the track, and to this day it is still the single best performance I’ve ever seen Maiden or Dickinson deliver. David Hayter