Iron Maiden pick the 6 best metalhead music venues in London
Heavy-metal veterans Iron Maiden pick the all-time greatest gig venues in London ahead of the release of their biographic movie, Burning Ambition.
Run to the hills!
No, actually, the cinema.
Few British bands have shaped heavy music quite like Iron Maiden. Fifty years after forming in East London pubs, the metal pioneers are still packing out stadiums, inspiring generations of bands, and proving that Eddie will always be one of the most recognisable mascots in music.
Now, their definitive new documentary, Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, is storming into cinemas - charting the band’s rise from gritty pub gigs in Stratford to becoming one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. And with their huge 50th anniversary celebrations continuing, including their own upcoming massive festival Eddfest, which will see them take over Knebworth this July 10th-11th, Maiden-mania is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down.
So when Shortlist was invited front row to the film’s Leicester Square premiere, it was the perfect opportunity to reflect on the highs, lows and lineup changes which had shaped the band along the way - and the band shares that it hits an emotional note, too.
“There’s a few emotional moments,” frontman Bruce Dickinson tells Shortlist, of all the history in the defining doc. “Paul Di’Anno passing… Nico departing… the reaction of the fans, the way people talk about us.”
“It’s a good document, not only for the fans, but for us,” guitarist Adrian Smith tells Shortlist, “To look back on the journey we’ve shared together.”
From the pubs of Leytonstone and Stratford to conquering London Stadium in front of tens of thousands of fans last summer, Iron Maiden’s relationship with the capital runs deep. Proud East End icons, lifelong West Ham supporters, and one of the UK’s most defining live acts, the band’s DNA is stitched into London music history.
Which begs the question: for a band who’ve played everywhere from sticky-carpet pub backrooms to some of the biggest stages on Earth - what are the greatest music venues in London?
From legendary lost rock institutions to the intimate venue they’d still love to return to - you heard it here first - these are Iron Maiden’s official favourite London music venues. Eddie approved.
1. O2 Forum Kentish Town (Previously The Forum & Forum Dancehall)
“Unfortunately, most of my favourite venues are ‘past’ rather than present,” Bruce Dickinson laments with Shortlist.
“I loved The Rainbow, and it's gone. The Astoria. The original Marquee Club - gone. All that's left, really, is the Forum. I played The Forum, and that venue is pretty cool.”
“I'm not from London, I'm from the north - from Worksop, which nobody's ever heard of, but there you go,” Dickinson shares of his formative London years.
“I came down to London to go to uni, and my uni happened to be in the East End - so when Maiden were going around the East End, I was in Mile End - going from Mile End to Leyton, to Leytonstone to South Woodford, Stratford and all of those places. I was at college from ‘76 to ‘79, so right on the cusp of when the whole punk thing was happening as well - so it was an interesting time!”
2. Eventim Apollo (previously Hammersmith Odeon), Hammersmith
“Of course, the Hammersmith Odeon - as I still call it - is pretty cool,” Dickinson tells us, of the famed West London art deco-style venue now known as Eventim Apollo.
So, would the metal icon be up for returning to the iconic venue for an intimate show any time soon?
“Absolutely, I would, yeah! But probably with my solo band,” the rockstar reveals, “Watch this space.”
The band’s no stranger to the area, of course. “Also, we played at The Swan pub, in the Hammersmith Odeon area. There are a few pubs around that we played in London!” adds guitarist Dave Murray.
Naturally that gig wasn’t without chaos - when the band played the Hammersmith pub in 1970 in their early career, right before the band was set to take the stage, then-singer Paul Di'Anno was arrested for carrying a knife. The show went on - albeit mostly instrumental, given that their singer had just been arrested.
3. Marquee Club, Soho
“We used to play at the Marquee Club. That was the one! Everybody played there, from Led Zeppelin to Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix - everybody that grew up in the ‘60s. When we played there, I think we sold out for a week,” Murray tells us, of his all time-favourite London venue, which opened as a jazz club in the Fifties and closed on Wardour Street in 1996.
“It was little - there was one little dressing room behind the stage. But there's something about the Marquee - the sticky carpets! It had an atmosphere in there. I’m a big Jimi Hendrix fan, and when you see some of the footage of Hendrix playing there, that did it for me.”
Iron Maiden famously played a string of shows at the Soho club - including their influential Live!! +one live EP - while every major rock band of the time also graced the stage, from the Rolling Stones to David Bowie and The Who.
4. London Stadium, Stratford
“That was like - wow,” says Murray, of Iron Maiden’s landmark homecoming show last June which saw them take over Stratford’s London Stadium as part of their Run For Your Lives World Tour, playing to over 70,000 fans - their largest UK headline show outside of festivals, ever.
“It’s West Ham’s stadium - which is also Steve Harris’s favourite football team. So he planned that", adds Murray. The band are famously West Ham fans, having even released their own Iron Maiden West Ham football shirt to jointly celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary and the club’s 1975 FA Cup win.
“I remember it was a very hot evening, very light, but the buzz there was just incredible,” Murray remembers of the mega stadium gig last year.
“I really enjoyed that. And when it's daylight, you can see everyone, it's like, whoa!
“But the reaction from them! The London fans have always been fantastic. Saying that, though, all over the world, everywhere we play, the Iron Maiden fans are a family that stick together and talk to each other. And I think we're fans as well. We're joining them on this journey.”
5. The Cart & Horses, Stratford
A stone’s throw from the London Stadium is a rather different kind of venue, just as - if not more - influential to Maiden lore.
Of the Stratford show, Murray explains, “It wasn't far from the Cart & Horses, where we used to play way back… so we came from there to that huge football stadium” recalls Murray, of the East End pub affectionately coined as the ‘birthplace’ of Iron Maiden (and so says the signage above the door, too), where the band played weekly gigs in their early years during the Seventies.
6. Koko (previously The Music Machine), Camden
“We were just talking about the old days - of the Marquee and The Music Machine,” Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith tells us, who hails from Clapton, where he also first met Maiden’s Dave Murray.
“That's where Iron Maiden started off, and a lot of the bands cut their teeth in those places,” he remembers.
“London will always be important, because that's where the band started - even in some places not too far from this spot we're standing on,” nodding to the West End surroundings where the Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition premiere is taking over Leicester Square as we chat.
“It’s always going to be our home town, so it'll always be a special connection.”
Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition is in cinemas now
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