Why "Iron maiden?"

ohgar_boy

Trooper
I know most of the hardcore fans will know this off the bat, and I'm quite the hardcore fan, but I never really wondered why they were called Iron maiden...

Can anyone tell me?
 
From Mick Wall (2000) Run To The Hills - The Official Iron Maiden Biography; 2nd Edition; Chapter 1:


Steve came up with the name of the new band, Iron Maiden (named after a medieval torture device that could be described as a coffin lined with long, sharp spikes), simply because "it just sounded right for the music. I was sitting around at my mum's place, talking about names for the band, and that was the name that was bandied about, and I said, 'Yeah, that's great. I like that.' I don't remember if I thought of it or my mum did or someone else in my family. I can't remember. But I do remember saying it to my mum, and she went, 'Oh, that's good.' I think I had a short-list of four or five names and she said, 'Oh, yeah. That's the best one.'

"The film The Man In The Iron Mask was about at the time and I'd seen that, and I think it probably came from there, although there wasn't actually an iron maiden in the film. I just thought it was a good name for a band. Iron Butterfly were known before that, and funnily enough, when we did our first couple of gigs at the Cart and Horses, we had a phone call behind the bar one night, and still to this day I don't know whether it was a fucking wind-up or what, but someone phoned up and said, 'We're called Iron Maiden and you can't use the name,' and all this, but I just said, 'That's tough shit, because we're called Iron Maiden, so bollocks!' I must admit, I was all bravado on the phone, but when I came away I thought, 'Oh shit,' 'cause if they had registered it – you know, even though we were only playing pubs – then we wouldn't have been able to use it, and by then I was really set on it. But we never actually heard any more, so it might have been one of my mates winding me up, doing a northern accent. I don't know."



There you go! [!--emo&B)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/cool.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'cool.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Thanks Maverick. [!--emo&;)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/wink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'wink.gif\' /][!--endemo--] That cleared up a lot.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Maverick+May 23 2004, 06:15 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Maverick @ May 23 2004, 06:15 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] Iron Butterfly were known before that, and funnily enough, when we did our first couple of gigs at the Cart and Horses, we had a phone call behind the bar one night, and still to this day I don't know whether it was a fucking wind-up or what, but someone phoned up and said, 'We're called Iron Maiden and you can't use the name,' and all this, but I just said, 'That's tough shit, because we're called Iron Maiden, so bollocks!' I must admit, I was all bravado on the phone, but when I came away I thought, 'Oh shit,' 'cause if they had registered it – you know, even though we were only playing pubs – then we wouldn't have been able to use it, and by then I was really set on it. But we never actually heard any more, so it might have been one of my mates winding me up, doing a northern accent. I don't know.


There you go!  [!--emo&B)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/cool.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'cool.gif\' /][!--endemo--] [/quote]
[!--emo&:lol:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/lol[1].gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'lol[1].gif\' /][!--endemo--] [!--emo&:lol:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/lol[1].gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'lol[1].gif\' /][!--endemo--] Its true, there is another band named Iron Maiden, they were a hippy/rock band from seventies.... and they came from the North of England.... so im guessing it was then on the phone!!!! [!--emo&:lol:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/lol[1].gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'lol[1].gif\' /][!--endemo--] [!--emo&:lol:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/lol[1].gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'lol[1].gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
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