Worldwide album sales

That actually sounds about right for the States. They have 5 platinum and two gold records (NOTB through NPFTD) to account for about 6 million, with the remaining records making up the rest.
 
Maiden's focus was clearly Europe as were other UK bands... I did not see Priest on that list either.

though I see Ozzy (solo) and Black Sabbath on there as well as Def Leppard which both lived in the states and had much better success here vs the UK
 
Don't know about the other countries, but in Finland they receive radioplay constantly at local rock stations.

It's no secret that they are relatively most popular in our country in compared to others. Just look at the chartings and certifications through the years, not to mention that they come playing here every other year and the very first gig of them outside the UK was in Finland.

I understand that it's not easy to get radioplay in the UK, because there are like four(?) main stations and names like Liam Gallagher don't get radioplay for the singles of him on the head station.
 
Yeah Maiden is basically one of the biggest names under the "rock" umbrella term here. If you look at radio playlists, they're basically matched by Metallica in playtime and no one else. On any given day you'll probably hear a good five-six Maiden songs on any of the rock stations if you listen to it all day.
 
Iron Maiden may be the biggest band out there that never quite made it in the US but still is one of the most succesful bands worldwide.

I mean, for most bands making it in the United States is a condition to gain success.
 
MarcoHietalaIM said:
Don't know about the other countries, but in Finland they receive radioplay constantly at local rock stations.

It's no secret that they are relatively most popular in our country in compared to others. Just look at the chartings and certifications through the years, not to mention that they come playing here every other year and the very first gig of them outside the UK was in Finland.

I understand that it's not easy to get radioplay in the UK, because there are like four(?) main stations and names like Liam Gallagher don't get radioplay for the singles of him on the head station.
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UK radio stations are mostly very, very mainstream, with music aimed at young people/drivers who like blasting thumpy dance beats. It's almost all pop and dance music, save for the occasional night time rock show. That goes for both BBC Radio 1 and most of the average regional independent stations.
 
ManuelMaiden95 said:
Iron Maiden may be the biggest band out there that never quite made it in the US but still is one of the most succesful bands worldwide.

I mean, for most bands making it in the United States is a condition to gain success.
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Maiden never originally had intentions of going to the USA according to Steve. They were happy staying in Europe but Rod had a lot to do with their international spreading. I think most 3rd world countries are happy to see a big act (regardless of genre) come and visit them. USA still sells out almost all Maiden shows to date so they still have a very strong presence but when competing with the American metal bands that were on TV 24/7 and on radio 24/7 wearing makeup and crap, they didn't stand a chance to fight it. Still, 3 of their albums were platinum in the states and multiple gold records. Very accomplishing feat
 
SirRobbins said:
Maiden never originally had intentions of going to the USA according to Steve. They were happy staying in Europe but Rod had a lot to do with their international spreading. I think most 3rd world countries are happy to see a big act (regardless of genre) come and visit them. USA still sells out almost all Maiden shows to date so they still have a very strong presence but when competing with the American metal bands that were on TV 24/7 and on radio 24/7 wearing makeup and crap, they didn't stand a chance to fight it. Still, 3 of their albums were platinum in the states and multiple gold records. Very accomplishing feat
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Not so sure about that third world countries are happy to see a big act as if that's the reason Maiden is so popular in South America.
I mean, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne and Deep Purple are all big acts and they usually play in Arenas or much smaller stadiums in South America whereas Maiden plays in big stadiums everywhere in South America.
So it is not like big acts are popular per se.

For example Ozzy has sold more records than Maiden in USA whereas in South America is the opposite. Same with Judas Priest in the 80's.

So it is not explained just because third world countries are happy with any big act.
 
Those acts you mentioned didn't have the long streak of magic (or all classic members of the band) still going which makes things more original and special. One of the reasons maiden is still a huge force is the fact that they have all their notable members still. Can you imagine another guitarist from another band stepping in if Adrian dropped out and fans finding that appealing or even ok? I would find it bizarre
 
Also...A lot of bands are perfectly happy to "chase their tails" in the States and Western Europe for their entire career. Maiden has had a global approach for as long as I can remember ( which arguably allowed them to survive the 90s as they weren't dependent on any one market to survive).
 
SirRobbins said:
Those acts you mentioned didn't have the long streak of magic (or all classic members of the band) still going which makes things more original and special. One of the reasons maiden is still a huge force is the fact that they have all their notable members still. Can you imagine another guitarist from another band stepping in if Adrian dropped out and fans finding that appealing or even ok? I would find it bizarre
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Outside of the kind of people who speculate about setlists on web forums, does Adrian worship exist? Plenty of people love the whole Maiden phenomenon but don't particularly analyse the music or membership other than the obvious frontman. I recently got asked if Adrian was 'the one with the ridiculously wide face'. I assumed they were talking about Dave here.
 
SirRobbins said:
Those acts you mentioned didn't have the long streak of magic (or all classic members of the band) still going which makes things more original and special. One of the reasons maiden is still a huge force is the fact that they have all their notable members still. Can you imagine another guitarist from another band stepping in if Adrian dropped out and fans finding that appealing or even ok? I would find it bizarre
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I see what you mean by notable members but really the only 2 original members left from the debut album are steve and Dave. Maiden has kept a steady ship granted but it took until they reached their 4th album to get any semblance of a steady lineup and even that line up lasted only for 4 albums before Janick replaced Adrian. 2 more albums later and in comes Blaze for Bruce and it took 7 years until Bruce and Adrian then come back. Plus on top of all this change the vast majority of fans outside the hardcore don’t understand why the band has 3 guitar players. I myself am glad they have all three but more from a band chemistry and song writing point of view. I struggle to hear anything in the actual music that takes advantage of 3 players and I think the reunion albums would sound exactly the same as they do now if the same songs used only 2 players on each album.

The above is all obvious stuff but it’s in response to the long streak of magic and hardly any line up changes made in SirRobbins post.

The longest streak of magic has been since the reunion but up until then their classic 80’s line up lasted just 4 albums and from debut to reunion their was all sorts of upheaval over the years in the maiden camp.

As for the Adrian dropping out and another stepping in no one outside of a small minority really gave a monkeys when he left and Janick replaces him back in the 90’s. I mean Adrian hardly set the world alight with his career after Maiden so I doubt he had that much fan worship.
 
Wayne Bond said:
I see what you mean by notable members but really the only 2 original members left from the debut album are steve and Dave. Maiden has kept a steady ship granted but it took until they reached their 4th album to get any semblance of a steady lineup and even that line up lasted only for 4 albums before Janick replaced Adrian. 2 more albums later and in comes Blaze for Bruce and it took 7 years until Bruce and Adrian then come back. Plus on top of all this change the vast majority of fans outside the hardcore don’t understand why the band has 3 guitar players. I myself am glad they have all three but more from a band chemistry and song writing point of view. I struggle to hear anything in the actual music that takes advantage of 3 players and I think the reunion albums would sound exactly the same as they do now if the same songs used only 2 players on each album.

The above is all obvious stuff but it’s in response to the long streak of magic and hardly any line up changes made in SirRobbins post.

The longest streak of magic has been since the reunion but up until then their classic 80’s line up lasted just 4 albums and from debut to reunion their was all sorts of upheaval over the years in the maiden camp.

As for the Adrian dropping out and another stepping in no one outside of a small minority really gave a monkeys when he left and Janick replaces him back in the 90’s. I mean Adrian hardly set the world alight with his career after Maiden so I doubt he had that much fan worship.
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Adrian leaving ruined the balance in Maiden that made them perfect and resulted in 2 less quality albums. Noone realised how important H is for Maiden until he left, as Bruce said. H is 3rd most important member of IM, however you turn it.
 
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matic22 said:
Adrian leaving ruined the balance in Maiden that made them perfect and resulted in 2 less quality albums. Noone realised how important H is for Maiden until he left, as Bruce said. H is 3rd most important member of IM, however you turn it.
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You say that but I’ll repeat what I said, no one outside a small minority gave a monkeys Adrian had left. Despite what the Internet forum minority think of NPFTD and fear of the dark both were very successful albums. Being from the U.K. I got into Maiden Just as they released NPFTD and as far as I was concerned along with Metallica iron maiden was the biggest metal act around. NPFTD had their first U.K. number one single and the album went to number 2 in the album charts. Then fear of the dark became the bands third U.K. number one album and be quick or be dead hit the number 2 singles chart. Plus they headline Donnington for the second time so these albums sold well, at least in the U.K.

Your comment about less quality albums is a) subjective and b) seems to be an oponion shared by a minority as the general masses loved these albums.
 
Wayne Bond said:
You say that but I’ll repeat what I said, no one outside a small minority gave a monkeys Adrian had left. Despite what the Internet forum minority think of NPFTD and fear of the dark both were very successful albums. Being from the U.K. I got into Maiden Just as they released NPFTD and as far as I was concerned along with Metallica iron maiden was the biggest metal act around. NPFTD had their first U.K. number one single and the album went to number 2 in the album charts. Then fear of the dark became the bands third U.K. number one album and be quick or be dead hit the number 2 singles chart. Plus they headline Donnington for the second time so these albums sold well, at least in the U.K.

Your comment about less quality albums is a) subjective and b) seems to be an oponion shared by a minority as the general masses loved these albums.
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It is subjective, but nowadays those albums aren't considered that great as they used to be by majority. They are far less consistant than SSOASS and rely on popularity of certain songs on them (BYDTTS and FOTD). While there is some great deep cuts on there like Fates Warning, BQOBD, RSRD, ATSS, NPFTD and JBMG for example, there are a few absolutely horrible songs and plenty of medicore ones.

Also, the band doesn't play those songs a lot nowadays, which indicates that the band is not particulary fond of them.
 
Wayne is right, NPFTD & FOTD we’re both well received at the time even by some of the mainstream music press such as Q magazine. They were still popular going well into 93..

I was aware Adrian had left but yeah most fans didn’t see it as a major problem or achnowledge it.

But I do remember talking to a mate at school remarking Janick wasn’t as good & he ruined the solos on the classics. Other than that it was still full steam ahead.

Grunge didn’t dent maidens core fan base too much in the U.K.. It was more the loss of Bruce and then the sweep of britpop after didn’t help.
 
matic22 said:
It is subjective, but nowadays those albums aren't considered that great as they used to be by majority. They are far less consistant than SSOASS and rely on popularity of certain songs on them (BYDTTS and FOTD). While there is some great deep cuts on there like Fates Warning, BQOBD, RSRD, ATSS, NPFTD and JBMG for example, there are a few absolutely horrible songs and plenty of medicore ones.

Also, the band doesn't play those songs a lot nowadays, which indicates that the band is not particulary fond of them.
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Again your opinion, shared by some but I hardly think you can speak for the majority of fans worldwide. Likewise neither can I speak for the general maiden fan base I’m just going on what I experienced at the time of their release, big sales numbers back before downloads meant getting a number 1 or even 2 doesn’t mean squat these days. Plus favourable reviews in most music press. Of course this was in the U.K. Before the internet so I couldn’t tell at the time if maiden were tanking elsewhere but back in Blighty if anything there were getting bigger than when they released somewhere in time and seventh son.

Also, saying they don’t play many songs off those albums holds no creedance as their are tons of albums maiden don’t play many tracks from. On album tours you get 5/6 tracks from the latest release then all the standard classics with maybe one slight curve ball thrown in. Only the history tours have seen a few deeper cuts.

Without the history tours maiden pretty much ignore somewhere in time bar a couple of tracks, seventh son bar a couple of tracks, piece of mind is bypassed except for the trooper.
 
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