Your First Iron Maiden Album/Experience?

Hello everyone, I’ve been following this forum for a while now and trying to pluck up the courage to come on board and talk to you all, and this seems like as good an opportunity as any.

I have been a Maiden fan since some time in 2010 – slow on the uptake I know, especially as I had been going out with a Maiden fan for a few years at that point. He had all of the studio albums plus Live After Death and Best of the Beast (although I never remember him playing anything except Seventh Son while I was around). Anyway in 2010 was screened a documentary called Heavy Metal Britania which was followed by a complete Maiden concert. Bruce was one of the contributors to the documentary and he really impressed me. Plus the concert was not what I was expecting at all. After that I was intrigued so I started researching their background and looking them up on YouTube and eventually discovered a clip of Bruce interacting with the audience after the power had gone down (ironically) during Powerslave, where he asks them if they want the last chorus of Powerslave or to go onto the next song. The clip ends just as they are starting to play again. And I thought “So what did they do? Did they play Powerslave or did they play something else?” It suddenly really bothered me that I didn’t know. So one day when the boyfriend was out I snuck onto his computer and copied all fifteen studio albums onto my MP3 player and over the next two weeks listened to one complete album a day, from start to finish, listening on headphones after the boyfriend had gone to bed. It really was just like opening the door onto another world and I was a fan long before I discovered the answer to my original question (ie it was Heaven Can Wait, and there was a big clue in what Bruce said immediately beforehand). I have since purchased CDs of all the albums he only had on vinyl or download (Iron Maiden through to Powerslave) and most of the DVDs, in case anyone was wondering if I’m still a piggyback Maiden fan.

I apologise for the length and self-indulgent nature of this post, all future posts will be considerably shorter (I promise!) See you at the O2 tonight!
 
Yeah, long posts are the devil. :innocent: Nice story, and welcome to the board, Black Abyss Babe! But you forgot to post the most important thing - did they ever continue playing Powerslave?
 
Thanks Perun for your kind words of welcome! I don't actually know the answer to that unless someone who has seen the entire concert can enlighten me. As they went straight into Heaven Can Wait next and they had already been up to the last chorus of Powerslave when they got cut off I think they probably just left it.
 
Similar to one of the other posters. I liked Can I play with madness. Got seventh son album. Had a laugh as a kid with the video from the track with the man holding his insides out. Which i have gone on to do with my own children. Then and up to right now i have become a MASSIVE MASSIVE Maiden fan.
 
Derek Riggs/Eddie caught my attention first. I was 10, 1989 I had a 7th Son sew on patch without hearing a note.

When I actually got into them properly, Fear of the Dark was the most recent album.
 
I've said that The Trooper was the first song I really liked. But there is a story behind the song. I was in the US, Florida in February 2012. I was in a car and a song came up on the radio. It was melodic and instantly grabbed my attention. I knew it was something like Heavy Metal and somehow made the association that it could be Iron Maiden, although I had listened to them very little before. So later, when I was back at the house, I took my iPod, went on YouTube and typed 'Iron Maiden'. The iPod YouTube only displays live versions of songs because of copyright or something, I don't know. (One of) the first result(s) was The Trooper performed in Rock in Rio. I opened it and there it was: the epic intro speech, fast tempo, melodies and power of Iron Maiden. To this day I'm not sure if the song on the radio actually was The Trooper but it sounded like it. From there on, I listened to RiR Trooper every evening and felt amazed by it. From there on, it evolved naturally. Came home, listened to them, became a fan, found this place, lurked here, eventually made an account.

 
Back when I was younger, the only way I could find new music is by listening to those music channels on tv (like Music Choice or Video on Demand) I stumbled across a "Retro Rock" station and I heard the intro to Wasted Years, I thought the song was decent but I didn't think too much of it because back then my musical taste was... lacking to say the least (I was a Nu-Metal fan, eww.) A few years later my taste had matured and I was getting into Classic Rock and Old School Heavy Metal but I still wasnt into Maiden (Because I hadnt heard them since Wasted Years) During the Summer, I went to my Grandpa's lake house and my uncle who is a HUGE Maiden fan was there and he gave me about 5 or 6 Maiden albums and started telling me the history of the band and he kept going on and on about how amazing they were but, I still didnt get it. When I got home, I decided to listen to an album to see what the big deal about the band was. I randomly chose one and put it in, the drum intro to Where Eagles Dare came on and reverberated around my headphones and the riff with the guitar and bass pounded my eardrums and finally, Bruce's soaring vocals rattled my head and when I heard him hit the high note at the end and the rest of the band started going crazy on their instruments I FINALLY understood what all the hype was about. I got a taste of Iron injected into my blood that day and I started listening to all the albums and buying the ones I didn't have. This was the first time I was this fanatic about a band. My favorite albums were Seventh Son, Powerslave and Piece of Mind. My favorite vocalist was Bruce. Steve was my favorite bassist and Maiden was my favorite band.
 
1987, I was 13, and I only knew the name Iron Maiden as something sinister and a bit frightening. A schoolmate lent me the double-cassette of Live After Death. I remember the first time I played it (on my Walkman), all I could make out was the roar of a crowd and a lot of noise, and I thought "I want to be in that room!". It sounded like the best place on earth to be.

27 years later, my heart still races when I am actually in that room, and the intro tape comes on...
 
There was just something unique in the band's imagery.

As a kid, while shopping with my parents, i would see the Piece of Mind album cover and Eddie just stayed with me.

In 2006, i bought a portuguese metal magazine and there was a HUGE Maiden poster thar came with it. I hung it on my bedroom door even without actually hearing one single song, the poster was THAT cool. Afterwards my dad took it way, but thankfully (destiny?) A few days later there was a tv documentary about Maiden and they talked about their new album (A matter of life and deadth). I was fascinated with the fact that it was pretty much recorded live in the studio and an old school maiden fan gave me the record. Loved it.

In 2007 metallica was pretty much my "new band", so i pretty much forgot about Maiden... Untill in 2008 i saw Flight 666! It completely clicked with me and, since then, i have been 100% loyal to the band and never looked back!

Best band in the world in my book.
 
I first started getting into the band in the summer of 2013, even though I had heard the song Number of the Beast since I was a kid since it was on the Tony Hawk game, didn't really think much of it at that time, didn't even know it was Maiden :P When I heard it as I was going thru that album (which was the first one I got from them) I was surprised as it came on, recalling "hey! That's one of the songs from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater from when I was a kid!" lmao and loved the album, and got their first album next, then Killers, then Piece of Mind and worked my way up to Fear of the Dark, loving every track from their debut to Fear. After Fear, I don't know. Really didn't do it for me anymore... but those first 9 albums plus Live After Death AND the B-Sides collection from that era are simply magical!
 
I was first introduced to Maiden via MTV back in 1982 when I saw RTTH video and was hooked! That and Judas Priest "Heading Out To the Highway" were my first metal videos! POM was my first LP as a new release and SIT was my first tour. Still remember being thrilled when they started playing POTO and disappointed when they started ROTAM because I knew it meant I would not hear Alexander.
 
It's weird when I think of how I got into Maiden.

I always knew of the name. Growing up as a kid in the 80's they had some high charting singles in the UK so they were well known but to me it was just a load of noise. I was listening to pop stuff and music wasn't really a big deal to me just a bit of background fluff.

I was 13 when bring your daughter to the slaughter become a number 1 in the uk singles charts and even then I used to take the piss. One of my best mates was a metaller and I remember saying to to him "that's a load of crap why do you listen it" lol. Around this time I started to take a bit more interest in music having heard sweet child of mine and I bought appetite for destruction. It way to heavy for me but after a few listens I began to really like it. My mate who I used to joke with taking the piss out of maiden calling it noise gave me a blank tape after realising I was starting to like guns and roses and just said "take that home, give it a listen and tell me what you think tomorrow" he wouldn't tell me what it was. I went home stuck it on and it blew me away. I listened to it all night. Next day I was like "what the hell was that it was awesome". He just smiled and said "it's that band that makes a load of crap noise".

Turned out it was seventh son of a seventh son and my love affair with maiden began. I immediately started buying an album a week out of my paper round money, just couldn't get enough.

Fear of the dark was the new album released after I got into them and remember being so excited when I bought it. They've been my favourite band ever since and my collection of music and merchandise has reached epic proportions over the years :)

First time I was old enough to see them live was on the X-factor tour with blaze and haven't missed a tour since. Even been to Paris to see them twice and once in Rotterdam.
 
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Thanks for stealing my story. I 1st heard Maiden 'The Number Of The Beast' on Tony Hawk 4 way, way back when I was probably 8 years old and I loved the song! Then a little after I heard '2 Minutes To Midnight' on GTA Vice City and really liked the song, but I just wasn't big on music as a kid. Then a few years later I heard The Number Of The Beast on the radio and remembered how much I liked it on Tony Hawk 4 so when I got home I downloaded the song off iTunes and sampled several songs, then purchased 'The Essential Iron Maiden' album and Maiden became my very 1st favorite band ever!! I really liked all their music and it seemed like the band was something I could really relate to with the Egyptian themed Powerslave and the song about Native Americans 'Run To The Hills', they wrote a lot of songs about things that I was interested in as a kid.
 
Was in high school. Was looking for something satanic and evil to give me comfort. The 2 disc Best of the Beast cover attracted me.
I was wrong, they were not satanic. But they sure as hell gave me comfort! I have been a big fan since then and Maiden will always be in my top 5 bands. I bought all their albums after that - a testament of how great of an overview that compilation was. The artworks were stellar and the songs were even better. I couldn't believe I wasn't a Maiden fan yet.
 
It was somewhere in 2001. My friend who doesen't listen to metal gave me cassette with songs FEAR of the Dark (Donington), TNOTB, Run to the Hills and Can I Play With Madness on one side. I imediately hooked on Run to the Hills and intro of TNOB. In that time there was a big pomp around RiR so atmosphere was very fresh, light feeling and beautifull to be a Maiden fan. First album I waited was Dance of Death, beautiful experience.
 
My brother in law had the Number of the Beast cd, and I used to listen to it. Children of the Damned was the first song I ever heard, and it just blew my mind. The beautiful intro, Bruce's amazing voice, the powerful chorus and the absolutely mindblowing solo and ending. How anyone was able to write songs like that, with so much different going on in just four minutes... Wow.
We went to see Maiden in Oslo in 2005, and the next day I got my first three Maiden albums (NOTB, DOD and Edward the Great). Changed my world.
 
Christmas of 1983 my cousin bought Piece of Mind on cassette the same time I bought the Genesis self titled. I didn't know much about Maiden, but after one listen my life was changed. I listened to his Maiden cassette over and over until my mom brought me to an old department store called Hills so I could get my own. I've been a fan ever since. I even have that Piece of Mind cassette from Hills in a frame (with 3 other cassettes from my past)
 
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