Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition

K recently joked that were I to appear on Mastermind, my specialist subject would be Iron Maiden. She may be right. They’re certainly the band I have paid the most attention to over the years. Throughout the 90s they were the band I listened to the most, and this led to me discovering more bands. As a teenager my bedroom walls were plastered with posters of Eddie and even today my office walls have framed records of their eponymous debut album and The Soundhouse Tapes. So I probably know more about this band than the average person on the street. But I also know there are plenty of Maiden fans more obsessive than me, so I wouldn’t put myself out there on Mastermind.

2025 marked 50 years since the band formed and they have, of course, celebrated with a lot of merchandise. I have enough “stuff” but I couldn’t resist the Iron Maiden: Infinite Dreams – The Official Visual History hardback book, which has so many wonderful pictures in it. This shouldn’t be mistaken for the paperback Infinite Dreams: Iron Maiden by Dave Bowler and Bryan Dray, which was published in 1996! If you’re a Maiden fan, there’s a lot of really great material to nerd over in their hardback, including excerpts from Steve Harris’s diaries, handwritten lyrics, and a bunch of photographs that I’ve not seen published anywhere else.

Then there’s the reason for this blog post, a new biopic: Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, which was released around the globe yesterday. I was among maybe a dozen fans at my local cinema yesterday for the opening of this film. There was a lot less ceremony for this than there was for Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour, which was showing in the screen next door, which seemed apposite for a documentary about a rock band whom, for all their successes, have never enjoyed much in the way of mainstream media promotion. It seemed very strange to see the band on such a large screen outside of a concert venue, even more peculiar than when I saw Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage or even GHOST: Rite Here Rite Now.

I felt absolutely immersed in the first part of the film. The story was familiar, of course, and I had seen photographs of those early years in the East End of London and the tours of the early 1980s, but to see and hear so much live footage was a real treat for a long-time fan. Video footage wasn’t so easy to get hold of in the 90s when I was obsessing over this band: the only material I had was a copy of Maiden England on VHS, which is a concert film from 1989 with the “classic” five-piece line-up.

As the film went on, I was still tapping my foot to the music but there were far fewer (ahem) revelations. There were a whole lot of previously unseen computer-generated videos, which didn’t excite me. There was also an original orchestral score, which was great but perhaps unnecessary in a film about a band with more than enough music to provide the backdrop to a 106‑minute film. There’s even an Iron Maiden song with the same name as the film, which didn’t seem to get a look-in! What a strange world we live in!

It was great to hear some perspectives from past members of the band, including those who were live after death for the purposes of this recording.

When I walked out of the cinema, after what felt like a rather rushed ending, I found myself wondering who the target audience were. Fans, I suspect. Perhaps some newcomers to the genre? If you like Iron Maiden and heavy metal, I reckon you’ll enjoy this as much as I did. If you don’t, I wouldn’t expect this to change your mind.

# Playlist: a track from each album

Here’s a playlist I put together with a single track from each of Iron Maiden’s seventeen studio albums for you to enjoy. It’s almost the same duration as the film (shorter if you include the trailers and advertisements). Make of it what you will.

⚒ Iron Maiden: @johnsyweb’s Top Track from Each Album on Apple Music
Curated by Pete Johns.
Prompted by the release of their seventeenth studio album, this playlist takes a stroll down memory lane and relives some of their best works.
17 songs • 1 hour 52 minutes • Featured artist: Iron Maiden

⚒️ Up the irons! 🤘🏼