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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iron Maiden Tribute Band, Maiden United, Releases Heavy Metal Cover of Adele's Skyfall
What if Iron Maiden had recorded the hit James Bond theme song? LOS ANGELES, June 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Maiden United, a Los Angeles tribute to Iron Maiden, has released their new EP entitled Agent 666 featuring a heavy metal cover of Adele's Skyfall, the hit theme song from the 2012 James Bond film. The blistering, dramatic interpretation of the tune was produced by the band's bassist, Danny Knapp. "The idea to reimagine Skyfall was born from a group brainstorm about how to do something that other tribute bands haven't," says Rich Abronson, Maiden United's founder. "We love it when metal bands cover hit pop songs. It's a great way to build on our catalog, and the challenge was loads of fun." Danny Knapp continues, "Skyfall has all the ingredients to be a metal song: drama, complexity, and cool, musical changes. Plus, we wanted to maintain a UK pop-culture theme with Iron Maiden as arguably the greatest British metal band, James Bond as one of the most famous British characters, and Adele as one of the most iconic modern British vocalists." Founded in 2021 in Los Angeles as the music scene emerged from the COVID pandemic, Maiden United has established itself as the West Coast's top Iron Maiden tribute. With over 3 hours of music in the band's repertoire, Maiden United has thrilled Iron Maiden fans with faithful renditions of such hits as The Trooper, Run to the Hills, 2 Minutes to Midnight, and Wasted Years. The band's Scottish vocalist, Paul Duncan, has a style reminiscent of all 3 Iron Maiden singers including Paul Di'Anno, Bruce Dickinson, and Blaze Bayley. Maiden United has released their EP on music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music with a companion music video on YouTube. The release includes a cover of Iron Maiden's Murders in The Rue Morgue performed as a duet with Jen Taylor Warren, the original founding vocalist of The Iron Maidens, the popular all-female tribute to Iron Maiden. The EP also includes live recordings of Maiden United performances. Maiden United is Paul Duncan on vocals, Rich Abronson and Scott Ramsay on guitar, Danny Knapp on bass, and Adrian Aguilar on drums. For more information, find Maiden United online at on Facebook and Instagram @MaidenUnitedBand, and YouTube at Contact: Rich AbronsonPhone: 818-564-4590Email: maidenunitedband@ View original content: SOURCE Maiden United LLC Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'We had a song called Heat-Crazed Vole. You know, like a rat. It was pretty awful!': Iron Maiden's Steve Harris recalls his early days
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. In the 50 years since he formed Iron Maiden, bassist Steve Harris has been the band's leader and main songwriter - the author of classic heavy metal anthems including Run To The Hills, The Number Of The Beast and The Trooper. But as he admits to MusicRadar, he wrote some very strange songs in his younger days before Maiden. In his first band, Influence, Harris wrote the music but left the lyrics to a school friend named Dave Smith. 'Dave came up with a song that was called Heat-Crazed Vole,' Harris recalls. 'You know, like a rat. Which I thought was a pretty awful title.' Dave Smith also provided the title for another of Harris' early songs - Endless Pit. 'That was a terrible title as well,' Harris says. But that song ended up being hugely significant for Steve Harris and Iron Maiden. The main riff in Endless Pit was developed into a new song named Innocent Exile. Innocent Exile would eventually be featured on Iron Maiden's second album, Killers, released in 1981. But Steve Harris first performed the song with Smiler, the band he joined after his spells with Influence and another group, Gypsy's Kiss. 'I played quite a few gigs with Smiler,' Harris says. 'Maybe twenty-six, twenty-seven shows with them. 'And it was good experience playing with guys that were quite a bit older than me. It's funny because at the time, I was seventeen, and they were like mid-twenties, and I thought they were pretty old! 'Smiler was a boogie band, so they quite liked Innocent Exile, because it's got a sort of a boogie bit at the end. 'But they didn't want to play any of my other songs, and that's when it got a bit weird. "They told me, 'Oh, there's too many time changes in your songs.' And well, fair enough. I mean, I joined them! 'They were a boogie band, and that's what I joined. So I should have been content with that, really, but I wasn't. 'I wanted to introduce more of my stuff, and it wasn't really suitable for that band. 'We played a lot of covers, and because they had two guitar players I introduced a bit of Wishbone Ash. But they liked the boogie stuff like Savoy Brown and bands like that. That's what they were all about. 'So I was trying to pull them in a direction that they weren't really that comfortable with. 'And in the end I realised that the only way to do my own stuff is to leave and form my own band. Then I can do what I want.' Harris put the first line-up of Iron Maiden together in the last months of 1975. 50 years later, the band are celebrating that anniversary with the Run For Your Lives tour.
