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"Iron Maiden": 30 Years of the Beast - The Complete Biography 1976-2006 (Paperback)

by Paul Stenning (Author)

2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Chrome Dreams (7 Sep 2006)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1842403613
ISBN-13: 978-1842403617
Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm

Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 217,382 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#38 in Books > Biography > Film, Television & Music > Music > Heavy Metal

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Product Description

Book Description

Back in 1976, nobody really knew that there was an old wave of British Heavy Metal. But within 2 years of their formation, Iron Maiden had spearheaded what came to be abbreviated the NWOBHM, and as with punk the year before, a new generation of Rock musicians bought in a new wave of the genre - and in the process made loud, raw, heavy, rock the global phenomenon it is today. "Iron Maiden - 30 Years of the Beast - The Complete Biography 1976 - 2006", is everything it promises to be, telling the band's story; starting at their inception all that time ago and bringing it completely up-to-date, as the band continues to enjoy the massive success they have become accustomed to through four decades. The ups and the downs, the splits and the reunions, the sex and the drugs; they're all here, and the author has left no stone unturned in his quest to finally tell the true story of the band. It features exclusive interviews throughout with members past and members pressent, colleagues and friends, managers and promoters and others too numerous to metion. This astonishing work will eclipse everything previously available, particularly showing up the band's official biography "Run To The Hills" [Sanctuary, 1998] to be the sanitised, toned down and rather pedestrian work it really is.

About the Author

AUTHOR BIOG.
Music author and journalist Paul Stenning specialises in listening to and writing about rock and heavy metal. He is currently a regular contributor to the hallowed pages of, Metal Hammer, Terrorizer, Record Collector, Alternative Press and Metal Maniacs magazines, and has previously written for countless other publications and websites He has also produced several works on the art and majesty of hard rock and heavy metal. He has interviewed numerous bands and artists from that genre including, Alice Cooper, Meatloaf, Judas Priest, AC/DC, certain members of Guns N’ Roses – and of course members of Iron Maiden - among a host of other top names.

Stenning is the author of the much esteemed Guns n’ Roses biography, The Band That Time Forgot. His most recent book, AC/DC – Two Sides To Every Glory, was published in November 2005 and is currently the only available book on the band.

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews

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2.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars metal fans are smarter than this, 10 Nov 2007

By	Docker Douglas (France) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Although this book is a pretty good basic introduction to the world of Iron Maiden, my main feeling after I had finished reading it was of annoyance. Several reasons motivate this:

1. The front cover and artwork are far from inspiring to a Maiden fan. It lacks the classic logo and portrays one of the ugliest Maiden pictures I have ever seen.
2. The editing is cheap and sloppy, with many typos and several unformatted and unjustified paragraphs. Combined with point number one, the overall presentation of the book is cheap and unprofessional. Doesn't anyone edit and proofread these works? Or do they think that metal fans are not smart enough to figure these things out?
3. Apart from the typos, the book is rife with poor grammar and spelling mistakes. Here are a few "pearls". Bruce Dickinson "compliments" the band. Now I'm sure he complimented them when he auditioned, but I'm also sure that the writer meant that Dickinson COMPLEMENTS the band. On another occasion Dickinson "would of" instead of "would've". Now, I don't mind the occasional spelling error. Mistakes do happen. But this is just bad grammar, and when I spend the money to buy a book, I want it to be well written. It is an insult to the reader to write this poorly, especially from a journalist who is supposed to know better.
4. For an unauthorized biography, there is surprisingly little background information on the various crises that hit the band. No reasons why Dickinson left, no reasons why Bayley left, no details on fights, arguments. Nothing. Disappointing to say the least.
5. The book is also padded with too much opinion. One of my favorites is the writers argument that grunge did not kill metal in 1992. I profoundly disagree. Grunge wiped out dozens of famous bands within months, despite the continuing success of some. He instead blames Wayne's World for contributing to the demise of metal bands like Iron Maiden, blaming the movie for showing metal fans with "mullet hairstyles". Pardon me, but what hairstyle did ALL the Maiden members wear? Did it stop them from selling albums? Another bizarre observation is that Somewehere in Time was written entirely by Harris, making it a weaker album which is absurd as Smith wrote one third of the album.

For these reasons, among others, I can only recommend this book to the new Iron Maiden fan that wants to learn the basics of their career and who doesn't mind zigzagging around typos, poor formatting, weak grammar and a fair amount of opinion.

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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Passable but pedestrian, 30 Dec 2006

By	J. Rigg (Yorkshire) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book description above paints this to be a comprehensive and weighty tome. I was therefore disappointed by the fairly shallow blow by blow accounts of each album and VERY glossed over and sanitised accounts of the various tiffs and strife. There's little in here that most fans won't already know, and nothing that can't be found for free on the various Maiden fan websites.

Having said that, the photos in the middle are nice, if sparse, and the accounts of the early days are interesting.

I'd recommend this book to a Maiden newbie (so long as they didn't mind the frequent typos and patronising tone of some of the book) but for most fans the only thing worth reading it for is the interview with Derek Riggs at the end.

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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the best of the beast ..., 4 Dec 2007

By	Steven A. Wall "stevenwall2k2" (Glasgow, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Certainly this book does not deliver on its promises, and is no less revealing than the Mick Wall book, despite Wall's offering being an official release and therefore likely to gloss over some harsh truths.

There are a few things that let this book down. One is factual errors. For example, "Gangland" is an instrumental, it is claimed at one point. Now these things aren't harmful, but it shows at best poor proof reading, at worst Stenning has no idea about his subject. It also calls in to question the validity of other claims if he couldn't get basic facts correct.

Secondly is the author's constant dwelling on somewhat irrelevant topics. This manifests itself on the first page proper, where we have a paragraph dedicated to West Ham's history during the 60s and 70s. Similarly, talking about Holy Smoke we have a paragraph or two dedicated to Jimmy Swaggart, the televangelist on whom Bruce based the Jimmy Reptile character. One feels that Stenning was trying to fill the book up due to a dearth of quality material from first-hand sources close to the band. This manifests itself moreso with the pointless interviews tacked on to each chapter. Want to know what erstwhile keyboard player Tony Moore, a man who spent a lunch break in Maiden during the late 70s, was up to? Wonder no further, although I suspect most of us couldn't give two hoots. Once again, it suggests that Stenning's primary sources were somewhat poor, due to the lack of novel input from the band, and others closely related.

Finally, and this is perhaps more personal taste, I found Stenning's style a little lumpen. In particular, his album reviews can be a little ernest, reading like Patrick Bateman musing about Huey Lewis or Phil Collins.

Stenning does a good job of cobbling together material from secondary sources: official releases, other interviews, old Kerrang interviews and other magazines. The material that Neil Kaye contributed, as about the closest source to the band Stenning had access to, is quite illuminating. For example, we find that he hated Blaze and thought he couldn't sing. Elsewhere there are other tid-bits: Holy Smoke was originally mooted as a title track for what eventually became No Prayer.

Aside from the official bio there aren't many Maiden books around that are in print. However, this is not going to offer much new if you have read that or are otherwise a long-term fan of the band. On the flip side, there are too many mistakes in basic information to make this valuable to a Maiden newbie. It will take time and patience to wade through Stenning's somewhat stodgy style, and there is very little return for doing so. In the end, I admired Stenning for drawing together diverse material from secondary sources, but the lack of interesting and relevant primary sources hampered the material. I was left with the feeling that, as a fan, I could easily have written something of equivalent value, given time and access to a decent collection of Kerrang back-issues.

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1.0 out of 5 stars This book is complete and utter rubbish
I'm sorry but this book is utter garbage. The above reviewer Steve Kessler must be a friend of the author because no way does this book deserve anywhere near 5 stars... Read more

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5.0 out of 5 stars barmy army rages on!
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