Early Iron Maiden members get together to perform at English pub: Watch

News · January 24, 2019

This past weekend, a group of unheralded legends joined forces at a pub in London for a rare live performance. On January 20th, five former members of Iron Maiden — guitarists Terry Wapram, Dave Sullivan, and Terry Rance, as well as original vocalist Paul Mario Day and drummer Doug Sampson — appeared onstage together at England’s Cart & Horses, the bar where the band made its debut back in 1976.

If you don’t recognize their names, don’t beat yourself up too much. None of the men lasted very long in the band’s early days, with only Sampson surviving long enough (from 1977 to 1979) to appear on Maiden’s first release, the 1979 demo EP The Soundhouse Tapes. The rest were sacked or walked away from the project before they could appear on any of the studio releases.

As you’ll see from the video footage below, the men, backed up by members of Wapram’s current band Buffalo Fish, tear through a bunch of early Maiden tunes, including “Wrathchild,” “Prowler,” and, naturally, “Iron Maiden.”

This appearance comes on the heels of a recent photo that popped up online in December showing Day, Sullivan, and Rance hanging out with Steve Harris, the only founding member of Iron Maiden to still be in the band today. It was, according to Day, the first time they’d all spent time together since 1976. Absent from this reunion was the original drummer Ron “Rebel” Matthews.

While there’s no telling if the original Maiden members will continue to perform together, the current iteration of the band have a busy year ahead with their upcoming “Legacy of the Beast” tour. The North American run kicks off on July 18th at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, and wraps up in late September with two dates at the Sports Palace in Mexico City. You can secure tickets here.