Up for auction “Iron Maiden” Nicko McBrain Hand Signed First Day Cover. This item is certified authentic by JG
Autographs and comes with their Letter of Authenticity. ES-1426B Michael Henry "Nicko" McBrain (born
5 June 1952) is an English musician, best known as the drummer of the heavy
metal band Iron Maiden since
1982. Having played in small pub bands since 1966 from the age of 14, McBrain
paid his bills after graduating from school with session work before he joined
a variety of artists, such as Streetwalkers in 1975, Pat Travers, and the French political band, Trust. He joined Iron
Maiden (replacing Clive Burr), in time to
debut on their fourth album Piece of Mind (1983), and has remained with them
since, contributing to a total of fourteen studio releases, as well as being
the third-longest serving member of the band. McBrain was born in Hackney, London, and first wanted to learn the drums at a
young age after watching Joe Morello performing with The Dave Brubeck Quartet on
television. At the age of ten, he started to play drums
with pots, pans and other kitchen utensils, before, to his parents' dismay, he
began drumming on the gas cooker with a pair of knives and chipped off the
paintwork. McBrain recalls that he was eleven or twelve
before his father bought him his first drum kit, "which was basically one
snare, one tom-tom, one cymbal, two drumsticks and a pair of brushes." He soon started playing Rolling Stones and Beatles covers with school bands, before he began regularly
playing "pubs and weddings" by the age of 14. McBrain had his nose
broken in a fight at school which left him with his trademark flat features. He never underwent surgery to repair his nose. After
obtaining a degree in engineering at Southgate Technical
College at his parents' request,[4] McBrain rather paid his rent by
undertaking session work. His
first "proper" band was "The 18th Fairfield Walk", later
known as "Peyton Bond", a small pub band, which he decided was
"never gonna go anywhere" as they only performed Otis Redding, The Beatles and The Who covers. McBrain soon left to join "The Wells
Street Blues Band", which renamed themselves "The Axe" in 1969, a group which played their own material. This
band split up after an argument between the singer and the guitarist, and
McBrain began playing with Billy Day, a singer and keyboardist, and Michael
"Mickey" Lesley, a guitarist, in 1971. At that point, he was known as
"Nicky", a nickname given to him by his parents after his teddy bear, Nicholas, until an intoxicated Billy Day
introduced him to Dick Asher, head of CBS Records, as "Neeko", while they were recording
at CBS Studios, Whitfield Street. McBrain liked the name, changing it to Nicko "so
that it sounded more English", and decided to keep it even after leaving
the group. In 1973, McBrain performed on a single by Cockerel Chorus, "Nice One Cyril", on the label Young Blood. Also in 1973,
McBrain played on a self-titled album by guitarist Gordon Giltrap. This is notable not only as McBrain's album
debut, but also because Giltrap in 1978 released an album called Fear of the
Dark and used a font for his logo that is quite similar to
the one used by Iron Maiden. In 1975, he began playing with Streetwalkes, before joining Pat Travers, singer Jenny Darren, McKitty and then the French band, Trust, with whom he met Iron Maiden for the first time, while touring together in
1981. In 1982, the band asked McBrain to
replace Clive Burr, and as news of Burr's departure had not yet
been announced, McBrain made his first appearance with Iron Maiden on German TV
disguised as Eddie. He formed a close partnership with
bassist Steve Harris, and completed what many critics consider the
band's "definitive" line-up, releasing a series of gold and platinum
selling albums throughout the 1980s. While the band's line-up went through
several changes during the 1990s, McBrain remained in Iron Maiden, and since
the return of Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson in 1999 the group has undergone a resurgence
in popularity, and are now considered by some as "bigger
than ever".When he's not recording and touring with Iron Maiden, McBrain
often plays with side projects including a band called McBrain Damage which
played Iron Maiden covers. In March 2017, he was a guest drummer with the 8G Band on Late Night with Seth
Meyers. McBrain writes all the drum parts for Iron Maiden's songs.
He received only one songwriting credit on an album, for "New
Frontier", from 2003's Dance of Death, which expresses his opposition to human cloning, arising from his religious beliefs. He had previously received two songwriting
credits for non-album tracks: 1984's "Mission From 'Arry", which was
actually a recording of a backstage argument with Steve Harris, and 1992's
"Nodding Donkey Blues", which were B-sides of the singles "2 Minutes to Midnight"
and "Be Quick or Be Dead",
respectively. |