Only Heavy Metal

Patrick Sawer, Senior Reporter

To fans of heavy metal legends Iron Maiden it is the centrepiece of every concert.

But the band says it has been forced to drop its anthemic number Hallowed Be Thy Name from its tour after it became embroiled in a legal battle over who wrote it.

Retired rock band manager Barry McKay is taking Steve Harris and Dave Murray, two musicians from Iron Maiden, to court over the song.

He claims it reproduces major parts of another song "Lying in my Shadow", written by musician Brian Quinn, under the name Brian Ingham.

British musicians Dave Murray (left) and Adrian Smith, guitarists for the band Iron Maiden, perform onstage at Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, October 5, 1983. Credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images

Mr McKay, from Hampstead, north London, said: "There was no need for Iron Maiden to withdraw the song from their set. But if they wish to do the right thing, they are welcome to contact either myself or my lawyers and reach a simple agreement to perform “Hallowed Be Thy Name”.

"I have never wanted to stop fans hearing their favourite Maiden song."

After being made aware of the legal claim Iron Maiden took the decision to drop the song from their set - including at tonight’s concert at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle - until the dispute was resolved.

In a statement the band, which has recorded more than a dozen albums since it was formed in 1975, said: “As previously announced for the current second leg of the Book of Souls tour a couple of changes to the set list were due to be made. The first was including a different track from the new album and having been made aware of a legal claim, the second change was to replace Hallowed Be Thy Name.”
Iron Maiden aircraft lands ahead of festival headline slot Iron Maiden aircraft lands ahead of festival headline slot
00:23

Phantom Management added on behalf of the Iron Maiden: “The dispute concerns the song Life’s Shadow, a song originally written in the early 1970s, credited to Robert Barton and Brian Ingham, and recorded by the band Beckett.

“Steve Harris was a fan of Beckett and some six lines from Life’s Shadow were referenced in Steve’s song, Hallowed Be Thy Name.

“As far as Steve is concerned, this matter was settled some years ago by agreement with Robert Barton. Any evidence presented by Mr McKay will be looked at very closely and a Defence at court will be submitted in due course.”

Mr McKay added: "Hallowed be Thy Name isn't just an Iron Maiden song. It's the song that has defined the band.”

He added: “Hallowed is heavily influenced by "Life's Shadow"."

A statement from Iron Maiden's management read: "There now appears to be a dispute between the two original writers as to their respective shares in Life’s Shadow. Further, an individual called Barry McKay in taking this action now claims to publish Robert Barton’s interest in Life’s Shadow, despite so far being unable to come up with a publishing agreement and showing little or no evidence in his claim of any interest in Mr Barton’s songs in approximately 40 years.

"Mr McKay also states that he entered into a publishing agreement with Brian Quinn (aka Ingham) on 29 March 2017, two days before the claim was served. Mr Barton maintains he was the writer of the lyrics of Life’s Shadow and recently said: 'I wrote the lyrics of Life’s Shadow and am happy with how Iron Maiden have, and are, dealing with this matter.'"

TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING, IRON MAIDEN LIVE ALBUM TO BE RELEASED ON NOVEMBER 17TH

Warner Music will release IRON MAIDEN’s ‘The Book Of Souls: Live Chapter’ on November 17th worldwide [through BMG in the USA]. This live recording comprises 15 songs captured during ‘The Book Of Souls World Tour’, which covered 39 countries across six continents during 2016 and 2017, and was seen by over two million fans. ‘The Book Of Souls: Live Chapter’ will be released physically in CD, deluxe CD & vinyl audio formats, with the concert film available to stream free online or as a digital download – full details below.

Produced by Tony Newton and Iron Maiden founder member and bass player Steve Harris, the album is based on this year’s set list and is a faithful record of the epic show, including six songs from ‘The Book Of Souls’, the band's most recent studio album, along with many other classics and fan favourites.

Steve comments, "We spent a huge amount of time working on this as I wanted to get it as close to the Maiden live experience as I possibly could and to represent our fans from different parts of the world. This meant listening to literally hours upon hours of tapes from every show, to select material and construct a sound that would run consistently across the whole album and capture the excitement of a new country like El Salvador alongside such regular favourites as Donington or Wacken.”

Maiden manager Rod Smallwood adds, "’The Book Of Souls World Tour’ was a huge undertaking, not least for Bruce who started the tour singing in public for the very first time since recovering from throat cancer. He also piloted Ed Force One, upgraded last year from a Boeing 757 to a 747 so we could go further and faster to visit some fantastic cities and fans all round the world. This year continued that excitement bringing us our most successful North American and UK tours ever. It was a very special tour in a great many ways so we felt we wanted to document it for both ourselves and for our fans. Steve has done an incredible job putting together this set from cities around the world and we’ve made sure the deluxe CD will be available in a matching book format to ‘The Book of Souls’ release.

"On top of all that the release will be celebrated by an event that is a Maiden first: a free live streaming premiere of the concert film, as a thank you to our loyal fans around the world. We hope that the global Maiden community will all enjoy coming together to watch this special event online. Many of you will be in it as there is footage from a whole host of the places we played on this momentous tour. ”

More details on how to take part in this one-off event will be published on IronMaiden.com shortly.

The full tracklisting and the cities they were recorded in, is as follows:

If Eternity Should Fail – Sydney, Australia
Speed of Light - Cape Town, South Africa
Wrathchild – Dublin, Ireland
Children of the Damned – Montreal, Canada
Death or Glory – Wroclaw, Poland
The Red and the Black – Tokyo, Japan
The Trooper - San Salvador, El Salvador
Powerslave – Trieste, Italy
The Great Unknown – Newcastle, UK
The Book of Souls – Donington, UK
Fear of the Dark – Fortaleza, Brazil
Iron Maiden - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Number of the Beast – Wacken, Germany
Blood Brothers – Donington, UK
Wasted Years - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The album will replicate ‘The Book Of Souls’ original formats and be issued as a limited edition deluxe 2 CD hardcase Book, a regular 2CD album, a triple black vinyl LP and digital download in high resolution audio (48khz/24 bit) including Mastered for iTunes (MFiT) version. A digital download of the concert film will also be available to purchase following its free online premiere.

Pre-orders are available here - with more retailers to be added over the coming days.