Only Heavy Metal

IRON MAIDEN demandados por plagio en "Hallowed Be Thy name"



Según informa The Telegraph, Iron Maiden no tocaran "Hallowed Be Thy Name" en su actual gira debido a una demanda por plagio. La demanda fue presentada por el representante ya retirado Barry McKagy, que alega que la canción reproduce partes del tema "Life's Shadow", compuesta por el músico Brian Quinn, conocido como Brian Ingham, y grabada por la banda "Beckett".

No han sido condenados porque no ha habido juicio XD de hecho lo que han pagado ha sido precisamente para evitar ir a juicios con los costes y demas que eso supone

According to The Sun, British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN are being sued by their former singer Dennis Willcock for allegedly stealing the lyrics to some of their classic early songs.

Willcock claims to have written the words to the tracks "Prowler", "Charlotte The Harlot", "Phantom Of The Opera", "Iron Maiden" and "Prodigal Son", which were recorded and released by MAIDEN on their first two albums, 1980's self-titled effort and 1981's "Killers".

According to the lawsuit, "Prowler" "was inspired by a friend of Mr. Willcock and was performed by Mr. Willcock wearing a rubber mask"; "Charlotte The Harlot" "was inspired by a colleague of Mr. Willcock"; and "Phantom Of The Opera" "was based on the novel by Gaston Le Roux". The lawsuit adds that IRON MAIDEN performed a song called "Iron Maiden" "at the time when Mr. Willcock joined the band. In substitution for the then-existing lyrics, Mr. Willcock wrote new lyrics to fit in with a theatrical stunt involving a sword and fake blood." Willcock also claims that he co-wrote — with IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris — the lyrics to a song called "Prodigal Son" "in or about 1978."

Also suing IRON MAIDEN is musician Terry Wilson-Slesser, who claims his lyrics for BECKETT's 1974 song "A Rainbow's Gold" were lifted by MAIDEN for 1982's "Hallowed Be Thy Name".

Willcock, who fronted MAIDEN from 1976 to 1978, was replaced in the band by Paul Di'Anno. He claims never knew his lyrics were used because he never listened to the band's albums.

The lawsuit, which names as defendants IRON MAIDEN members Steve Harris and Dave Murray, along with their publishing company Imagem, seeks damages in excess of £2 million (approximately $2.64 million).

Willcock was MAIDEN's second singer. The band's original vocalist, Paul Day, co-founded the group in 1976 along with Harris.

An IRON MAIDEN spokesperson told The Sun: "This is outrageous. Absolutely ridiculous."

Willcock and Wilson-Slesser's lawsuit was filed by retired rock band manager Barry McKay, who previously took Harris and Murray to court over "Hallowed Be Thy Name", claiming MAIDEN reproduced major parts of another song, "Life's Shadow", co-written nearly a decade earlier by musician Brian Quinn, under the name Brian Ingham.

"Life's Shadow" was a collaboration between Quinn and Robert Barton, who later recorded the song for the self-titled 1974 album from his band BECKETT. At the time, BECKETT was managed by Rod Smallwood, who went on to become the manager of IRON MAIDEN.

In court documents, Harris's lawyers admitted he saw BECKETT perform in 1973 and said that BECKETT's debut was one of his favorite albums when it was first released. They also acknowledged that some six lines from "Life's Shadow" were "referenced" in "Hallowed Be Thy Name".

Although McKay said that Harris and Murray were ordered to pay £900,000 in costs and damages, a spokesperson for IRON MAIDEN told BLABBERMOUTH.NET that the actual figure was £100,000. The MAIDEN representative also referred to McKay as "a serial litigant." McKay later fired back, calling Harris and Murray and their managers "bad losers."

IRON MAIDEN has admitted that Willcock changed three words of "Prowler" and two of "Charlotte The Harlot" but has questioned whether he can remember writing them.

The band states: "[He] was, when he was a member of IRON MAIDEN, notorious for forgetting lyrics for the band's songs, or missing out words, or singing the wrong words. He… even had to sing from lyric sheets at live performances. Accordingly it is implausible that Mr Willcock can now remember lyrics he allegedly wrote some 40 years ago."

Parlophone Records (BMG in the USA) are pleased to announce the release of IRON MAIDEN’s new double live album on November 20th worldwide. Containing over 100 minutes of classic Maiden music and available in multiple formats, Nights Of The Dead, Legacy Of The Beast: Live in Mexico City was recorded during the band’s three sold out arena shows there in September 2019 and is a celebration of their Legacy Of The Beast World Tour which began in 2018 and will finish next Summer in Europe.

Steve Harris comments,

“When the final leg of our 2020 Legacy tour this summer had to be cancelled due to the COVID pandemic, the whole band was very disappointed and deflated and we know our fans felt the same. We’d been really looking forward to bringing the show to even more countries and although we’ve been able to reschedule most of our European own-shows for 2021, we thought we’d take a listen to the recordings from the tour so far and see if we could create a definitive live album souvenir that everyone, everywhere could enjoy. I’m very pleased with the results, especially as this set list includes songs which have never made it to a live CD before, such as For The Greater Good Of God, and other older songs like Where Eagles Dare, Flight Of Icarus, The Clansman and Sign Of The Cross which haven’t been included in our live set releases for many years.

We’ve never released a live album from Mexico before and I think this recording does justice to the passion and joy of our Mexican fans who always give us such a fantastic welcome whenever we play there.”

Rod Smallwood adds,

“All the shows on the tour so far have been amazing and our fans have loved the whole Legacy extravaganza with the elaborately themed stages, props and drapes, not to mention the killer set-list! When our 2020 tour got cancelled, putting together a live album seemed the obvious thing to do and I think Steve, along with co-producer Tony Newton, has perfectly captured the essence of the 70,000-strong crowd across these three nights in Mexico City. The album serves both as a celebration of this tour, which almost two million fans have already seen, and as a taster for, hopefully, next year’s final run for anyone who hasn’t yet experienced the show.”

The album will be available in these formats:

Digipak 2CD
Deluxe hardcase book 2CD
Triple black heavyweight vinyl
Limited edition heavyweight 180g Mexican Flag triple coloured vinyl
Digital (streaming and download)

For Senjutsu – loosely translated as ‘tactics & strategy’, the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Steve Harris. And with a running time of a little under 82 minutes, Senjutsu, like their previous record The Book Of Souls, will be a double CD album/triple vinyl album.

Steve says "We chose to record at Guillaume Tell Studio in France again as the place has such a relaxed vibe. The setup there is perfect for our needs; the building used to be a cinema and has a really high ceiling so there’s a great acoustic sound. We recorded this album in the same way we did The Book Of Souls in that we’d write a song, rehearse it and then put it down together straight away while it was all fresh in our minds. There’s some very complex songs on this album which took a lot of hard work to get them exactly as we wanted them to sound, so the process was at times very challenging, but Kevin is great at capturing the essence of the band and I think it was worth the effort! I’m very proud of the result and can’t wait for fans to hear it."

Bruce Dickinson continues, "We’re all really excited about this album. We recorded it back in early 2019 during a break in the Legacy tour so we could maximize our touring yet still have a long set up period before release to prepare great album art and something special as a video. Of course the pandemic delayed things more - so much for the best laid plans – or should that be ‘strategies’!? The songs are very varied, and some of them are quite long. There’s also one or two songs which sound pretty different to our usual style, and I think Maiden fans will be surprised - in a good way, I hope!"

Senjutsu will be released on the following formats and available to pre-order from all good music retailers starting Wednesday July 21st

Standard 2CD Digipak
Deluxe 2CD Book Format
Deluxe heavyweight 180G Triple Black Vinyl
Special Edition Triple Silver & Black Marble Vinyl (from selected retailers)
Special Edition Triple Red & Black Marble Vinyl (from selected retailers)
Super Deluxe Boxset featuring CD, Blu-Ray and Exclusive Memorabilia
Digital album (streaming and download)