Nicko McBrain

Iron Maiden's former drummer, on a spoken word tour!? Hackney, 1952. Little Michael McBrain was tapping out rhythms on his mother's saucepans long before he knew what a crash cymbal was. His father eventually gave in: at 11, he had his first drum kit.

By 14, he was already touring with local wedding bands (not exactly the kind of stage that predestines one to become a metal legend, but that's where you learn tempo, placement, and listening). Jazz, rock, soul… Nicko absorbed it all, and it shows.

He cut his teeth in 1970s Soho, between dingy studios and last-minute gigs, alongside Streetwalkers, the Pat Travers Band, and then Trust. And it was precisely with Trust, opening for Iron Maiden on the Killers tour in 1981, that destiny played its hand.

A year later, he was behind the kit for the band!? Since then, Nicko has been “Mr Iron Maiden”. ” at the end of every interview, whose smile is almost as famous as his drum rolls. His drumming?

Powerful, full of flair, with that simple but devilishly fast bass drum, which has shaped the band's sound across no less than 14 studio albums and extensive tours, with over 100 million sales worldwide.

With Steve Harris on bass, it's an almost telepathic connection: their rhythmic duo has carried riffs and anthems so far, so legendary, that even non-metal aficionados know them by heart (or almost).? But if he's so loved, it's not just for his drumming.

It's for the man: his devouring passion for old cars, his restaurant in Florida (Rock'N'Roll Ribs, no less), and that totally improbable appearance on The Sooty Show, an 80s British children's TV programme, which people still bring up at parties.

Behind the permanent good humour, a life less easy than it seems: cancer fought away from the cameras, a stroke that almost stopped everything.