6 BE QUICK OR BE DEAD
THE END OF THE ROAD, 1990–1993

“We’ll never cross over, we won’t make a nice little pop single, so all we can do is appeal to rock fans…. At the end of the day as long as we can play music and have fun we’ll keep going and then when the time comes to call it a day we want to go out gracefully.”

—Dave Murray, quoted by Phil Sutcliffe,
Q, January 1991

In 1990 Iron Maiden celebrated ten years of singles releases by issuing the appropriately, if unimaginatively, titled tenCD box set The First Ten Years. The new decade would also bring changes in the band’s ranks.

Again produced by Martin Birch, and released in October 1990, No Prayer for the Dying was the band’s first album recorded at Barnyard Studios in Essex. It was also the first album since 1983’s Piece of Mind to feature a line-up change. Saying he had grown bored and unenthused with Maiden and their progressive musical direction, Adrian Smith quit and was replaced by Janick Gers, the ex-Gillan guitarist who had appeared on Bruce Dickinson’s first solo release, issued earlier that year. Six years later, however, Dickinson offered a different take on Smith’s departure. “He wasn’t fired but he didn’t quit entirely willingly,” the singer told Matthias Reinholdsson and Henrik Johansson (bookofhours.net). “Adrian is a great guitarist. He sort of agreed to leave. It came to a big discussion one day before No Prayer for the Dying. And it started off with him suggesting that maybe we should write more than eight songs per album.”

Bruce Dickinson’s Real Live farewell tour, Wembley Arena, London, May 17, 1993. Ian Dickson/Redferns/Getty Images

THE ALBUMS
NO PRAYER FOR THE DYING

BY MARTIN POPOFF

MAIDEN MADE IN HAY BALES: I’m paraphrasing Bruce Dickinson there, but yes, the grunting lads recorded 1990’s No Prayer for the Dying in a farm ’n’ barn-ish environment to help fulfill the mission sketched for their eighth studio album: namely to distance themselves from the over-thunk synthesized dreck polluting the last couple o’ tiring tries. Maiden’s creative drift had been enough to cause Adrian Smith to jump ship prior to the No Prayer sessions, replaced by White Spirit/Gillan axeman Janick Gers, or Crazy Legs as we like to call him. Dickinson would last one more bum spin before hugely showing up Steve Harris with a string of fine solo albums, 1998’s The Chemical Wedding, of course, being a bloody masterpiece.

But back at No Prayer, the gesture toward carnality did help jostle the band from jet lag, somewhat, and somewhat admirably, given the industry standard of incredibly slick records at the turn of the decade, essentially the last hurrah for glam before punk apparently broke with Nirvana. Keyboards are kept to a minimum, and, making noises like a guitar-shaped motorbike, Dickinson often goes with an exaggerated, thespian rasp, which is then deftly mixed a bit further back than usual, allowing for the grim metal churn of the record to claim mild victory over a man standing at the mic and wondering why all the good songs went bye-bye.

Yea and verily, No Prayer for the Dying was ill-received by fans and critics, but indeed the deliberate NWOBHM grit and spit of the thing helped push a few tracks above and buzzing beyond, one fist-pumpable, the other pint-foisting. Lyrically, smarmy sex romp “Hooks in You” is more Anvil’s domain, but this lone Adrian Smith credit is the album’s melodic and party-rockin’ breath of fresh air (plus it’s got cowbell). And if “Tailgunner” sports yet another eye-roller of a job description lyric from Dickinson, musically it’s a blustery success, celebrating the band’s oft-exploited knack for a sweet ’n’ sour and sing-songy stack of chord cakes à la “The Number of the Beast” and arguably “Murders in the Rue Morgue” before that, although that one’s less nose-wrinkling. Advance single “Holy Smoke,” marred by a ditzy twin lead, nonetheless succeeds due to a verse that is, freshly, just logical, predictable chords, sorta like “The Boys Are Back in Town.” Shoveling coal, Nicko strikes up a decent groove (the charm, of course, is that for Nicko, Time is a magazine), while Bruce plays a mischievous blaspheming character somewhere between Christopher Hitchens and Ronnie James Dio. The under-appreciated “Public Enema Number One” and “Fates Warning” keep up the snarling, indie 7-inch vibe of the album (and by the way, no songs over six minutes!), both taut with urgency, each dark and cynical.

All but one of the rest of the long-forgotten songs … well, they round the bases, Maiden building shoddy replicas of older anthems that were crafted with purpose, unnecessary rewrites of potent proposals inspired by youth and exploration, worst of these being final track “Mother Russia,” an abomination which perpetuates the disastrous tradition of rock bands trying to convert Slav folk melodies into rock talk. Still, if No Prayer for the Dying ends upon a horrible song of laughing-out-loud ill consequence, second to merciful end we get the record’s uncut gem and its biggest hit, “Bring Your Daughter … to the Slaughter,” which, like “Hooks in You,” leans into that debauched sleaze rock zone, different for Maiden, and questionable, but, man, at this point were we ever bedraggled and begging for some new approaches.

No Prayer for the Dying promo bumper sticker, 1990.

“Where we went from 1980 with the first album, I came in on the second album, from then, our feet never touched the ground…. It was touring and recording. I suppose I was a little bit burned out. I had no life outside the band. I needed to explore some other things, maybe do a few solo things.”

Not that fissures weren’t developing between other members. The band could credit much of its success up to that point on a strict work ethic largely put in place by band founder Steve Harris.

Again speaking to Reinholdsson and Johansson in 1996, Dickinson reflected, “Steve is not that flexible a personality, it’s just the way he is, you know. He knows pretty much what he wants and I think he tends to exclude a lot of options. He’s never taken a drug in his life, he doesn’t smoke, he never smoked dope, he’s never taken acid or anything that would alter his possibilities. He very rarely gets drunk, even, because he likes to stay in control and I think that’s the fundamental difference between me and him.”

No Prayer for the Dying represented yet another new sound for the band, which revisited their early influences like Deep Purple, Free, Led Zeppelin, and the Who for a raw, more direct hard rock approach with no synths or progressive elements.

As Janick Gers told Al the Metallian on Sonic Disaster Radio in 1992, “If you have that rock ’n’ roll feel in there, which developed on the No Prayer for the Dying album, and [Dickinson’s] singing—it became less operatic and more what I call rock ’n’ roll.”

“Bring Your Daughter … to the Slaughter” (December 1990), special edition etched sleeve, U.K.

“Bring Your Daughter … to the Slaughter” (December 1990), 12-inch single, U.K.

Be that as it may, No Prayer was not too well received and was the lowest selling of the band’s albums with Dickinson. For many longstanding Maiden fans, No Prayer is considered one of the weakest Dickinson-fronted albums. In fact, the band has largely ignored the album since its release, though they regularly play the single “Bring Your Daughter … to the Slaughter,” which rose to No. 1 in the United Kingdom (the only Maiden single to do so) on the strength of its appearance on the soundtrack to A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.

No Prayer on the Road tour, 1990.

In August 1990, the band launched the massive No Prayer on the Road tour, which commenced in August in England and came to an end in France during August of the following year. They continued to shame much younger metal bands when it came to live performances, rarely, if ever, putting in an off night.

Janick Gers had fit into the band rather well, and once the tour wound up he hit the studio for yet another new album. But was the band as a whole showing signs of fatigue?

In 1991, Dickinson embarked on a solo tour before the band began work on their next album, once again at Barnyard Studios. The resulting LP, Fear of the Dark, would be the last album produced by Martin Birch, who retired not long after its release. It was also notable as the first Iron Maiden album to feature cover art by someone other than Derek Riggs (instead, the job went to artist Melvyn Grant, although Maiden fans rarely mention Riggs in anything less than revered tones).

SETLIST SELECTIONS

NO PRAYER ON THE ROAD TOUR

633 SQUADRON MOVIE THEME
(ENTRANCE)
TAILGUNNER
PUBLIC ENEMA NUMBER ONE
WRATHCHILD
DIE WITH YOUR BOOTS ON
HALLOWED BE THY NAME
22 ACACIA AVENUE
HOLY SMOKE
THE ASSASSIN
NO PRAYER FOR THE DYING
HOOKS IN YOU
THE CLAIRVOYANT
2 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT
THE TROOPER
HEAVEN CAN WAIT
IRON MAIDEN
THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST
BRING YOUR DAUGHTER … TO THE
SLAUGHTER
RUN TO THE HILLS
SANCTUARY

No Prayer on the Road tour, East Rutherford, New Jersey, January 21, 1991. Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty Images

No Prayer on the Road tour, Long Beach, California, February 1991. Marty Temme/WireImage/Getty Images

In addition to songs like “Be Quick or Be Dead” and the power ballad “Wasting Love,” which represent a typically hard rock sound, Fear of the Dark also offered such tracks as “Afraid to Shoot Strangers,” which are more progressive in an old-school Iron Maiden fashion.

“The identity of Iron Maiden is still there,” Dave Murray explained at the time while speaking to Al the Metallian on Sonic Disaster Radio, “and if you put any track on you can tell it’s Iron Maiden. But ‘Fear of the Dark,’ the track itself, probably sums up everything Maiden is about and the whole album is about. For us, this album feels so fresh. It feels like it could be our first album. We are very excited about it.”

When Fear of the Dark was released in May 1992, it was attacked by some fans and rock scribes as inconsistent while the band was accused of sounding somewhat fatigued or even jaded. Were they simply going through the motions? After all, what was left to prove? It’s not uncommon for bands to continue well past their use-by date, while others take lengthy hiatuses and return with fresh material. Others simply call it a day. Regardless of what the critics said about Maiden’s new material, the band felt they still had much to say and prove.

“Be Quick or Be Dead” (April 1992).

MAIDEN’S ARTWORK

BY NEIL DANIELS

Record-store counter display. Derek Riggs created the first Eddie artwork with the intention of placing it with a record label for use on a punk album—hence early Eddie’s Mohawk-ish ’do.

IRON MAIDEN IS ALMOST AS WELL-KNOWN for their album and picture-sleeve artwork as they are for their music. Every release features specially commissioned cover art featuring their iconic mascot Eddie. Derek Riggs, who was the band’s long-term artist, actually created Eddie for his portfolio. The artwork that appeared on the band’s self-titled debut album was made with the intention of placing it with a record label for use on a punk album (hence Eddie’s Mohawk). In fact, as Riggs points out, Eddie and the artwork on the debut were created before Iron Maiden even existed as a band.

Riggs subsequently gave Eddie a longer, more metal coif at the band’s request and continued to create album and picture-sleeve art for the band through 1990’s No Prayer for the Dying. In fact, Riggs’ art for The Number of the Beast is perhaps Maiden’s most famous LP cover and has been reprinted on countless T-shirts and posters around the world.

While Riggs had a close relationship with the band in much the same way Roger Dean had a relationship with Yes and Rodney Matthews still has a relationship Magnum, he eventually grew tired of Eddie, so for the Fear of the Dark, the band hired Melvyn Grant to design the art. Grant would also go on to create the artwork for the Virtual XI, Death on the Road, and The Final Frontier covers, as well as the “The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg” single.

“[N]aturally I wanted to change it and do my version of Eddie,” Grant told Mark Morton at examiner.com. “But that was stopped by Maiden, who didn’t want me to stray too far from the original style, which obviously all of the band’s fans like. You get so used to something that it becomes your ‘thing,’ and you fall in love with that version of Eddie. I did try to change him a bit, in a way that suited me and made me happier with it.”

The band later brought even more artists into the fold. Hugh Syme designed the artwork for The X Factor, David Pratchett worked on Dance of Death, and Tim Bradstreet created the artwork for A Matter of Life and Death. Mark Wilkinson—who had previously designed artwork for Marillion and Judas Priest, among others—created the artwork for Live at Donington. In an interview with the author for Fireworks magazine in 2010, Wilkinson said, “Rod Smallwood, the band’s manager, and Steve Harris were fans of the artwork for Marillion, and Rod liked the poster design I did for the Monsters of Rock festival the year Iron Maiden headlined. He called me in to work on ‘The Wicker Man’ a few years later when they were struggling to get what they wanted for the illustration of that cover.”

Fans eager to see some of Iron Maiden’s most iconic artwork should check out the book Run for Cover: The Art of Derek Riggs.

“From Here to Eternity” (June 1992), picture disc and plinth.

“Wasting Love” (September 1992).

Janick Gers defended the album. “The album is consistent in that it has twelve individual songs on it that complement each other,” he told Al the Metallian. “We don’t want to do twelve songs of the same speed and the same feel just to please the radio or please whomever. We are there to explore different avenues and write different songs. We have explored so many different avenues on this particular album and we are so proud of the songs on there. These are twelve really good tunes.”

The band launched a mammoth worldwide trek in support of the album beginning June 3, 1992, in Norwich, England, and ending in November in Tokyo. Supporting bands included the American thrash metal titans Anthrax, as well as Wolfsbane, The Almighty, and King’s X.

Not only had the band stripped down their sound for Fear of the Dark, but they also ditched their outdated spandex on tour in favour of T-shirts and jeans. The tour was more notable, though, for including their first tour of Latin America and a second performance at the Monsters of Rock festival at Donington (later released on CD).

Despite these milestones, Fear of the Dark and its supporting tour proved to be the end of an era for the band as Dickinson quit to pursue a solo career, following Rob Halford who had left Judas Priest to go solo.

Dickinson agreed to a farewell outing, the Real Live tour, which kicked off on March 25, 1993, in Portugal and finished in England in August. The final show featuring Dickinson, Harris, Murray, Gers, and McBrain was recorded at Pinewood Studios on August 28 and released on VHS under the moniker Raising Hell.

Dallas, Texas.

THE ALBUMS
FEAR OF THE DARK

BY JOHN TUCKER

AFTER THE LARGELY DISAPPOINTING No Prayer for the Dying, Iron Maiden needed a rethink. Although successful commercially, artistically No Prayer cut little new ground and featured nothing of any great merit aside from “Bring Your Daughter … to the Slaughter,” which Bruce Dickinson had written for a solo project. Some kind of change was needed, and the impetus supposedly came from a bunch of young pups called Dream Theater, whose demos for their groundbreaking Images and Words album convinced Dickinson that his band needed to raise their game. The result was Fear of the Dark, today regarded as one of the strongest albums in the band’s catalog.

Released in May 1992, the band’s ninth studio album was the first to credit Steve Harris as co-producer alongside longtime collaborator Martin Birch. Its release was preceded by a generic Maiden single, “Be Quick or Be Dead,” which went straight into the U.K. singles charts at No. 2, a sure sign the band had a winner on their hands. The album itself topped that, becoming their third No. 1 after The Number of the Beast and Seventh Son… (like its predecessors, it slammed straight into the top spot) and peaking at a not unrespectable No. 12 in the States. Only Somewhere in Time did any better in the United States, peaking at No. 11.

Fear of the Dark’s strength is its clever balance of conventional trademarks and inspired embellishments to the band’s armory. Whereas things kick off with the traditional (i.e., completely interchangeable) Maiden opener “Be Quick or Be Dead” and the vaguely puerile chest-beater “From Here to Eternity,” the more evocative “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” is the first song since “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” to make you sit up and take notice. “Fear Is the Key” is the first of the album’s two epics, nodding its head in time and in deference to “Kashmir,” as a quite unexpected—which you come to expect with this band—time-change is pulled off with Maiden panache. “Childhood’s End” and “The Fugitive” keep the pot on the boil nicely, and in “Wasting Love” Dickinson and Janick Gers deliver the band’s first real power ballad, perhaps another indication that Dickinson and Harris were now on two separate tracks.

The album is not without its failings. The opening pair (both singles, coincidentally) are pretty standard Maiden fare, and toward the end of the running order things drag terribly. Edit out “The Apparition,” “Judas Be My Guide,” and “Weekend Warrior” and you end up with a punchier album. With “Chains of Misery,” however, Dickinson and Dave Murray take a trip back in time and return with a NWOBHM masterpiece, and in the title track Harris rounds the album off with a work of creative genius. An inventive yet stylistically simple tour de force, the title track and album closer builds from an undemanding refrain into the ultimate neck-wrenching workout. Perhaps the ultimate crowd-pleaser, the song has become an enduring piece of the band’s live canon—something that just has to be played, no matter how much the rest of the set around it may be chopped and changed.

Together with its predecessor, No Prayer for the Dying, Fear of the Dark marked the end of the beginning for Iron Maiden. The final album recorded by the steady hand of Martin Birch (the band’s producer since their second album in 1981) was also the last before Dickinson’s exit. There wouldn’t be another studio album until October 1995, and there wouldn’t be another U.K. No. 1 until 2010. Things would never be the same again.

Or would they?

Fear of the Dark and its supporting tour proved to be the end of an era for the band as Dickinson quit to pursue a solo career. Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images

In 1993, Bruce Dickinson agreed to a farewell outing, the Real Live tour, which kicked off on March 25 in Portugal and finished in London in August. The strip pasted at the bottom of the poster announces that this Berlin show was a rescheduled date.

Real Live tour, Wembley Arena, London, May 17, 1993. Mick Hutson/Redferns/Getty Images

Real Live tour, Wembley Arena, London, May 17, 1993. Mick Hutson/Redferns/Getty Images

SETLIST SELECTIONS

REAL LIVE TOUR

BE QUICK OR BE DEAD
THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST
PROWLER
TRANSYLVANIA
REMEMBER TOMORROW
WHERE EAGLES DARE
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
WASTING LOVE
BRING YOUR DAUGHTER … TO THE
SLAUGHTER
THE EVIL THAT MEN DO
AFRAID TO SHOOT STRANGERS
FEAR OF THE DARK
THE CLAIRVOYANT
HEAVEN CAN WAIT
RUN TO THE HILLS
2 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT
IRON MAIDEN
HALLOWED BE THY NAME
THE TROOPER
SANCTUARY

“Hallowed Be Thy Name” (live) (October 1993).

Two live CDs featuring Dickinson were released after his departure: A Real Live One, which featured eleven songs recorded in 1992, and A Real Dead One, which included twelve songs recorded in 1992 and 1993. Both releases do a remarkable job of capturing the energy of an Iron Maiden concert. As a live band, they were unstoppable and put every effort into perfecting their live performances. Supporting Iron Maiden in concert was certainly a challenge for any band, regardless of experience.

But those live performances were in the past. Iron Maiden had lost yet another frontman and the search was on for a replacement, raising all sorts of questions. Could they recapture the energy and chemistry of their mid-’80s heyday? Who on earth could replace Bruce Dickinson? How would fans react to the replacement? Would the band simply hire a Dickinson clone or somebody entirely different? Only time would tell.

Advertisement for No Prayer on the Road U.K. dates. The lead singer in the opening act would take on a key role in Maiden a few years hence.

1990 By Ryan LaMar

06.28	London, GBR
09.19	Milton Keynes, GBR
09.20	Southampton, GBR
09.21	Oxford, GBR
09.23	Dublin, IRE
09.24	Belfast, GBR
09.26	Newcastle, GBR
09.27	Edinburgh, GBR
09.28	Aberdeen, GBR
09.30	Ayr, GBR
10.01	Preston, GBR
10.02	Leicester, GBR
10.04	Liverpool, GBR
10.05	Hull, GBR
10.07	Newport, GBR
10.08	Cambridge, GBR
10.09	Sheffield, GBR
10.11	Derby, GBR
10.12	Manchester, GBR
10.14	Torbay, GBR
10.15	Poole, GBR
10.16	Hanley, GBR
10.18	London, GBR
10.21	Barcelona, ESP
10.23	Cascais, POR
10.25	Madrid, ESP
10.27	San Sebastian, ESP
10.29–30	Paris, FRA
11.01	Brussels, BEL
11.02–03	Leiden, NED
11.05	Copenhagen, DEN
11.08	Drammen, NOR
11.09	Gothenburg, SWE
11.10	Stockholm, SWE
11.12	Helsinki, FIN
11.15	Berlin, GER
11.18	Milan, ITA
11.19	Firenze, ITA
11.20	Rome, ITA
11.21	Treviso, ITA
11.23	Saarbrucken, GER
12.03	Munich, GER
12.04	Stuttgart, GER
12.05	Wurzburg, GER
12.07	Bremen, GER
12.08	Hannover, GER
12.11	Edinburgh, GBR
12.13	Whitley Bay, GBR
12.14–15	Birmingham, GBR
12.17–18	London, GBR
12.20	Genk, BEL
12.21	Dortmund, GER
12.22	Frankfurt, GER

1991

01.13	Halifax, CAN
01.15	Montreal, CAN
01.16	Quebec City, CAN
01.18	Toronto, CAN
01.19	Rochester, USA
01.21	East Rutherford, USA
01.22	Albany, USA
01.23	Worcester, USA
01.25	Providence, USA
01.26	New Haven, USA
01.28	Uniondale, USA
01.29	Philadelphia, USA
01.31	Pittsburgh, USA
02.01	Fairfax, USA
02.02	Charleston, USA
02.04	Detroit, USA
02.05	Cleveland, USA
02.06	Cincinnati, USA
02.15	Houston, USA
02.16	Dallas, USA
02.17	San Antonio, USA
02.19	San Diego, USA
02.20, 22	Long Beach, USA
02.23	Phoenix, USA
02.24	Albuquerque, USA
02.25	Denver, USA
02.27	Kansas City, USA
02.28	Sioux Falls, USA
03.01	Minneapolis, USA
03.03	St. Louis, USA
03.04	Chicago, USA
03.06	Winnipeg, CAN
03.07	Saskatoon, CAN
03.08	Edmonton, USA
03.10	Salem, USA
03.11	Seattle, USA
03.13	Sacramento, USA
03.14	San Francisco, USA
03.15	Bakersfield, USA
03.17	Irvine, USA
03.19	Salt Lake City, USA
03.28–29	Tokyo, JPN
04.01	Omiya, JPN
04.02	Osaka, JPN
04.03	Yokohama, JPN
04.05	Tokyo, JPN
06.29	Roskilde, DEN
09.05	Bern, SUI (rescheduled from 11.17.90 and 11.24.90)
09.06	Winterhur, SUI
09.21	Bol d’Or, FRA

The following dates were announced in a print ad but were eventually superseded by more reliable sources:

02.02	Richmond, USA
02.03	Charlotte, USA
02.05	Johnson City, USA
02.06	Atlanta, USA
02.12	Chattanooga, USA
02.14	Dayton, USA
02.15	Louisville, USA
02.17	Detroit, USA
02.18	San Antonio, USA
02.18	Toledo, USA
02.19	Columbus, USA
02.21	Cleveland, USA
02.23	St. Louis, USA
02.24	Chicago, USA
02.25	Minneapolis, USA
02.26	Sacramento, USA
02.27	San Francisco, USA
02.28	Reno, USA
02.28	Tulsa, USA
03.02	Albuquerque, USA
03.02	Houston, USA
03.03	Denver, USA
03.03	San Antonio, USA
03.05	Kansas City, USA
03.05	Dallas, USA
03.06	Odessa, USA
03.07	El Paso, USA
03.09	Phoenix, USA
03.10	Albuquerque, USA
03.11	Denver, USA
03.13	Reno, USA
03.15	Sacramento, USA
03.17	Long Beach, USA
03.18	Long Beach, USA
03.19	Long Beach, USA
03.22	Portland, USA
03.23	Vancouver, USA
03.25	Seattle, USA

1992

06.02	Norwich, GBR
06.05	Reykjavik, ISL
06.08	New York City, USA
06.11	Rochester, USA
06.13	Quebec City, CAN
06.14	Ottawa, CAN
06.16	Montreal, CAN
06.17	Toronto, CAN
06.19	Cuyahoga Falls, USA
06.20	Clarkston, USA
06.21	Tinley Park, USA
06.24	East Troy, USA
06.25	St. Paul, USA
06.27	Denver, USA
06.28	Salt Lake City, USA
06.30	Sacramento, USA
07.01	San Francisco, USA
07.02	Irvine, USA
07.05	Phoenix, USA
07.07	San Antonio, USA
07.08	Dallas, USA
07.09	Kansas City, USA
07.11	Atlanta, USA
07.12	Charlotte, USA
07.14	St. Louis, USA
07.15	Nashville, USA
07.17	Miami, USA
07.25	Buenos Aires, ARG
07.28	Montevideo, URU
07.31	Rio de Janeiro, BRA
08.01	Sao Paulo, BRA
08.04	Porto Alegre, BRA
08.15	Mannheim, GER
08.17	Brussels, BEL
08.22	Donington, GBR
08.25	Copenhagen, DEN
08.27	Helsinki, FIN
08.29	Stockholm, SWE
08.31	Oslo, NOR
09.02	Den Bosch, NED
09.04	Lausanne, SUI
09.05	Paris, FRA
09.07	Mulhouse, FRA
09.08	Annecy, FRA
09.10	Beziers, FRA
09.12	Reggio Emilia, ITA
09.14	Barcelona, ESP
09.17	San Sebastian, ESP (rescheduled from 09.15 and 09.19)
09.18	Madrid, ESP
09.19	Zaragoza, ESP (rescheduled from 09.16)
09.26	San Juan, PUR
10.01–02	Mexico City, MEX (rescheduled from 09.24–25)
10.04	Guadalajara, MEX (rescheduled from 09.26)
10.09	Caracas, VEN
10.10	Caracas, VEN
10.20	Auckland, NZL
10.22	Melbourne, AUS
10.23	Sydney, AUS
10.26	Nagoya, JPN
10.28	Fukuoka, JPN
10.30	Hiroshima, JPN
11.01–02	Osaka, JPN
11.03	Yokohama, JPN
11.04	Tokyo, JPN

Notes: A tour itinerary in fan club magazine No. 31 suggests a November 6, 1990, date in Copenhagen was cancelled.

Per Paul Davies, the June 28, 1990, show was not a Maiden gig but a Bruce solo gig in which Nicko, Dave, and Steve joined onstage with Bruce and Janick to play “The Trooper.” Technically, it’s a Maiden performance.

November 30 and December 1, 1990, dates in Turin and Udine, Italy, sometimes turn up, though the Italian promoter indicates they never occurred. Also, it is common knowledge that the band cancelled dates between Saarbrucken on November 23 and Munich on December 3 due to Bruce’s illness. According to fan club magazine No. 31, the band was scheduled to play Toulouse, France, on November 28. An ad in Metal Hammer indicated forthcoming shows in Paris (October 29–30), Grenoble (November 25), Toulouse (November 28), and Marseille (November 29). Ticket stub evidence indicates the November 28 date was actually rescheduled from the 26th.

The scheduling for the American leg of the No Prayer tour in 1991 was a nightmare. So many different tour schedules were published by the band and media that the only way to verify the dates and locations is by individual artifacts, such as tickets, flyers, local newspaper tour listings, and periodical reviews of shows already played. The chaos of the scheduling was so bad that fan club president Keith Wilfort addressed the problem in fan club magazine No. 33.

We do know, however, that various newspapers reported the cancellation of the following 1991 shows: February 8–10 in Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, Florida, and February 13 in Atlanta, Georgia. The St. Petersburg Times reported Bruce had contracted bronchitis.

The Chilean government cancelled a July 21, 1992, show in Santiago due to “religious pressure.”

Unreliable sources report a September 17, 1992, date in Caceras, Spain, which conflicts with the San Sebastian date.

1993

03.25	Faro, POR
03.27	Madrid, ESP
03.28	San Sebastian, ESP
03.29	Barcelona, ESP
04.05	Ostrava, CZE
04.06	Bratislava, SVK
04.07	Vienna, AUT
04.09	Arnhem, NED
04.10	Paris, FRA
04.11	Berlin, GER (rescheduled from 03.30)
04.13	Wurzburg, GER
04.15	Hannover, GER
04.16	Bremen, GER
04.17	Essen, GER
04.19	Stuttgart, GER
04.20	Augsburg, GER
04.23	Gothenburg, SWE
04.25	Bourges, FRA
04.27	Saarbrucken, GER
04.21	Turin, ITA
04.28	Maiano, ITA
04.29	Firenze, ITA
04.30–31	Rome, ITA
05.02	Priolo, ITA
05.05	Naples, ITA
05.06	Bologna, ITA
05.08	Genova, ITA
05.09	Milan, ITA
05.11	Toulon, FRA
05.13	Grenoble, FRA
05.14	Nancy, FRA
05.16	Sheffield, GBR
05.17	London, GBR
05.19	Manchester, GBR
05.20	Birmingham, GBR
05.21	Glasgow, GBR
05.23	Dublin, IRE
05.24	Belfast, GBR
05.27	Neuchatel, SUI
06.02–04	Moscow, RUS (rescheduled from 04.02–04)
08.27–28	London, GBR

Note: the band cancelled a May 3 show at Reggio di Calabria, Italy, due to security concerns.