IRON MAIDEN drummer Nicko McBrain performed the final of 4 July 2025 exhibits in Florida along with his TITANIUM TART venture on Saturday (July 26) at OCC Street Home & Museum in Clearwater, Florida. Becoming a member of Nicko in TITANIUM TART are Rob Stokes on bass, Eldad Kira on keyboards, Mike Rivera and Mitch Tanne on guitar, and Paolo Velazquez on vocals.
In some unspecified time in the future throughout final night time’s live performance, Nicko addressed the viewers, saying (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “ All of you recognize that I stepped again from touring with [IRON MAIDEN], and so they’ve obtained a stunning lad [Simon Dawson playing with them now]. He is a child. He is obtained a bit tiny drum set…
“However here is the factor: it’s possible you’ll ask your self, how do I really feel a couple of new drummer taking my place after 42 years? Effectively, the easy reply is I am nonetheless the best-looking bloke in IRON MAIDEN,” Nicko quipped. “I do not know whether or not Simon would agree with me ‘trigger he most likely thinks he is the best-looking [member of IRON MAIDEN], which I can guarantee you will not be the case. Bless his coronary heart. However he is doing a beautiful job and I am glad that you just lot have welcomed him to the household. And no matter whether or not or not he is me, he isn’t — there isn’t any one that may change me. I am not saying to rub my ego or be [like], ‘I’m the very best drummer for MAIDEN.’ By no means.
“So, yeah, thanks for bringing him into the household,” Nicko added. “They’re doing a splendid job on the market, though Bruce‘s [Dickinson, MAIDEN singer] timing is a bit bit shaky right here and there. However there’s nothing new there.”
Nicko additionally touched upon the truth that MAIDEN‘s manufacturing for the continuing “Run For Your Lives” Fiftieth-anniversary tour contains digital screens as a substitute of bodily backdrops and props which characterised the band’s earlier exhibits. He stated: “What do you guys take into consideration the screens that they have? Palms up who thinks they’re nice. Palms up, these those who want the outdated means.”
After a number of individuals within the viewers expressed their choice for the bodily backdrops and props, Nicko continued: “I do know, and I spoke to [MAIDEN‘s longtime manager] Rod [Smallwood] about this final 12 months. ‘Trigger I noticed the sketch with these screens, and I stated to him, ‘Hey, I do not suppose we ought to be [changing the way we do things].’ He stated, ‘We have gotta transfer into the twenty first century, Nick.’ He stated, ‘That is the Fiftieth-anniversary tour. We have gotta have one thing particular.’ I stated, ‘Effectively, then put extra drapes up. Extra drapes. As an alternative of The Trooper simply having Eddie on the horse along with his sword out, have him firing the gun off the… no matter. You set one other one midway by the music. However that is what they went with.”
Nicko added: “I am old-fashioned. I might’ve appreciated to see the drapes and the screens on the aspect.”
The now-73-year-old British musician, whose actual title is Michael Henry McBrain, introduced his retirement on December 7, 2024 in a press release on MAIDEN‘s site and social media. He additionally stated that night time’s live performance at Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil would mark his last present with the legendary rock band.
Dawson is a former session drummer and MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris‘s longtime bandmate in BRITISH LION.
In January 2023, Nicko was at his house in Boca Raton when he suffered a stroke with partial paralysis.
When Nicko first went public along with his stroke in August 2023, the drummer stated in a press release that the episode left him “paralyzed” down one aspect of his physique and “anxious” that his profession with the band was over.
5 years in the past, McBrain was recognized with stage 1 laryngeal most cancers and opened up about it in a single interview in 2021 however in any other case saved it largely underneath wraps. The musician obtained his most cancers prognosis after present process an endoscopy on the Sylvester Complete Most cancers Heart, a part of the College Of Miami Well being System and the Miller Faculty of Medication. Inside per week, McBrain‘s most cancers was surgically eliminated and he now will get check-ups each few months to verify the most cancers hasn’t returned.
McBrain was born in Hackney, East London, on June 5, 1952. His first expertise of music got here by way of his father’s love of conventional jazz. Younger Nicko‘s hero was Joe Morello, the late, nice drummer with the legendary THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET. Nicko would usually take to the kitchen, utilizing forks and knives to beat on something he might discover at house. Fed up with him bashing up the kitchen utensils, his mother and father lastly purchased him his first drum equipment when he was 12.
By the point he left faculty at 15, he was already a veteran of a number of part-time pub teams. Musically, nevertheless, his tastes had broadened to incorporate extra up to date sixties sounds from THE SHADOWS, THE ANIMALS, THE BEATLES and THE ROLLING STONES. On the advice of one other drummer he knew, he started to tackle session work, enjoying on numerous totally different recordings.
In 1975, Nicko joined STREETWALKERS, the band fashioned by ex-FAMILY members, vocalist Roger Chapman and guitarist Charlie Whitney. From the late seventies till 1982 when he joined IRON MAIDEN, Nicko had spent his time in session work, most memorably with the PAT TRAVERS BAND on their 1976 “Makin’ Magic” album, and likewise appeared within the band MCKITTY within the early Eighties. It was throughout a MCKITTY gig in Belgium that he first met Harris.
He formally joined IRON MAIDEN in December 1982 for the 1983 “Piece Of Thoughts” album and tour, changing Clive Burr, after McBrain‘s earlier band TRUST had supported IRON MAIDEN throughout the U.Okay. leg of the “Killers” tour in 1981. McBrain introduced a level of finesse and technicality that was largely lacking from IRON MAIDEN‘s early output. Whereas Burr was usually lauded for his heavy-handed, punk-oriented model, McBrain was largely the other, enjoying with a level of dexterity and aptitude that helped main songwriter Harris take MAIDEN down extra adventurous paths. He ultimately turned the third longest-tenured member of MAIDEN, behind Harris and guitarist Dave Murray.
