British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden ended an era last night, staging their final live set with drummer Nicko McBrain. The 72-year-old drummer announced his touring retirement from the band yesterday, December 07th, with last night’s set at the Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil serving as his send-off show.
McBrain‘s exit and contributions to the band were celebrated onstage last night early into the set, with vocalist Bruce Dickinson prefacing the performance of ‘The Writing On the Wall” with the following speech:
“Tonight is a very special night. As some of you, I think probably all of you, will know, because this morning we announced, Nicko announced that he was stepping back for playing live drums with Iron Maiden.
For 42 years Nicko‘s been in this band. He was a drummer before I was a singer, he was a pilot before I was a pilot, and now he’s done. [He’s] not leaving the band, but he’s just not playing live with us anymore… Let him know how much he’s loved everybody.
So, we have a lot more music to get to tonight, and I want the rest of the night to be a celebration of Nick, a celebration of the joy that he’s brought to everybody around the world, not just here in Brazil, Alright? And with that, on we go!”
Outside of the obvious challenges of playing a demanding set in his 70s, McBrain‘s playing ability was also impacted a bit by his more recent health struggles, which have included suffering a mini-stroke in January of 2023 and his battle with Laryngeal Cancer back in 2021.
As indicated by the McBrain and the band yesterday, he will remain a member of the roster, but will sit out future live engagements. As for who will be replacing him, the group have now announced the addition of Simon Dawson of British Lion as his successor.
Iron Maiden‘s camp issued the below statement regarding that earlier today, December 08th:
“An Announcement from Iron Maiden
As The Future Past Tour concludes after 81 shows to over 1.4 million fans, from Ljubljana to the Coachella Valley and from Western Australia to Sao Paulo, Iron Maiden are delighted to announce that stepping in behind the kit for 2025 is a name familiar to many of our fans – Simon Dawson, a former session drummer and Steve’s rhythm section partner of the past 12 years with British Lion. A native of Suffolk, England, Simon first teamed up with Steve Harris back in 2012. He debuted on three tracks on the first British Lion album and all of the second critically acclaimed ‘The Burning’, plus the many subsequent tours in the US, UK, Europe, Australia, Japan, New Zealand &, most recently, both Mexico and South America.
Iron Maiden celebrate their 50th Anniversary next year with The Run For Your Lives Tour starting in Budapest on May 27th.”
