Born To It

Nicko McBrain wasn’t quite born sitting on a drum stool, but he may as well have been. It was in Hackney, North London, regular working class family home, but, as so often with these stories, one where music was an everyday fact of life. Nicko’s dad was a jazz fiend, played a bit of trumpet himself, and was a big fan of The Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Look at The State of My Kitchen !*!

Nicko listened to then as well, with their drummer Joe Morello giving it plenty, and decided there and then he wanted to be a drummer. This was at about the age of 10, but a man (or boy) of his word even then, Nicko set about making his dream come true. It was tricky to begin with – the family didn’t own a drum kit, so young Nicko had to start out by practicing of various kitchen utensils – pots and pans and the like.

Things came to a head when he progressed to bashing the hell out of the family stove top, at which point, dad presumably decided it would be cheaper to buy drums rather than replace a wrecked stove, and a 3-piece set arrived.

That’s pretty cool though, right. The Hawk can’t help thinking that if, as a chick, he’d wreaked similar carnage, it wouldn’t have been rewarded like that, with an expensive drum kit. And what about the neighbors in all of this? But anyway, Nicko’s dad must have recognized a budding talent when he spotted one, and let’s all be thankful that he did.

Why ‘Nicko’?

(While we’re talking about parents, did they really christen the boy Nicko? Not exactly a normal name in 50s North London, after all. No, in fact he started out as plain old Michael Henry McBrain. Nicholas was the name of a teddy bear he had as a kid, and ‘Nicky’ made the jump to young Michael as an early nickname.

That eventually changed once again when Billy Day, an early band-mate in the 60s introduced him on stage as ‘Neeko’ in a cod Italian accent. Sounds cringeworthy, sure, but Nicko liked it and decided to stick with it from then on, albeit with the Anglo spelling we all know now.)

Rock n Roll Forever

Back to the story. The pots, pans and kitchen stove have earned a reprieve, and Nicko is teaching himself drums by playing along to rock n roll. (His dad’s love of jazz had rubbed off up to a point, and Nicko would work his technical chops right from the start, but his heart was now in rock n roll. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Led Zeppelin after a time. Keith Moon. Ringo Starr. Jon Bonham. You know it.

Busted Nose

Nicko was good enough to be playing pubs and weddings as a teenager, jammed with anyone he could, getting firmly embedded in the local scene. His parents kept his feet on the ground, and insisted he get a trade, so he enrolled in a local college to study engineering. But after passing his exams, he went pro as a drummer and never looked back.

One more incident from back then worth touching on. Did you ever think that Nicko has an unusually flat looking nose? Well he does, and it’s no accident. Some other kid broke it in a fight at school, and it’s looked that way to this day. Let’s get that story in Nicko’s own words.

Starting Out as a Pro

But here we are in 1973, with Nicko starting out on his music career for real. Over the 70s, there were many different projects in all sorts of styles. He played on a single, ‘Nice One Cyril’ by Cockerel Chorus.

There was an album debut with guitarist Gordon Giltrap (who famously-ish released an album entitled ‘Fear of the Dark’ in 1978, though McBrain had moved on by then.) He played with The Streetwalkers, Pat Travers, McKitty, and eventually the French Punk / Metal rockers Trust.

It was during his stint in McKitty that Nicko first ran into Iron Maiden, when they opened for Maiden at a 1979 gig. This was before Maiden had released an album, but the band wagon was definitely starting to roll. The Hawk has written more about those heady early Iron Maiden days here. 

Seed Planted

Anyway, let’s just say that even in 1979, Maiden and McBrain made a mutual impression on each other. Nicko loved the vibe Maiden were already putting out, and his drumming would already start to attract Steve Harris’s attention. He played a solo during the gig, and it stood out.

And those 70’s projects really helped McBrain hone the style that would bag him the seat in Iron Maiden in due course. He played a lot in 3-piece outfits, where the onus in on everyone to embellish things to keep the interest levels up. Here’s Nicko himself describing the period.

‘My style progressed from my early days playing in three-piece bands and becoming more of a ‘percussion-drummer. What I mean by that is I wasn’t just a timekeeper; I was an explorer. I had the opportunity to embellish. When you’re in a three-piece there’s a lot more room to step out and become progressive and play chops and fills and whatnot. I’m now in a six-piece band, which is twice as many as three. But I still play the same way. I try to listen to everything else that’s going on and interpret it, and embellish where I can.‘

Nicko McBrain

Trusting Nicko

The McBrain / Maiden link-up wouldn’t happen for a few years, but they stayed on each others’ radar. Trust would support Maiden quite a bit on their tours for the ‘Killers’ and ‘Number of The Beast’ albums.

But this was at a time when Maiden were having problems with their existing drummer, Clive Burr. Band leader Steve Harris was constantly irritated by him because of differing musical approaches – quite an issue when bass and drums form the rhythmic backbone of any band. And there were stories about booze affecting his performance.

Long story short, Maiden decided to fire Burr and approach Nicko McBrain to replace him. Nicko accepted, and started what is now a 40 year partnership. It kicked off with Nicko performing his first show in an Eddie mask, Clive’s departure not yet having been publicized. This may or may not be genuine footage of that show, but it’s a great raw Iron Maiden video anyway. You get the picture.

My Way

Having joined Maiden, McBrain famously stamped his personality on the band, and his technical chops let them go in all sorts of directions that had not been possible before. That’s nowhere more evident than his ‘Piece of Mind’, Nicko’s first Maiden album, and still one of his personal favorites.

There’s the opener, ‘Where Eagles Dare’, with its super-difficult triplet pattern on the (single) bass drum. Have a listen to Nicko playing the drum intro part on its own, then the full song.

Innovative

Even Nicko needed to take some time to get this one right. Then they opened the live show with it! Other staples of ‘Piece of Mind’ barely need a role call. ‘The Trooper’. ‘Revelations.’ ‘The Flight of Icarus.’ All have their own drum personality – and that carried on right through Nicko’s Maiden career – he’s never been afraid to try out different styles and techniques from his earlier career. And mostly it works. There’s even a cowbell in ‘Can I Play With Madness’ – listen out closely for it! And read more about the ‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son’ album on here, with more of those great songs if you like.

Octopus – For Real

Many drummers, if they get in a band that hits the big time have a massive drum kit on stage to look good. Nicko’s a huge, but he uses it all, hence his other nickname of ‘The Octopus’. Support band drummers would regularly hang out behind his drum riser to watch him in action.

McBrain has very few writing credits over the years – only one that The Hawk can find. But his technical chops, his massive chemistry with the rest of the band, especially Harris, and his refusal to be pigeon-holed into a certain style has elevated the music well beyond what it would ever have been with anyone else.

Punk Attitude

But look, this is a blog about Nicko McBrain, not Iron Maiden as such. So what else can we say about him? There’s the famous opinionated perfectionism, which can, ahem, rub some people up the wrong way. Listen to some of the stories on A History of Iron Maiden if you have time. But to highlight a couple, long time Maiden drum tech Steve Gadd tells how himself and Nicko both lived in North London, and ended up auditioning for drum slots in a lot of the same bands.

Gadd and McBrain would be shortlisted, and Nicko would always get the part.

‘But I didn’t have to worry. The phone would ring 2 weeks later, could he’d always get the sack. Giving it too much of that [lip] all the time.‘

Steve Gadd (Ex-Drum Tech)

Or the time when a poor old drum roadie was sitting on the side of a fountain in Spain going ‘Kill me now’, after absorbing yet another Nicko bollocking.

Most famous of course was the ‘Mission from Arry’ business, which was caught on tape, and already covered in detail on The Hawk’s ‘Powerslave’ blog.

Listen With Nicko

So Nicko can be difficult to work with. But on the other hand, that makes him a personality. Did anyone collect those re-released singles to get the ‘First 10 Years’ box set? They all had a ‘Listen With Nicko’ bonus B-Side, where the man himself would hold court and tell stories about those years. Originally, they had planned to let all the band members do a couple, but then Nicko was such a natural, he got to do the lot. Here’s the one where he talks about how the ‘Sherriff of Huddersfield’ B-Side about band manager Rod Smallwood came into being.

Sooty and Sweep

What else? There was an appearance on classic 80s Kids’ TV with ‘The Sooty Show’, with a drum of versus a glove puppet.

Nicko is a sports fan, a keen golfer and a regular at the World Snooker championships, held back in the UK every year (although Nick is a long time Florida resident these days). He was the first Iron Maiden pilot, well before Bruce Dickinson got the bug. He’s also a petrol head, with a collection of Jaguars, some custom built.   

Church Goer

And, he’s a born-again Christian for now over 20 years. Visiting a Florida church with his wife Rebecca, he recalled,

‘I just sat there thinking, ‘I didn’t drink last night… why can’t I stand?’ I had this love affair with Jesus going on in my heart.‘

Nicko McBrain

Fortunately, this does not get in the way of band duties, and ‘Number of the Beast’ still forms a regular part of Maiden’s set over the years. As noted many times, the so-called Satanism was always a little tongue-in-cheek.

How Much Longer?

I guess an important question, also asked with increasing frequency, is now much longer Nicko can go on? He’s now the wrong side of 70, but has been belting out long Maiden sets in defiance of age. At least, that was the case up until January last year, when he suffered a stroke, and partial paralysis on his right side.

That put his appearance on 2023’s ‘Future Past’ tour in serious doubt. But with intensive physical therapy, he was able to join rehearsals, and play in all the shows on that tour. It’s been a heroic and memorable effort. The tour has brought back old favourites like ‘The Prisoner’, and showcased ‘Alexander the Great’ for the first time ever on a Maiden live set.

So however long this lasts, it was a big privilege for the fans to be able to see Nicko doing those sets.

It’s incredible really, that Nicko has been going strong as Iron Maiden’s drummer now for over 40 years, and as a pro now for over 50. No doubt there are plenty of Nicko tales The Hawk has missed out from this blog, but hopefully this all gives you a flavor of the man as well as the drummer. Let’s hope we haven’t seen the last of his just yet.

Let’s play out with one of The Hawk’s early favourite Nicko performances. As you know, my first Iron Maiden album was ‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son’, and here’s Nicko performing on that tour. Those drum fills sound as good today as they ever did.