5 of the Best Parts About Iron Maiden's 50th Anniversary Book 'Infinite Dreams'

Iron Maiden's 50-year history is visually documented in the new book Infinite Dreams, offering up some mind-blowing moments for any fan.

Even if you're a die-hard superfan and Maiden dork like myself, there's loads of stuff that you're guaranteed to have never seen, no matter how long you've spent on the internet, looking through all the CD booklets, reading fan club magazines, etc.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised at some of the stuff that I’ve managed to unearth for this book," enthuses Steve Harris. "I knew I had kept a lot of things from the early days but they have lasted really well and the photography has brought them back to life. I hope the fans are going to love looking at all the stuff presented like this! It’s the right time to bring it all together for part of our 50th celebrations.”

There's endless pages of expected things such as hand-written lyrics, countless photos from decades of touring and quite the share of cheeky candids.

Beyond the convenience of having it all packaged chronologically, it offers longtime fans a look back at the days when they were as young as the Eddie and the boys in these vintage shots. For fans of younger generations, it's a window back in time, inching us closer to a place and time we've never been to.

For me, the mid-2000s section of Infinite Dreams conjured up the most memories and feelings. Dance of Death had just came out a few months after I discovered Maiden and I first saw them on the Early Days tour. I won't ever say nostalgia is overrated — we all like being reminded of falling in love with a band from our own early days — and no matter what era you came into the band during, Infinite Dreams will stir something up in you too.

Now, here's what really blew my (piece of) mind!

Infinite Dreams is out now through Thames & Hudson and can be purchased at the Iron Maiden website.

1. Steve Harris' 1976 Diary Entries

This happened to be the very first page I opened to after removing the shrinkwrap from the Infinite Dreams book and was completely sold on whatever else the other 300-plus pages might contain.

As Iron Maiden fans, we understand that the band has carefully spent decades balancing their careers with their private lives, keeping those personal details rather secret. While this is all band related, it offers insight into 'Arry's daily habits. Journaling is a healthy process for regulating and digesting emotions and also exemplifies the band leader's organizational detail and general sense of commitment.

The excerpts note what venues an early Iron Maiden played at, what the crowd response was like and how much the band got paid. There was even a battle of the bands competition of sorts, which Maiden placed second in. "Everybody said we should've won," Harris wrote.

Other gigs not so great. "Awful gig — worst yet. Sound in the place was diabolical," the bassist said about an Aug. 9 show at Sneakie's Rock Club.

On June 10, he even went to see one of his biggest influences, Genesis, at the Hammersmith Odeon — "Bloody brilliant!" The prog rock group was touring in support of A Trick of the Tail at the time.

There's diary entries from other years as well, but these are the earliest ones.

2. All Those '70s Photos!

Yes, I understand the entire point of this book is to show 50 years worth of photos. But the further back in time you go, the more difficult it is to find quality images and in such abundance, especially ones that pre-date Iron Maiden's 1980 studio debut.

We're talking about an incredibly brief window in time, one which was also flush with personnel changes as 'Arry began to exact his vision for a band that would go on to conquer the world with heavy metal.

This period is also relatable for anyone who has ever formed a band, no matter how serious. There's a naivety and innocence to making music with friends, unsure where it will take you, if anywhere. Amid the grit and determination, there's fun — one of the most essential ingredients.

There's tons of laughter present, celebratory shots of the band hoisting one another in the air and it makes you think of all the untold things that would transform the lives of some of these barely men in their early 20s.

Elsewhere from this period are show flyers bearing an early Iron Maiden logo, before the pointed-edge version we all know today was created. You'll see the "Green Goddess" touring van, newspaper advertisements seeking new musicians and the page-by-page progress of a band taking shape as Maiden eventually secured a record deal after grinding it out for years on the club circuit.

What more could an Iron Maiden fan ask for?

3. A Look at Tour T-Shirts From '80s Album Cycles

I'm willing to bet that no band has had a selection of tour T-shirts as vast as Maiden through the decades.

More difficult than choosing a donut or a beer from a taproom is deciding which design to throw down some cash on at whatever Iron Maiden show you're at. There's always a row of options that extends so far you have to squint to see the end of it.

So, looking through all the shirts from tours that were before my time (I was born in 1989, for the record) was an absolute delight. Yeah, I've rummaged through TShirtSlayer to check out vintage designs plenty of times, but having it all conveniently mapped out in Infinite Dreams is much better.

Now, this doesn't showcase every design — that's probably a coffee table book of its own with hundreds (thousands) of event-specific shirts (...he writes, hoping Rod Smallwood is reading).

READ MORE: Iron Maiden Announce First 2026 Tour Dates

4. Close-Up Photos of Stage Props

As you flip through the eras, you'll come across close-up images of stage props from the '80s all the way through today.

The twisted, contorted figures that adorned the stage on the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son support tour, gargoyles from the Legacy of the Beast tour, the Powerslave Eddie sarcophagus and more stage-used items are shown isolated in brilliant detail.

Aside from the spotlight photos, there's stunning looks at the stage sets through the years. For me, one of my favorites to look at is the Somewhere in Time era with its ambitious futuristic appeal and occasionally malfunctioning props (the giant hand Bruce stood upon, the singer's outrageous exoskeleton jacket).

We've all seen these pieces of the stage before, but as part of the whole. Looking at them separated from the spectacle is a treasure and hopefully whatever pieces may be resting in storage units with gradually appreciating layers of dust will eventually be showcased in a Maiden museum of sorts or a multi-city event where fans can walk through different eras of the band.

5. The Layout Streamlines the Enjoyment of Flipping Through the Book

Chronology helps digest the truckloads of visuals and information crammed into these 300-plus pages, but simply moving along the timeline is not enough.

Fortunately, Maiden's attention to detail and the fan experiences extends to Infinite Dreams with a familiar album-by-album layout that prevents this from feeling exhaustively random and mentally cumbersome to absorb.

Despite being a visual history book, there's two stories to tell here — the biographical one (the info-dense text offers invaluable insight) and the visual one (so many Eddies).

It can feel overwhelming to take all of this in, but there's familiarity regarding recurring sections to each of the era-specific chapters — isolated photos of vintage and recent tour gear, the aforementioned tour shirts, informational breakdowns of the album singles and more. All of that makes compartmentalizing Infinite Dreams, equipping fans with a deep knowledge bank that's trivia-ready.

It might sound trivial to say the layout is nice, but it's truly a worthy talking point here.