Iron Maiden's home fixture at the London Stadium

Hammers in the Heart's heavy metal correspondent Nigel Morris reviews Iron Maiden's recent appearance at the London Stadium... 

I finally made it onto the London Stadium pitch as two of my passions - footballing and musical - collided when Iron Maiden, one of the world's biggest and most enduring heavy metal bands, returned to their roots in the East End.

Fifty years after the band made their first appearance to a handful of punters in the Cart and Horses, Maryland, they played a mile up the road to 75,000 sweltering fans packed into our ground.

The reason? Band leader Steve Harris is an obsessive Hammer, always appearing on stage with the club crest on his bass and with claret and blue guitar straps and wristbands. He invariably sneaks West Ham references onto album covers including ‘Hammers rule OK!’ and the wildly optimistic ‘Latest results … West Ham 7 Arsenal 3’ message on Maiden’s Somewhere in Time record.

At 14, Steve was even spotted by the legendary West Ham scout Wally St Pier and taken on as a club apprentice before dropping out a year later because, “I probably didn’t have enough to make it as a professional”.

So for Harris - and for the hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of fans like me in claret and blue Iron Maiden FC shirts complete with Hammers emblems - it was a double homecoming.

Massive screens promoting Iron Maiden surrounded the London Stadium and - in a clever move - a Hammers-style concert programme detailed the links between the band and club and the group’s love of football in general.

In one feature, Slaven Bilic revealed that growing up in Croatia he first learned of West Ham’s existence from the ‘Up the Irons!’ message on The Number of the Beast album. There’s little surprise that long-haired '90s midfielder Ian Bishop is a fan too.

And Julian Dicks told the 'matchday programme': “I can see some similarities between Maiden concerts and football fans back when I played - very passionate, great energy, they love their team or band, and they follow them all over the country and the world.”

The concert itself? An amazing, emotional evening as Maiden played a ‘greatest hits’ set to fans of all ages, including some of the numbers they debuted almost half a century ago in pubs around the East End.

And when I’m back in my seat next month I’ll remember Steve’s wise words: “Fans of West Ham have got a great sense of humour, but they have to - or we probably wouldn’t survive.”

Pellegrini's (Iron) Maiden appearance at the London Stadium?

Thanks to my pal Fraser for keeping up to date with Chilean daily paper La Cuerta, which has been reporting on the possibility of Manuel Pellegrini joining West Ham as our new gaffer. Apparently unfamiliar with the Hammers, they’ve settled on describing WHU as, "a team fanatically supported by Iron Maiden." 

"Good to know we have some kind of international reputation," comments Fraser, who wonders if we’ll see Manuel (and heavy metal fan Zabaleta?) down the Cart and Horses. where Maiden played one of their first gigs. He also wonders if Pelly will bring his star player from Hebbei China Fortune with him as it would be nice to see Javier Mascherano again.

La Cuerta seems convinced that Pellegrini is coming. However, Fraser does point point out that La Cuerta is "not exactly known as a paper of record, most readers buy it for the large selection of female nudes featured daily. I guess it’s a bit like Sullivan’s Sport (is that still going?)."

Heavy metal Zab

Pablo Zabaleta is a bit of a heavy metal headbanger judging by his choices in the WHU v Bournemouth programme's Play List. My pal Nigel is ecstatic that Pablo has chosen some of his favourite songs, such as AC/DC's Highway to Hell, Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast and Metallica's excellent cover of Thin Lizzy's Whiskey in the Jar. In fact Zab could almost be Nigel, as he's also selected Queen's I Want To Break Free and Status Quo's Rockin' All Over The World. The Argentine full back even knows that Iron Maiden are a local band and that Stevie Harris is a West Ham fan. While I'm quite impressed he chose a Ramones song. In fact Zab plays a bit like a heavy metal fan and his performances often make opposition wingers want to Run To The Hills.