“Let me just put this record on and clear the room! Or play it to a girlfriend and then wonder why she threw herself out the window”: Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson on the cult prog rock mavericks who inspired him – but were too out-there to be successful

Photographs of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson and Van der Graaf Generator saxophone player David Jackson.

Iron Maiden may be one of the planet’s biggest metal bands, but they’ve never made any secret of their progressive rock influences.

Maiden bassist and founder Steve Harris grew up listening to such prog giants Genesis and Jethro Tull, and Maiden covered the latter’s 1971 classic Cross-Eyed Mary on the b-side of their own 1983 single The Trooper.