Rod Smallwood has managed Iron Maiden for 47 years.
Not “managed after which renegotiated.” Not, “managed, departed, and returned in an advisory capability.”
Managed constantly since he first shook palms with the band’s founder, bassist Steve Harris, in 1979.
It’s, by any affordable measure, the longest-running artist-manager partnership in heavy metallic and one of many longest-running in music historical past.
Smallwood’s path to Iron Maiden was characteristically unconventional. Raised within the UK’s Huddersfield, he dropped out of Cambridge, later grew to become a reserving agent at MAM, then managed Steve Harley & Cockney Insurgent.
A pal at Rosslyn Park Rugby Membership gave him a demo tape from a younger draftsman named Steve Harris. Smallwood listened, made contact, booked two pub gigs in West London, and the remaining is metallic historical past.
Together with his enterprise associate Andy Taylor, Smallwood constructed Sanctuary into “the most important impartial 360° music firm” of its period.
He left in late 2006 to kind Phantom Music Administration, devoted solely to Iron Maiden; Sanctuary itself was bought to Common Music Group the next 12 months.
Beneath Smallwood and Taylor’s steering, Maiden have bought over 100 million data, performed roughly 2,500 reveals throughout 64 nations, and launched 17 studio albums. 5 of these have reached No. 1 within the UK. Their most up-to-date, 2021’s Senjutsu (Parlophone/BMG within the USA), reached No. 3 in the US.
Extra lately, the band have been named among the many Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame’s 2026 inductees, whereas Smallwood was awarded an OBE within the June 2026 King’s Birthday Honours for providers to music and charity.
In the meantime, Iron Maiden are celebrating their Fiftieth anniversary in 2026 with a scale of exercise that might exhaust acts half their age. The Run For Your Lives world tour is enjoying throughout Europe, Latin America, and Australasia, with a North American leg promoted by Reside Nation.
In July 2026, the band staged EDDFEST, a bespoke two-day pageant on the UK’s Knebworth Park, full with a museum of band memorabilia, themed fairground rides, and a lineup of visitor artists on the Friday, curated by Harris himself.
EddFest’s Infinite Goals Museum Expertise, constructed across the band’s Fiftieth-anniversary guide, was Maiden’s first collaboration with Pophouse Leisure, which on July 14 confirmed a wider partnership, together with a stake within the band’s publishing, masters and NIL rights.
Working with UK-based promoter Stuart Galbraith, Smallwood says that EDDFEST stands as a singular, one-off testomony to Maiden’s Fiftieth anniversary, that includes a funfair and an upscaled model of the band’s Eddie’s Dive Bar, all inside a themed area Smallwood and his group dubbed ‘Maidenville’.
“This gave us the proper alternative to create a bespoke pageant with a reputation to do it justice, devoted to all issues Iron Maiden, and invite visitor artists who now we have a reference to to affix us,” he says.
However earlier than all that, Smallwood carved day out of the band’s tour schedule forward of EDDFEST to debate the Iron Maiden Fan Membership, anti-touting, and the key to a near-50-year administration partnership…
The time period “superfans” can imply one million various things to each followers and artists. And naturally, to merchandisers, broadcasters, companies, and some other get together, depending on their relationships and intentions.
Maiden has all the time been about our followers. We wouldn’t exist with out the fervour and loyalty they’ve proven us; now we have among the most devoted followers on the earth.
Credit score: John McMurtrie.Iron Maiden at EDDFEST
Our Fan Membership, the IMFC, has been an vital a part of all the pieces we do throughout generations of followers now. Whereas the core providing could evolve occasionally, it should all the time be about speaking with followers and making them really feel as valued as attainable, with pre-sales on excursions, for instance, our First-To-The-Barrier setup, and distinctive merchandise choices.
We’re very conscious that a few of our most loyal followers aren’t essentially those with essentially the most disposable earnings, and we don’t need to benefit from them or make them really feel excluded. It’s why Maiden won’t ever “promote” meet-and-greets at our reveals. It’s why our VIP packages are centered on a Trooper Beer expertise, which is about consolation and comfort for individuals who need or want that at a present. Likewise, it’s why now we have fought for years, largely towards the tide, to manage ticket costs and combat touting.
So crucial factor the {industry} can study from Iron Maiden’s method: Respect your followers above all the pieces else. Take heed to them, have interaction with them, defend them from secondary touts, and create a household of followers that you just nurture over a few years. They’ll stick to you for all times.
Regardless of your historic lack of airplay, particularly in North America, you’re enjoying among the greatest reveals of Maiden’s profession on this tour – together with the Alamodome in San Antonio, and enjoying stadiums for the primary time ever in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. How do you clarify a band that’s nonetheless rising in scale, 50 years in?
The principle purpose is that that is only a nice stay band, one thing that was fairly clear from the beginning. Folks see them and are available again for extra; all the time have, tour by tour. Maiden are consummate gamers with an incredible frontman [Bruce Dickinson] who is aware of no worry, an enormous quantity of nice songs between them, with many by Steve [Harris], who can also be fairly a outstanding bass participant, three improbable guitarists with no egos interrupting the circulation, and powerhouse drummers [Nicko McBrain and now Simon Dawson].
After all, we all the time placed on the most effective present we will with the most effective artwork we will do. And as a bonus, you get [the band’s mascot] Eddie.
The band are additionally in excellent form and have a ton of on-stage vitality. They care in regards to the followers. I assure that each one of many band offers all the pieces each evening with unbelievable consistency. That’s what brings folks again. Nevertheless it’s additionally rooted in what I mentioned about our relationship with our followers.
“We’ve successfully created our personal universe with Eddie on the forefront.”
We’ve by no means wavered in our dedication to them, and equally importantly, in our dedication to what we do. We’ve successfully created our personal universe with Eddie on the forefront, and stayed true to the imaginative and prescient Steve Harris has all the time had for the band.
We by no means sought to observe style, and radio play worldwide has all the time been very scarce. To mainstream media, metallic all the time appeared to be retro for a lot of our profession. We’ve all the time centered on placing on the most effective stay present we may afford on the time, and going out to play to our followers, in all places.
I believe that sense of integrity and authenticity has develop into increasingly more valued throughout the globe. It’s additionally seen us develop a cross-generational fanbase, with many mother and father bringing younger children to our reveals. Each tour since we reformed with Bruce [Dickinson] and Adrian [Smith] in 1999 has seen giant will increase in attendance as new younger followers be part of us. And, in comparison with the ’80s, when our followers have been just about all male, we now have a really welcome attendance of a excessive proportion of feminine followers, who’re largely youthful in age.
As you say, Maiden have been fierce on ticket scalping through the years. How a lot of that’s philosophical and the way a lot is tough industrial logic about holding fan loyalty long-term?
In a way, it’s each. In 2010, an individual I knew got here to our workplace to inform me about secondary ticketing and the approaching of Viagogo, which he was representing. He mentioned that, successfully, if I gave them, say, 1,000 tickets per present on the on-sale of our subsequent UK tour, they might resell [them] on their websites and provides us a share of the earnings. I believe it was 30%. This might go to the band, charity, or “anyplace” I needed, confidentially. It sounded relatively sinister. What does “anyplace” imply? It was apparent who was going to get hit: the followers.
Their fundamental backup argument was that this gave anybody who had purchased a ticket for an occasion they couldn’t go to a capability to resell to Viagogo and get their a reimbursement. Then another person would purchase that ticket on-line, at an inflated value, after all, topic to “demand.”
Roll on to late November that 12 months, and we went on sale for The Ultimate Frontier tour with the UK reveals for the next July. Inside a day or so of on-sale there have been actually hundreds of tickets on Viagogo, Seatwave, and GetMeIn for our reveals. That’s quite a lot of tickets for [real fans] to purchase, after which, a day or so later, understand [they] can’t really go to that present eight months later, which stretched the credibility a bit.
Because the tour was quickly a sellout, all these [secondary tickets] would have been purchased at huge markups, the cash going to the resellers. This was clearly appalling, and I felt it was one thing we should always combat.
Credit score: John McMurtrieIron Maiden
This was an industry-wide drawback, not only a Maiden one. I quickly discovered numerous folks properly located within the {industry} who felt the identical manner I did. A key one was Ian McAndrew, supervisor of Arctic Monkeys. We had numerous conferences, typically with 20 or extra in attendance, attempting to boost some momentum. This led to [UK anti-scalping pressure group] FanFair Alliance, which continues to be maintaining the great combat some 15 years later, due to the formidable Adam Webb.
Additionally a superb pal was the [UK Conservative politician] Mike Weatherley, an enormous Maiden and metallic fan who all the time wore his Maiden T-shirt beneath his shirt within the Home of Commons. Mike fastened me conferences with Sir John Whittingdale, the [then chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee], as secondary ticketing could be of their area.
The assembly went nowhere, and the Conservative authorities appeared to assume that this was “truthful free enterprise”. I used to be amazed. John is a Maiden fan with the artwork for our album The Variety of the Beast on his wall in his workplace on the Home. Very disappointing.
Later, there was an enormous assembly [between] many music enterprise luminaries; brokers, key promoters, and managers – all of whom have been completely towards secondary – with [UK politician] Jeremy Hunt, whose reply was that “expertise would clear up it”. Personally, I assumed, ‘clear up what?’ A complete waste of time, and I believe an insult to the standard and expertise of many in that room. I may go on, however we appeared to not be getting very far, and secondary ticketing websites and touts have been coining it in. Very unhappy, and nonetheless ongoing, I’ve to say, regardless of [UK MP] Sharon Hodgson combating for years till she was moved over to Public Well being earlier this 12 months. A tragic loss to the trigger.
So the federal government had no urge for food for it. How did you are taking the combat on your self?
We centered on Maiden’s personal battle with [touts] to see if we may present what may very well be performed and encourage others to do the identical. So the subsequent time we had a run of dates within the UK, 2017’s Ebook Of Souls tour, we got down to guarantee followers have been capable of purchase tickets on the face worth we set, not an artificially inflated resale value.
We pushed to make use of paperless ticketing as a lot as attainable, and “names on tickets” the place they have been nonetheless bodily. We have been capable of get the tour delisted from GetMeIn, Seatwave and StubHub, which took out an enormous chunk of that secondary market and left Viagogo as the one huge participant.
“Banishing secondary ticketing could be the largest factor I might need to change.”
With quite a lot of messaging and warnings forward of the on-sale, we hoped to discourage touts from shopping for within the first place, making it clear that these tickets could be an enormous ache to attempt to resell.
We labored, and proceed to take action, with a improbable chap referred to as Reg Walker who actually made it his mission to combat the touts by scanning lists to identify their pseudonyms and canceling their stock.
He began telling these “dangerous actors” that Maiden weren’t going to let this combat go, as many bands sadly did, and that it actually wasn’t of their curiosity to attempt to gouge our tickets. His consultancy now focuses on the main ticket harvesters who use bots and pretend IDs to steal tickets from followers on an industrial scale.
All of the actions mixed to be actually profitable. After we checked the numbers the week after public sale [for the Book Of Souls tour], there have been solely 207 tickets listed on Viagogo. Again in 2010, there had been over 4,000 throughout the secondary websites after the identical period of time.
How do you give an trustworthy fan a manner out with out leaving a door open for scalpers?
There are legit the explanation why a fan would possibly have to resell a ticket they purchased months prematurely, and since we had set the tight restrictions, we felt it was additionally our duty to assist them. So we labored with Ticketmaster and the opposite corporations concerned within the tour to authorize transfers or refunds the place it was acceptable. We even despatched somebody from our workplace out on the highway to be within the field workplace each evening – somebody with the authority to say sure or no to these last-minute circumstances the place a fan turns up with a difficulty.
It was quite a lot of work, however to place some perspective right here: we bought 156,000 Maiden tickets at face worth on that UK tour, and the group approved 110 refunds. That’s it. It’s a tiny fraction of followers that truly have to do away with their ticket; all the pieces else is simply folks attempting to revenue.
It received simpler on subsequent excursions as the method received smoother and the expertise improved. Now we will inform Ticketmaster to cap the resale revenue on their platform, which additionally verifies tickets are real. We limit the resale and switch of cell tickets till a lot nearer to the present, to attempt to stop touts from performing on the on-sale. It’s not excellent by any means, however there’s loads an artist can do to attempt to preserve issues beneath management.
Are you able to replicate that internationally, or is that this a UK-specific operation?
With respect to the UK, I imagine we’ve made an actual affect over the previous 10 years by defending our followers as a lot as we will from secondary pricing. Internationally, nevertheless, it’s way more complicated.
The fact is that the extent of operational effort, coordination, and enforcement required to successfully fight industrial-scale ticket touting is big. What we’ve constructed within the UK has required important funding, devoted manpower, deep market information, and months of planning in partnership with promoters, venues, and platforms. Replicating that very same infrastructure internationally just isn’t a easy swap we will flip in a single day.
If we had the size of a multinational company with giant regional groups, limitless operational sources, and the flexibility to embed regionally for prolonged intervals, we’d completely be deploying these similar anti-touting measures throughout each territory we function in. The problem just isn’t a scarcity of intent; it’s the sheer complexity and useful resource depth required to do it correctly and successfully, globally.
You’ve managed Maiden for practically 5 many years. What’s the key to such an extended artist-manager partnership on this enterprise?
Honesty. Easy as that. I’ll by no means, ever, mislead the band and by no means have. Nor will they to me. For nearly 50 years, since I first seemed Steve within the eyes and agreed to handle the band, now we have all the time been open, frank, and trustworthy with one another about what was proper, incorrect, attainable, and unacceptable.
We’ve sufficient mutual respect to argue, and I actually imply argue, however solely as a result of that reveals each events have the power of dedication to one thing, an concept or a precept, and that manner you each know you’re striving for the suitable factor or the most effective end result.
Credit score: Ross HalfinOn tour within the US within the ’80s.
The band have additionally all the time recognized that there’s a clear set of boundaries: what they do and what I do. Positive, they meet at sure factors, however finally, I don’t go within the studio, for instance, or query the music, until they ask me to, which they haven’t for the reason that first album. They usually don’t get in the way in which of my planning, tour scheduling, advertising, and the imaginative and prescient for Eddie and the band, although after all, I preserve them knowledgeable.
It’s a improbable relationship. However in a manner, they don’t know some other type of administration, and neither do I. It definitely makes enterprise far easier when it’s like this.
The facility dynamics have shifted massively within the music enterprise because you began working with Maiden. How do you see the position of the artist supervisor in 2026 in comparison with while you started?
I really don’t see the position of a supervisor shifting a lot. A lot the identical applies, although with completely different emphases. However I agree the {industry} has modified nearly past recognition for rock bands.
I do know for a indisputable fact that Andy [Taylor] and I couldn’t have damaged this band with out the assistance, and extra particularly the cash – and by that I imply tour assist – that EMI gave us again within the ’80s.
We lived hand to mouth for the primary three albums, as our precedence was the intensive touring and the present for the followers, which was all very costly even again then.
With out tour assist, we had no likelihood to execute these big touring plans. Andy even needed to take out a major private mortgage to permit me to place collectively the costly [live run] in North America for the Variety of the Beast tour. We stayed on the market for a very long time, taking the present with us. We really went by means of Chicago thrice, as soon as every with Rainbow, Judas Priest, and The Scorpions. Fortunately, it paid off.
With that degree of label backing gone, the place does a brand new band discover the cash to tour like that right this moment?
Within the age of streaming and drastically decreased document gross sales, tour assist has vanished. I see how exhausting my group at Phantom works on the band’s solo tasks to get albums and excursions arrange, and all the remaining that includes. I then see how they should create one thing worthy of attracting social media assist, for instance, to attempt to transfer the dial.
I do know we by no means had radio assist per se, however how do new bands get the eye of media companions when there is no such thing as a one to speak to at a digital aggregator, for instance? How do you narrow by means of at a retailer like Amazon?
I do know Maiden had their challenges again within the early years, however I all the time felt there have been relationships to be made that would offer an answer; I’m not so positive it’s that simple anymore. Essential mass is so exhausting to attain when there’s a lot fragmentation.
I take my hat off to anybody who, as a supervisor, believes sufficient in a band to commit all the pieces to attempting to attain that within the face of right this moment’s challenges. Additionally, [emerging] bands want locations to play. These locations are costly to run these days with all of the taxes occurring, so the variety of venues is regularly declining, which is tragic.
And that’s not simply within the UK. How does a band refine its chops after they don’t – or can’t – play a lot? That’s an issue largely for bands, as solo artists, pop acts, and producers focus totally on their on-line presence. So sooner or later, there’s prone to be a preponderance of solo artists and pop in its wider sense. Actually, isn’t that what’s occurring already?
If there was one factor you possibly can change in regards to the music enterprise right this moment, what wouldn’t it be?
If I had the expertise, I might go into politics and discover a solution to do away with secondary ticketing and the entire malaise round it. It solely serves to make these guys, and a few dodgy artists and managers, wealthy – whereas the followers get considerably poorer.
If you happen to go searching now, on the ever-increasing value of tickets and significantly on the shenanigans of FIFA, the wealthy get richer and sod the remaining. How may now we have allowed that to occur? Is [scalping] of any actual worth apart from benefiting from the followers?
And naturally, a knock-on impact of secondary ticketing is that each one the additional money spent [by fans] to see an enormous act leaves much less finance to go and see that new band in a membership. A really vicious circle.
Banishing secondary ticketing could be the largest factor I might need to change. My group and I are doing no matter we will to result in that change, at the least in our personal world.
