Nicko McBrain's last concert with Maiden, how it went

Nicko McBrain held his last concert with the Iron Maiden Saturday night at Allianz Parque in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

At the beginning of the live, the singer of the British band Bruce Dickinson said: “Tonight is a very special night, as some of you, I think probably all of you, know, because we announced it this morning, Nicko said he was retiring from playing drums live with Iron Maiden.

Nicko has been in this band for 42 years. He was a drummer before I was a singer, he was a pilot before I was a pilot, and now he won’t leave the band, he just won’t play live with us anymore. So lots of music to be made tonight, I want the rest of the night to be a celebration of Nick, a celebration of the joy he brought to everyone around the world.”

After “Wasted Years”the last song on the setlist, his bandmates took turns hugging him while the 45,000 people in attendance screamed and chanted his name. The drummer, with tears in his eyes, threw some of his work tools to the public: drumsticks, skins and more.

The band’s drummer since 1982, McBrain suffered a stroke in January 2023, but returned to the stage with
Iron Maiden
just four months later. He said at the time that he was still not fully recovered and that he struggled with some of the band’s more difficult songs: “Unfortunately I’m not able to deliver 100%.” To help their partner, Iron Maiden changed their setlists, as Nicko himself declared in July 2024: “It’s not the old Nicko, it’s not what it used to be. But at least it’s part of me. My band, which God bless them, Steve Harris and the rest of the guys told me, ‘If you can’t do something in a song, we just won’t do it.'”

“Thank you for being an irrepressible force behind the Maiden drums for 42 years and a friend of mine for even longer,” said the band’s manager
Iron Maiden Rod Smallwood
. “I speak for the entire band when I say we will miss you immensely! …As Steve Harris says, ‘Nicko is and will always be part of the Maiden family.’

The concert in Sao Paulo closed the 2024 tour of the
Iron Maiden
. The band will return to the road in May 2025 for their 50th anniversary ‘Run For Your Lives’ tour.
Simon Dawson
who plays with the bassist of
Iron Maiden Steve Harris
in the
British Lion
will replace McBrain on drums. Dawson’s first live show will take place on May 27th in Budapest, Hungary. The tour also includes a stop in Italy next summer: Iron Maiden
they will perform on July 13th at the Euganeo Stadium in Padua.

This is the setlist of Nicko McBrain’s last concert with Iron Maiden:

Caught Somewhere in Time

Stranger in a Strange Land

The Writing on the Wall

Days of Future Past

The Time Machine

The Prisoner

Death of the Celts

Can I Play With Madness

Heaven Can Wait

Alexander the Great

Fear of the Dark