Janick Gers first joined Maiden in 1990 due to the
departure of Adrian Smith. The new guitarist brought life to the band as he moved around the stage much more than Adrian. Born in Hartlepool on January 27 1957, Janick grew up with interests
including football, swimming and unsurprisingly music. In his early teens he liked Deep Purple, T-Rex and Rory Gallagher and later Led Zeppelin.
In 1975 he joined his first serious band, White
Spirit. 1978 saw the bands first single, released on an independent label. The band became popular in the north east but were not nationally known.
Funnily enough White Sprits' first, self
titled, album was released in the same year as Iron Maiden's self titled album. Unlike Maiden's top 10 release, White Spirit did considerably less well.
On one of the tours Janck got to meet
one of his heros, Ian Gillian (ex Deep Purple singer). After the tour Janick was offered to work with Gillian – he accepted and played in two of Ian's best albums – Double Trouble ('81) and Magic ('82). The
band then split up.
Nothing much happened after this until 1988 when he was playing with at a Marillion concert, for the Prince's Trust, at Wembley. Bruce Dickinson was also performing that
night. When recording his first solo album, Tattooed Millionare, Bruce turned to Janick for help. Janick helped Bruce write many of the tracks including Tattooed Millionare and Son Of A Gun.
Then one day Bruce phoned Janick again asking him to join Maiden because Smith had just left. Janick had joined too late to take part in a lot of the song writing on the 'No Prayer For The Dying' album but
he did help with Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter – the great single which stayed at No. 1 for three weeks.
He has been with Maiden ever since and has certainly been a great addition to the
band.
