With members spread out from North County to L.A., the Iron Maidens — an all-female Iron Maiden tribute — have already had their own Spinal Tap moments, according to drummer Linda McDonald. “The owner of the Rainbow Bar in Juárez, Mexico, locked us, the promoter, and the sound crew in the building,” she says. “We were doing a swing through Texas and did the Juárez show the night before our El Paso gig. The show went great, the fans came out in droves, and everything was fine. Until at about 2:00 a.m., when we heard a lot of yelling in Spanish.
“The promoter came up to us and said, ‘Get all your stuff and move it all outside as fast as you can.’ We did so, and on about our third trip out, with about four more trips’ worth of stuff to go, the double-doors slammed shut on us. We tried to open them and found they were chained and padlocked from the outside. All the sound guys, the band, and the crew were locked inside. The promoter had to scramble to find $1500 [U.S.] on a Sunday morning at 2:30 a.m., or the building owner would not let anyone out. We were all in there for about 45 minutes, until the promoter came up with the extra money, and we all beat a hasty retreat.”
On a more positive note, McDonald says, “The guys in Maiden have heard of us and invited us backstage at a show to meet them. We played a couple shows with Michael Kenney, bass tech for Maiden keyboardist Steve Harris, and [drummer] Nico McBrain once got up onstage and played three songs with us. Steve Harris and [singer] Bruce Dickinson came to see us at the Hard Rock Live show in Mexico City and stayed for the whole show. Steve came backstage afterward and said that they enjoyed our show a lot.”
The Maidens are all in their 30s, unmarried, with no children, and all play music full-time. “We do about 200 shows a year,” says McDonald. “We’re lucky to have played all over the U.S. and Canada, Greece, Korea, Japan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Turkey. Oh, and Mexico, which totally rocked. Other than Juárez.”
McDonald and fellow Maiden Sara Marsh also play in an all-female Ozzy tribute, the Little Dolls, while bassist Steph Harris — aka Wanda — performs with several classical ensembles.