IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris spoke to Japan's Daily Yomiuri about the possibility of the band one day finally bringing down the curtain on what has been a glorious career. "We have all talked about it and we are aware that you can't go on forever," he admitted. "But it's something that you can't put a time on it. You just have to do it when everyone feels that's it and we don't feel like that yet. We don't want to make the mistake that a few bands have made and say, 'That's it' and two years later think, 'I'm a bit bored now, let's do it again.' Once that's it, it should really be it." In regards to Iron Maiden's enduring legacy, Harris states, "You've just got to keep doing what you do. I think we have always been stubborn like that. We've never bowed to pressure from other people. In fact we have gone so far as to tell them to piss off at times. And that's how it should be. A band shouldn't be bombarded into doing things they don't think is right for them. And whenever we have debated because we haven't been sure, it's usually wrong. You go with your gut instinct and nine times out of 10 you're right. We just make the albums we want to make. You could argue now that we are all fairly comfortable so we don't have to do any of the bullshit stuff. It's gone full circle in some sense. In the early days we did exactly what we wanted to do. We always have done. But the situation is now you could argue even more so and that's been the main philosophy. As to why we're still selling - I'd like to think it's because we're good."

Also on the Maiden front comes this news.

Amidst IRON MAIDEN's Dance Of Death world tour, frontman BRUCE DICKINSON has been secretly putting together material for the anxiously-awaited full-length followup to his highly-praised Chemical Wedding release (from 1998). Dickinson and guitarist/producer Roy Z have been working on a number of songs including a track that was meant for the much-hyped THREE TREMORS project (which also featured JUDAS PRIEST frontman ROB HALFORD and QUEENSRYCHE singer Geoff Tate). Dickinson says three songs total have been written and to expect the album in late 2004/early 2005.

Via: Hard News