Dennis Stratton (born 9 October 1952) is an English guitarist who is best known as a former member of the heavy metal band

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...

from December 1979 to October 1980.

Biography

Born in Canning Town, London, Stratton showed early promise as a footballer and was briefly on the books at

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

until age 16, when he took up guitar. A keen fan of the

London East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

music scene, he joined his first band Harvest (later known as Wedgewood) in 1973. Two years later, Stratton formed the band Remus Down Boulevard, which toured in support of

Rory Gallagher William Rory Gallagher ( ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995) was an Irish guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer. Due to his virtuosic playing, but relative lack of fame compared to some others, he has been referred to as "the greatest ...

and

Status Quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, political, religious or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the current state of social structure and/or values. W ...

, and recorded a live album with music producer

Jonathan King Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King; 6 December 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He first came to prominence in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate, ...

. In December 1979, Steve Harris invited Stratton to join

after witnessing a Remus Down Boulevard performance. The band was also in need of a new drummer, and recruited Clive Burr on Stratton's recommendation. Stratton played on the group's first studio album, ''

'', which was released in April 1980, and on the non-album single "

Women in Uniform "Women in Uniform" is a 1978 song by the Australian band Skyhooks; it was written by the band's bass guitar player, Greg Macainsh. It was released in February 1978 as the lead single from their fourth studio album, '' Guilty Until Proven Insane ...

". Stratton also appeared in the home video recording "Live at the Ruskin" (recorded in 1980 and released in 2004 as part of '' The History of Iron Maiden – Part 1: The Early Days'' DVD set), and in the band's first British television appearance, when they performed "

Running Free Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...

" on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

''. Stratton was with the band during their first European tour, supporting

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

. Dennis Stratton left Iron Maiden in October 1980, and has stated that he left due to conflicts with Steve Harris and band manager

Rod Smallwood Roderick Charles Smallwood (born 17 February 1950) is an English music manager, best known as the co-manager of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. With his business partner, Andy Taylor, whom he met while studying at Trinity College, C ...

. Officially, the band stated "musical differences" as the reason for Stratton's departure. He was replaced by

Adrian Smith Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (born 27 February 1957) is an English guitarist best known as a member of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, for whom he also writes songs and performs backing vocals both live and in the studio. Smith grew up in London ...

. After his departure from Iron Maiden, Stratton played with bands such as Lionheart and

Praying Mantis Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...

, with which he recorded nine studio albums from 1990 to 2003. He officially left Praying Mantis in 2006. In 1995 he formed a project called The Original Iron Men with another former Iron Maiden member, singer

Paul Di'Anno Paul Andrews (born 17 May 1958), better known by his stage name Paul Di'Anno, is a British/Brazilian heavy metal singer who was the lead vocalist for Iron Maiden from 1978 to 1981. In his post-Maiden career, Di'Anno has issued numerous albu ...

. The duo released three albums. More recently, Stratton still performs locally in the East London area, sometimes with a reformed version of Remus Down Boulevard, and occasionally tours Europe with various cover bands that play classic Iron Maiden songs.
Stratton is endorsed by Caparison guitars, Caparison Guitars, from his tenure with Praying Mantis.

Discography

Remus Down Boulevard

*''Live - A Week at the Bridge E16'' (Sampler, 1978) *''Live EP at the Bridge E16'' (Sampler, 2002) *''The Bridge House - Book Launch & Reunion'' (DVD, 2007) *''Live - Worth the Wait (4th Time Lucky)'' (CD/DVD, 2011)

Iron Maiden

*''

'' (1980) *''

Live!! +one ''Live!!'' is the first live album by Japanese garage punk band Guitar Wolf. It was released in Japan in June 2000. The album is assembled from four different performances, including a show on 31 October 1999 at CBGB. It also includes a MiniCD ...

'' (1980) *'' 12 Wasted Years'' (1987) *'' The First Ten Years (From There to Eternity)'' (1990) *'' Best of the Beast'' (1996) *''

Ed Hunter ''Ed Hunter'' is a greatest hits album and video game released in 1999 by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden and Synthetic Dimensions. The game objective consists of following Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie, through various levels depicting t ...

'' (1999) *''

BBC Archives BBC Archives are collections documenting the BBC's broadcasting history, including copies of television and radio broadcasts, internal documents, photographs, online content, sheet music, commercially available music, BBC products (including ...

'' (2002) *''

Best of the 'B' Sides ''Best of the 'B' Sides'' is a compilation of B-sides by the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released on 4 November 2002 as part of the Eddie's Archive box set. Each track was remastered and the set came with a running commentary from Ro ...

'' (2002) *'' The History of Iron Maiden – Part 1: The Early Days'' (2004) *''

The Essential Iron Maiden ''The Essential Iron Maiden'' is the fourth greatest hits compilation by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released on 12 July 2005. Released exclusively in North America, it is part of Sony Music Entertainment's ''The Essential'' seri ...

'' (2005)

Lionheart

*''Hot Tonight'' (1984) *''Second Nature'' (2017)

Praying Mantis

*''Live at Last'' (live) (1990) *''Predator in Disguise'' (1991) *''A Cry for the New World'' (1993) *''Only the Children Cry'' (EP) (1993) *''Play in the East'' (live) (1994) *''To the Power of Ten'' (1995) *''Captured Alive in Tokyo City'' (live) (1996) *''Forever in Time'' (1998) *''Nowhere to Hide'' (2000) *''The Journey Goes On'' (2003) *''Captured alive in Tokyo City'' (Live-DVD) *''The Best of Praying Mantis'' (2004) (Best-of Compilation)

Paul Di'Anno & Dennis Stratton

*''The Original Iron Men'' (1995) *''The Original Iron Men 2'' (1996) *''As Hard As Iron'' (1996) *''Made In Iron'' (1997)

Collaborations

*''Kaizoku'' (1989) - Various Authors *''All Stars'' (1990) - Various Authors *''Trapped'' (1990) - Lea Hart *''Start 'em Young'' (1992) - English Steel *''Ready to rumble'' (1992) - True Brits

References

External links

Dennisstratton.com

Accessed 10 July 2005.

Accessed 10 July 2005.
Praying Mantis fan site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stratton, Dennis 1952 births Living people English heavy metal guitarists English heavy metal singers English male singers English rock guitarists Iron Maiden members People from Canning Town English male guitarists