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

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

from December 1979 to October 1980. He was also the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of

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 ...

from 1990 to 2006, recording six studio albums with the band.

Career

Born in

Canning Town Canning Town is a town in the London Borough of Newham, East London, England, north of the Royal Victoria Dock. Its urbanisation was largely due to the creation of the dock. The area was part of the ancient parish and County Borough of West Ham, ...

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

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

until age 16, when he took up guitar. 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 musician, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as "Ireland's first rock star", he is known for his virtuosic style of guitar playing and live performances. He has sometim ...

and

Status Quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, economic, legal, environmental, political, religious, scientific or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the curren ...

, 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 Clive Ronald Burr (8 March 1956 – 12 March 2013) was an English musician. He was the drummer of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden from 1979 to 1982. Together with fellow Iron Maiden member Dennis Stratton, he joined Praying Mantis for the r ...

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". 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" on ''

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

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

Kiss A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...

. 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. Officially, the band stated "musical differences" as the reason for Stratton's departure. He was replaced by Adrian Smith. After his departure from Iron Maiden, Stratton played with bands such as Lionheart and

, with which he recorded six 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. 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'' (1980) *'' 12 Wasted Years'' (1987) *'' The First Ten Years (From There to Eternity)'' (1990) *'' Best of the Beast'' (1996) *'' Ed Hunter'' (1999) *''

BBC Archives The 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 (includ ...

'' (2002) *'' Best of the 'B' Sides'' (2002) *'' The History of Iron Maiden – Part 1: The Early Days'' (2004) *'' The Essential Iron Maiden'' (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