Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer is a new documentary which tells the story of the singer Paul Di’anno (born Paul Andrews), who fronted the heavy metal band for their first two albums – Iron Maiden and Killers – before being booted out of the band, because he prioritised smoking, drinking and drugs over his voice, thus ruining his ability to sing.
After this, Bruce Dickinson was brought in as the new frontman, for their first No.1 album – The Number of the Beast, belting out the title track and Run To The Hills as its singles.
As such, we soon see how the subject onscreen has no love left for the band, since they all became millionaires from that album, and for the first two, he took a flat fee of £70,000 instead of ongoing royalties, and then blew the lot soon after.
To add insult to injury, a live of hard living lead to septacemia, and a serious issue with his legs, since as they won’t straighten. One knee operation with a temporary spacer doesn’t help massively, given that the UK doctors refuse to do further surgery, as it could be life-threatening, meaning Paul Di’Anno has to crowdfund to get from Salisbury to Zagreb, Croatia to continue his treatment. He also can’t travel on a plane due to his condition, which adds to the complications of simply getting there.
He certainly doesn’t want the alternative which would be amptuation, although given how diseased his legs look due to lack of blood circulation, it partly feels like that is one ‘solution’ and then for him to use prosthetics. But given how much weight he’s piled on by this point, standing on those alternative legs would be a hell of a challenge.
As an aside, regarding his travels, I was concerned when he’s loaded into the ambulance with someone lifting with their back and not their legs, since that’s just going to knacker you over time if you continue with that! Especially when he’s a sizeable guy!
As someone who’s had more than their fair share of operations, Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer is a hugely engaging medical documentary – where the only heavy metal he can expect is likely to be inside his leg – although while he finally gets to do his first show in 7 years, albeit from his wheelchair, I was thinking fairly early on, despite all the water under the bridge with the band, couldn’t they fund his care??
However, as much as you want him to have a successful outcome from all this, Paul Di’Anno certainly does not help himself, since after the 2022 operation, during which we’re shown graphic surgery of his right knee being opened up – the surgeons RIPPING out the original one (which was an eye-opener), and then how they replace it with a superb, metal Terminator-like one – you’d think six months of taking it easy would be on the cards… but no, Paul embarks on a multi-date tour of Brazil… as you do.
And now a bit extra, but I’ll put this behind a spoiler header in case you want to avoid knowing certain key details before the documentary tells them.
NOTE: There are no mid- nor post-credits scenes.
Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 100 minutes
Release date: May 1st 2026
Studio: Cleopatra Entertainment
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Rating: 9/10
Director: Wes Orshoski
Producers: Wes Orshoski, Cliff Evans, Matt Green
Writer: Wes Orshoski
Participants:
Paul Di’Anno
Cliff Evans
Stjepan Juras
Kastro Pergjoni
James Hetfield (Metallica)
Gene Simmons (Kiss)
Andreas Kisser (Sepultura)
David Ellefson (Megadeth)
Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth (Overkill)
Gary Holt (Exodus/Slayer)
Dennis Stratton (Iron Maiden)
Doug Sampson (Iron Maiden)
Malcolm Dome (Kerrang journalist)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.