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The greatest live album of all time? We wouldn't argue with Eddie...

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18 February saw a fan vote hand Iron Maiden their first ever Brit Award for Best British Live Act. Although the smart money was always on Maiden's fervent fanbase to vote them to victory, recognition from the UK industry has been a long time coming.

Why should you care? Here are ten good reasons…

1. Their live prowess is well documented

We can think of good live albums, we can also name very good live albums, then there's Live After Death. Captured – with apparently little or no overdubs – at Long Beach Arena, California on the band's gruelling Powerslave tour in 1984, it's everything metal should be.

Musicianship as tight as their spandex, spirit, fire, brimstone, band mascot Eddie as a giant Egyptian mummy and a tour de force of classic anthems. Hear this and you'll want to see this band.

2. They've defied the ageing process

A whole 24 years after the release of Live After Death, Maiden came back with their Egyptian stage set on the Somewhere Back In Time tour to prove very little has changed. They are still a jaw dropping force live, except now more popular than they've ever been as dads bring their children along to pass the torch of Maiden fandom.

Maiden can still play the 13 minutes of Rime Of The Ancient Mariner like their lives depend on it and show a whole new generation why even the juggernaut that is Metallica are still not quite worthy in comparison.

3. They knew when to put the old gang back together

Bringing Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith back into the Maiden fold at the same time in 1999 was a canny move. The Blaze Bailey-fronted lean (or wasted?) years had witnessed Maiden soldiering on, playing significantly smaller UK shows than they had in their eighties heyday.

Fans kept the faith and were now rewarded. Cue a comeback tour, a return to much improved form with the Brave New World album and the added bonus of a three-amigo guitar attack with Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers.

4. Their back catalogue is unrivalled

No other metal band has a run of releases that can even remotely rival Maiden's seven-record run between 1980's classic eponymous debut – with Paul Di'Anno on vocals – and 1988's conceptual Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son.

Between them were songs that would inspire a generation of metal musicians and countless pub arguments over the merits of the underrated Killers and whether the second side of Piece Of Mind lets it down.