Posts Tagged ‘iron maiden’
It was a cold night in February 1988…
…when I met Nicko McBrain. He had come to town to do a drum clinic for Sonor Drums and Paiste Cymbals. As a zit 
-faced, poofy-haired kid who loved Iron Maiden more than just about anything, this clinic was like a taste of Heaven. There were only about 30 people there as Whitesnake were in town touring for the ’87 LP. I was one of 2 people who actually got to get up on stage and play his drums with him standing right there. It was awesome. During one of his rambles, he mentioned the size of the crowd being small due to Whitesnake being in town. Under my breath from the front row I said “Fuck Tommy Aldridge.” Nicko stopped his speech and said, “Steve, give that man a beer!” So his tech handed me an ice cold Heineken which I had Nicko autograph after the show. I still have that bottle, unopened and it’s all chunky inside. I didn’t drink at the time so there was no reason to open it.
Here it is:
Iron Maiden – Night Of The Living Dead (Live 1982)
Here’s a GREAT live show from the New York Palladium, June 29, 1982. This apparently was a radio broadcast. The 
only thing that could have made this show better for me was if they had played Total Eclipse.
Tracks:
01. Murders In The Rue Morgue
02. Wrathchild
03. Run To The Hills
04. Children Of The Damned
05. The Number Of The Beast
06. The Prisoner
07. Hallowed Be They Name
08. Phantom Of The Opera
09. Iron Maiden
10. Sanctuary
11. Drifter
Iron Maiden – The Whole Population Of Hackney (Live 1985)
Here’s a sort of rare Maiden bootleg that I used to have on vinyl ages ago. I used to be a bigtime Maiden record 
collector and had well over 200 records. Those old days of trading records through magazine ads and the early alt.newsgroup days are long gone thanks to the advancement of the Internet. Good times though. Never a deal gone sour! I sold off most of my entire record collection around 2000. Sometimes I wish I still had it all but I used to move a lot and lugging those crates around were a bear.
Anyhoo…The Whole Population of Hackney (aka The Entire Population of Hackney). This was an odd little show and technically it’s not even an Iron Maiden show. You can read about the history of this recording here.
One of the things I liked about this is that some of the songs ended up being recorded by Adrian under his ASAP project. I love that album and wish he would have done a followup.
Tracks:
- EastEnders theme/”Juanita” – 4:32 (Marshall Fury cover)
- “See Me Through” – 3:22 (original by James Buster Band)
- “Reach Out” – 3:36 (Written by Dave Colwell for the project)
- “Chevrolet” – 3:38 (Stray Dog cover)
- “Lady” – 6:55 (Urchin song)
- “Silver and Gold” – 6:21 (Later used with ASAP)
- “That Girl” – 5:06 (composed by the first instance of FM band with Andy Barnett on. Circa ’84)
- “Fighting Man” – 5:33 (Written by Dave Colwell for the project)(later appeared on the ASAP single, Silver and Gold)
- “School Days” (with extended drum solo) – 5:51 (Originally written by Colwell for his band 720) (later appeared on the ASAP single, Down the Wire)
- “When She’s Gone” – 5:30 (Not the Black Sabbath song. Later appeared on the ASAP single, Down the Wire)
- “Try” – 4:06 (Written by Kenny Mountain, who also co-wrote Rainbow’s Gold)
- “Losfer Words (Big ‘Orra)” – 4:11 (from Iron Maiden’s Powerslave) (Steve Harris and Dave Murray enter the stage)
- “2 Minutes To Midnight” – 6:11 (from Iron Maiden’s Powerslave) (Bruce Dickinson enters the stage)
- “Rosalie” – 4:33 (Bob Seger cover)
- “Tush” – 4:29 (ZZ Top cover)
Rare Vintage Concert Shirts For Sale
I’m selling off a collection of vintage primarily hard rock and metal concert shirts. Please take a look at them here. If you’re a collector, there are some real gems up for sale now and more to come. It pains me a little to sell these off even though they’re not mine. Lots of history here. If I was a small, I’d buy them for myself.
That woman, she was on old flame of mine…
When I look back at Thin Lizzy’s catalogue, it blows my mind that the Johnny The Fox album wasn’t more popular. 
Other than the final track, Boogie Woogie Dance, it’s damn near perfect. Phil sings his heart out on this. Oddly enough the album is played a half-step down from standard tuning. I had read a while back that Phil wrote most of while recovering from Hepatitis and tuning down made the songs easier to sing.
Thank God for Hepatitis, eh?
There’s a lot of romanticism and sadness on this album of varying degrees. Borderline and Old Flame always tug at my heartstrings for various reasons…loves from days gone by. Phil really had a way of stringing words and phrases together.
Selected verses from Borderline:
Midnight in the big city
At the bar drinking all on my own
Just thinking about that girl and me
How something’s going wrongSeven beers and still sober
It’s time to change to something stronger
I cannot take this scene no longer
She could have told me it’s all overBack in my home town
The old place is still the same
But time can cast a spell over something
You can’t go back again
It’s just love or rejection
For this borderline case
No shit, Phil. I feel ya. And from Old Flame:
Once this flame it did brightly blaze
Among the ashes there still remains
A glowing spark in my heart
For that old flame of mine
Dude, that’s what I mean. Old crushes can sometimes die hard (with a vengeance?) . OK, that was weak.
Then the sarcastic tone of Don’t Believe a Word:
Don’t believe me if I tell you
That I wrote this song for you
There might be some other silly pretty girl
I’m singing it toDon’t believe me if I tell you
Not a word of this is true
Don’t believe me if I tell you
Especially if I tell you that I’m in love with you
The man…a lot of it is in how he sings it too. Such a unique vocalist.
Then you have Fool’s Gold. The romantic notion of leaving your homeland in hopes of finding gold, only to end up with fool’s gold. Oddly the song takes some odd lyrical turns and tells some other stories that don’t seem so related to the initial subject, but it’s still a great tune.
Then…Massacre. This song rules. It’s very metal for 1976. Iron Maiden did an incredible cover of this.
The song Johnny, Rocky and Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed and are 3 great rocking tunes as well. Rounding it out is Sweet Marie. A nice little love song about missing his woman while he’s out on the road.
If you’re even mildly a Thin Lizzy fan, this is one album that needs to be in your collection.
Enjoy the tunes.
RIP Phil.
The Metal Files 
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