What ho hahahaha!
Well, welcome once again to the Not a lot of people know that, part II. Or in other
words, Nick's verbal diarrhoea for the second time running. You lucky lot! Now you're out
there holding in your sweaty palms and all them grubby little fingers and hands, are
holding, ooh the second re-released singles box set from Iron Maiden, the second weeks
now we're running, now we're onto a cruise. Women In Uniform! You've just listened to
it! Invasion! You've just listened to it! Phantom Of The Opera! You've just listened to it!
Ohh, and Twilight Zone and Wrathchild, both 'Arry Harris..bomber Harris compositions of
the most outstandingly stunning performances! Marvellous!
Well, look it here, look here! Women In Uniform, mmmmmm. Now then 'Arry, you slipped
up....listen don't tell him but you know it wasn't a song by 'Arry, see, but he knows that
anyway, don't he. Wot? Anyway, Women In Uniform, written by the Macainah brothers...
I think I pronounced that right lads... if you're listening, well too f'king bad if I ain't, I'm
very sorry but anyway, nevertheless. Aussie band, Skyhooks I believe they were called,
the name of the band, first originally recorded this Women In Uniform. The boys decided
to do it, and released this single 27th of October 1980. And uh, well, great song, you
know... doo doo ah dee dee... good song, and all that. And as I say, you've got Invasion
and Phantom Of The Opera live. My goodness, aren't you lucky people... Gosh I don't
even have this stuff at home. You know what, I tell ya, one of the reasons that we're
releasing all these bits and pieces, not only to celebrate ten years with such a great
company as EMI, but not a lot of us have got a complete set of the singles and all that
stuff so it's really so we can get the old collection going. Yeah, so anyway,
nevertheless!
Right, now Mike Kenny made his debut in the video as Eddie I do believe, on the very
first promo video. Well, I say the first promo,.. the Invasion video, was the first rock
promo, one of the first rock promos by a British rock band. I suppose you think Queen
with their Bohemian Rhapsody was close to that, you know, I think they were probably
the very first. But it was quite visionary if you think of the importance of videos now,
you get it...vision...quite vis....yeah, allright ok, cut the crap and get on with it. Alright
so there you go, first song the band's ever released in a-side is by somebody else, and
uh yeah, that's cool. And by the way, Invasion was part of the band's you know the
stage set that the boys used to use in the late 70's, and originally it was released on the
Soundhouse Tapes. Oh, we all know about the Soundhouse Tapes... take that if you
don't! wooh, I'll give you ........I wanna hit you so hard.... Anyway! Invasion was on the
Soundhouse Tapes, and Steve and the guys decided to record a proper studio version of
this song, so that's why that was re-done basically.
And Phantom was recorded at the Marquee in July 1980, oh yes you lucky Maidenettes
and Maiden guys and all that out there! Four dates in one week, to wind up their summer
UK tour in 1980, can you remember that? What a great time! Did Top Of The Pops live,
again, by the way, and the guys did the sound check...this is, not a lot of people know
this....and the did the sound check in the afternoon. And a minute before the
performance the sound monitor engineer turned around and says "I'm not gonna have
this...you're too loud, we're gonna turn it down". And they messed around with all the
twiddly knobs and everything, on the desk, ON THE DESK!!! right? And it totally poxed it
all up. So the boys vowed never to play..um... I said Top Of The Pops, didn't I. Well you
know that company on the last thing I was trying to think of an abbreviation for, right?
Well you know what I'm talking about right? Well it's the Bleeding Bojack Company, right,
that's what it is, and that's what they done to 'em so it's on the videos now and that's
it. Boom.
So you lucky lot. Oooh, Twilight Zone and Wrathchild, both as I said, 'Arry Harris
compositions... released the 2nd of March 1981, got to chart position 31. Not bad, eh!
Oh by the way, the Women In Uniform and Invasion and that got to 35, I think I forgot
to mention that. If I did mention it, too f'king bad, allright. So, Twilight Zone and
Wrathchild, that was recorded as part of a Killers session at the turn of '80 and '81. Now
Martin, he actually couldn't be there at this particular session, so the boys produced
Twilight Zone themselves. Quite clever when you think about it, aren't they, playing and
producing it at the same time. Amazing! Anyway, hahaha, so they decided to release this
Twilight Zone on the Killer's album. And so the boys and Rod sent a telex over to Japan,
see, and they explained all the details of the song. So the Japanese, they're a funny lot
aren't they, they took it literally, and the song was printed as Details Of Twilight Zone.
My goodness, that's a cracker innit? Hah!
By the way, boys and girls, if you know your trivia. Mr. H. Adrian Smith joined the band in
that particular time, didn't he? Yeah, now Twilight Zone, this happened to be Adrian's
first single with the band. Now not a lot of people would remember that, but then again,
probably they would, so I'll stuff it in the pipe and smoke it. H joined the band in
September 1980, and as you know, on the back of this as it's a double a-side, it was
Wrathchild, and Adrian had to learn Wrathchild as part of his audition, you know. He also
had to show the boys that he could kick a football and down a pint of beer in five
seconds. He managed both of them no problem, now Wrathchild he had to do the
business. Well all I can say is this... he must have done a f'king good job ain't he, eh?
Cause he's steaming and he's right there, see? So, not a lot of people knew that either.
So anyway, that's H's audition out of the way, and he was always happening and he
went out on the tour in 1980 and 1981 and all this. And, well, there you go. As it
happens, as I said, the session that they did with the Twilight Zone and Wrathchild came
out so well that they released it as a double a-side... By the way, as we're talking about
musicians, I've got a joke for ya. I'm not gonna to like it very much, but you might,
allright, so here it is:
What do you call somebody that hangs around with musicians? Awwww no, not that one!
Surely! Allright, a bloody drummer!
Allright, now I've said it and all the boys are at me, I've got that one out of the way.
Thanks a lot Rod, hmmm. There you go. Oh by the way, I was in a band called Trust
around that period of time, and in fact, the boys, we came out with Iron Maiden on their
Killers tour of Great Britain. And not a lot of people know that either. But uh, we had a
great time, we did about three and a half weeks with the band, and we had a serious...
it was great! Well, what can I say? Not a lot anymore, I think I've just about covered all
that one. Um, so I'm going down the pub to have a beer. Tada