Maiden Central

I don’t remember the first time I heard Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut. I know I already knew the songs, from devouring my brother’s double-cassette copy of Live After Death endlessly since the end of 1986. I had since bought Somewhere In Time, and again devoured it. I don’t know how I came to find out what the exact order of Maiden albums was, although I’m sure it was the copy of Heavy Metal Encyclopedia (or some such book) I’d bought with the express purpose of re-reading the 2-page entry on Maiden over, and over, and over.

By the time I’d bought Iron Maiden, I knew they’d had another singer other than Bruce Dickinson. All I knew was he had s a fancy name, “Paul Di’Anno”. I’d seen photos of Dennis Stratton, but thought he was Adrian Smith with longer hair, so when I finally got my hands on a vinyl copy of the album and saw the band lineup, I was disappointed.

(Not because I was such a huge Smith fan – that would come later – but that I had for some reason always assumed the band’s lineup was the same on everything they did. I had a lot to learn.)

Putting it on, and plugging in my headphones, the first notes left me confused and disappointed. The sound was… rough. I didn’t know this particular song – ‘Prowler’ – and Di’Anno’s vocals were unlike anything I was expecting. At this time, I was living in a small town outside Brisbane, Australia. We had two record stores that I knew of, and few of the department stores stocked Maiden stuff. It was another year or so before the newsagents would start selling Kerrang!, so my metal needs were fed by months-old copies of Metal Edge. So, it comes as no surprise to me now, looking back 23 years later, that my knowledge of the band – ay band – was severely limited.

But by the time I heard Iron Maiden, I was hooked on the band already. I was raving to friends at school about this awesome band, showering them with the few facts I knew and making up the ones I didn’t. Iron Maiden provided me with a more solid grounding of the bands history, their raw punk sound (I at least knew – or, again, though I did – what punk sounded like), the black and white photos on the back showing a sweaty band playing right down ‘mongst the audience at the Marquee. That old kabuki mask they called Eddie before Derek Riggs came up with the illustrated concept.

By the end of ‘Prowler’ I was warming to Di’Anno. I didn’t like ‘Remember Tomorrow’ – I didn’t understand why they had a song with slow bits. ‘Running Free’ and ‘Phantom…’ I knew, and enjoyed hearing the originals. The B-side, with the exception of the title track, blew my mind – ‘Strangeworld’, even though it was another slow song, was unlike anything I’d heard (not saying much, to be honest), and ‘Transylvania’ didn’t even have any WORDS! And finally, ‘Charlotte the Harlot’ was about a PROSTITUTE!

ROCK AND ROLL!