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....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 Macainsh 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 70s, and originally it was released on the Soundhouse Tapes.
Oh, we all know about the Soundhouse Tapes... <slaps himself> 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 they 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 Killers 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! Alright, a bloody drummer!
Alright, 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!
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