‘At the time I had played with two drummers. Johnny Richardson was an excellent drummer. Unfortunately, his hearing was playing up: he was told by the doctor that he couldn’t carry on playing. If he did, he would end up deaf. The other drummer was Clive Burr. So I said, “There are a couple of drummers I know.”
My preferred choice was Johnny Richardson. He was the best drummer – very technical, very clever and fast. He came down and gave it a go but he couldn’t handle the volume. And he just said, “Sorry, Den, I can’t do it.”
‘So I said, “There is one more person.” I used to see Clive Burr over at the Fleece. It’s a pub on Wanstead Flats that everyone goes to in the summer and they all sit outside. I saw him in there one night and I said, “What are you doing? I’m now working with Iron Maiden and they’re looking for a drummer.” And he said, “Well, stick my name forward.” He came down to the rehearsal the next day and played, and they went, “Yeah, fine,” and that is how he ended up coming in.’
With the line-up problem sorted out, attention turned to the material for the band’s debut. One fascinating signature of Maiden’s broader sound began from album one with Steve Harris’s bass lines. ‘I think the songs sound a bit different because they are written on the bass,’ he told journalist John Stix. ‘Some I write with a main bass riff and work out the melody on top of it. Some songs begin with a strong melody line and I work out the music behind it. I pretty much work everything out on the bass, the actual riffs and the harmonies … Mainly they are little melodies, which have harmonies put to them.’
Giving fans an insight into his creative side, Harris added of his songwriting process that among his biggest challenges was assembling the many song sections he wrote individually into cohesive finished pieces, sharing in the same interview that, ‘A lot of songs were written in different sections that could possibly have been used in other songs.’
Touching on some of his collaborative moments with his bandmates, Harris offered ‘Remember Tomorrow’ as an example. ‘[Singer] Paul Di’Anno wrote the lyrics to it. I wrote the music. Actually, I played him the parts I had and he worked it out. There’s a lot of feeling in that song. Mind you, I think any song should be filled with feeling. But on the slow parts of this one I think there is that extra measure.’
‘Charlotte the Harlot’ the bassist happily acknowledged as ‘Dave’s song. I would have been proud to say that I’d written it. I like playing it live because it was something a bit different than I would write.’
The song’s co-writer, Paul Di’Anno, told Battle Helm e-zine that the lyrics were actually autobiographical. ‘[Charlotte’s] real name is High Hill Lil and she’s basically an old prostitute. Well, actually she was more of a slut, ha ha. I mean, if you turned up to her house with some booze or some speed, you were more or less guaranteed a lay. She was a legend in Walthamstow, everyone knew her. She was about forty-five but a real rock-out bitch. She’d take any guy from fifteen upwards, ha ha! The song says that she lived on Acacia Avenue but it’s actually Markhouse Road, just before you go into Leyton, ’cause that’s the area where I lived.’
The singer added that ‘Running Free’ was equally autobiographical. ‘[It’s] about me as a kid. My mum ruled my life but she said to me, “You live in a shit area but do what you can do and see what happens. As long as you don’t hurt anybody, just get on with it.” But I did get into trouble with the law a few times and that’s the only thing I wish I could change – the grief I gave my poor mama. I never really knew my real dad but my step-dad was really cool. Sometimes he’d surprise us and walk in when we were doing some speed but he’d just brush it off as long as it wasn’t heroin or the hard shit. I don’t have the same attitude with my kids though – if I catch ’em with anything, I’ll kick the crap outta them.’
Of the song’s music, Harris added to Stix that ‘“Running Free” came together when I put a riff to the main drum beat by Doug Sampson. He was the drummer on The Soundhouse Tapes.’ Guitarist Dennis Stratton would add later that the band were fond enough of the song to include it on their debut LP, recalling to Praying Mantis, ‘We went back in and re-recorded “Running Free”. It had to be a different mix and have different bits in it for radio play. It was the same with “Woman in Uniform”.’
Citing the fan favourite ‘Phantom of the Opera’ as an example, Harris told Stix how he and his bandmates developed the musical side of the album’s very long songs. As a result of its length, the song ‘was done in sections. The middle part was totally separate but it fit in very well. It felt right to go from the slow part into the middle section.’ The song would wind up as one of Harris’ personal favourites. ‘“Phantom” is one of the best pieces I’ve ever written and certainly one of the most enjoyable to play. It’s got all of these intricate guitar lines, which keep it interesting. Then there’s that slow middle part, which creates quite a good mood. It’s also got the fast heavy parts, which are really rockin’. And it’s also got areas for crowd participation. It pretty much covers all the bases for the band. It was also a good example of what I wanted to get across.’
Billboard hailed the result as ‘a landmark, the band’s earliest progressive epic and still among its best. With its ambitious fusion of musical styles, its multi-sectioned construction and the literary retelling of the lyrics, it seemed to encapsulate all the promise of both the band and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.’
Of ‘Transylvania’ – another signature of Iron Maiden’s catalogue, the elaborate prog-metal instrumental – Harris would recall in the same interview that ‘the initial idea on this one was to have lyrics. It originally had a melody line for the vocal but, when we played it, it sounded so good as an instrumental that we never bothered to write lyrics for it.’
In the opposite direction, the bassist singled out ‘Strange World’ as ‘one of the only sort of slow songs we’ve done. But it’s got a lot of feeling. It used to be a stage favourite. Dave [Murray] really enjoyed playing the solo in this one.’
Of another mainstay with the band’s live audience – the title track – Harris recalled in the same interview – that for ‘as long as I can remember we’ve closed our set with [“Iron Maiden”]. It’s quite simple. The bass line is fairly straightforward, as is the drumming. But the guitar is over the top with harmony and the bass is descending behind it. I think this makes it pretty special.’
Guitarist Murray, a member of the band since 1976, quipped of the song that it had gone through several evolutions in line with the band’s varying vocal line-ups prior to recording. In response to Metal Hammer’s question of ‘who sings it the best?’ he answered, ‘No comment! Obviously, each singer has their own inflections but “Iron Maiden” was written and sung by vocalists before Paul Di’Anno; it’s only that he was the one to be heard singing it first.’
The band entered Kingsway Studios in London in February 1980. The studio has a rich recording history that includes Jimi Hendrix, Herman’s Hermits, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Nazareth and T-Rex among others. It had been sold to Olympic in the mid-1970s but the studio’s classic design and technical layout remained largely intact into the early 1980s.
Kingsway were also the first studio to buy one of Sound Techniques’ legendary desks. According to Sound Techniques’ website, ‘Soon after the [Sound Techniques] studio opened [in Chelsea in 1964], word of the “Sound Techniques sound” spread to London’s other independent studios. With this in mind, [founder] Geoff [Frost] designed and built the first customised Sound Techniques mixing desk, the A Range. By 1965 Kingsway studio in Holborn had purchased the first customised desk stamped with the Sound Techniques brand name. Trident Studios swiftly followed