50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 8: Drummer Spotlight
With Glen “Archie” Gamble
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #95
Do you want to know who almost replaced Nicko McBrain in Iron Maiden? Stay tuned because Archie Gamble has the details in this special episode of 50 Years of Iron Maiden, on Grab A Stack of Rock!
Former Helix drummer Glen “Archie” Gamble joins us for this special drummer spotlight, bringing us insight as a touring musician. In this episode, we discuss Archie’s fandom, each drummer’s approach, Nicko’s stance on double bass, a drummer’s retirement, what challenges the new guy Simon Dawson will face, and much more.
Archie’s perspective in this episode was invaluable, as we sat down to appreciate the drummers of Iron Maiden, and catch a glimpse of life on the road and in a band.
Here comes Melissa Nee, dropping knowledge bombs all over Piece of Mind! Melissa is a long time fan, having seen the band on this actual tour. Her insight, appreciation and multitude of knowledge make this a must-watch episode!
Flying over the valley, to the Eagles’ Nest, we cover the album album track by track from “Where Eagles Dare” to “To Tame A Land”. Special attention is paid to the lyrics. Four songs on this album have accompanying books or movies, and this is covered as well. Most importantly, this album is the debut of Nicko McBrain, replacing the beloved Clive Burr on drums.
As usual, we cover the artwork, both single B-sides, and the tour. Harrison and Melissa go deep on the live show, setlist and stories. (There is one important story that happened on this tour, that we will save for the Powerslave episode.)
Please join Harrison, Melissa and I for this mission behind enemy lines: Piece of Mind!
Episode 6 of 50 Years of Iron Maiden (and episode 93 of Grab A Stack of Rock) was a learning experience as Harrison schooled us on the Beast On the Road Tour.
A fabulous live album recorded in 1982 but not released until 2002, Beast Over Hammersmith rivals Live After Death in metal mastery. The lively comments section anticipated all of our praise for this album, which you can get on vinyl, but probably not on CD without buying the Eddie’s Archive box set.
Harrison Kopp was the master of ceremonies, and this episode was all his. Hear about the unusual opener, the instrumental, the guitar solo, the B-side, and much more. Several things came up multiple times in this episode: 1) Bruce Dickinson’s voice at this point in 1982. 2) Clive Burr’s masterful performances of these songs. 3) The band’s fresh take on the songs that would later be played hundreds of times.
This is episode is certain to go down as a favourite. Join us next week with Melissa Nee, for Piece of Mind!
Recorded 20 March 1982 – 2 days before album was out, released 2 November 2002.
Never released in full on video as the band were unhappy with the quality, but you can see part on the 2004 Early Days DVD.
Opener: Murders in the Rue Morgue! Starts slow, showcasing Steve’s bass harmonics. Then goes breakneck! What a strange opener!
Wrathchild is another great Steve bass opener. This one is more along the lines of the album version, but with Bruce singing.
New song Run to the Hills is 3rd in the set! Not as breakneck speed as some versions.
Another new song, Children of the Damned. Bruce announces the album will be out March 22. Tour de force vocals and some nice guitar harmonics added in.
Crowd is very quiet except for a few pockets of cheers to open Number of the Beast. Bruce mentions the “problems” they had in the studio.
Great version of “Another Life”, with Clive absolutely on fire on the snares and cymbols. Bruce’s vocals make the lyrics more clear: “As I lay here lying on my bed.” Amazing Davey soloing here.
Screaming version of Killers next. Bruce at peak voice tackling this song. Otherwise pretty faithful to album cut, especially the guitars and guitar tone. We also learn Adrian had some bruised up ribs that night.
22 Acacia is introduced as an Adrian co-write. Another perfect performance. Bruce’s vocals are biting and growly during the intro.
Bruce says Total Eclipse isn’t really a B-side, but it is. “Didn’t have enough room on the album.” This song and Run to the Hills were on a vinyl single already. The vocals are a little haggard toward the challenging ending high notes.
Leads into instrumental Transylvania, played as it should be by Clive.
Crowd is silent during the Prisoner opening. Great hearing it like with Clive on drums. The drums are fast, frenetic and flawless. Tempo seems a bit faster in the latter part than the album.
Hallowed comes in with no intro from Bruce. Better live version than Live After Death, as Bruce sings the opening a little more true to album. Passionate singing from Bruce.
Phantom – Top performance from Bruce, expressive and soaring! Tempo feels a little faster than album.
Iron Maiden – Breakneck version!
Sanctuary – Same with Sanctuary!
Drifter – Songs tend to flow one into another. I don’t like when Bruce refers to some in the audience as a “fucking women,” but that was the 80s. I doubt he’d say this today.
Running Free – A top Bruce version, with impassioned and wild vocals.
Prowler – Crazy to hear this album opener as a closer.
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 6: Beast Over Hammersmith
A special 🅻🅸🆅🅴 episode
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #93
Good evening Hammersmith…or wherever you are! Tonight on 50 Years of Iron Maiden, Harrison and I are appropriately tackling this live album with a live episode!
Beast Over Hammersmith is a double live album recorded just before The Number of the Beast was released. The band played a rare mix of Di’Anno classics and deep cuts, along with new material, and one B-side! Bruce explains to the crowd that it’s not “really” a B-side, which it was, but we’ll get into that, as well as “all the lazy bastards from EMI in the back.”
This episode is our sendoff to Clive Burr, and we’ll be talking about him, though not for the last time in this series.
Beast Over Hammersmith was first issued as a 2 CD set within the Eddie’s Archive box set, which we have taken brief looks at in the past. Today you can get Beast Over Hammersmith on vinyl, so it is a significant enough release to warrant its own episode.
So give us a yo, yo yo yo! and see us tonight, live!
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 5: The Number of the Beast
With Jex Russell
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #91
Enter: The Air Raid Siren. “Bruce Bruce”. Paul Bruce Dickinson to his mum. One of the greatest lead vocalists, frontmen, songwriters and lyricists in heavy metal: Bruce Dickinson. None of that is hyperbole.
It’s one of the greatest “replacement singer” success stories in heavy metal. Not just anyone could replace the beloved Paul Di’Anno. What Iron Maiden did with Bruce took the band to a whole new level. They tightened the songwriting, sharpened the production and put out one of the best albums of their lives. The Number of the Beastpushed Maiden to a new level, and hinted at how they would grow album by album in the future.
In this episode, Mike and Harrison discuss the full track listing, including “Total Eclipse” and the live B-side “Remember Tomorrow”. We’ll talk about the different coloured covers, the different track listings, and of course the tour! Also included, an interview clip with Bruce Dickinson on assumptions made about heavy metal at that time. This in-depth episode is our longest to date at just over an hour. It is filled with praise and critique, but by the end you will understand why this is considered by some to be “the” Maiden classic.
Jex Russell’s favourite Iron Maiden album is The Number of the Beast. He was thrilled to find that no-one had snagged this slot yet. Please welcome Jex back to the show!
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 4: Maiden Japan, Live!! + One, Live at the Rainbow
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #90
Closing out the Di’Anno years, Harrison and I take a deep dive into the live releases that accompanied them. Live!! + One was an exclusive Japanese EP that featured “Women In Uniform” (covered in Episode 2), and three live tracks, two of which were exclusive (and awesome). Maiden Japan, of course, was the live EP that you know and love. Live at the Rainbow was an excellent home video that featured Paul on vocals. We tackle all this on tonight’s episode.
You will see our copies of these releases (but not Live!! + One since I didn’t buy it the one time I saw it), and hear about them in detail. This episode is our sendoff to Paul Di’Anno, and we discuss his reasons for leaving. And in came a young upstart named Bruce Bruce…
This short and energetic episode features just Harrison and myself, but we’ll be back next time with a new special guest, and a new lead singer!
Yes it is true. Mike is down with his 2nd round with Covid. He is now in week two, still positive.
For this reason (and we’ve been planning for it), tomorrow’s episode of Grab A Stack of Rock will not be Maiden Japan as promised. We just need some extra time to build up a few more episodes in the bag before we play that one. Stay tuned…tomorrow will be fun anyway.
Here is the episode we’ve all been waiting for: Author Martin Popoff (Iron Maiden: Album By Album) joins us to talk about record #2, Killers.
With Adrian Smith now in the fold, Maiden settled into the studio with legendary producer Martin Birch to lay down another series of tracks that the band had been working up for years. “Wrathchild”, “Killers”, “The Ides of March” and more will be broken down, track by track.
We will also discuss the singles, the B-sides, and the tour. Once again Harrison goes through the Killers tour and tells us the facts, figures and songs.
Don’t miss this awesome episode of 50 Years of Iron Maiden, tonight on Youtube.
A post-show chat with Johnny Metal was in order after our great Iron Maiden (1980) episode on 50 Years of Iron Maiden. In this special chat, Johnny and I discuss some addition Iron Maiden content not covered in the actual episode, such as an album with Dennis Stratton (Lionheart) and some compilations with almost every Maiden member pre-Killers. (Even the keyboard player!)
I also unboxed a very cool, very rare CD from Mike Slayen. Check this out! A true rarity.
Finally, one reason I wanted to do this post-show chat was that I needed to be social last night. My 100 year old Grandma is sick again, and I was having such anxiety during the day, that I thought it would do me some good to tell some Grandma stories with Johnny Metal. I hope you find these as heartfelt and amusing as I do.
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