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!
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.
This week, we lost the monolith of metal known as Paul Di’Anno. Born as Paul Andrews, he gripped the world in 1980 fronting the almighty Iron Maiden. The spark was brief but bright. His two Iron Maiden albums, plus some EPs and singles, carved an identity. Those who get it loved him. Some of them followed Paul into solo outings and new bands. And this show has a wealth of appreciation for it all.
With Professor Pete Jones on board as surprise guest, we talked about all things Paul. Pete was there from the very beginning, buying the first album in store upon sight. He goes deep into the music and the early Iron Maiden sound, supplanted by the late great Clive Burr on drums. Harrison Kopp, in a mighty return to Grab A Stack of Rock after nearly nine months away, gave us a run through Paul’s career, highlighting live songs and memorable tracks suck as “Marshall Lockjaw”. Johnny Metal and Metal Roger contributed their own personal stories and what Paul’s music meant to them. As John said so well: thank you.
Meanwhile, I let the boys do most of the talking. Instead, I presented an interview I did with Paul’s old guitar player Steph Honde. He tells a tale of picking up Paul at the airport, and playing live without rehearsal. I also played Bruce Dickinson’s tribute to Di’Anno, and friend Brian Richards’ thoughts about the tribute from the perspective of an audience member that night. Finally, I read a loving statement from friend Thor Blackmore, towards the end of the show.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man Episode 75: Paul Di’Anno Tribute
We had a completely different show planned this week. Then, in the early hours of Monday morning, John Snow informed us that former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno had passed.
It was like that moment the record scratches and the needle comes off. The shock set in, and then I realized, we need to change the show this week. We need to pay tribute to (not the original singer, but) the first recorded Iron Maiden lead singer. Paul filled some shoes: Paul Mario Day and Den Wilcock preceeded him in Iron Maiden, but it was Di’Anno who helped put them on the center stage. Paul’s punk look and snarl differentiated Iron Maiden from the rest of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. They were clearly different from the pack, and their intense and sweaty live shows proved it.
This week on Grab A Stack of Rock, Harrison Kopp will make an early unscheduled return, joining myself, John Clauser, and Metal Roger in tribute. 24 hours after our show, Roger will be seeing Iron Maiden themselves in Toronto. All of us will be talking about the man, the myth, and the albums! As an added bonus we will also be running a clip from my 2021 interview with his former guitar player Steph Honde, on playing live with Paul! We will also be playing Bruce Dickinson’s tribute to Paul from Minnesota.
“I know you’d have gone insane if you saw what I saw,” but tonight, please join us and see our Tribute to Paul Di’Anno. As usual there will be lots of physical products, including two VERY RARE Iron Maiden box sets, some vinyl, and double CD sets.
Friday October 25 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or onFacebook!
My best friend, Bob Schipper, spent most of the summer of 1986 out on Alberta with his brother Martin. The two of us had been joined at the hip for summer after summer. He was gone for about six weeks: the majority of the holidays. He was excited to have some independence out there with his brother, far from parental supervision. I missed him terribly. It just wasn’t the same without him. My partner in crime was gone, and I was lonely.
We wrote back and forth. I’ll never forget the day my first letter from Bob arrived in the mail. My mom came into my room excited that my letter from Bob had come. I could have cried, I missed him so much. His letter did not disappoint. It was loaded with drawings and stories, and I read it over and over. It helped alleviate the pain. I wrote back immediately of course. I think I wrote my letter on the family computer. Bob wanted one so badly. In his letter, he said “When I come back, I’m getting a computer and a dog.” My parents laughed at that. They knew there was no way his parents would agree to a dog! Bob was showing that independent streak that he was picking up.
I was counting the days until he came home. We had so much to discuss. Bob had missed six weeks of WWF wrestling! There were heel turns he knew nothing about. I had new music to show him on my VHS collection. Most seriously though, I was weeks away from starting high school. Bob was going to show me the ropes and help me buy school supplies. He knew exactly what I’d need and what to be prepared for. While I was excited to start highschool, far from the Catholic school bullies that tormented me for eight years, I was also extremely anxious. I didn’t know the building and I had heard about hazing “niners”. I needed reassurance.
One day in mid-August, Bob came home.
I gave him some time…a little bit…to settle back in. Then I raced over and rang that doorbell. His mom always greeted me with a warm smile. Bob had great parents: Tina and John. They treated us so well. I can still see his mom’s smile and hear her voice, every time she greeted us at the door. Then Bob came downstairs. We didn’t hug or shake hands. Kids didn’t do that back then.
“HEY!” I said.
“HEY!” he returned. Simple as that.
We went out on the back porch, and talked and talked and talked. There was show and tell, gifts, and stories. Importantly, Bob had returned with Kiss.
The vinyl copy of Killers that he brought home with him is the very copy I own today. I think he also arrived with Kiss Alive II on cassette. I taped both immediately! Taping Kiss records from Bob meant I didn’t have to tape them off creepy George next door. There were a few songs we were quickly obsessed with: “All American Man”, “I’m A Legend Tonight”, and “Nowhere To Run”.
Bob also brought home for me an unusual gift: a defused hand grenade! Imagine putting that in your luggage today. I don’t know what happened to it. I should still have it in a box of stuff in storage somewhere. It was hollow inside, but heavy as hell! I played with it so much I eventually broke the pin off.
It wasn’t a long visit. Bob promised to help me with school supplies before the end of the summer, and he was true to his word. I knew he’d also shield me from anyone looking to haze a “niner”. I just couldn’t wait to get back at it with him: drawing, creating, listening to music, watching wrestling, and raising havok everywhere we went. It had been a quiet summer, spent collecting GI Joe and Transformers figures, and playing with them in the yard by myself. But now…the kids were back.
RECORD STORE TALES #1070: Guilty of Vinyl Abuse (1987) – Kiss Killers
Not much backstory here to tell! I was a bored kid at the cottage, away from my best friend Bob. We had an ongoing (and absolutely terrible) series of comedy sketch tapes called Mike & Bob. The video you are about to watch contains some audio from Mike & Bob Vol. II, and some explanations as to what you’re hearing.
We did a lot of really bad sketch comedy but some of the listenable ones were parody ads. In this one, I advertise Casablanca Records & Tapes…for those who don’t have money to buy the best. I abused my copy of Kiss Killers in order to do this. My only excuse is boredom.
That summer, my sister’s friends were renting the cottage next door. They figure in at the end of the video, if you choose to go that far….
GETTING MORE TALE #833: Postcards From the Solo Summer of ’86
(Part Four of the 1986 Saga)
While we definitely had our fun in the summer of 1986, there was one person missing from all of it: Bob Schipper. I really missed my best friend. Bob was spending the summer in Calgary, Alberta with his older brother Martin. I was so used to doing…well…everything with Bob! It was really quiet around the neighbourhood without him. I had to come up with my own games and schemes without my partner in crime.
I spent a lot of afternoons watching TV in the basement, recording music videos and watching WWF wrestling. I wanted to update my buddy on all the latest songs I’ve been hearing, and the newest wrestling plots and turns. I was bored! But one day, I received a postcard from him. The first contact in weeks! I was so excited to hear from my friend again. Even in this brief postcard, he talked about music. We were both so into rock bands, it was already dominating our interests.
“Hey Mike, it’s me Bob, writing a post card to you to tell you that I’m still living. I hope everything is okay over there, because it’s great here. I got this awesome poster of Gene Simmons you’ve got to see. Well, see you soon.”
My mom got his address in Calgary from his mother, and I wrote him back a letter. I had to update him on all the gossip and goings-on in the world.
A short while later I got a letter back and jumped in glee. I read it twice through. One of the biggest pieces of news that I had to update him on, was that my parents had finally agreed to get a dog. “Boy, Katy finally got what she wanted,” Bob said. It was definitely my sister that wanted the dog most. I was not sure how I felt about it yet. Big changes, big adjustments!
Bob had news of his own. I had heard he was going to be seeing a concert, but didn’t know who.
“You know what, the concert I was going to see, well it was cancelled. The group I was going to see was OZZY OSBOURNE, and I was looking so forward to it, but now he’s coming back in October instead.” That would obviously not do, since Bob would be coming back home in August. The opening act was a group neither of us knew: Metallica.
“P.S. – Have you seen the commercial for Friday the 13th Part 6? I’m going to see it.” Bob loved his horror movies a lot more than I did.
The next letter from him arrived a couple weeks later.
“I can hardly wait to show you the two albums I bought. They’s both rare KISS albums! The first one I bought is a mint condition Killers album with the new KIZZ logo.” This is the very copy of Killers that I own today, acquired from Bob all those years ago. No longer mint condition, far from it in fact. I remember doing things like playing it backwards, and tracing the West German logo with the backwards Z’s. You can see the indentation from my pen. A shame, really.
“If you think that’s great,” he continued, “wait till you see my other one! It’s a picture-disc album, with a Kiss interview on it! On one side it has a picture of the unmasked Kiss, and the other side Gene with his axe guitar! The amazing thing was it was only twenty dollars! Also, I got two cassette tapes, Alive II and Love Gun. I also might be getting Dressed to Kill.” I recall the Kiss interview disc was from the Lick It Up era because they were talking about Vinnie Vincent and taking off the makeup. In fact I still have this interview on a cassette, because I taped everything from Bob.
We were getting closer to getting our new dog in August. Bob remarked, “I can hardly wait to see Katy’s new dog.” Funny how we always referred to it as her new dog. That does bring back memories though, of the way things seemed before we knew what it was like to actually have a family dog. It really did seem to me like it was Kathryn’s dog. And she is definitely the dog person of the family today. She always has multiple pets in the house.
In our letters back and forth, we took shots at the neighbour George, who was a bit of a punching bag for us. It was well deserved though, George earned every bit mockery we poured into our letters. He crossed the line when he tried to steal Bob’s brother’s bike. He stole Lego from us. He was, honestly kind of a dick back then. So Bob ended his letters with some drawings of himself, me, his new nephew Mike, and George.
Reading these letters today, it’s clear how important our friendship was to both of us back then. For me personally, I looked up to him and needed him by my side as I embarked onto my next journey: highschool! It was too bad that I didn’t have my best friend around for that last summer before highschool, but at least I still have the letters.
Good day everybody; Harrison here with a public service announcement/review. You see, on the 20th of September 2018, something amazing happened. As part of their endeavours to digitise their archives, the Beat Club (a poor man’s Rockpalast), surreptitiously uploaded a video to YouTube. But this was no ordinary video. It was a video of an Iron Maiden show. As Iron Maiden are renowned for their stinginess with archive material and reissues [1], this upload was met with celebrations across cyberspace for those in the know. And for those not in the know, here is this review of the show to bring it to your attention. [The video can be found at bottom — LeBrain]
As you will be able to tell, this show falls in the Di’Anno era, of which the only official video release was the six song “Live at the Rainbow” from 1980, which left fans clamouring for more. (Yes, I am aware of the 1980 show on Disc 2 of The Early Days but given its status as a curiosity due to its terrible quality, I’m ignoring it for the purpose of this review). As a side note, while the original six-and-a-half song broadcast of this show has been available as a bootleg for quite a while, this is the full twelve song show (and a little more), without the visual effects of a degrading VHS either. Unfortunately, the audio and video are just ever so slightly out of sync.
We kick things off rather characteristically with the taped “The Ides of March” heralding the band’s arrival onstage and it’s instantly clear, that this is going to be so much better visually than Live at the Rainbow. While yes, the Iron Maiden stage set of the Rainbow is not present, neither is the tape hiss of that show, which, rather obviously, leads to a much better sounding show. That’s not all. The atmospheric theatre lighting of the Rainbow is also gone, having been replaced by the ever-present TV studio lighting. While it does break the immersion a little, the net result is a picture that despite being only 480p, puts virtually every other video from that era (and some after it too [2]) to shame. It really does look fantastic for its age. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The band have the performance to back it up too. [3]
The performance commences rather uncharacteristically with “Prowler” following “The Ides…” instead of the quintessential “Ides of March/Wrathchild” combo, although this was well known as “Prowler” opened the original broadcast as well. With Paul Di’Anno and Clive Burr both in fine form, “Prowler” doesn’t get much better than this.
Next up however, is something that did not feature on the original broadcast nor features on any Maiden video since: one of my favourite songs from the debut, “Charlotte the Harlot”. It becomes clear here, as the band kick the energy up to 11, of the great hindrance that Wil Malone’s production on the debut was. Steve Harris is right. It didn’t even begin to capture their ferocity live. Thankfully this mix rectifies that error, and this song is a definite highlight of the show, no mean feat in a Maiden performance. Another broadcast song, “Wrathchild” follows on, with the honour of being the first song of the show from their then unreleased second album. An awesome rendition of the enduring Di’Anno era classic, there’s not much else you can say about any of Maiden’s performances of this song.
On the other hand, there is much to say about the performance of “Remember Tomorrow”, except, not much of it has to do with “Remember Tomorrow”. During the second verse there’s a most interesting sound coming through: the sound of a technical failure, and the band stop playing soon after, having a beer and mucking around with their guitars as the problem is fixed. I’m so glad they left this interlude in. It shows a little bit behind the scenes and is a nice deviation from the main stuff, one that is not often shown, even on these full show sorts of things. Eventually someone decides to stop using up tape, and we cut to the start of the second go at “Remember Tomorrow”, which is done by the numbers in spectacular Maiden fashion.
With things definitely back on track the band plough into “Transylvania”. When it comes to instrumentals, Maiden really knocks it out of the park, and I do wish they’d done more. This performance is no exception, although I do think I might prefer “Genghis Khan” from Killers. Now, despite being one of their few singles at the time, “Running Free” didn’t make it onto Live at the Rainbow. This travesty thankfully does not reoccur here, and while Live After Death boasts the ultimate “Running Free”, Di’Anno and co. are no slouches and that’s reflected in probably one of this line-up’s best performances of the song.
Another Killers song, “Innocent Exile” is next. It’s done well, and as this is before the era of the twig-snapping bass tone, you get a nice full little bass workout from ‘Arry as the intro. [4] “Sanctuary” comes next. It’s one of my least favourite Di’Anno era songs and I fully believed it outstayed its welcome on subsequent tours. It’s not the best rendition either: Di’Anno mixes some lyrics up and the solos are not up to the usual standard.
Now here’s something interesting though: “Killers”. This show was recorded only 11 days before that release of Killers, yet this version of “Killers” is the most experimental I’ve ever heard it. The intro and the guitar harmonies have a spacey feel to them and there’s even the changing up the lyrics for a couple lines. Di’Anno’s screams being mostly absent for most of the intro only accentuate this experimental vibe. It’s nice to have a good quality video now of the album lyrics (most of them anyway).
“Another Life” is the next song, one that was fade-cut halfway as the credits rolled on the original broadcast. Now it’s here in all its glory: a good, if perhaps almost filler song from Killers. It’s a fiery rendition, but it suffers from “If you’ve heard it once you’ve heard it three times”. The drum solo is sadly but expectedly skipped on this show, pushing this good, if unspectacular song into the background.
This slight lull in awesomeness is immediately rectified with “Phantom of the Opera”. The original Iron Maiden epic, it was played at breakneck pace at the Rainbow show and it’s not much slower here, a slight shame because “Phantom of the Opera” is one of the few songs I think isn’t better when done faster. That being said, it’s still a chunk of pure awesome no matter how you slice it.
Of course, now it wouldn’t be an Iron Maiden show without “Iron Maiden” and it wouldn’t be an awesome rendition of the song without Paul Di’Anno. [5] The end of the show is signalled in spectacular fashion, with the ever-reliable Eddie making an appearance to send off the show in style. Except that it’s not the end yet. They were recording for TV after all, so the band semi-encore with another rendition of “Sanctuary” to replace the muffed version from before. And then it’s over. One hour’s worth of early classics and deep cuts by the best band on earth. [6]
Watch now or else.
4.5/5 stars (-0.25 for audio/visual sync issues, -0.25 for lack of Di’Anno screams here and there)
Tracks: – Intro/”Ides of march” – “Prowler” – “Sanctuary” – “Phantom of the Opera” – “Iron Maiden” – “Wrathchild” – “Innocent Exile” – “Sanctuary” – “Another Life”
[1] This year is the 20th anniversary of the 1998 remasters.
[2] The 1983 live album and video Alchemy by Dire Straits is a prime example of this. It has terrible lighting, being way too dark most of the time. But then again, most landmark live albums don’t have video components anyway, so we should be grateful to have any sort of video of Alchemy in the first place. Although when it comes to picture quality verse age, you can’t beat Deep Purples Granada 1970 performance.
[3] Don’t even get me started on the video of The Rolling Stone’s Live at the LA Forum 1975. Complete waste of valuable high-quality film.
[4] ’Arry’s bass tone on Maiden England ’88 is a thing of beauty. (Actually no, it really isn’t)
[5] The only Dickinson rendition of this song I think is truly awesome is the Beast Over Hammersmith one.
– Killers (1982 Casablanca, German and Japanese versions)
No matter how you feel about Kiss’s concept album Music From the Elder, it was a commercial dud. It was Kiss’ first serious flop as a band since hitting the big time in 1975 with Kiss Alive!More significantly, it was part of a trend: Kiss chaos. Since the solo albums, Kiss were fragmented. The band weren’t playing on all the songs anymore, and members were leaving. They had strayed from their music roots and become a comic book novelty act. The Elder was not so much an album that people didn’t “get”, but one they didn’t care to “get”. Fans were moving on.
The European record label, Phonogram, was in damage control mode. They drew up plans to issue an album consisting of new and old songs; a compilation to put some money back in the coffers. They weren’t mucking around. They wanted a batch of new rock songs, but Kiss had effectively become a trio. Ace Frehley hadn’t left the band officially, but he was no longer involved creatively. Filling the guitar slot again was Bob Kulick. As he did on Kiss Alive II, Bob played lead guitar on the new songs. A 1988 book called Kiss: Still on Fire also named Ratt’s Robbin Crosby as a guitar player on the new songs, though this is a claim not backed up in any other source. Paul provided the new songs, written with old and new friends: Mikel Japp, Adam Mitchell, and some Canadian guy named Bryan something. Bryan Adams? Cuts like a knife indeed! Adams co-wrote the lethal “Down On Your Knees”, and it wouldn’t be his last songwriting credit with Kiss either.
The best new tune in the batch was called “Nowhere to Run”, and it was one of the rockers that Kiss were working on before they decided to do The Elder instead. The sheer quality of this Stanley-penned underdog really supports the theory that doing The Elder was a mistake. “Nowhere to Run” was classic Stanley, as good as anything on his solo album and exactly the kind of song that Kiss should have been doing. In an alternate universe where The Elder never came out, what could have happened to Kiss? Unfortunately the new compilation called Kiss Killers was never released in North America. “Nowhere to Run” could do very little to change Kiss’ fortunes without being released in their native country.
The second-finest of the new songs is a little ditty called “I’m a Legend Tonight”. Paul has somewhat disowned these songs since, but it is really hard to understand why. This is a hard hitting Paul rocker, as only Paul can do. It’s all innuendo and hot guitar licks. The riff is simple and hooky, while Kulick plays for all he’s worth. No longer was Bob being told to “play like Ace”. His signature scorch really makes these new songs sound like a continuation of the Paul Stanley solo album. Then there is “Down on Your Knees”, the one with Bryan Adams’ fingerprints on it. It’s hard to tell, although it’s not outside the Adams ballpark. It’s a sleazy rocker, spare and sounding great. The new tracks were produced by Michael James Jackson, who finally captured Eric Carr’s drums properly. Bob Ezrin buried them under mud on The Elder. Kiss Killers sounds more like the real Eric Carr debut album. The last of the new songs, “Partners in Crime”, is the weakest of the four. Paul takes it down to a slow sexy grind, but “Partners in Crime” lacks the charisma of the other three.
As far as the new songs could be considered a “comeback”, it’s close but no cigar. There’s no discernable Demon. Where is Gene Simmons? The lack of any audible Simmons vocals makes you question whether he even played bass on the new songs. Regardless, Kiss is about a balance between Gene and Paul, and Killers represents the first heavy skew towards Paul.
The hits on the record make for great listening. Most of the key bases are covered: “Detroit Rock City”, “Shout it Out Loud”, “Love Gun”, “God of Thunder” and even “I Was Made for Lovin’ You”. There are no Peter Criss songs, and the only Frehley is “Cold Gin”, which Gene sings. The only ballad is “Sure Know Something”, a minor hit in Germany where this album was issued. In a cool touch, the record closes with the “live” (quotation marks!) version of “Rock and Roll all Nite” that made them superstars. It is the more well known, and arguably superior version. (Some of the other tracks are edits or single versions.*)
Kiss’ very first Japanese bonus tracks were on Killers. The Japanese version is an even better listen. They put a bonus track in the second-to-last position on each side: “Shandi” (massive hit in Australia) and “Escape From the Island” (previously unreleased in Japan — it wasn’t included on their version of The Elder). “Shandi” is just a great fucking song, and “Escape From the Island” is a cool inclusion because of a) its obscurity, and b) its total Ace Frehley shreddery. It is interesting to note, that only Japan had tracks from the two most recent Kiss albums, Unmasked and Music From the Elder. The rest of the world did not. Were Kiss already trying to bury those records?
Periodically, the new songs on Kiss Killers have reappeared on single B-sides, compilations and box sets. The best way to get them is just to pick up a copy of Killers. Choose your format, sit back and rock!
Today’s rating:
4/5 stars
* “Shout it Out Loud” is a single version with a different mix on the lead vocals and an early fade. “Detroit Rock City” and “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” are edited versions.
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