And it's also got areas for crowd participation. It's also got the fast heavy parts which are really rockin'. Then there's that slow middle part which creates quite a good mood. It's got all of these intricate guitar lines which keep it interesting. Phantom is one of the best pieces I've ever written, and certainly one of the most enjoyable to play. I'd say Phantom of the Opera and Iron Maiden.
What would you point to as the highlights of the first album? I take that as a compliment because he's one of my favorite bass players. In parts it almost sounded like a Chris Squire line. But the guitar is over the top with harmony, and the bass is descending behind it. The bass line is fairly straight forward as is the drumming. I like playing it live because it was something a bit different than I would write.Īs long as I can remember we've closed our set with this song.
I would have been proud to say that I'd written it. Next up is the famous Charlotte the Harlot. It was done at the same time as the first album, but we didn't release a single in the states, so we thought we'd add an extra track on the album. It was released as a single in England, but it wasn't on the British album. Santuary is a straight ahead rock and roller. Dave really enjoyed playing the solo in this one. It's one of the only sort of slow songs we've done. It originally had a melody line for the vocal, but when we played it, it sounded so good as na instrumental that we never bothered to write lyrics for it. The initial idea on this one was to have Iyrics. It felt right to go from the slow part into the middle section. The middle part was totally separate but it fit in very well. That's a very long song that was done in sections. We thought instead of a guitar solo we'd have a guitar break which would consist of guitar runs and harmonies. We've always tried to do things a little differently. Most songs have a guitar solo in the middle. We thought we'd try and do something a bit different. I was into blues influenced bands like Free. The part in the middle I worked up from a bunch of bits I wrote. Mainly they are little melodies which have harmonies put to them. The harmony riffs sound very structured and almost classical. He was the drummer on the Soundhouse Tapes.
Running Free came together when I put a riff to the main drum beat by Doug Sampson. I pretty much work everything out on the bass, the actual riffs and the harmonies. Some songs begin with a strong melody line and I work out the music behind it. Some I write with a main bass riff and work out the melody on top of it. I think the songs sound a bit different because they are written on the bass.ĭo you start with a melody and fill in with the chords? Running Free also has a signature with the bass riff up front. But on the slow parts of this one I think there is that extra measure. Mind you I think any song should be filled with feeling. Actually I played him the parts I had and he worked it out. The crowd's used to really be into that one. I'm thinking of the slow start that builds up. Remember Tomorrow also has one of your favorite devices. That's pretty much the style of a lot of our songs.Īre parts conceived for a specific song or could you possibly switch sections with other songs?Ī lot of songs were written in different sections that could possibly have been used in other songs. Was Prowler composed in pieces and put together? It only cost us about $400 to make the whole thing. The Soundhouse Tapes were the very first thing we recorded. Is there a big difference between the version on the record and the original on the tape? That's why we had the tape made into a record, because so many kids were asking us how they could get hold of the demo tapes. Prowler got to be number one just from the requests for the demo tape. He used to have a heavy metal chart which was compiled from record requests and printed in the music magazine "Sounds". When we made the Soundhouse Tapes we took the actual tape to Neal Kay who was a d.j. Iron Maiden got its first real push forward with the song Prowler. Source: MaidenFans Interviewed by John Stix