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Listen With Nicko! Part I
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Iron Maiden
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What ho sed de ting!
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How you doing, you lot out there? Gosh! You, I guess you are now the proud owners of
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the very first little box set of the re-released singles from Iron Maiden. Well, I've got to
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say this, welcome to Not a lot of people know that, part 1. Cause here, I'm here I'm
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about to tell you a few stories now and in the next oooh nine releases of this here box
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sets, over the period of the next ten weeks. Now look here, first of all, my goodness, it's
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ten years almost to the day...my... ooh little chickadees out there, oh you've got your
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grubby little hands on Running Free, Burning Ambition, oh gosh! The very first single!
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Sanctuary, Drifter, and I've Got The Fire, the second singles..gosh! The first one was
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released, as I said, almost ten years to the very day on February 8, 1980. Cor, dear!
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Here, I'll tell you something, right? You know 'Arry... 'Arry Harris, right, he had a band
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called Gypsy's Kiss ....yeah it's disgusting isn't it...and you know what that rhymes with
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dontya? Well if you don't, I'm not gonna tell ya anyway so there. He had this song called
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Burning Ambition, which I suppose was a real sort of drive for 'Arry then because he was,
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you know, full of ambition to get his music out and play it to people, and he had this
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song. And he was in this band Gypsies Kiss, well they were, cause they couldn't handle
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this song. And they turned around and said "'Arry you know look at all these chord
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changes and time changes", as he's famous for, and I should know...come on, give us a
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break. So, he took the song to the band and they've gone, "Oi 'Arry, gypsies kiss off will
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ya, I can't play that!" And he said, "Oi, I've had enough of this then, I'm gonna go find
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some people that can, so kiss you and all". So anyway that's what he did. Not kiss them,
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no, he did the other thing, you know, what it rhymes with... mm off. I'll say he pissed
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off, so there you go. Whatever. Now he went out and he formed a band, and um..uuh,
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Burning Ambition was actually recorded late in 1979 and originally featured the original
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drummer in fact of..in fact I think there was one guy before him...but Doug Sampson was
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on drums in those days. Dave double tracked on guitars... you know, he double tracked
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and all..he doesn't have to though, does he? You know what I'm saying.
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Well, ok, Running Free as well was also the first art work from Riggsy...RIGGSY! Now you
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knowI tell people I'm actually from another planet you know cause I'm a bit off the wall,
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well I'll tell you this boy OWNS the other planet, my goodness! No god bless him, he's a
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diamond guy I love him, what an artist! He first brought Eddie into the first sleeve on this
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the Running Free single, and Eddie if you remember rightly was standing in the shadows,
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you never really saw him. But uh, oh my goodness, he brought him out didn't he, on the
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first album all in his glory and splendour, Eddie comes out and go "yeeeeh I'm here," so
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watch out folks. Well there, what can you say about it, Running Free, it's a song the
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band still to this day plays, it's one of the truly great Iron Maiden songs, I mean not only
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just because it was their first single, but...what a crack.
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And now then, well we've gone through that, Burning Ambition we talked about, on the
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other side we got Sanctuary...on the other single rather, we've got Sanctuary, Drifter
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live, and I've Got The Fire, an old Montrose song. Well this... this was the first top-30
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entry actually, it made number 29 and uh, oh you know the boys were really happy it
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was released 23rd of May 1980 cor dearie me, it was a couple within a few months of
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one another... You lucky boys and girls! Woah, as I said you've got one every week for
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ten weeks coming out here...ah, oh well. This was recorded by the way...the live Drifter
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and I've Got The Fire, was recorded in the Marquee in April 1980. And that was a good
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year, I've got a good drop of wine at home made in 1980, yeah still got half a bottle left,
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it's really good. I've Got The Fire, it's an old Montrose song as I said, and Steve liked it
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so he recorded it live, and it used to be a set opener for the band in those days, but on
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the back of that they kind of got into the deal of like not recording sort of Iron Maiden
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songs on the b's, this was when the beginnings when b-sides were other people's songs
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that the band decided to play.
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Anyway around this time, they uh, they didn't get top of the pops ...rotten buggers...but
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we all know why, it's the bleedin BBC isn't it? Well you know we'll work out some sort of
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abbreviation for that later on...but anyway they couldn't get on because there was some
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industrial action, you know strikes and all that good stuff, you know what the BBC
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usually like to do...
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You! He moved the broom!
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Well, is he a labourer? No he f'king well ain't!
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Well that's it, we're going on strike. Put your teacups up to your face lads, lets go out to
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the canteen and have another drink...
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You know, whatever...Well what can you say, what can you say, strikes all around. So
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the boys didn't get to play top of the pops -- that's no biggie, you know they never play
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the band anyway do they? poxy BBC... Chrity!
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Anyway funnily enough, around this time it the very first gig I ever did with Iron Maiden,
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no not actually playing with them like as a band, a full band. I played in a band called
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McKitty, and these guys in McKitty...a guy called Donnovan McKitty himself, we did a gig
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in Belgium, and it was in fact... not a lot of people know this...but it was in fact Maiden's
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very first European gig, how about that, and I was there! So there! Hmm! Stuff that up
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your f'king pipe and smoke it! Right! So there you go. I was, I was really privileged to be
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there, and that's when I really first met the band, we got on so well and we had such a
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riot....what can I say?
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Anyway, you remember the Sanctuary sleeve, you lot? Yeah...Maggie Thatcher...weeelll,
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can you believe it, she was there, you know what she was trying to do...stupid cow...
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she was trying to pull down an Iron Maiden poster off the wall. Well, what can you say
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about that? Not a lot, believe me! She was...I dunno why they called her the iron
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maiden, do you? Nothing like this....I know why! Maybe because she's like Eddie!
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Hahahaha!
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Listen! By the way I've got to tell you this little story real quick, allright, I'm running out
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of time on this one but nevertheless... You remember Eddie, right? Course you remember
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Eddie! Well this is the origin of Eddie, right. The band used to have this backdrop which
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featured this theatrical mask and it sort of spat out all this red dye and smoke and all
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that gobby stuff and here's poor old Clive sitting under it getting gobbed on every
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night... "Oy! what's all this?!", he's going, "What's all this red st...you know, this shit
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coming over my head, I've had enough of that paint", eh....anything you could find,
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anything they could find they'd sling in it. Anyway, they called him Eddie the Head, see,
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and it's after an old East-End joke that goes as follows:
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'Ere, Eddie was very unfortunate, he was born without a body. So nevertheless, his
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parents loved him dearly and took him home and placed him on the mantelpiece one day.
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Well, his family gave him lots of love and attention and he always got loads of presents
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on his birthday kind of...blowing things, and hats and all that kind of stuff, wow...
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Anyway one year he was about 16, and the hospital phoned up Eddie's parents and they
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said to them, they said "look, due to modern technology and all those good things that
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we can do with you know all this stuff nowadays, we are now able to build Eddie a
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body." So, with this the parents were soooo excited, they couldn't believe it, and they
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couldn't wait to tell Eddie, I mean this is it, Eddie's gonna have a body! Weeeha!
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However, as it was close to his birthday, they decided to tell the doctors to go ahead
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and build his body, and then they would surprise him, you know they weren't far away
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from his birthday... well, a good birthday present, so anyway... A few weeks later the big
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day arrived, yes, Eddie's birthday. So his parents goes up to him, and walked up to the
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mantelpiece and "Hello Eddie, how you doin? This year is gonna to be the best birthday
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yet! Have we got something for you, such a wonderful present! And his mum's going "Oh
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goodness Eddie we're so pleased!" And Eddie's going, "Oh no!" said Eddie, "Not another
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fucking hat!"
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Hahahahaha! Oh, I think it's funny! Shit, it is! It's pretty good innit! Anyway, after
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this...anyway, Derek came up with the creature Eddie and the body and that on the
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record covers, and the name was just carried over and the rest is history innit? And
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Eddie's out there, yet he's got to have a bit of nookie before long, that's all I can say
Thank You Nicko
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