That's funny, today I came across this folk/progressive rock album, recorded in 1978. Also I found out something else (read on). Title: Fear of the Dark audio part 1 audio part 2 (beautiful music by the way!) According to allmusic.com Steve Harris co-wrote the title track (which is nonsense, the site must have mixed up his 1992 song). More important: check the logo of the artist on the cover: I am pretty sure Steve Harris' inspiration for the Iron Maiden logo must have come from one of Gordon Giltrap's albums. Big chance it might have been this earlier, 1976 album Visionary. .. on which the music is inspired by the words of poet William Blake(!) Maybe some of you already knew this, but I can't imagine 'Arry hadn't seen this record sleeve. He surely was into such music, and this stuff came out around the time Maiden started playing concerts. Of course this whole theory is wrong if we can find out if Steve had created the band's logo before the album came out. I don't know the exact release date of Visionary, only that it must have come out in 1976 (probably in the second half of that year). I also tend to believe that Bruce might have known this artist, who maybe increased his interest for William Blake. Charming detail: On Visionary we can find "Revelation" (audio link) and "Jerusalem" (audio link). More on Giltrap from wiki: Gordon Giltrap (born 6 April 1948, at the British Home for Mothers and Babies, Brenchley, Kent) is an English acoustic and electric guitarist and composer, whose musical styles cross multiple genres, including folk, blues, folk rock, pop, classical and rock. Giltrap started to learn the guitar at the age of twelve. Never receiving any formal tuition on the instrument, he gradually developed his own style and technique. His musical career started to take off in the 1960s, when he played the folk scene in London alongside contemporaries such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Mike Oldfield. Giltrap cites Jansch as a great influence.... ... While popular on the folk and university circuit, Giltrap reached a turning point and received much greater recognition during the 1970s. During this time Giltrap started to concentrate on more purely instrumental pieces, and in 1976 released the album Visionary, based on the art and poetry of William Blake. The success of this album prompted Giltrap to move on from the singer-songwriter approach and form the Gordon Giltrap Band, which toured extensively in the UK at that time.
Re: Fear of the Dark / Gordon Giltrap / Iron Maiden logo inspiration! Here's some more information on this subject. This post in particular should interest you. There was originally a picture in the first post of his Fear of the Dark album cover.
Re: Fear of the Dark / Gordon Giltrap / Iron Maiden logo inspiration! Cheers mate! edit: I already saw the logo comparison. And ABandOn might have been more enthusiastic if he knew that Giltrap made earlier albums with that logo (but he didn't research well enough). Conors comment is interesting as well, I'll search more aon that film.
Re: Fear of the Dark / Gordon Giltrap / Iron Maiden logo inspiration! As for the logo font, I've always been of the belief that Steve borrowed it from the David Bowie movie, "The Man Who Fell to Earth" but since both the Bowie movie and the Gordon Giltrap album came out in 1976, I don't know who was first..
Re: Fear of the Dark / Gordon Giltrap / Iron Maiden logo inspiration! @Thanks Sixes, this one looks more like Maiden's font. E.g., the m and o.
Re: Fear of the Dark / Gordon Giltrap / Iron Maiden logo inspiration! I personally think that it's all just a major coincidence: Steve and Giltrap lifting the logo from Bowie's film unaware of each other, both having the same album title, and Nicko having done work with Giltrap in the past. Remember we're talking about a time frame of decades without every information being readily available to everyone as it is nowadays. It's a funny anecdote, definitely worth sharing, but we shouldn't read too much into it. It certainly had me giving the Giltrap song a listen though, and I seem to recall liking it.
Re: Fear of the Dark / Gordon Giltrap / Iron Maiden logo inspiration! Steve took the font from the movie poster, not from Giltrap. 1. IIRC, Steve has said so. 2. The movie poster contains all the letters in "Iron Maiden"; Giltrap's name does not. 3. As Foro pointed out, Steve used the movie-poster O. And the R, too.
I love those FOTD soundclips, and Simon Phillips is on that album! Another funny anecdote: a bonus track on the CD release of Fear of the Dark is called "Smiler" (old band of Steve Harris). The circle is round again. @SMX: agreed. Some additional info: Release of the film: 18 March 1976 (and Maiden started playing gigs 44 days later, on 1 May 1976). Maiden used their famous logo for some gigs scheduled in October 1976 (see 5th scrap book pic from above, and check those dates in the tour dates segment). Check (probably the logo was used earlier but I didn't find pics yet).
This 1972 album could be another source for Harris borrowing Maiden's logo - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_0045QUb87lA/T ... yed+CD.jpg