Iron Maiden on top of the pops UK

5. Run To The Hills (I believe the only "live" aspect was Bruce vocals)
6. Wildest Dreams (I also believe the only "live" aspect was Bruce vocals)

Correct. Bruce's vocals were the only thing that was live. Well, technically for Run To The Hills they did use the Rock in Rio live version although they were not playing live; their appearance was recorded the morning of one of the Clive Burr MS Trust 2002 shows.
 
Correct. Bruce's vocals were the only thing that was live. Well, technically for Run To The Hills they did use the Rock in Rio live version although they were not playing live; their appearance was recorded the morning of one of the Clive Burr MS Trust 2002 shows.

I was there for the Run to the Hills performance. They did the song three times, Bruce asked for the third and final take as he wasn't happy with his performance one the first two.

It was a great crowd; all FC members as it was a special recording just for Run to the Hills rather than being a mixed audience like the regular Top of the Pops show. It was fun being able to chat with the band between takes, but the real highlight was watching Bruce warm-up his voice on stage. I managed to get the single signed by Adrian and Dave. Good Times!
 
Top of the Pops is on BBC 4 this evening at 8pm from September 22nd 1990, if anyone wants to check out if Maiden's new single Holy Smoke made it into the top 10.
 
Yeah, they showed it both weeks, just an edited version of the video clip, starting at the first chorus and running to the end of the solo.
 
Not missing much then :)

Yeah, I was more interested in seeing how it was presented on the show and how much of the video was shown, as there was usually a dismissive attitude to metal bands and they'd often show quite severe edits on it, i.e Clairvoyant was on recently and only the chorus was played.
 
Yeah, I was more interested in seeing how it was presented on the show and how much of the video was shown, as there was usually a dismissive attitude to metal bands and they'd often show quite severe edits on it, i.e Clairvoyant was on recently and only the chorus was played.

That's definitely interesting! You'd think that in 1991 they'd still invite Maiden on for a better feature now that it happened to be the bands first UK #1 single and metal wasn't totally dead yet by then :blush:
 
That's definitely interesting! You'd think that in 1991 they'd still invite Maiden on for a better feature now that it happened to be the bands first UK #1 single and metal wasn't totally dead yet by then :blush:

Maiden refused to appear on TOTP at that time, it wasn't until Blaze was in the band that they relented and made another appearance on the show.
 
Maiden refused to appear on TOTP at that time, it wasn't until Blaze was in the band that they relented and made another appearance on the show.
I bet they were not even asked to appear on TOTP in 1991.
Both of these options seem viable. While not as successful in 1990 as just a few years earlier, they were still succesful enough to afford just blankly refuse going on TOTP and playing under their demands. A position they probably weren't in with Blaze years later.

On the other hand - it's also very possible they weren't even asked given the musical climate in the late 90s, with EMF, MC Hammer, Seal etc dominating the charts.
 
Both of these options seem viable. While not as successful in 1990 as just a few years earlier, they were still succesful enough to afford just blankly refuse going on TOTP and playing under their demands. A position they probably weren't in with Blaze years later.

On the other hand - it's also very possible they weren't even asked given the musical climate in the late 90s, with EMF, MC Hammer, Seal etc dominating the charts.

It was in the middle of the Christmas holiday break; I doubt inviting the band to mime was even considered by the Beeb. I could well be wrong though.
 
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