Maiden trivia needed ...

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am new to the forum even though I've been a huge maiden fan for years.
I have to write a feature for RollingStone magazine and I am looking for two dates in Maiden histiry:

- first ever live appereance of Eddie The Head
- first ever appereance of Maiden at Top Of The Pops

I am sure somebody here can help me.

Up The Irons!

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe [a href=\'http://www.maidenfans.com/imc/?url=album01_ironmaiden/mickwall01_ironmaiden&lang=eng&link=albums\' target=\'_blank\']Mick Wall[/a] can help you... [!--emo&^_^--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/happy.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'happy.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

 

[Black Ace]

This happens so often. And all beacuse people are to lazy to search the commentary [!--emo&--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/dry.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'dry.gif\' /][!--endemo--]... People still don't realize it's the compedium of all knowledge realted in the smallest way with IM

 

[Anonymous]

[!--QuoteBegin-Black Ace+Sep 25 2004, 06:00 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Black Ace @ Sep 25 2004, 06:00 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]This happens so often. And all beacuse people are to lazy to search the commentary [!--emo&--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/dry.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'dry.gif\' /][!--endemo--]... People still don't realize it's the compedium of all knowledge realted in the smallest way with IM
[/quote]

I ain't lazy, been followin Maiden since 1986 and have about 400 vynil records of theirs, have been featured on the Fan Club mag back in 1987 in the "Super Fans" section so I guess I have moved my ass quite a bit for the band, only that I don't have a clue about where to find those informations.
I checked the compendium but it doesn't say anything about the first show where Eddie made it onstage.
I have a 1987 edition of "Running Free" (the book) and it says that Eddie first appeared around 1977 but I do need the actual date of the show the sign with the band logo and the mask first appeared on stage.
Anyone can help?
About TOTP, I can work out the date of course, but, as I said, I need the exact date the show aired.
Thanks a lot anyway.

 

[Anonymous]

To my knowledge, the very first Iron Maiden concert took place on 17th May 1976 at the Cart & Horses pub. I suppose that Eddie was already part of the stage backdrop as a smoke-spitting mask.

Considering that their first single was released on 15th February 1980, I suppose that Maiden appeared at TOTP within the 4-6 weeks following the release. You'd have to check out old TV programmes! [!--emo&^_^--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/happy.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'happy.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

 

[Anonymous]

Well, as I had a bit of spare time, I did a bit of research for our new friend dunhill [!--emo&^_^--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/happy.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'happy.gif\' /][!--endemo--] Here are the results concerning the date of Maiden's first TV appearance at Top of the Pops.

I remembered that Paul Di'Anno said in an interview that, on that day, the boys were a bit worried about the BBC sound engineers fiddling with the volume. They were supposed to play after Shakin' Steven, who was on another stage. What really worried them was that the sound was so low that they could hear Shakin' Steven's shoes squeaking while he was dancing!

As the Running Free single had been released on 15th February 1980, I checked [a href=\'http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0139803/guests\' target=\'_blank\']when Shakin' Steven appeared at TOTP around that date[/a]. Tha date was 21st February and I thought "bingo!", piece of cake.

However, I then checked out [a href=\'http://www.maidenfans.com/imc/?url=tour00_mfm/dates00_mfm&lang=eng&link=tours\' target=\'_blank\']Maiden's tour dates at that time[/a]. On 21st February 1980, they were playing a gig in Carlisle, at the other end of the country!

The Metal For Muthas tour had them play every night until 2nd March (included) that year. Then, they would embark on 7th March for Judas Priest's UK tour. That left the dates between 3rd and 6th March free to play at TOTP.

The Running Free single stayed in the UK Top 40 for only 2 weeks, from the [a href=\'http://www.yearsofgold.org.uk/1980WEEK9MARCH1.htm\' target=\'_blank\']week ending 1st March[/a] to the [a href=\'http://www.yearsofgold.org.uk/1980WEEK10MARCH8.htm\' target=\'_blank\']week ending 8th March[/a]. As TOTP was aired on Thursdays at that time, I could narrow my search to 2 possible dates: Thursday 28th February 1980 and Thursday 6th March 1980.

As Maiden were playing in Wolverhampton on 28th February, that leaves only one free date for their appearance at TOTP: 6th March 1980.


This is, of course, the result of deduction and should not be taken as the exact date of Maiden's first appearance at TOTP. It is a very likely date, but still needs to be confirmed [!--emo&^_^--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/happy.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'happy.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

I hope it was useful though! [!--emo&--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/cool.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'cool.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

 

[The Saint]

Holy spagetthi... Mav, you impress me there [!--emo&--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

Cheers

 

[Black Ace]

[!--emo&mg:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/eek2.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'eek2.gif\' /][!--endemo--] Mav, your logic is like mine, only a billion times better [!--emo&--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--] [!--emo&--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/luxhello[1].gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'luxhello[1].gif\' /][!--endemo--]