Artist: Iron Maiden
Label: EMI Records
Released: 2002
Rating: 4/5
What a huge tin of Danish tea cookies. It’s decorated with carvings like the Vače situla, and inside are three double CDs. Keeping them company are a four-legged shot glass with Eddie’s head, eyes glowing, engraved on the bottom, and the band’s family crest, rolled up on paper like a dispatch (all that’s missing is the royal seal) and slipped through a decorative iron ring. So, no cookies, then. The problem, though, is that this edition is limited to a measly 4,000 pieces for the whole world! I’m convinced this is the “first (easy meat) round” that guarantees the band 100% profit, and that all the CDs will surely come out individually in the future too, without the “limited” label. I hope that’s soon. Let’s get to the music instead! For starters, Iron Maiden didn’t add the phantom Soundhouse Tapes to this release of rarities!
The first double disc carries recordings from the BBC. The first four tracks on the first disc (recorded in November 1979) are especially interesting, since the band was in its prehistoric lineup: Di’Anno/Harris/Murray (of the familiar names), with Tony Parsons (guitar) and Doug Sampson (drums) keeping them company. Stylistically (the beat alone), and in the sound and production itself, the band immediately points to its idols of good old rock rooted in blues and rock’n’roll. The first real contrast on this disc comes from the next recording, with Bruce on stage in 1982, when the band was spewing way more fire “live”. By then Iron Maiden had transformed into the top name of the pan-European movement of the time, labeled NWOBHM. But more on that a bit later. The performance of “Transylvania” is especially interesting, ending in a two-and-a-half-minute Murray guitar solo spot (with his famous lightning-fast three-finger “hammering”), which was a mandatory part of their live shows already on the previous (Killers) tour. For the second CD I’d say the opposite. It has two recordings. The first, with Di’Anno on vocals from 1980, outshines the band’s 1988 show at Monsters Of Rock (Donnington). Dickinson had incredible trouble singing because of a sinus infection, and it shows in his rendition of some of his toughest numbers in “The Trooper”, “Seventh Of A Seventh Son”, “Infinite Dreams” or “Moonchild”. In his hardest sequences Bruce constantly stays at least a half-tone below the band’s tuning (flat, in plain talk). And that’s really the only minus of these limited historical recordings. With a billion assorted live recordings out there, Iron Maiden were once again calculatedly stingy and shoved onto the disc a few songs that all of you who have the “Maiden England” video at home surely know.
If I was just grumbling about Bruce, the second double disc presents the singer in his best days. The famous “Beast Over Hammersmith”, from the promo period of The Number Of The Beast, conjures up the band’s incredible aggression. For its time the band really came across as shocking. On stage it sounded even faster (and still “clean”) than in the studio, which confirmed how extraordinarily tight they were. They didn’t hide their big ambitions, they knew exactly what they wanted and went at it uncompromisingly and with everything they had. And that wildly untamed, out-to-prove-themselves energy is what Iron Maiden pound out from the start to the end of this live recording, where Bruce barks out some of his lines almost brutally. So “Beast Over Hammersmith” shows Iron Maiden in their brightest light. If I come back to Dickinson again, the guy brought with his arrival in the band that extra stretch of absolute melody the band had already tried to develop with Di’Anno, but which, because of his flirting with the punk influences of the time, it simply couldn’t express and develop to the full. With Bruce on board the band breathed with full lungs, and with his style and vocal abilities the guy added an extra dose of aggression and edge. All of that is why Brucko is still an indispensable link in Iron Maiden’s music today.
The third double CD contains a “best of B-sides”, mostly covers of bands that Iron Maiden especially adored as teenagers. So, brought together on two discs for the first time, these remasters are also something new for all of you who didn’t manage to complete the limited official double editions of the band’s studio albums, which showed up in shops for a short while in the autumn of the year of our Lord 1995.
I know, I know, this Eddie’s Archive is almost impossible to find in any shop, but if fate does grant some devoted fan of the band the chance to spot this document at some dealer somewhere around the world, they should grab it right away. Eddie’s Archive shows Iron Maiden as one of those fatefully chosen, most influential bands in heavy metal that broke new ground for the generations to come. And they didn’t even know it. They just followed themselves, confident and unburdened. The time of special editions has come, the time when you become a “wise old man” and a legend. And considering the tenure, slowly creeping toward thirty years of existence, the thorny path the guys sweated through, and of course all the fantastic stuff they’ve delighted us with (especially in the golden eighties), they’ve somehow become part of rock history forever. This archived collection of rarities is just the dot on the “i”. Total respect!
Track list
“BBC Archives” – CD 1.:
1. Iron Maiden
2. Running Free
3. Transylvania
4. Sanctuary
5. Wrathchild
6. Run To The Hills
7. Children Of The Damned
8. Number Of The Beast
9. 22 Acacia Ave
10. Iron Maiden
11. Transylvania
12. The Prisoner
13. Hallowed Be Thy Name
14. Phantom Of The Opera
TRACKS 1. – 4.: live at BBC’s Friday Rock Show ’79
TRACKS: 5. – 14.:live at The Reading Festival ’82
“BBC ARCHIVES” – CD 2.:
1. Prowler
2. Remember Tomorrow
3. Killers
4. Running Free
5. Transylvania
6. Iron Maiden
7. Moonchild
8. Wrathchild
9. Infinite Dreams
10. The Trooper
11. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
12. The Number Of The Beast
13. Hallowed Be Thy Name
14. Iron Maiden
TRACKS: 1. – 6.:live at The Reading Festival ’80
TRACKS: 7. – 14.: live at Monsters Of Rock Festival ’88
CD 3. – “Beast Over Hammersmith” – live at Hammersmith (20.03.1982):
1. Murders In The Rue Morgue
2. Wrathchild
3. Run To The Hills
4. Children Of The Damned
5. The Number Of The Beast
6. Another Life
7. Killers
8. 22 Acacia Avenue
9. Total Eclipse
CD 4. – “Beast Over Hammersmith” – live at Hammersmith (20.03.1982):
1. Transylvania
2. The Prisoner
3. Hallowed Be Thy Name
4. Phantom Of The Opera
5. Iron Maiden
6. Sanctuary
7. Drifter
8. Running Free
9. Prowler
CD 5. – “Best of the B’ Sides”:
1. Burning Ambition
2. Drifter (The Marquee Club, London 4/80)
3. Invasion
4. Remember Tomorrow (Italy, 10/81)
5. I’ve Got The Fire
6. Cross-Eyed Mary
7. Rainbow’s Gold
8. King Of Twilight
9. Reach Out
10. That Girl
11. Juanita
12. Sheriff Of Huddersfield
13. Black Bart Blues
14. Prowler ’88
15. Charlotte The Harlot ’88
CD 6. – “Best of the B’ Sides”:
1. All In Your Mind
2. Kill Me Ce Soir
3. I’m A Mover
4. Communication Breakdown
5. Nodding Donkey Blues
6. Space Station No. 5
7. I Can’t See My Feelings
8. Roll Over Vic Vella
9. Justice Of The Peace
10. Judgement Day
11. My Generation
12. Doctor, Doctor
13. Blood On The World’s Hands (Gothenberg, 11/95)
14. The Aftermath (Gothenberg, 11/95)
15. Futureal (Ed Hunter Tour ’99)
16. Wasted Years – ’99 (Ed Hunter Tour ’99)
