Iron-Maiden-Biography II

By late 1978, the situation had improved enough to allow the band to work to make their comeback and get regular gigs. They realised that they needed a demo and so on New Year's Eve they were in Spaceward Studios near Cambridge recording "Prowler", "Invasion", "Strange World" and "Iron Maiden". The £200 cost of the recording session was all that they had and so the band could not buy the master tape. When they went back a couple of weeks later to pay for the tape and mix, the tape had been wiped, leaving them with just the cassettes from the original session unedited and unmixed. Dave gave his copy to Neal Kay, a DJ with a passionate love of hard rock who held regular rock nights at The Soundhouse, which adjoined the Bandwagon pub in Kingsbury, North London. The band were now finding it easier to book gigs and gained a residency at The Ruskin Arms in Manor Park. Neal played the tape at one of his Soundhouse nights and was astonished at the reaction. It became the most requested item for months and Maiden began to play there. The demo tape had also come to the attention of Rod Smallwood. A rugby mate of Rod's, who also worked with Steve, passed the tape on, and after listening to it and checking the band out, offered his services as manager. Rod arranged gigs all over the country to allow the band to build-up a nation-wide following and arranged gigs in or near central London to get record companies to check out Maiden. One such gig was at The Marquee on October 13th. John Darnley came from EMI to see Maiden and Rod had a side bet with the Marquee manager that the gig would sell-out (700 fans) by 7pm. Rod won his bet and EMI signed Iron Maiden the following month. What followed was endless music mayhem from the most power packed bands ever to hit the heavy metal scene-Iron Maiden.