Original Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno is doing a live broadcast of the final show of his current U.S. tour on Sunday night.
The show - at The Cheyenne Saloon in Las Vegas, Nevada — will be broadcast live on www.hardrockradiolive.com starting at 9:00 p.m. PST.
Di’Anno was featured on the first two Maiden albums – 1980’s self-titled debut and ‘81's "Killers” – as well as the “Maiden Japan” live EP.
Di’Anno’s current set includes a performance of the 1980 Maiden debut – in its entirety - to mark the 30th Anniversary of that record’s release.
I’ve told the story before, but Maiden first hit my radar when their video for “Women In Uniform” was shown on Toronto TV in 1980. The sound and song kicked my ass so much that I was at the record store the next day to buy it; the tune, however, wasn’t on the band’s debut – I figured if the single track was so good, it couldn’t be a fluke and picked up the first album, anyway.
Absolutely the right choice.
Took me about 5 years to track down a copy of the 12” single, which I later got bassist Steve Harris to sign when I interviewed him in 1987 for my college radio metal show.
The Allmusic.com review of the Iron Maiden debut is quite accurate:
There may be no better place to hear how both punk and prog rock informed the New Wave of British Heavy Metal than Iron Maiden's self-titled debut.
Often overlooked and overshadowed by the glorious Bruce Dickinson years, it's easy to forget that Iron Maiden was itself a game-changer when it appeared on the scene in 1980.
That year also saw important albums from Motörhead, Saxon, and Angel Witch, but Iron Maiden vaulted its creators to the head of the NWOBHM pack, reaching the U.K. Top Five and establishing them as an outfit with the talent to build on Judas Priest's late-'70s innovations.
Read the rest of the Maiden review at Allmusic here.
Paul Di’Anno – Iron Maiden
Classic Rock Jam - Koseinenkin Hall - Tokyo, Japan - October 11, 2009
Iron Maiden – Women In Uniform (1980)
See also:
Iron Maiden drummer jams at his Florida restaurant’s anniversary bash
