Nov 26th, 2014

Maiden Vinyl Facts - Part 3

6th September 1986 - Wasted Years
Wasted Years was released the same week Maiden began the European leg of their Somewhere In Time tour. During an appearance on German TV show P.I.T. the band famously swapped instruments and larked around on stage while the song was "performed", as a humorous protest against having to mime instead of play live.

22nd November 1986 - Stranger In A Strange Land
The day this single was released the band were on the European leg of their Somewhere In Time Tour and played a show in Hanover, Germany that night. WASP were the support band on this leg.

20th March 1988 - Can I Play With Madness
The promo video for this single featured Monty Python star Graham Chapman and was directed by Julian Doyle, who also edited the Pythons’ Life Of Brian film and directed Bruce’s 2008 The Chemical Wedding film. The B-side is called Black Bart Blues and was named after Bruce’s suit of armour called Black Bart which was kept in the back lounge of the tour bus.

1st August 1988 -  The Evil That Men Do
Band were on tour in US on 7th Son tour when this came out. Ace Frehley’s Comet were supporting. The bside Prowler 88 was a re-recorded studio version of the original song from the Iron Maiden album now with Bruce on vocals. Steve hadn’t been happy with the production on first album so this afforded the band the opportunity to do a revised production.

7th November 1988 - The Clairvoyant
The B-side “The Prisoner” was a live recording from the band’s legendary 1988 headline performance at Monsters Of Rock at Castle Donington, which still holds the record for the biggest Donington festival attendance ever, with 107,000 fans.

6th November 1989 - Infinite Dreams (live)
This single reached #6 in the UK singles chart and was the band’s fourth Top 10 single from the Seventh Son album, the other positions being 3, 5 and 6. The video for this single was filmed at Birmingham NEC in November 1988 on the final leg of the Seventh Son Tour. The full concert was also released the same month on longform VHS entitled Maiden England, and reissued for the first time on DVD in 2013. The b-side (Killers ’88) was the first official release of Killers being sung by Bruce.