8 February 1980 – Running Free
On the day Running Free was released the band were out on tour on the multi-artist Metal For Muthas UK Tour and played a show that night at Huddersfield Polytechnic (Rod’s hometown!). When the song entered the UK Top 40, Maiden were invited to appear on the BBC weekly music chart TV show Top of The Pops which they agreed to do only on condition they could play live, not mime as was the custom for the show back then. The BBC reluctantly agreed.

23 May 1980 – Sanctuary
The band were on their first headline Iron Maiden tour when Sanctuary was released. They played that night at the Cambridge Corn Exchange with support from Praying Mantis and DJ Neal Kay who had championed the band’s demo tape playing it at his North London rock club residency, The Soundhouse where it regularly topped the weekly chart of most requested songs and became known as The Soundhouse Tapes when it was eventually commercially released as a 7” single.

27 October 1980 – Women In Uniform
The band were taking some downtime when Women In Uniform was released having recently been on the road as Special Guests to Kiss on their Unmasked European tour. Its a cover version of a song by Australian band Skyhooks and is the only cover version Maiden have ever released as a single.

2 March 1981 – Twilight Zone/Wrathchild
On the day this double A-side 7” was released the band were out on the Killers Tour and played a show that night at the Southampton show Gaumont Theatre. French rock band Trust were supporting. At the time, Nicko was drumming for Trust and it was during this tour he met and befriended the other Maiden members. This was also Adrian Smith’s first single with Iron Maiden.

15 June 1981 – Purgatory
Maiden were on their first ever tour of N.America on the day Purgatory was released. In between a run of supporting Judas Priest on their Point Of Entry US Tour, they did a handful of own-shows in June including a first visit to Toronto and Montreal. Maiden have never supported in Eastern Canada; their first shows there were headline ones.

12 February 1982 – Run To The Hills
This was to be Maiden’s first UK Top 10 single, and the first to feature Bruce Dickinson on vocals. It was from their forthcoming 3rd album The Number Of The Beast which sold in excess of 250,000 copies in the UK, which was pretty unusual for the time.

26 April 1982 – The Number Of The Beast
Maiden were in Munich on their European Beast On The Road Tour when this single came out. The NOTB album had been released a few weeks earlier and Rod called Steve immediately the news came in that it had hit #1 in the album charts. However there was little time for celebration as when he called, the band were busy pushing their tour bus to the nearest garage as it had broken down in the Swiss alps! There were accusations of hype in the media for a metal album going in at #1 although these quickly subsided when it remained there for a second week.

More random facts with the next batch of vinyl!