Fact #139615
When:
Short story:
EMI Records A+R man Ashley Goodall goes to see Iron Maiden for the first time, at The Swan, Hammersmith, London, England, UK.Full article:
Ashley Goodall : My job was go out and about scouting the bands, feeding back my point of view, giving EMI reports on what I thought was hot. I became the junior A+R man, looking for bands to actually sign.
London at that point was very punk and post-punk, a lot of bands like Slaughter And The Dogs, the emergent U2, so I'd go out to see between five and eight bands a night, go back into the office in the morning at 10.00am, sift through all the tapes I'd been sent, and EMI at this time was reeling a bit from the Sex Pistols debacle. The media was giving the company a kicking for how they'd handled that, so we had a bit of a job on our hands to recover from that. We were perceived as the stuffy old establishment company that had dropped the Sex Pistols. We'd also had Mull Of Kintyre as a No1 for ages.
Punk was off the menu, but we had to re-build credibility somehow. I had to also convince bands and managers that we were still a great company to be with.
Brian Shepherd and Chris Briggs had come in to kick some life into the A+R department, but i was definitely the new kid on the block. The first band I ever saw live was Ten Years After, followed by Black Sabbath, The Groundhogs, so at the age of fourteen I'd been grounded in hard progressive rock, so my instinct was to look for bands from that area.
I had enjoyed punk but I felt it was getting a bit tired, it had its high water mark in 1976, but it was burning out. Even so, everybody still seemed obsessed by it. They were all looking for the next Sex Pistols.
But when I was out there, it quickly became obvious that it wasn't punk bands that were pulling the crowds, but heavy rock groups. And there were hardly any A+R guys who were interested in it. It was not hip.
Fortunately, my instinct was to go towards rock. At the Marquee it was obvious that punk was on the wane, but The Music Machine had a hard rock evening on Tuesdays which was pulling them in. So I'd often end up there to see who was playing. Motorhead were there a lot, with Lemmy playing pinball in the foyer.
I think Neal Kay was the deejay there in between the bands I was going to see. If I didn't like a band, I knew within a couple of minutes and I'd immediately switch off. "Crap ... next!"
This must have been around February or March 1979, and I was noticing that The Music Machine was pulling much bigger crowds than The Marquee, but no-one was taking any notice of it.
I picked up on the record of The Soundhouse Tapes, probably through Neal Kay, who I would speak to at The Music Machine. Rod Smallwood was already their manager by the time I encountered them.
I think the first time I went to see them was at The Swan in Hammersmith. They played there quite regularly. I went in and, blow me, it was like a football crowd. The fans had the red t-shirts with Maiden all over them and it was obvious that there was a hard-core following. As an A+R guy you pay a lot of attention to the audience because they tell you a lot about the band, sometimes more than you learn from looking at the band.
I thought, 'Woah, hang on this is real. These are happening." After that I started going to see them more often to keep track of them and stay in the loop.
To me, Maiden seemed to have it more together than the other metal bands I was seeing, they were more organised, they had a more vociferous following, they had the tapes, the t-shirts, the identity - all the bits seemed to be in place. Succeeding in this business is often about being more organised than your competitors.
And when I met them, I really liked them. Steve was obviously the man in authority there, but he was also very nice, very thoughtful. I particularly got on with Dave Murray and I liked Paul DiAnno a lot. The drummer at that point (Doug Sampson) wasn't particularly good. The drummer was tending to follow rather than drive the music. He lacked the confidence to lay it down. He was soon switched for Clive Burr, after which they got much tighter. I don't think Steve suffered fools gladly, and Rod had a very shrew business mind. He knew that individuals could be disposable.
You had to go, however, with the whole attitude. What I enjoyed about it was the energy, it was heavy metal but it had a punky edge to it, and the guitar playing was outstandingly good. I always home in on musicianship and they clearly had not only the ability to write material but a very high quality of musicianship, Steve and Dave in particular. They set the standard which the others had to live up to.
(Source : interview by Johnny Black, 2015)
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London at that point was very punk and post-punk, a lot of bands like Slaughter And The Dogs, the emergent U2, so I'd go out to see between five and eight bands a night, go back into the office in the morning at 10.00am, sift through all the tapes I'd been sent, and EMI at this time was reeling a bit from the Sex Pistols debacle. The media was giving the company a kicking for how they'd handled that, so we had a bit of a job on our hands to recover from that. We were perceived as the stuffy old establishment company that had dropped the Sex Pistols. We'd also had Mull Of Kintyre as a No1 for ages.
Punk was off the menu, but we had to re-build credibility somehow. I had to also convince bands and managers that we were still a great company to be with.
Brian Shepherd and Chris Briggs had come in to kick some life into the A+R department, but i was definitely the new kid on the block. The first band I ever saw live was Ten Years After, followed by Black Sabbath, The Groundhogs, so at the age of fourteen I'd been grounded in hard progressive rock, so my instinct was to look for bands from that area.
I had enjoyed punk but I felt it was getting a bit tired, it had its high water mark in 1976, but it was burning out. Even so, everybody still seemed obsessed by it. They were all looking for the next Sex Pistols.
But when I was out there, it quickly became obvious that it wasn't punk bands that were pulling the crowds, but heavy rock groups. And there were hardly any A+R guys who were interested in it. It was not hip.
Fortunately, my instinct was to go towards rock. At the Marquee it was obvious that punk was on the wane, but The Music Machine had a hard rock evening on Tuesdays which was pulling them in. So I'd often end up there to see who was playing. Motorhead were there a lot, with Lemmy playing pinball in the foyer.
I think Neal Kay was the deejay there in between the bands I was going to see. If I didn't like a band, I knew within a couple of minutes and I'd immediately switch off. "Crap ... next!"
This must have been around February or March 1979, and I was noticing that The Music Machine was pulling much bigger crowds than The Marquee, but no-one was taking any notice of it.
I picked up on the record of The Soundhouse Tapes, probably through Neal Kay, who I would speak to at The Music Machine. Rod Smallwood was already their manager by the time I encountered them.
I think the first time I went to see them was at The Swan in Hammersmith. They played there quite regularly. I went in and, blow me, it was like a football crowd. The fans had the red t-shirts with Maiden all over them and it was obvious that there was a hard-core following. As an A+R guy you pay a lot of attention to the audience because they tell you a lot about the band, sometimes more than you learn from looking at the band.
I thought, 'Woah, hang on this is real. These are happening." After that I started going to see them more often to keep track of them and stay in the loop.
To me, Maiden seemed to have it more together than the other metal bands I was seeing, they were more organised, they had a more vociferous following, they had the tapes, the t-shirts, the identity - all the bits seemed to be in place. Succeeding in this business is often about being more organised than your competitors.
And when I met them, I really liked them. Steve was obviously the man in authority there, but he was also very nice, very thoughtful. I particularly got on with Dave Murray and I liked Paul DiAnno a lot. The drummer at that point (Doug Sampson) wasn't particularly good. The drummer was tending to follow rather than drive the music. He lacked the confidence to lay it down. He was soon switched for Clive Burr, after which they got much tighter. I don't think Steve suffered fools gladly, and Rod had a very shrew business mind. He knew that individuals could be disposable.
You had to go, however, with the whole attitude. What I enjoyed about it was the energy, it was heavy metal but it had a punky edge to it, and the guitar playing was outstandingly good. I always home in on musicianship and they clearly had not only the ability to write material but a very high quality of musicianship, Steve and Dave in particular. They set the standard which the others had to live up to.
(Source : interview by Johnny Black, 2015)