Run to the Hills / The Number of the Beast

(drumming and singing in the background)...<br/> Oh..Oh! You cheeky! You slimeball! What did you do that for, you rotten terror Dave? You f'king put my <br/> own voice and verbals in the... you know, they've heard me trying to sing this f'king song now. <br/> Well how ya doing out there, you lot? Eh? Welcome yet again to Nicko's "not alot of people know that, or <br/> knew that, or still don't... I don't know, whatever it is now days... number six." You are absolutely <br/> devastatingly spoiled, the lot of ya. You're out there in your greasy sweaty debauched horrible stinking little <br/> palms and fingers and all those horrible little bits and pieces that go on your hands... Are now the proudest <br/> of possibly the most amazed Iron Maiden fans to own 2 Minutes To Midnight, Rainbow's Gold, Mission <br/> From 'Arry... hoho! We shall talk about that later... And as you heard, that rotten Dave there will be tiddling <br/> the knobs in the control room, decided to wack the microphone on... Aces High, King Of Twilight, Number <br/> Of The Beast live! Oh you gosh, you've got such a package there! How can you still be sane, after this? I <br/> mean, goodness gracious, listen to me, I've been playing it for six years! Hahahaa! Anyway, no! <br/> Oh gosh, (sings) two minutes to midnight.... cha! Released the 6th of August 1984. My third single with the <br/> band. I guess that must make the band's eleventh or tenth single, whenever. Don't write in and say, "Nick <br/> I've got it wrong." or else I'll... (hits the microphone)... give you some of that! And, it got to number 11 in <br/> the charts and this great British... oh by the way, earlier on I was thinking of trying to think... you know we <br/> had the Bleeding Bojack Company, which we all know who that is by now, right? Now there was another <br/> company that I sort of mentioned prior to this little speech I'm giving to you now, and I won't actually tell <br/> you who it was, but the kind of... the... the abbreviation of this I suppose you'll get it from, but I though we <br/> could call them the Mighty Tight Veg, what do you think? I mean, they haven't got any clue, have they? <br/> You know, I mean, nevertheless! Hahaha! Now then, we all know who they are, cause they've wimped out. <br/> Nevertheless, we still got to number 11 in the great British charts thanks to you guys again, and girls, and all <br/> them little guyettes and guygirls and znznzn... all them people sort of whatever out there... First released <br/> single off the Powerslave album, and yet again this album was recorded in the Bahamas. Yes sir, mmmm <br/> hmmm! Now, as we all know, 2 Minutes To Midnight, great song, good video... the first story format that <br/> the band had ever put out on a video rather than just sort of crazy stuff and... and... the norm, you know. <br/> Hehehe. <br/> Rainbow's Gold was a song written by some friends of the band's, a guy called Terry Sles... Slesser, sorry <br/> Terry I didn't mean to get it wrong... Terry Slesser and a guy called Kenny Mountain who ah... in a band <br/> called Beckett together, I do believe. I might have go that wrong... so f'king hell what if I have! You gonna <br/> do something about it? Huh huh? Come over here! <br/> Anyway, now then, on the butt end of this here single was a track called Mission From 'Arry. See? Now, <br/> those of you out there, still to this day some of you think that this was a coreographed piece of entertainment <br/> for all you guys and girls. Well I can tell you it f'king well was not. It was in fact the, if only, the very f... <br/> only argument I've ever had with Steve Harris. We were onstage in Allantown Pennsylvania one evening... <br/> this was on the Piece Of Mind tour... when... although it was released on the back of a Powerslave single, it <br/> was actually recorded on the Piece Of Mind tour. And, I was doing a drum solo... you know, new boy in the <br/> band, do a drum solo Nick... get on with it. So in this period of time, Steve would go off to the back of the <br/> gig and change his... if he had a dodgy bass string, or he... normally he would... but what happened on this <br/> night, he was changing the battery on his remote, or his... should I say his transmitter. So, he sent this guy <br/> around to tell Mike my drum tech to tell me to extend my drum solo, cause he weren't ready. But he didn't <br/> tell my drum tech, he told this guy who was sitting at the back of the gig who was one of the riggers, a guy <br/> called Paul who's no longer with the band, I wonder why? No, anyway, he said to him, "tell Nick to extend <br/> his drum solo." So I'm playing... (makes drum noises).... and all that shit, and I gets a tap on the back and <br/> this guy says "Ooy!" I go, "What!" "Ooy! Blahahaey!" I go "What!" He's going "Heyheyhey ehey!" and he's <br/> pointing to Steve. I'm going, "EH?" He's going, "ah ah heyheyhey!" I'm going, "WHAT!!!" He's going, <br/> "WAHEHAAHAHAYYY!" I said, "FUCK OFFFFFF!!!" Hahah... Jesus Christ, he made me FUCK!!! Oh! <br/> Anyway, what could I do? <br/> I stopped, I gone absolutely wally, so I've come off the gig anyway... and cut the... to make a long story even <br/> longer, I've come off the gig and I gone in the dressing room and I said, "That f'king geezer at the back of <br/> the gig! What the f'king hell does he think he's doing? There he is, he's giving me all these verbal signs and <br/> all this stuff right?" I said, "I couldn't understand him, he was about three feet behind me instead of coming <br/> up and shouting in my lughole." Harris said, "I sent him." I went, "You what?" He said, "I sent him." I said, <br/> "What the f'king hell you doing sending him around to give me messages?" He said, "Well, I... you know... <br/> play a bit more and you know, need a bit more time to change my bass thing-a-me-bob." And I said, "I <br/> f'king care about that, this geezer made me fuck!" He said, "Well look, you better go and appologize to <br/> him." And I said, "F'king right I am! I f'king appologizing to him, he made me fuck!" He said... hahaha! <br/> That's the argument. We argued about fifteen twenty minutes, and it all calmed down, and Bruce came in <br/> and he got a bloody cassette in his back pocket, and he said, "Oy Nick, what would happen if he tried to tell <br/> you the lighting truss was going to fall on your head?" And I said, "Don't you f'king well start!" And 'Arry <br/> said, "yeah, he's got a good point, doesn't he?" So we started the argument again and Bruce recorded it. And <br/> then at the end of this Mission From 'Arry you'll remember this... 'Arry says... he grabs the tape... just before <br/> he grabs it, he sees this tape in the pocket and he's going "some (beep)'s recording this!" Hahahaha! So he <br/> got the tape, and that's basically how that all happened. But anyway, after this extravaganza, we thought it <br/> was so funny we had to let you guys hear it. And that's the only serious argument I've ever had with Steve in <br/> my life... or my life. <br/> So, that just about gives me enough time in this little "not alot of people know that number six, part six, or <br/> whatever", to tell you just a tad about Aces High, which as you know has got King Of Twilight on it, and <br/> Number... NOB! of.. Number Of The Beast live. This song was released 22nd of... no it wasn't... heh! It was, <br/> it was released 22nd of October 1984. Chart position 20 that got to. Now, at the time we were rehearsing the <br/> Powerslave album, Steve was writing this single, I started to learn to fly airplanes in Jersey. And, I'd come <br/> home from the aerodrome, and I'd have the old... you know, twisting the old ends of the mustache, twiddling <br/> the old various bits and pieces... the hat and the goggles and the scarf... "Woah, tally-ho Biggles! You've <br/> bandits at six o'clock low, coming out of the sun, 12 o'clock high! Watch out, full power, bomb's away <br/> Biggles!" You know, all that good stuff. And I think it sort of slightly influenced Steve to write this song, <br/> you know, about those 2nd World War spitfire pilots and those guys. Hey, shhh... just between you and me, <br/> Steve... he doesn't like to fly. He hates it, he think's I'm an absolute nut case! But, you don't tell him I told <br/> you, will you, because he'd be very upset. <br/> Anyway, Aces High, King Of Twilight.... great! What a package this one is for you! I wish I had more time <br/> to explain some more of the stories on 2 Minutes and things like that, around that time. But I really do have <br/> to go now, I'm running out of time. Oh yes, just a little joke for you before I leave. Have you heard the one <br/> about the two queers? The were fighting over a manhole! Hahahahah! See ya, I'm off! Bye!

Submitted by BloodShrine — May 09, 2026