{"id":438010,"date":"2026-05-12T14:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/438010\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:40:11","slug":"iron-maiden-the-story-of-the-soundhouse-tapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/438010\/","title":{"rendered":"Iron Maiden: the story of The Soundhouse Tapes"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1978, Iron Maiden<\/a> were far from the world-conquering Beast we know them as today. Before their countless blockbuster tours, before The Number Of The Beast<\/a>, before their theatrical documentary<\/a>, Steve Harris<\/a> and the boys were struggling London lads weathering lineup changes and desperate to make a name for themselves. They took any gig they could, often slept in their van and worked day jobs for cash. That was until The Soundhouse Tapes got them signed to EMI and gave the band their first step towards megastardom.<\/p>\n

Although bassist Steve had formed Maiden just three years prior, by late 1978, they were a near-totally different outfit to what they started as. \u2019Arry, as he was known, cycled through a host of musicians in the capital\u2019s fledgling rock scene before settling on his first truly stable lineup\u2026 kind of. Vocalist Paul Di\u2019Anno<\/a>, guitarist Dave Murray<\/a> and drummer Doug Sampson were firmly in place, their camaraderie sharpened by playing a litany of DIY concerts up and down the country. (The second guitarist spot was still up in the air, but, hey, it was still the least volatile the band had ever been.)<\/p>\n

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\u201cI know, one weekend, we went up to play in Aberdeen one night,\u201d Steve remembered in 2005 DVD The History Of Iron Maiden, Part 1<\/a>. \u201cWe drove up on the Friday, stayed the night in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, played the gig the next night, then drove across the country and played Blackpool on the Sunday night. Then, straight back home and back to work the following morning. We did that sort of stuff quite a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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They had a reputation for being a top-notch live act, but Maiden wanted to strengthen their status even further by making their first studio recording. The band chose Spaceward Studios up in Cambridge. Despite it being 60 miles from their hometown, they\u2019d heard a demo ex-singer Dennis Wilcock had made there, and they were impressed with the results.<\/p>\n

Money was tight, so Maiden recorded what became The Soundhouse Tapes on December 30 and 31, 1978. Steve later explained, \u201cThe only way we could afford it at the time was to go on New Year\u2019s Eve, because no one else wanted to then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, while in Cambridge, the band didn\u2019t even have the cash for a hotel, forcing them to sleep on a stranger\u2019s floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were gonna kip in the back of the van, [but] because it was snowing, it was so bloody cold,\u201d said Steve. \u201cWe were in this pub and Paul pulled this young nurse. She invited us all back to kip on her floor. She only had a bedsit, but we were very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ultimately, four songs came from the Spaceward sessions: future debut album<\/a> cuts Prowler, Strange World and Iron Maiden, plus Invasion, which eventually evolved into Number Of The Beast opener Invaders.<\/p>\n

As much as Maiden\u2019s two albums with Paul would boast plenty of punk rock<\/a> verve, these Soundhouse\u2026 recordings epitomised the band\u2019s early rawness. The slicing lead guitars were contrasted against loose-sounding rhythm chords, while the vocals were more gravelly than on any future Maiden release. That imperfect, aggro sound was sealed when Maiden weren\u2019t even allowed to take the masters home and give them a scrub.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to take the two-inch tape home with us so we could embellish it and add more,\u201d Dave remembered, \u201cbut we couldn\u2019t afford to buy the tape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was only \u00a350, but we\u2019d used all our money,\u201d Steve added. \u201cThe next week, we went back to buy the tape, and the buggers had gone over it. So, all we had was the tape, and that\u2019s what we ended up releasing Soundhouse\u2026 as.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Iron\n<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden in 1980. Dave Murray (far-left), Paul Di\u2019Anno (centre) and Steve Harris (far-right) perform on The Soundhouse Tapes. (Image credit: George Wilkes\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Although Maiden only had four unrefined songs on their hands, that was all they needed to prove their musical prowess. The band presented the demo first to Neal Kay, DJ at London rock nightclub the Bandwagon Soundhouse. Neal was so impressed that he put Prowler at the top of the club\u2019s resident heavy metal chart, earning Maiden the attention of contemporary music magazines such as Sounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Paul went down [to Bandwagon] one night and waited to see what\u2019d happen when it came on,\u201d Steve remembered. \u201cWhen they played Prowler, the place went berserk. People were throwing serious shapes, with the air guitar and all this business. We were going, \u2018What the hell\u2019s going on here?\u2019 Suddenly, this very real thing was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, everything happened fast. Rod Smallwood got a hold of the demo and heard so much potential that he signed on to be Maiden\u2019s co-manager \u2013 a position he still holds to this day. Rod used the songs to negotiate a record deal with EMI, while Maiden themselves self-released Soundhouse\u2026 (albeit without Strange World) as their debut EP in November 1979, naming it after the club that had so heavily endorsed their music. Only 5,000 copies were ever printed, turning the EP into a massively sought-after collector\u2019s item once the band truly blew up.<\/p>\n

As a result of the juggernaut Maiden became, and the instrumental role it played in getting the ball rolling, Soundhouse\u2026 is now one of the great artefacts of heavy metal. Sure, it\u2019s raw, unfinished and can\u2019t hold a candle to the excellence of Powerslave<\/a> or Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son<\/a>. But, there\u2019s a strong chance Maiden may never have got out the starting gate if they hadn\u2019t spent their last available pennies to make this first impression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1978, Iron Maiden were far from the world-conquering Beast we know them as today. Before their countless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-438010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}