The History Of Iron Maiden - Pt. 1: The Early Days (2DVD)

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Studio: Sony Music Release Date: 02/01/2005 Run time: 315 minutes

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5 out of 5 stars

"The History Of IRON MAIDEN - Part 1; The Early Days" October 23, 2004
145 out of 148 found this review helpful

"The History Of IRON MAIDEN - Part 1; The Early Days" Double DVD is to be released on Monday 8th November on EMI appropriately almost exactly 25 years to the day since the band first signed to the British label.

`The Early Days' is a unique collection of archive material packed onto 2 DVD's that covers the beginnings of the band's career from the struggle to get gigs in East End pubs through to becoming within just 5 years a band capable of headlining arenas anywhere around the World and achieving this without any radio support to speak of at any time.

This isn't simply a band history but more the intense and personal voyage of a remarkable group of individuals who shared one vision and worked hard to achieve that goal without any compromises along the way. It also demonstrates the band's unique relationship with their fans, the foundation for which was laid right back then ...at the beginning.

The first DVD contains nearly 2 hours of archive Maiden live concert rarities that demonstrate the energy and power that propelled them to the forefront of World Metal

The first program of DVD1 is Maiden's first ever concert video `Live at The Rainbow' which was produced by EMI back in 1980 shortly after they were signed and was one of the first ever concert VHS releases. This title has not been widely available for some time so fans can now see the band fronted by Paul Di'Anno singing such classics as `Killers' and `Phantom Of the Opera' .

The rest of the footage on DVD1 consists of two shows neither of which has ever been fully available. Beast Over Hammersmith was filmed at the beginning of the Beast On the Road tour that to many fans at the time was the first introduction to Bruce Dickinson. Songs like "Hallowed be Thy Name" and "Number of The Beast" have proved to become regular features in the Maiden live set since this was first recorded in 1982 and now thanks to some modern reconstructive work fans can enjoy the highlights from this rare footage.

To complete the first disk is `Live At Dortmund', a massive concert in Dortmund in December 1983 originally filmed for German TV with Maiden headlining a stellar Metal bill as part of their World Piece Tour. Originally the show was broadcast live across Europe but has not been seen since until now. Research into the footage shows that all the original film has since been destroyed so this is truly now a rare piece of Maiden history.

DVD 2 includes the feature length (90 minutes) Documentary titled "The Early Days" with extensive interviews and photographs and historical detail.

The documentary which forms the basis for the title contains over 90 minutes of extraordinary interviews with the colourful cast of characters involved with Maiden over this early period - current band members, a whole host of ex band members, managers, agents, journalists, photographers, EMI execs past and present, crew, promoters, fans - all of whom have their own perspective of the events and process that led up Maiden's Worldwide success, and the fun and hard work involved.

It chronicles their early struggles in the mid to late 70's in London's East End where the hardest thing was just keeping a line-up together for more than a couple of pub gigs, through the early successes of their eponymous debut album and "Killers", their first World Tours, the colossal impact on the Rock World that was "The Number of the Beast" and through to the end of their first full headlining World Tour - 'Piece of Mind' - in 1983.

A very honest and revealing (but also entertaining) insight into just what it was like early on in the World of Eddie and Maiden, its also a guide book to the problems faced and attitude and talent needed to get a band off the ground and to the pinnacle of Worldwide success - and then to keep it there!!! It is a fascinating and compelling story for any music fan.

Also on Disk 2 is a 30 min TV Documentary by LWT shown in 1980 on the rise of Heavy Metal featuring the band and footage of them performing at The Marquee in 1979 and an insight into the new breed of music fan that arose out of the ashes of the punk era.

Possibly one of the rarest items on The Early Days is a 45 minute home video recorded by the band of them performing at The Ruskin Arms in East London. This footage was originally feared lost forever however by complete chance a surviving copy was found in Steve's Harris' home and the delicate tape was processed and now included in it's entirety. With the exception of a very short clip used in 12 Wasted Years this has never been seen by anyone except the band themselves making it such a rare gem for the collector.

Extras include rare TV appearances like their first 'Live' performance on Top Of The Pops and Rock and Pop on German TV, Special photo gallery revealing never before seen personal pictures taken by the band and crew and a thorough overview and detail of all the bands artwork, tour programmes and imagery both on tour and their studio releases, plus of course some hidden goodies.

"The Early Days" is the first of what will eventually become a series of DVD's to be released over the coming years. Each release will extensively cover a period of the bands career to become a collection of not only re-mastered footage but also previously unavailable and unseen material taken directly from the bands own personal collections, along with extensive interviews.

Says Steve Harris, 'We haven't had any of our original live videos available for some time so when we started looking at this project we thought lets make each DVD a real document of not only the shows but everything around that time. Everybody has been digging through the archives to make this the most complete it can possibly be and I'm really proud of the end result. A lot of the footage we'd thought had been lost for good like the home video of the Ruskin Arms. Both disks contain some real collectors stuff. For example we filmed the first Hammersmith Odeon shows with Bruce but because of various lighting issues we never felt that it was really good enough to use. It just never really captured the excitement of show or the spectacle that it was - but by the time it was on film we could do nothing about it. However with technology being what it is now we've revisited and repaired some of the problems with the original masters to get it to a point where we can finally keep our fans happy by making it available."

'I have to say that I've really had a lot of fun recalling the early beginnings and we've managed to interview just about everybody who was ever part of Maiden from the very first line up in 1975 through to the band that everyone knows now. I found things I thought I had lost over the years and sometimes the smallest thing can remind you of exactly why you started doing this in the first place and the struggle everyone went through. I think the fans are going to love this.'

Plans are currently being put together for Iron Maiden play some festival and stadium dates next summer and bring the 'Early Days' back to life. The band will be linking in the look and feel of their beginnings in the stage set as well as performing some classic tracks from that time which haven't been heard live for a while!!. Dates will start to be announced in the near future

Says manager Rod Smallwood, 'On reviewing all these great shows it just reminded us all of the great songs that the band have in their repertoire. It's always difficult when touring a new album to include too many of the older songs which the fans always ask for as the band would end up playing for 4 or 5 hours! The plan for next year is to recreate the power and energy and look of their early shows and eventually continue this idea with each subsequent DVD release.'

The next in series will be the spectacular 'Live After Death' which will cover the bands legendary four sold out shows at Long Beach Arena in 1984.

The full contents of THE EARLY DAYS are -

Documentaries (115 min)
The Early Years - 90 minute Feature Documentary
20th Century Box - Heavy Metal (1980) - 25 minute feature.

Live At The Rainbow - 1981 (35 mins)
Ides Of March
Wrathchild
Killers
Remember Tomorrow
Transylvania
Phantom Of The Opera
Iron Maiden

Live At Hammersmith 1982 - Beast On The Road (45 mins)
Murders in The Rue Morgue
Run to The Hills
Children Of The Damned
Number Of The Beast
22 Acacia Avenue
Total Eclipse
The Prisoner
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Iron Maiden

Live at Rock & Pop Festival 1983 Dortmund - World Piece Tour (35 mins)
Sanctuary
The Trooper
Revelations
Flight Of Icarus
22 Acacia Avenue
Number Of The Beast
Run To The Hills

Live at The Ruskin Arms - 1980 (40 mins)
Sanctuary
Wrathchild
Prowler
Remember Tomorrow
Running Free
Transylvania
Another Life
Phantom Of The Opera
Charlotte the Harlot

Extras (40 mins)
Live on Top Of the Pops - Running Free and Women In Uniform
Live on Rock and Pop - Germany TV - Running Free
Promo videos - Women In Uniform / Run To The Hills / Number Of The Beast/ Flight Of Icarus / The Trooper
Rare and unseen Photo gallery featuring over 150 pictures and images
Full tour listings/ Discography/Tour programmes and artwork galleries.
1998-2004 IronMaiden.com Ltd.

4 out of 5 stars

Stop thinking. Start buying. February 21, 2005
19 out of 22 found this review helpful

I avoided buying this for a while. Anytime I see old footage and do NOT see 5.1 Digital Dolby, I suspect the worst. Still, with a holiday gift card in my hand and Iron Maiden love in my heart I made the leap.

Disc One: 3.5 stars

Right away I was amazed. I simply could NOT believe how good "Live at the Rainbow" sounded! I mean if this old show sounded like THIS I was in for a real treat. Not being a fan of the D'ianno era I was still interested from the aspect of history. Then the "Beast Over Hammersmith" started. I thought it sounded a bit over done but I dialed my sub woofer down a bit and was generally pleased with the results. I patiently sat through some duplicate songs... waiting for '83. I mean Live at Dortmund was a later show right? The sound was bound to be killer right? Well, it was terrible! Sour mono mixed with periods of the tape being eaten or stretched, you choose, but I was decidely diappointed, especially when I heard snippets from this very show on the interview portion with a very NICE pseudo "surround" (like the first two concerts!). I'm not sure what happened here, but it's quite obvious not enough care was put into this.

Disc Two: 4.5 stars

To say the interview left no stone unturned would be an understatement. I learned so much about how the band was formed and saw so many past members I came to the conclusion most of England at one time was a part of Maiden:) At any rate, my 4.5 stars are definately devoted to the interview which spans 90 minutes and 91 members. It's not without its faults though; they spend way too much time discussing what Steve Harris had for lunch and not enough about why key members left. Still, I love the effort. The rest here does little for me. Never fancied Maiden videos and the rest here is just filler.

Conclusion: If you are looking to rekindle your love for Maiden, look no further. If you too are afraid of the sound quality, rest assured there are better sounding bits out there but nothing captures the essence like hearing the guys that actually created it perform it at the time it was created. It's true, you can't go home again, and that sentiment could never be truer than with music. Cheers to Clive Burr, they should have spent more time with him, both now... and then.

5 out of 5 stars

Makes me miss Di'Anno even more December 4, 2004
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

First of all, I am a big Bruce Dickinson fan...but there was an innocence and a magic to the Di'Anno days that was never captured again. In addition, although Nicko McBrain is a great drummer, the same goes for Clive Burr: he had a nice style that stood out evne more than Nicko's. It's also nice to see Paul Di'Anno, Clive Burr, and all the rest of the guys form back then looking good (Paul is still a hoot and an even better singer now).

This is a fantastic dvd and I highly recommend it to everyone. By the way, there IS still more vintage Di'Anno footage out there (just don't know about the quality: mine is pretty fair-to-midland): 4/29/81 Beat Club (and they do ANOTHER LIFE here) and Milan, Italy 3/31/81 (and they also do ANOTHER LIFE here, as well). Finally, you still need your "12 Wasted Years" dvds: SANCTUARY comes from the 3/20/82 Hammersmith show and the 1987-era interviews, especialy with Paul, are great and unique, while IRON MIADEN comes from the Dortmund show and WASTED YEARS comes from the P.I.T. German tv show from 1986 (and you could argue that some of the Hammersmith footage, particularly on THE PRISONER, looks alittle better on here, esp. the intro). BUY THIS!!!!!!!!!!

5 out of 5 stars

Required viewing by all rivetheads, earthdogs, & MAIDEN Fans December 10, 2004
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

Iron maiden fans are in a league of their own. Most of us are truly collectors, you can't have 1 or 2 Maiden CDs in your collection but the whole catalogue! The same applies for VHS/DVD releases. The buzz about this release was just so strong. Disc 1 is all live performances, 1 show with Paul Di'Anno and 2 with Dickinson on lead vocals. Probably the best of the band when they were hungry and still an opening band. The Hammersith show is truly amazing, I have no idea why this was never released at the time. Clive Burr on drums reminds you of what made Maiden strong in the first place, a drummer who played riffs and MADE each song an individual statement. Maiden was never quite the same following his departure. "Live at the Rainbow" is a little grainy but better than any bootleg version that we had to find for years at the hands of video "specialists" on ebay or some pricey import. The Dortmund show is from German TV from the World Piece Tour, more great stuff, again found only on ebay before this release. Also, the cameras stay on a band member for a good stretch of time letting the viewer enjoy ths show, unlike the rapid video image fire of "Rock in Rio". Disc 1 is well worth the price of admission here but wait, there is disc 2. I thought this would just be "The First 10 Years" rereleased on dvd but it is an entirely new documentary. Extras include never before seen videos from English TV and another gem, "Live at the Ruskin" with Di'Anno on vocals from the debut album era days. This collection is just so unbelievable and I picked mine up at deepdiscountdvd for under $15! This is truly a great day for us Maiden fans! If you don't have this, don't walk, Run! 6 stars!

5 out of 5 stars

A MUST FOR REAL MAIDEN FREAKZZ!!!! January 20, 2006
5 out of 23 found this review helpful

Paul was THE ONLY singer who could front MAIDEN!!!!

This at least document's him in the band before they started to SUCK!!!..when ever ''Bruce'' came in...that was THE END!!

Paul with MAIDEN is some special stuff..prob the greatest band ever..and all we got was 2 album's!!! it was a shame..but Harris wanted to trend jump!!

PAUL WITH MAIDEN=GREATEST BAND EVER!!!!!!

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