ORIGINAL 7 VINYL 1979. Amazing opportunity to own a piece of Maiden history, one of only 5000. I have owned this since 1987 and have only played it a handful of times, including just now and I can attest it plays perfectly. There is slight creasing on the bottom corners of the sleeve and a couple of small creases on the sides and top but otherwise it’s in excellent condition, there are a couple of very small scratches on the record but as I have said it plays perfectly. In the run off area of side one are the markings. ROK – 1 – A. And in the run off area of side two are the markings. ROK – 1 – B. Not sure if these are visible in the photos but only the original version carry these markings. There a plenty of re-issues and copies available but this is a 100% original being offered at a realistic price! Please feel free to message me for more info or pics. 31 December 1978 at Spaceward Studios, Cambridge. The Soundhouse Tapes (1979). The Soundhouse Tapes is the debut EP. And features the very first recordings by the band. Released on 9 November 1979, it features three songs taken from the demo tape recorded at Spaceward Studios on New Year’s Eve. The three tracks – “Prowler”, “Invasion” and “Iron Maiden” – appear in a rougher form than they would on the first Iron Maiden album. And subsequent singles as they were all recorded in one session. Distribution and EP release. In the midst of punk rock. S peak in the UK, Iron Maiden struggled to secure gigs out of the East End of London and decided that a demo would be an ideal way to try to remedy this. The band decided to record at Spaceward Studios, Cambridge after hearing a demo tape recorded there by former vocalist Dennis Wilcock’s band, V1. Although this would be more expensive than recording in London, bassist Steve Harris. Comments, We decided that doing it on the cheap was a false economy. We knew we’d only probably get one go at it, and we wanted it to sound the best we could. And recorded four songs, “Prowler”, “Invasion”, “Strange World” and “Iron Maiden”. Harris states, We didn’t know what to expect, going into the studio for the first time. We just hoped the engineer was gonna be good enough to record us, and that was it, really. We just went in there with a naïve attitude and, as it happens, it was pretty good. The songs were very together already. We didn’t have to arrange much. They were very tight,’cause we were doing them live all the time. We knew exactly what we needed to do. It was just a question of whether we could record it all in time. But we went in and the tracks went down really quick. I think we did most of them in the first take. Following this single session on New Year’s Eve, the band were due to return a few weeks later to remix and rerecord some parts, however, according to guitarist Dave Murray. And when we went back, two weeks later, they’d already wiped the master and put something else over it! We couldn’t believe it. So, in the end, we just had to put it out as it was, which was all from that one mad session down in Cambridge on New Years Eve. Presumably they did not take that option. A short time later, Harris and Murray presented a copy of the tape to a DJ named Neal Kay. Then running a heavy metal club in Kingsbury, North West London called the Bandwagon Soundhouse. Impressed with the demo, Kay began playing the tape heavily and eventually “Prowler” reached No. 1 in the Soundhouse charts, which were published in Sounds. In addition to gaining the band exposure in Sounds , the demo tape also reached Rod Smallwood. Who would soon become the group’s manager and help them acquire their record deal with EMI in December 1979. In late 1979, while waiting to sign their deal with EMI, the band decided to release the demo on their own label, Rock Hard Records, on 9 November 1979. They’d seen the charts in Sounds and a lot of’em just assumed we must already have a record deal of some kind, but we didn’t. So then, they’d be, like,’Well, where can we get a copy of the tape? And I think that’s when we really got the idea of putting the Spaceward demo out as an actual record. Although the original demo had included four songs, “Strange World” was excluded from the record as the band were unsatisfied with the quality of the track’s production. The EP was so successful that Rod Smallwood reports that several fans asked for copies of The Soundhouse Tapes at their local record stores, to the point where HMV. Tried to order 20,000 copies each. Smallwood states, we could have really cashed in at that point. It was our record, not EMI’s, and we could have made enough to clear our debts, if we’d wanted to, maybe got it in the charts, even. But there was just no way. It really was something special for the true die-hard Maiden fans, and we’d already made that quite clear. We thought,’No, we’ll wait until we can do it properly with EMI. Today, the EP is considered a valuable collector’s item, with Record Collector. All songs written and composed by Steve Harris. Paul Cairns – guitar (uncredited). Mike Kemp – engineer. Gary Lucas – mixing. The item “IRON MAIDEN SOUNDHOUSE TAPES ORIGINAL RELEASE 7 VINYL” is in sale since Tuesday, April 12, 2016. This item is in the category “Music\Records\7” Singles\Metal\Heavy Metal”. The seller is “duke_street_king” and is located in Trowbridge. This item can be shipped to United Kingdom, to Austria, to Belgium, BG, HR, CY, CZ, DK, FI, to France, to Germany, GR, HU, to Ireland, to Italy, LT, LU, MT, to Netherlands, PL, PT, RO, SK, SI, to Spain, SE, to Australia, to United States, RU, to Canada, to Japan, to New Zealand, to China, IL, to Hong Kong, NO, ID, MY, to Mexico, SG, KR, to Switzerland, to Taiwan, TH, TR.
- Genre: Metal
- Sub-Genre: Heavy Metal
- Record Size: Single (7-Inch)
- Speed: 45RPM
