Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal

by Jon Wiederhorn

  K.K. DOWNING (ex–Judas Priest): British Steel could almost have been called The Almanac for a Teenage Rebel. People were a bit down-spirited in the UK. Nothing was going particularly well. So it was the kind of album that sent out waves to everybody that said, “There’s good things ahead, and we knew how you feel, and we were all feeling it the same.” I think the fans wanted somebody or something to look up to and, lucky for us, they turned to Priest and British Steel.

  ROB HALFORD: The nation was coming off the back of a number of very turbulent years under Margaret Thatcher. The recession and the strikes and the street riots were very difficult for a lot of people, and we felt a real kinship with them. “Breaking the Law” was almost a political protest song: “There I was completely wasting out of work and down . . . / You don’t know what it’s like.” “Grinder” was about rejecting the establishment. I saw the system as the grinder and it was grinding people up. And “United” was very much about sticking together to get through these tough times.

  Over the decades, countless metal scholars have compared Judas Priest to Iron Maiden. Both bands feature dynamic, octave-spanning vocalists, a multi-guitar approach (Maiden upped its “guitarsenal” to three players in 1999) all capable of precision riffs, searing harmonies, and mind-bending solos. Both rigged their stages with more props and pyro than a Fourth of July celebration. Like Priest, Maiden’s beginnings were modest, and its growth gradual.

  STEVE HARRIS (Iron Maiden): I wanted to be a drummer, but I thought, “I ain’t got room and it’s just too fucking noisy.” I thought I’d do the next best thing and get a bass guitar and start playing along with the drums. I had an acoustic guitar and learned a few chords, then traded it in and got myself a Fender copy bass, 40 quid [about $70]. Once I got going, I started trying to be a bit clever and trying to learn stuff by [Yes bassist] Chris Squire. I was heavily influenced by progressive rock like Genesis, Jethro Tull, ELP, Yes, King Crimson . . . I used to love off-the-wall changes coming out of nowhere.

  DAVE MURRAY (Iron Maiden): Like Steve, I’d been a skinhead. Then I went completely to the other extreme and became a hippie. It was a case of finding out more about the music and getting away from the violence. I heard [Jimi Hendrix’s] “Voodoo Chile” on the radio and I thought, “Fucking hell! What is that?” I started wearing an Afghan coat, playing guitar, and going to gigs.

  Taking its name from a Renaissance-era torture device, Iron Maiden formed on Christmas Day, 1975. The original lineup featured bassist and lyricist Steve Harris, guitarists David Sullivan and Terry Rance, drummer Dave Matthews, and vocalist Paul Day, who was soon replaced by Dennis Wilcock. Both guitarists left the band when Harris met axeman Dave Murray in 1976. Murray, who later anchored the band along with guitarist Adrian Smith, actually quit because he couldn’t get along with Wilcock, but returned in 1977, the same year singer Paul Di’Anno joined.

  STEVE HARRIS: Dave was the best guitarist I’d ever played with. Still is. After he joined we came up with early versions of “Wrathchild,” “Prowler,” and “Transylvania.” “Purgatory” comes from that time, only then it was called “Floating.” If we did a cover we’d make it one that people wouldn’t necessarily know. So instead of “All Right Now” by Free we’d do “I’m a Mover.” But as soon as an original came in, a cover would go out.

  PAUL DI’ANNO (ex–Iron Maiden): They’d been going before me as a little pub band with a couple of different singers. As I was joining high school, Steve was just finishing [school]. Dennis and I had a mutual friend who told me Iron Maiden were looking for a singer. I said, “Who? Who the hell are they?” Because I came from punk music. I spoke to Steve and he said, “Well, are you gonna come out and try out?” I said, “Well, I’m not really that bothered. I don’t care that much.” But I agreed to go to a rehearsal, which is really strange because I knew absolutely nothing about rock music whatsoever. I had a rough idea of one Deep Purple song, like “Dealer” or something. I didn’t even know the words. I just made them up as we went along. Later that evening Steve came around my house and said, “You got the job if you want it.” I said, “Well, not really.” Then a couple months later I went over to his house and he played me some of the songs that became the first Iron Maiden album. I dunno. Something about it just clicked. I thought, “Wow, this could be good.” Because it really was so different. It was complicated metal that was played really fast, and I thought, “Wow, this is cool.”

  The NWOBHM movement began at the Bandwagon Heavy Metal Soundhouse, located in a corner of the Prince of Wales pub in Kingsbury, North London. DJ Neal Kay spun records by emerging bands, and before long it was a hotspot for local journalists. The place became so popular that Iron Maiden’s legendary first recording with Di’Anno in 1978 became known as the Soundhouse Tapes, and the band struck a nerve almost immediately.

  NEAL KAY (Club DJ): I was running and screaming around the lounge like a lunatic. I just couldn’t stop playing [Maiden’s four-track demo]. The combination of speed, power, the key changes, the melody, and Dave Murray’s melody lines bowled me over. It was definitely the most impressive demo I’d ever had delivered to me. The next day I phoned Steve Harris and said to him, “You’ve got something here that could make you a lot of money.” And he laughed at me. He thought I was kidding!

  PAUL DI’ANNO: We did the Soundhouse tapes in 1978 [in a single twenty-four-hour session] at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge. We only did five hundred copies of the original. It’s like gold dust now it’s so rare, and I gave all my copies away. From that, EMI asked us to be on a compilation, the Metal For Muthas record, which was put together by Neal Kay. From there on, we were taken over by a real manager, which was Rod [Smallwood] and Iron Maiden was offered a deal on [EMI].

  BIFF BYFORD: [I first heard the phrase New Wave of British Heavy Metal] around 1980, about seven years after me and [guitarist] Paul [Quinn got together]. We were looking at all those [Sabbath- and Priest-] type of bands all through the seventies, really. We chose the rock-and-roll rather than the punk route. We were looking at a lot of progressive rock bands like Yes and Genesis, and obviously we were listening to Zeppelin and Cream. But our music was a bit more aggressive, a bit faster. I think the press just coined NWOBHM to make it a bit different from the more established bands of the time.

  JOE ELLIOT (Def Leppard): Were we part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal? Well, from a timing point of view, absolutely. But to me it’s as relevant as saying we came out in the new romantic period, too, because that was 1979. So you might as well compound us with Duran Duran. The New Wave of British Heavy Metal was a convenient label created possibly by Geoff Barton at Sounds magazine to create a scene and sell more copies.

  BIFF BYFORD: I would [call Def Leppard NWOBHM], but obviously they won’t. They seem to think it’s a dirty word. But in the early days they were part of it, definitely. Their first EP is a bit Thin Lizzy-ish. Heavy rock, heavy metal. Later on, they became more commercial and had great success with that, but I think in the early days they were part of the movement.

  GEOFF BARTON (ex-Sounds, Kerrang!): We ran the NWOBHM feature with Maiden in it in Sounds, and the response was just phenomenal. Suddenly there were new heavy metal bands springing up everywhere. Of course, not all of them were as competent or as interesting as Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, but the fact that they were even trying was news back then, and we just ran with it, for about two years in the end.

  NICK BOWCOTT (Grim Reaper): Heavy metal got so big at the time that they would actually have heavy metal charts amongst the regular charts printed in the back of magazines like NME [New Musical Express] and Melody Maker. Those charts were invariably put together by guys like Neal Kay, who were doing heavy metal discos. You could send these guys demos, and if they liked you they’d spin it, and if they got a response they would chart you. Three of our songs charted based on a four-track demo because we were motivated enough to get those demos into people’s hands and they liked the songs.

  BRIAN TATLER (Diamond
Head): Sounds started raving about Iron Maiden, Samson, Saxon, and Def Leppard. These bands got played on Radio One Sessions and we’d think, “Who are all these young bands our age, nineteen-years-old, doing all this metal stuff?” I bought The Def Leppard EP they pressed themselves, and I thought it was really good. Next thing you know, Leppard were signed to Phonogram, and Iron Maiden got signed to EMI. I was thinking this has got to be the next big thing—Diamond Head need to get signed now. I thought we’d get picked up on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal thing because after Sounds coined the phrase, suddenly it had national coverage and we could play London. We played with Angel Witch and Maiden, and we were able to get around the country and start making our own records.

  NICK BOWCOTT: The first small band I ever saw that actually made me fire a drummer was Diamond Head, followed by Raven. I remember seeing them and going, “Holy shit, someone just raised the bar really high.” It was a great time to be around. We were going through uncharted territory. It was a rude awakening to come to America and meet bands whose main concern was not their songs, but getting signed. They’d say, “I know this person who works for this record label.” It was, like, “What?” It was almost like the music was secondary to getting a deal. Whereas we were just four ugly dudes who think British Steel is the best album ever, love Van Halen, write hooks, and have a great singer.

  JOHN GALLAGHER (Raven): When we first got together in the seventies, there was a circuit of workingmen’s clubs. You’d sign up, get cheap beer. You could play bingo, and there would be bands playing. In the northeast of England a lot of them were hard rock bands, like Son of a Bitch, who changed their name to Saxon. There were a lot of punks there so it was a bit rough. We learned our trade from being three feet in front of somebody who was looking at you going, “Impress me!” If you didn’t, they’d throw beer at you or spit on you. We’d do anything to get attention, and we got a reputation as the band that would play and go crazy and throw all our equipment around and smash stuff.

  PAUL DI’ANNO: We used to get all this amphetamine sulfate in these different forms. There was one we’d call cat’s piss because you’d do a line of it and your eyes was watering and your nose is burning. But if you do a gram you’ll be off your face for the good part of two days. We also used to do these pills called Speckled Blues. Take three of them and you could walk from London to Scotland and you wouldn’t even care. I used to stay amped up with it. Unfortunately, that became quite a bad thing for me in the end. Steve [Harris] was always completely straight. Once, he got drunk on the subway going back to East London on about a pint and a half of beer. All of a sudden, he jumped out at Bethel Green completely wasted. We found him on the Bethel Green common half way up a tree.

  The quintessential heavy metal warrior, Lemmy Kilmister, may abhor rock labels, preferring to be viewed in the vein of his idols, Eddie Cochran and Jimi Hendrix. However, Kilmister made his most indelible mark during the NWOBHM movement with Motörhead’s self-titled debut, which came out in 1977, the same year as the Sex Pistols’ legendary Never Mind the Bollocks.

  LEMMY KILMISTER: Motörhead is primitive brutality, I suppose. It’s rock and roll, you know? People always like rock and roll. You can bop to it if you’re very quick.

  DAVE GROHL (Foo Fighters, Them Crooked Vultures, Nirvana): When I met Lemmy, it was like meeting the fifth Beatle. He was walking out of a strip club and was at the video poker machine. I said, “Hey man, I’ve got a lot of respect for you.” Then I ran away before he could say anything. Years later, when I finally got the chance to work with him, he came into the studio and drank a half a fifth of Jack Daniel’s before he even got in front of a microphone. Then he sang [my Probot] song “Shake Your Blood” twice, and it sounded genius. He played bass on it in two takes. Then we were done and he said, “Okay, who wants to go look at some tits?” One time, I asked him to meet me at the Rainbow for a drink. I had never been there. He’s been going there since 1971—there’s a fucking portrait of him above the bar. He told me a pretty hilarious story about Motörhead drummer [“Philthy Animal” Taylor] being so fucked up on drugs that he tried to climb out of his hotel room through a mirror. Hanging out with Lemmy is a guaranteed good time. He’s like a stand-up comedian. If this Motörhead thing doesn’t work out, he could do well up in the Catskills.

  PAUL DI’ANNO: One time I was standing with Lemmy at this place in Camden Town. He used to go up there, drink Jack Daniel’s and Coke, and play the slot machines. I was there trying to keep up with him. I didn’t realize I’d been there for nearly six hours, and I wondered why I couldn’t move. I was absolutely fucked out of my mind. Lemmy’s just standing there talking away to me, and I’m thinking, “How the hell does he do this every bloody day?” He’s insane. I’m surprised he’s still alive.

  Released in 1981 during the heart of the NWOBHM movement, Killers was the first of nine Maiden albums produced by Martin Birch. While groups like Witchfinder General, Samson (featuring future Maiden front man Bruce Dickinson), Angel Witch, Girlschool, and Tygers of Pan Tang were still heating up, Maiden was going supernova.

  PAUL DI’ANNO: The first big tour Maiden did in England was Priest’s British Steel tour, which was fun. Then in ’81 they wanted us to come over [to America] with them because they weren’t selling tickets, as we were the new boys and everybody wanted to come and see us. An interviewer said, “How will it be with you and Judas Priest?” and somebody in our camp said, “Ah, it’ll be no problem. We’ll kick their asses. They’re all old men.” Apparently Kenny (K.K.) Downing was a bit pissed off. Unfortunately, I got blamed for that.

  K.K. DOWNING: All credit due to Maiden that they were gunning to overthrow the mighty Priest or aspiring to one day. We thought that was great because that’s all we ever did when we supported bands—try to take the stage away from them. And it made us work harder.

  BRIAN TATLER: Maiden were a little bit rock star-ish, I thought. They didn’t give us a sound check. They would spend hours sound-checking and by the time it was our turn, the doors were open and all the crowd poured in. I think they probably thought we were some Northern upstarts trying to steal their thunder.

  MARTIN POPOFF: The New Wave of British Heavy Metal is super important because, number one, it really helped define heavy metal. You had a uniform, you had four or five songs on every record about how great it was to be metal, no ballads, the playing was elevated. Even Black Sabbath sounded simple compared to a lot of these bands. Everything about these bands was heavy metal, so really, if you could go back and find shreds of things that define heavy metal along the way, this was a place where all of them came together.

  EDDIE TRUNK: Saxon I still love, but they’ve never emerged beyond a club act in America. You hear that [NWOBHM] title, you’re like, “Oh my god, like fifteen huge bands came from that.” But no. NWOBHM was just a scene and a fertile time for British metal. But in America, unless you were really tied in and really a freak for it, it didn’t really resonate.

  BIFF BYFORD: [Saxon’s 1980 album] Wheels of Steel came out the same time as Judas Priest’s British Steel, so it was a bit of a race up the charts at one point. We were one of the biggest bands of that time, from 1980 to 1982. We were probably bigger than Maiden back then. Our first U.S. show with Mötley Crüe was the first time we’d ever played in front of twelve thousand girls and four guys. That was a time of liberation for a lot of young girls, and rock ’n’ roll seemed to be the catalyst. There were a lot of girls in America. Not too young. But young enough, and old enough, if you know what I mean.

  NICK BOWCOTT: Back then cocaine was a very social drug and the girls were surprisingly willing to do things they probably shouldn’t have, on reflection. It was a wonderful time pre any nasty social diseases. Grim Reaper wasn’t formed in the hope of getting laid, but it was a nice fringe benefit.

  JACKIE CHAMBERS (Girlschool): Girlschool found itself in such a male-dominated arena we were bound to be hailed by some (especially early on) as just a novelty band. But we managed
to get past that without being hell-bent on proving a point. I still think a lot of guys felt a bit stupid listening to or admitting to the fact that they liked—and God forbid were playin’ air guitar to—a bunch of girls. And no, we never thought of ourselves as anything other than a rock-and-roll band. The fact that we were an all-girl band wasn’t an issue to us—just everybody else. Although we weren’t really bothered by any outright sexism ourselves.

  LEMMY KILMISTER: Girlschool came along about two years after the Runaways. They were a great band and I loved them, but they never became famous because they couldn’t afford to tour the U.S. I took them out with us in 1979 when we toured for Overkill because I heard their song “Take it All Away” and I thought it was fucking excellent. I always supported them because they were great girls. They loved rock-and-roll, same as me. Their guitarist Kelly Johnson was amazing. It was really sad when she died from cancer [in 2007].

  Paul Di’Anno played a major role in Maiden’s initial success. But two albums into the band’s more than thirty-year career, he was fired for excessive drug use and replaced by Bruce Dickinson.

  ALBERT MUDRIAN (author, Choosing Death; editor in chief, Decibel): Those first couple Iron Maiden records were pretty rough-and-tumble, whereas when they hooked up with Bruce Dickinson the songs became more epic, and you got this overblown and ridiculous presentation. But the thing about Maiden, even when they were playing with Di’Anno, and then were moving on to the style with Dickinson, their presentation was tied together. They had their logo and their album covers with Derek Riggs, which incorporated the band mascot, Eddie, who was in the stage show. That was ingenious. There weren’t a lot of heavy metal bands outside of Alice Cooper that had that huge focus on that area of presentation and that was something that hooked people early on. The band was going to sell a lot of shirts no matter how many records they sold just because they had a great logo and this great presentation.