Up the Irons

 

A band that has changed the music industry more than many is Iron Maiden. A personal favourite of mine and a band who have such an understanding of the music industry they were years ahead of the record companies.

Everyone has seen the band on telly and heard the music but what you hear has nothing to do with the record industry. This isn't AOR made up by an executive in a suite at EMI or Capitol. Steve Harris the band leader and the mind behind the band made so many decisions before the band were signed in 1979 that it took four years for a record label to in fact sign them.

For a start the band were about during the punk era and many labels were signing anything that looked different. Iron Maiden was very different in looks but in music what they played was truly metal. Steve Harris turned down contract after contract to maintain the band's sound and distinct musical identity. Even now in 2010 I have yet to hear a band that sounds like them so he must have been right to do so. Many punk bands were taking the big money and making the chart friendly music that at times was very good, but where are they now?

One big change in the industry that Iron Maiden and also EMI done was to bring a picture cover to the 7" market. Many bands and artists did not release a single with a picture cover to help save money. But also the bands did not have an identity, when you see an Iron Maiden album you say to yourself "now that is an Iron Maiden Album". Instantly recognisable as a metal album/single and as an Iron Maiden release. This was a very good promotional tool and one that costs very little in comparison to paying for advertising that may not really work or show the band the way they want.

The big thing they have is the 'Eddie' character. He is on much of the bands covers and is more a comic book character than anything else. He has been painted by Derek Riggs from 1979 and was an idea he took from a hanging on the side of a burned out Japanese tank at the Matanikau River during the Battle for Henderson Field.

Derek Riggs made a portfolio of work and showed it to the bands manager, in the middle of all his work was the band's first album cover. It was not quite like what the band wanted but a few changes and the painting was done. This idea was then used for the band's first album; the album was a critical and commercial success. The artwork on two singles leading up to the album was very well thought out. The first single has someone running into an ally with Eddie waiting and the second was the banned single sleeve that showed Eddie standing over Lady Thatcher holding a knife. Due to the graphic nature of the sleeve many shops would not sell it with the sleeve but it was still a chart hit and helped to give the album some publicity. Again this was all planned for the first album release where Eddie would be seen properly for the first time.

No other band at the time had a 'mascot' like what Iron Maiden had. It was used to promote the band but mostly to give the band an identity on the shelf of the music store. More singles and albums followed with the Eddie character and the band went on to have huge success not only here but in America as well. Again with the band having a very distinctive look they seem to get over around the world with very little air play and practically no promotion.

Just about every metal band for ten years has copied Iron Maiden artwork but not one has captured the originality of the bands identity.

The band knows without airplay they would be missing vital money to play live gigs. This is where the band set up a fan club and also made a very good decision to sell their own merchandising. This has been done by many bands but they kept control of the entire Iron Maiden concept. Only products the band liked were sold, this helped to make sure the fans were not buying cheap crappy products. Also it stops the management getting money so that more money was available to tour on the next album. Iron Maiden merchandising is so unique that it still sells tons today. Everything from T Shirts to coffee mugs can be bought direct from the band.

Musically the band is as individual as you can get but another factor the band hated was the idea of a single being 3 minutes long. Most metal bands were not releasing singles at all. They again went out to release singles from every album and the hard work paid off in 1990 with a number one single. Another thing was they would fill each album as much as they can with new material. A 12" LP can hold about 45 minutes and they engineered the music and the songs to make the most of the record. So you pay the same money and get more than most other bands. This was a trend that still exists in metal to this day and they were the first to start doing it back in 1982. Number of the Beast 44:46, Piece of Mind 45:50, Powerslave 50:57, Somewhere Back in Time 51:24 and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son 43:50. Even when CD was outselling the 12" they would fill the CD up as much as they could (Around 70minutes in 1992).

The band were invited on Top of the Pops in 1980 and refused to play due to the TV show wanting them to mime. This was a big thing as no one would play live on the show back then. The band refused to lip-synch and got their way to be the first band to play live since the Who in 1972. Many bands followed to the point that bands were asked if they would like to play live. I remember Top of the Pops showing some great rock and metal bands and they always stood out due to the live sound they would get on the show. It makes you want to see em live if you know what I mean.

The record industry was changing at the time Maiden started due to MTV, ok the band never invented the music video but did in a sales kind of way. The first concert to be filmed for a video release as Iron Maiden at the Rainbow. Again in 1980 when video recorders were still very expensive and so few could buy them. But the band knows what the industry would become and were years ahead of the rest. 

Iron Maiden was the first to play behind the Iron Curtain, (and did it while running about the stage with a union jack). They showed the rest of the world that you can play anywhere, playing in Poland was a real big thing back in the 80's as no band would go near. Much of the reason was due to cost as paying off the officials and the gangs were risky. And to this day they still play new places that other bands will not play. Take a look at the documentary Flight 666 where the band with the singer Bruce Dickinson as the pilot go around the globe and play to the countries that they are told they can't play due to money.

The band had a four album firm commitment deal from EMI. This is unheard of in the music industry and I have never heard of it myself. Even Oasis and all the huge bands would never have been given this deal. Most are three albums no matter what and you will get paid if it goes well. Once again the band could show that they can deliver on the deal. They had the first two albums ready to record and present the artwork to the record company for future releases. Full creative control over music, artwork and touring was handed to the band. All this and a four album fixed deal.  EMI are a conglomerate company and for this to be offered to a metal band… Wow. Just as well the band was successful. 

In a poll done in the 90s people were asked to name the most British thing they know. This was a question asked to people out with the UK to see what people recognise first of all to be British and to utter surprise the result was Eddie and Iron Maiden.

 

29x the Fun/Pain

I have been asked a good few times what my internet nickname means. Well it is more a homage to one of my most favourite songs in the world. The classic 29x the Pain by The Wildhearts. The song was written and recorded as a quick B Side to the Suckerpunch single in 1994 and released to help promote the band headline the second stage of Donington.

A very simple song and easy to play is certainly not a technical highlight by the band but it does have one great thing and that is lyrics. It was written by a man who is a huge music fan and loves many diverse and exiting bands. Nearly all of the lines have one or more references to another band or artist. The song name in its self is derived from Hüsker Dü's song "59 Times the Pain".

The 29 part is a funny one but it has been explained by the song writer Ginger as the 29^th Wildhearts song and he wrote it when he was 29.

The song was only ever put out on a B Side and is pretty much the most popular song the band play live. A re-recording was made in 1996 with a guitar into added and a reference to Richie Edwards replacing Kurt Cobain.

The single made it to 38 in the UK charts a then fell out of the uk top 100 the next week but it will always be a great song and one that many people love.

The song has a rather odd outro in the form of a mini rap called the "Duck Song". To this day when the band play the song live the audience finish the rest of the tune by singing the "Duck Song".

 

Be kind to your web-footed friends

'cause that duck might be somebody's mommy

They live in the rivers and swamps

Where the weather is always damp

Well you may think that this is the end

Well it is

 

29 has also been a bit of a lucky number for me as one time when I was a student I was down to my last £10. I was in the casino and placed it on 29 Black and won.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HfIQnDDL8o

 

29 x the Pain

 

Here, sitting in my room,

With the Replacements and Husker Du

Like a rebel without a clue

And the Beatles and the Stones

Get to hang out with Ramones

And the Pistols shot in fame

As they sing the old refrain

Like they always will again

Like 29 times the pain

 

I see Starz

And the moon is Big and Black

It's a full sheer heart attack

And the Cheapest Trick of all

Is when I here that London Call

I need something and I need it fast

I need Jason scorching past

I need to know they feel the same

Cos when they almost know my name

It's like 29 times the pain

Times the pain

And it all ends up the same

 

Kiss my Heart

Never felt that from the start

Come on make me feel like me

SLF and BOC

Give me old, give me new,

Let me know you feel it too

To the sound of Twisted Girls

There's a brave new world oh

How, how can I get down?

When I've got all my friends around

I want to be here once again

I'm gonna miss Kurt Cobain

Like 29 times the Pain

Porn for Gadgets

As we all know the porn industry is huge. And with the many ways you can get porn it can generate around $3,000,000 an hour.

That means many people are buying porn every day and over multiple formats.

Something many people who have porn will say 'it is not mine'. That is technically true as much of it is stolen or copied and sold by men in long raincoats.

Back when porn was only seen in a special cinema that was out of bounds for kids men paid like a normal night at the flicks, to walk about a cinema with sticky carpets. This was big business on its own and evidence has shown that the earliest film recording known is a pornographic film. Just think the camera was invented and someone decides instead of using it to film his birthday or a holiday they opt to make a porn film. Why? To make money.

New technology has been invented and then taken over by the porn industry. At times technology has fallen by the waste side due to it not being taken by the porn market. As people don't like to buy it legally and also due to it being banned in many countries. People would choose a certain product over another. Some of the big gadgets you have in your house were on the market with many other similar items.

Remember the VHS and Betamax war? Back in the 70s and 80s both formats bring recording into the home. And both done it well, VHS was the invention of JVC and the Betamax was the Sony machine. We all have owned a VHS, but why? The format won in the late 80's due to a great advertisement campaign by JVC and Sony claiming the film companies would not release on the Betamax format. But in truth many men opted to buy a VHS recorder as porn was easily available in rental shops and more importantly from the black market as copies. Yes two VHS recorders and a Scart cable and you can copy as many videos as you like. No real reason has come to light for the VHS victory but as we now know it was due to porn.

Amiga Vs Atari from the late 80's was a battle to outdo any. With Atari people jumping ship to Commodore and Amiga guys jumping to Atari. Did you know an employee of Amiga invented the Atari ST? And an employee of Atari invented the Amiga? No well there ya go, that is how intense the rivalry was with each company stealing manpower trying to get one over the other. Atari were doing very well outselling Amiga then for some reason Commodore came right back into it. On the black market most games were bought and sold for cut price on both machines but as the Amiga was more advanced it seem to have better graphics and it was able to do FMV (Full Motion Video). Again many people were buying the disks and copying them, at one point the table was turned and Amiga started to sell very well and won at the end of the day. This is not just due to porn but it had a deciding factor. Also the Amiga was Internet capable and again another area the porn industry would use. Subsequently Commodore and Atari would both go bust and end making any computers. This was the first time porn was seen on a home computer and started something that will never be stopped. 

The internet was a great invention and was invented so scientists could talk to each other. But it started very slowly and grew bigger over years. From 1979 till about 1993 it was used by very few people and until about the mid 90's most people could never use it. But a big reason it took off so big then was that porn was easily available on the web. Type the word 'porn' into any search and many results came up on screen. By the end of the 90's 75% of the net was porn and much of the rest was online retailers trying to get a foot in the web. Remember the dot com demise? This happened as many people really used the internet for few things. Porn being a big use and again something most would never admit to. Pizza Hut had the first online commercial website in the early 90's but they were nearly ten years away from using it to make any real money. But the porn industry got way bigger and many companies to full use of the web. People signed up with credit cards and got a monthly dose of porn with no embarrassing trips to the top shelf in the newsagents. The internet may not have had a direct rival but at the time of the internet boom many cable tv companies were going under. People had to phone the company and ask for porn and then pay for it. Internet was so much more elusive.

Next up was the digital war. DVD or Digital Video Disk. Unlike the VHS war both were technically similar with the format only being decided by the manufacturer of the disk. You have DVD - (Minus) and DVD + (Plus). Both the same but one is cheaper to make and made by the big companies at a higher yield. The DVD came into the living room with a near HD resolution and made movies look far better than VHS. It was the same a laser disk but far cheaper. At first the DVD sales were low but in the video shops the rental of porn was high for DVD. And when the recording and copying of DVDs began in around 1999 the DVD took off big time and then DVD+ was killed off due to the price of blank disks being half the price of the minus ones. Much of the DVD sales on the black market were for porn. Many other things were released on DVD like games and films but the porn sales were very high and more expensive. 

And right up to now we have the Hi Def format the HD DVD and the Blu Ray format. Again much like the VHS format Blu Ray is the technically inferior of the two but won the war due to many factors. Toshiba invented the HD DVD and had the format finalized and on the market before Blu Ray. But film companies were reluctant to use HD DVD due to the decision that Sony was building it into the new Playstation machine. But many films came out on HD DVD and many more were out on the format than Blu Ray. At one point the HD DVD was doing better than its rival. But the porn industry went to the Blu Ray market and released the first Blu Ray disk. Yup it was not a film or a tv show but a porn disk making the format debut.