During Nicko's solo, Steve was having some trouble with his bass and sent the first bloke he saw to tell Nicko to extend his solo. It all happened during a gig on the World Piece Tour, when Nicko was performing his drum solo. It is a recording of a real and extremely funny argument between Steve and Nicko, and the fact that it is unplanned and completely real makes it even more hilarious. Beckett were from Newcastle and had a great singer called Terry Wilson Slesser (incidentally I was Beckett's agent prior to meeting Maiden).ĭespite the fact that 'Mission From 'Arry' does not contain any music, it is in my opinion one of the best B-sides that Maiden has ever released. Adrian used to do a cover of another of their songs 'Rainclouds' in his band 'Evil Ways'. This was originally done by a band called Beckett who the band liked a lot. On its own however, 'Rainbow's Gold' is a pretty average song at best. Obviously Steve liked the line enough to borrow it, which is fine because it helped to create possibly the best song ever. The song itself is lyrically fairly surrealistic, with an interesting tie with the lyrics for 'Hallowed Be Thy Name':Ĭatch your soul, he's willing to fly away According to Nicko, the guys in Beckett were friends with the Maiden guys, but they apparently weren't incredibly successful. This is the same version as on the Powerslave album.īeckett 'Rainbow's Gold' was originally from a progressive rock outfit from Newcastle of the early 1970s called Beckett and features on their one and only 1974 self-titled album.
3 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT BAND ARCHIVE
Rod Smallwood's comments are taken from the Best Of The B'Sides album booklet included in the Eddie's Archive box. It is more than likely that these news also inspired the song. The blunt simplicities of force threaten to displace any other form of discourse between the superpowers." "Arms control negotiations have been reduced to a species of propaganda. On an interesting side note, in 1984, the Doomsday Clock was moved to three minutes to midnight, the closest it had ever been since 1953, when it was at two minutes. But the aftermath of this conflict is still painfully visible today, with former "pawns" turning against their old allies who let them down or still fighting against each other. The threat of global nuclear warfare was very vivid at that time and many people thought that it was going to end like this. The whole feel of the illustration is very reminiscent of the Cold War that saw many coutries being used as pawns by the superpowers of the West and the USSR. Cuba was engaged in Angola and other African countries at some point, but was also infamous for its threat to world peace since the missile crisis in October 1962.Israel was not technically engaged in a "true" war in 1984, but the words 'Israel' and 'war' were a common combination even back then.
The USA were already then guilty of being a major warmonger in the world, supporting military coups and delivering weapons all over the planet (the same, of course, applies to the USSR).The UK and Argentina had just fought the Falklands War.Iran and Iraq were at war against each other.The USSR had invaded Afghanistan in 1979, a conflict that was to last until the Soviet troops started to withdraw in 1988.At the time the single was released, all of them were engaged in an armed conflict of some sort. These countries are not represented there by accident. Does he actually want us for the massacre, or is he pointing the finger at us to indicate that we are somehow all responsible for this mess and that we are the only ones who can prevent such a catastrophe? The flags are, from left to right: Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, UK, Argentina, USA, Israel and Cuba. The sleeve picture is another one of Derek Riggs's masterpieces, showing a soldier Eddie sitting in front of a nuclear explosion and obviously in the famous 'Uncle Sam' pose, saying "I want YOU!".
3 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT BAND MOVIE
charts, and its video was the first Maiden video that actually told a story rather than the usual live concert shots and movie clips. 2 Minutes to Midnight (Smith, Dickinson)Ģ Minutes to Midnight is another classic Maiden single, and among the best songs written by Adrian Smith.
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