28 December 2011 - 10:45And the Answer is…

MAIDEN

It has always been Maiden. And I’ll tell you why, in this first installment of a trilogy that I almost titled “Episode IV”.



When I were a wee lad, growing up in the Old Blighty (that’s England for those that don’t know) we used to have this show on Thursday nights called Top of the Pops. It was a half hour top 20 countdown show, that highlighted what was hot in music that week, video snippets, live lip sync’d performances, bad hair, corny hosts and the Top of the Pops Dancers. It was the highlight of any young boy’s week -keep in mind that there were only 3 channels on TV back then, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. Channel 4 didn’t even exist. It was a huge deal when it came though, my brother and I watched the test pattern for that channel for about a week straight once because it was so exciting, but that is another story…

So summer of 1982, Maiden’s Number of the Beast was released and Run to the Hills was burning up the record charts. They had by far the most exciting video I’d seen on ToTP. Compare that to the quite boring Depeche Mode or Human League or Toya Wilcox (who I had a crush on) and you came away either afraid or hooked. I was hooked. I remember quite clearly seeing that video for the first time, I was glued to the TV, fighting off my mother and step father’s attempts to change the channel on the telly, at least until the video was over.

“But mummy! I like Iron Maiden!” (I had an English accent)

“No you don’t”

click

Well, that was how it started. I’m self diagnosed with ODD, Oppositional Defiance Disorder. When someone tells me I can’t do something, I’ll go ahead and do it anyway. Some might call this arrogance, but I prefer to think of it as being driven to get what I want, you know, like opening a bike shop or something… Being 11, I didn’t have much of an allowance for records or tapes. Heck, I didn’t even have any way to reproduce music on anything of my own at the time. I didn’t even get my first tape player until the following Christmas, along with a copy of David Bowie’s Let’s Dance. Instead I was relegated to playing my parents records when I wanted to listen to something, which basically meant I was forced to listen to Elton John, The Beatles, ABBA and Kate Bush. I had to wait a long time before I could listen to Maiden in the privacy of my own room. But wait I did, and once I had the means I was enjoying Maiden, which opened the door for all the other metal greats I have loved over the following years.

My very first CD was Maiden’s Live After Death, which was quite an olive branch extended by my step father. He was the lead violinist for the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and had returned from a tour with it. I was shocked. I still own that CD today, and it is probably one of the best gifts I have ever received. The caveat was, that I couldn’t listen to it if my parents were home. No problem, then volume would never be an issue…

Tune in next week, when I continue to blather on about metal, and other non bicycle related things. BTW, did you notice that the “injuns” in the video rode bikes?

Also, so as not to disappoint Dough, I will do one last Ask George post. After being my 6hr riding partner at the Eastern Cup this summer, I can’t deny him 1 more lap. This time there is decreased chance of slicing a tire. Tune in tomorrow for that nugget FTW!