Thunderstick and Paul Di'Anno chat about Maiden

[Spiff]

From our good buddies at Blabbermouth.

The Thunderstick one:

Q: So what led you onto the IRON MAIDEN gig then? Was it an audition, advertising?

Barry Purkis: "Yeah, I auditioned."

Q: Were you looking for a hard rock situation to play in or was that just the way it turned out?

Barry Purkis: "No, by that time I knew that I was good enough to be fully professional and I was getting very frustrated of being semi-professional and having to do work and going out to play weekends and evenings. I just thought, 'This is stupid,' because in Sicily I had been professional because of the nature of the band. We had a large road crew, in fact, funnily enough, we had a Swedish roadie called Bosse. He was great, a really good guy! And I'd come back to this country expecting to try and fit in to a fully pro band but it didn't happen obviously. But with IRON MAIDEN the setup seemed to be a lot better. You know, they were getting their own PA, they had their own truck and Steve Harris was very directional with what he wanted. He used to come to my house and we'd sit in the bedroom going over the bass and drum parts and stuff like that. That was it. Then they just phoned me up and said, 'Yeah, you've got the gig,' so I started playing with them."

Q: So why didn't it work out then?

Barry Purkis: "It didn't work out because they, at that stage, were going through a transient stage trying to find themselves, they couldn't find the formula. We had Tony [Moore] on keyboards, Dennis Wilcox, I can't even remember the guitarist's name..."

Q: I think it was one of the Terrys...

Barry Purkis: "Terry, yes, Terry Wapram or something like that. It was great, but you could see that Steve had a direction and he was the driving force. Some rehearsals sounded great, absolutely great, I've got some on reel-to-reel at home, they're probably worth a bit. We've got the whole set with 'Sanctuary', 'Prowler' and 'Wrathchild', 'Iron Maiden', all of the early stuff."

Q: But what about "Thunderburst" / "The Ides of March" then? That must have been conceived while you were in the band?

Barry Purkis: "Yes, it was. I came up with a drum pattern that did that constant rolling. I would have ideas and Steve would then transpose that, because I don't play guitar. It was the same with SAMSON... I'm unable to pick a guitar up and show my idea, I have to sit there and go 'du-du du-du du, no that's the wrong note' and we'd go through it like that. So that's how it came about. And I had a drum pattern and I was trying to explain the chords to go down on the drum pattern 'cause the whole thing goes around the drum pattern. I think we played it a couple of times with IRON MAIDEN as an opening track. Just an intro, it was a throwaway thing, not really a track. The story behind that was that after we'd recorded 'Head On' and they'd recorded 'Killers', Clive Burr went round to Paul's [Samson] house to listen to the new SAMSON album and in turn took the new 'Killers' album with him. So Paul put on side one and they were 'Yeah, it's great stuff,' turned it over and up came 'Thunderburst' and Clive nearly fell of his seat and went, 'Fuck, that's 'The Ides of March','. Paul was like, 'What the hell is he talking about?' So anyway, long story short, I got summoned to EMI and there was Rod Smallwood and Steve Harris sitting there and a lawyer, solicitor, and an EMI representative and just me sitting there. So what was decided in the end was that Steve Harris would share 50-50 the publishing rights on the SAMSON version of it, but I never got sweet F.A. on the IRON MAIDEN version..."

And the Di'Anno one:

RockSomething.com: What do you think about MAIDEN [performing] lots of your songs again with Bruce [Dickinson] singing on them? On the "Early Days" DVD you say that Bruce is the better singer.

Paul: "You must remember that interviews and filming usually end up highly edited, and I actually said (on various occasions) that Bruce is a better singer for MAIDEN as they became in their later years. I think Bruce's high operatic and theatrical type voice is better suited to MAIDEN's later material, but I honestly think he sounds like a fucking fairy when he is trying to fill my shoes on songs from the first two albums. My voice is aggressive and violent (kind of like me in a way) and it sounds like someone dragged me up from a low-class background and I was used to having a regular fucking good kicking (in the bollocks) every now and then. On the other hand, Bruce's voice is sang in The Queen's English — very politely and with all the letters pronounced properly, and you can imagine him practising his sword fencing whilst practising his vocal exercises. He sounds like a very nice public school boy (which he was) who used to sing in the local church choir after school and was an instant hit with all the old grannies. Meanwhile, I was getting my dick sucked by all the fanny in the park being the fucking animal that I have always been. Bruce is silver but I am gold, as simple as that really."

RockSomething.com: The first two albums are still often listed as people's favorite MAIDEN albums. Does this make you proud or do you wish at times that you could get away from your MAIDEN past?

Paul: "There are still a lot of people who seem forget that my voice was and still is a huge part of MAIDEN's past, and I am both happy and proud of that fact, as MAIDEN got there with my voice. However how comes some cunts make a big fucking noise about me singing 'Running Free' and the other classics, but when Bruce is out there singing the first two albums and trying to clone my voice, then that is perfectly acceptable?"

RockSomething.com: Did you ever listen to the Blaze-era MAIDEN?

Paul: "I try to not listen to shit."

 

[salty]

haha Paul's a champ.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I always wondered about the Thunderburst / The Ides of March thing.

 

[Southy]

Gotta love the way Paul calls it as he see's it, I guess that's why he has never got far in the music biz

 

[Mark]

That's pretty fucked about Thunderburst.

 

[Winmar]

That interview just confirmed my opinion that the man's a tool.

 

[Icarus]

Paul reallllllyy needs to stop trying to live off the first 2 maiden albums.

 

[Winmar]

Too bloody right he does. Can't he get over the fact that he's not the Maiden singer now and that Bruce shits all over him?

 

[Southy]

no, no he can't.

 

[TinMan666]

Paul reallllllyy needs to stop trying to live off the first 2 maiden albums.

the irony is that not only is he still trying to live off the first 2 maiden albums, he keeps making "beast" (ie: number of the beast) references to tie himself in with maiden as well, even though that's the album they made after they turfed him outta the band!

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I guess he wanted to try something new, after being in bands like 'Killers' never worked out.

 

[phlogiston]

Killers was a top band, they had some really good stuff. Battlezone was OK too, if not a bit generic.

 

[Wrathchild]

Wasn't he in a band called Lone Wolf too, or am I thinking of Dennis Stratton?

Hang on a tick. Stratton went off to form Lionheart, for whom Clive Burr played drums until he put Escape together.

I dunno, I used to be able to remember all this stuff because it was so much more interesting than Year 10 science lessons. Must be losing my touch...

W

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I have a 2cd Di'Anno best of that does have some decent stuff on it. Not great though.

 

[phlogiston]

Which one Blitz? Because he does have a 2 cd Best of that is truely, truely woeful.

This one, to be precise: http://www.pauldianno.com/solo/beyond.jpg

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Heh, thats the one. It is ok and has some good songs, but it isn't that great. I always meant to pick up the Killers cd I see around often, but I am pretty much over it now. Too much better stuff to check out.

 

[Winmar]

Jeshush Chrish, even that has Maiden in the title.

 

[phlogiston]

The funniest thing about that album is that it's not even a best of. It's a cover album, and the covers are mainly of Fastway tracks (as his manager is Lea Hart of Fastway).

Not what you'd expect Paul to be singing at all.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Hah, well there you go. I just saw it, bought it, listened to it, and shelved it. Didn't know much about it.

 

[PIV Bassman]

I remember buying a solo album by Paul Di'Anno after digging the first two Maiden albums when I was 14. I thought this will be good, he used to sing for Maiden, it will be different but it will still rock, right?

WRONG.

It was the album simply titled Dianno and it was the lamest, most lukewarm collection of shite I have heard. Even now I can't recall hearing anything quite as bad. Battlezone at least showed promise, but it still wasn't half as good as Maiden.

As much as people like to rubbish Steve Harris and say he has lost the plot or never had it or whatever it's very obvious where the song writing talent was on the first two albums! Paul Di'Anno can only shoot his mouth off to attract publicity, because he sure can't do it with the music he produces.

On another topic has anyone read The Beast, Di'Anno's biography? Is it any good?