Artist/Band:
Iron Maiden
Lyrics for Song: Listen With Nicko! Part VI
Lyrics for Album: 2 Minutes To Midnight-Aces High [EP] [1990]
(drumming and singing in the background)...
Oh..Oh! You cheeky! You slimeball! What did you do that for, you rotten terror Dave? You f'king put my
own voice and verbals in the... you know, they've heard me trying to sing this f'king song now.
Well how ya doing out there, you lot? Eh? Welcome yet again to Nicko's "not alot of people know that, or
knew that, or still don't... I don't know, whatever it is now days... number six." You are absolutely
devastatingly spoiled, the lot of ya. You're out there in your greasy sweaty debauched horrible stinking little
palms and fingers and all those horrible little bits and pieces that go on your hands... Are now the proudest
of possibly the most amazed Iron Maiden fans to own 2 Minutes To Midnight, Rainbow's Gold, Mission
From 'Arry... hoho! We shall talk about that later... And as you heard, that rotten Dave there will be tiddling
the knobs in the control room, decided to wack the microphone on... Aces High, King Of Twilight, Number
Of The Beast live! Oh you gosh, you've got such a package there! How can you still be sane, after this? I
mean, goodness gracious, listen to me, I've been playing it for six years! Hahahaa! Anyway, no!
Oh gosh, (sings) two minutes to midnight.... cha! Released the 6th of August 1984. My third single with the
band. I guess that must make the band's eleventh or tenth single, whenever. Don't write in and say, "Nick
I've got it wrong." or else I'll... (hits the microphone)... give you some of that! And, it got to number 11 in
the charts and this great British... oh by the way, earlier on I was thinking of trying to think... you know we
had the Bleeding BUDGET Company, which we all know who that is by now, right? Now there was another
company that I sort of mentioned prior to this little speech I'm giving to you now, and I won't actually tell
you who it was, but the kind of... the... the abbreviation of this I suppose you'll get it from, but I though we
could call them the Mighty Tight Veg, what do you think? I mean, they haven't got any clue, have they?
You know, I mean, nevertheless! Hahaha! Now then, we all know who they are, cause they've wimped out.
Nevertheless, we still got to number 11 in the great British charts thanks to you guys again, and girls, and all
them little guyettes and guygirls and znznzn... all them people sort of whatever out there... First released
single off the Powerslave album, and yet again this album was recorded in the Bahamas. Yes sir, mmmm
hmmm! Now, as we all know, 2 Minutes To Midnight, great song, good video... the first story format that
the band had ever put out on a video rather than just sort of crazy stuff and... and... the norm, you know.
Hehehe.
Rainbow's Gold was a song written by some friends of the band's, a guy called Terry Sles... Slesser, sorry
Terry I didn't mean to get it wrong... Terry Slesser and a guy called Kenny Mountain who ah... in a band
called Beckett together, I do believe. I might have go that wrong... so f'king hell what if I have! You gonna
do something about it? Huh huh? Come over here!
Anyway, now then, on the butt end of this here single was a track called Mission From 'Arry. See? Now,
those of you out there, still to this day some of you think that this was a coreographed piece of entertainment
for all you guys and girls. Well I can tell you it f'king well was not. It was in fact the, if only, the very f...
only argument I've ever had with Steve Harris. We were onstage in Allantown Pennsylvania one evening...
this was on the Piece Of Mind tour... when... although it was released on the back of a Powerslave single, it
was actually recorded on the Piece Of Mind tour. And, I was doing a drum solo... you know, new boy in the
band, do a drum solo Nick... get on with it. So in this period of time, Steve would go off to the back of the
gig and change his... if he had a dodgy bass string, or he... normally he would... but what happened on this
night, he was changing the battery on his remote, or his... should I say his transmitter. So, he sent this guy
around to tell Mike my drum tech to tell me to extend my drum solo, cause he weren't ready. But he didn't
tell my drum tech, he told this guy who was sitting at the back of the gig who was one of the riggers, a guy
called Paul who's no longer with the band, I wonder why? No, anyway, he said to him, "tell Nick to extend
his drum solo." So I'm playing... (makes drum noises).... and all that shit, and I gets a tap on the back and
this guy says "Ooy!" I go, "What!" "Ooy! Blahahaey!" I go "What!" He's going "Heyheyhey ehey!" and he's
pointing to Steve. I'm going, "EH?" He's going, "ah ah heyheyhey!" I'm going, "WHAT!!!" He's going,
"WAHEHAAHAHAYYY!" I said, "FUCK OFFFFFF!!!" Hahah... Jesus Christ, he made me FUCK!!! Oh!
Anyway, what could I do?
I stopped, I gone absolutely wally, so I've come off the gig anyway... and cut the... to make a long story even
longer, I've come off the gig and I gone in the dressing room and I said, "That f'king geezer at the back of
the gig! What the f'king hell does he think he's doing? There he is, he's giving me all these verbal signs and
all this stuff right?" I said, "I couldn't understand him, he was about three feet behind me instead of coming
up and shouting in my lughole." Harris said, "I sent him." I went, "You what?" He said, "I sent him." I said,
"What the f'king hell you doing sending him around to give me messages?" He said, "Well, I... you know...
play a bit more and you know, need a bit more time to change my bass thing-a-me-bob." And I said, "I
f'king care about that, this geezer made me fuck!" He said, "Well look, you better go and appologize to
him." And I said, "F'king right I am! I f'king appologizing to him, he made me fuck!" He said... hahaha!
That's the argument. We argued about fifteen twenty minutes, and it all calmed down, and Bruce came in
and he got a bloody cassette in his back pocket, and he said, "Oy Nick, what would happen if he tried to tell
you the lighting truss was going to fall on your head?" And I said, "Don't you f'king well start!" And 'Arry
said, "yeah, he's got a good point, doesn't he?" So we started the argument again and Bruce recorded it. And
then at the end of this Mission From 'Arry you'll remember this... 'Arry says... he grabs the tape... just before
he grabs it, he sees this tape in the pocket and he's going "some (beep)'s recording this!" Hahahaha! So he
got the tape, and that's basically how that all happened. But anyway, after this extravaganza, we thought it
was so funny we had to let you guys hear it. And that's the only serious argument I've ever had with Steve in
my life... or my life.
So, that just about gives me enough time in this little "not alot of people know that number six, part six, or
whatever", to tell you just a tad about Aces High, which as you know has got King Of Twilight on it, and
Number... NOB! of.. Number Of The Beast live. This song was released 22nd of... no it wasn't... heh! It was,
it was released 22nd of October 1984. Chart position 20 that got to. Now, at the time we were rehearsing the
Powerslave album, Steve was writing this single, I started to learn to fly airplanes in Jersey. And, I'd come
home from the aerodrome, and I'd have the old... you know, twisting the old ends of the mustache, twiddling
the old various bits and pieces... the hat and the goggles and the scarf... "Woah, tally-ho Biggles! You've
bandits at six o'clock low, coming out of the sun, 12 o'clock high! Watch out, full power, bomb's away
Biggles!" You know, all that good stuff. And I think it sort of slightly influenced Steve to write this song,
you know, about those 2nd World War spitfire pilots and those guys. Hey, shhh... just between you and me,
Steve... he doesn't like to fly. He hates it, he think's I'm an absolute nut case! But, you don't tell him I told
you, will you, because he'd be very upset.
Anyway, Aces High, King Of Twilight.... great! What a package this one is for you! I wish I had more time
to explain some more of the stories on 2 Minutes and things like that, around that time. But I really do have
to go now, I'm running out of time. Oh yes, just a little joke for you before I leave. Have you heard the one
about the two queers? The were fighting over a manhole! Hahahahah! See ya, I'm off! Bye!
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