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Tag Archive for: Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden, Steve Harris

Iron Maiden ‘Beyond Flight 666’ by John McMurtrie

4 Stroke

Steve Harris, where do we begin with Steve Harris? The only constant member in legendary British hard rock band Iron Maiden alongside guitarist Dave Murray, and is also the primary songwriter of the band. Since the formation of Maiden in East London’s Leyton in 1975 the band has released sixteen studio albums, toured the world a countless time in their own airplane flown by singer Bruce Dickinson and made their mark as one of the biggest heavy metal bands in history. Steve Harris has developed a recognisable way of playing such as the “gallop”. Paired with drummer Nicko McBrain and his unexpected clever ways, three guitarists and Bruce Dickinson sprinting and jumping across the stage throughout every single Iron Maiden show, and let’s not forget, fights Maiden mascot Eddie on a regular basis, their shows are nothing but spectacular. In addition to his bass playing and songwriting, Steve Harris has also produced and co-produced their albums, directed live videos and played keys for the band while in the studio. A Jack of all trades, so say the least.

Glenn Hughes

Crush Bass 100
AD200 MK3 Head
OBC810 8×10 Bass Speaker

Glenn Hughes is not just an incredible bassist, but a remarkable singer with the most astonishing vocal range. He first made a name for himself while in Trapeze, before joining Deep Purple in 1973 where he shared vocal duties with David Coverdale, and brought the funkiest bass lines to the band. With Deep Purple MK III he released “Burn” and “Stormbringer”, before Ritchie Blackmore left the band and Tommy Bolin was brought in on guitar for Deep Purple MK IV. They released “Come taste the Band” in 1975, before all going their separate ways the following year. Since then, he’s released a one of album with Pat Travers’ guitarist Pat Thrall, recorded with Gary Moore and fronted Black Sabbath briefly in the 80s. In more recent years, he released a one off album with his short lived band ‘California Breed’ with Jason Bonham on drums and guitarist Andrew Watt, as well as playing in Black Country Communion with Joe Bonamassa, Derek Sherinian and again, Jason Bonham on drums. His latest venture is touring the world, twice, as “Glenn Hughes plays Deep Purple”, bringing back to life all the songs from way back when.

Rush, Geddy Lee

AD200 MK3 Head
OBC410 4×10 Bass Speaker
OBC810 8×10 Bass Speaker

Rush have over the past forty years pioneered progressive rock with their unusual compositions and musical craftsmanship, with each member repeatedly being listed as some of the most proficient players of their instruments. This has led to Rush being somewhat of a ‘musician’s favourite band, and they have been highly influential within their genre, although that has changed slightly over the course of the career. Geddy Lee first started playing music when he was around 10 years old, and got his first acoustic guitar at 14. Before this, he played drums, trumpet and clarinet. However, it wasn’t until he was introduced to popular music at the time and some of the great Brits such as Cream, Jeff Beck and Procul Harum, and cited Jack Bruce as one of his first and early influences.

The Bronx, Brad Magers

4 Stroke
AD200 MK3 Head

It wasn’t until in recent years that Bronx bassist Brad Magers got his hands on his first Orange and we are stoked to now have him as one of our artists. He’s got a few different set ups consisting of either the 4 Stroke, or an AD200, which he describes as: “A monster of an amp, it’s just such a simple set up but exactly what it needs to be. I hate when all these amps have all these annoying tweaks on them as there’s just a few things you really need. As long as there is gain I’m pretty much good to go – you set it up in like two seconds and then you’re just there like: “Well, that’s the best sound I’ve ever heard!”  When Brad isn’t busy with the Bronx, he puts on his mariachi suit and picks up the trumpet with side project Mariachi El Bronx. Rumour has it that there might be a surf band in the works as well, but we can’t say for sure – yet..

Radio Moscow, Anthony Meier

AD200 MK3 Head
OBC410 4×10 Bass Speaker
OBC115 1×15 Bass Speaker

Anthony Meier’s first encounter with Radio Moscow was back in 2012 when his other band Sacri Monti played a few gigs with some of Radio Moscow drummer Paul Marrone’s other bands, and they got chatting. However, it wasn’t until a year later when singer and guitarist Parker Griggs relocated to San Diego that the band started looking for a new bassist. Paul suggested Anthony and he was invited to jam with them. Needless to say, the jam worked out well, as Anthony’s still in the band over five years later. When not on the road with Radio Moscow, he still keeps busy with his other band Sacri Monti that’s due to come over to Europe this summer. He also DJs regularly at local San Diego / Oceanside bars, and is an skilled pool player, some might even say excellent.

Tom Petersson, Cheap Trick

Rockerverb 50 MKIII Head
PPC412 4×12 Speaker Cab
AD200 MK3 Head
OBC810 8×10

Cheap Trick bassist and Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee Tom Petersson turned heads in the early 70s when he came up with the idea of creating a 12 string bass. The reason behind this was wanting to make the band sound as big as humanly possible, and by adding (after inventing…) the 12 string bass, he was left with an instrument that almost sounded like bass and guitar all in one. This has become a vital part of the bands sound, and his amps plays a huge part in this. He is a big fan of both the AD50 and AD200, and plays them both straight out without any pedals.

This is Maddox aged 8, casually dressed as The Trooper while waiting for Iron Maiden with his dad at the O2 earlier this year. (Spot the proud dad on the left) At the same show, I also spotted some kids sporting the same Black Sabbath tour tee I’ve got at home from their 2017 farewell tour, and a little girl in a Zeppelin tee, and you know what? Few things makes me happier than seeing stuff like that, accompanied by some proud parent who’s clearly got the whole parenting thing on lockdown. We live in a world with a pretty screwed up celebrity culture, where musical idols have been replaced by make up dolls based on the amount of followers and nearly nudes they’ve got on Instagram

Personally I’d say I was raised incredibly well, Daddy cool sure as hell didn’t want a pop princess of a baby, so for as long as I can remember he was blasting Motörhead, Ramones, Deep Purple, Kiss, Bad Religion Zeppelin, Sabbath, Rainbow, Pink Floyd – and the list goes on, and to this day without failure, we’ll set camp by his sound system every time I go home, and he’ll break out some old gold like Uriah Heep’s 1973 live album, German krautrock band Jane, UFO or Scorpions. As I type, my dad messaged me saying ‘I remember when you were a kid you’d get so scared you’d nearly shit yourself from the intro of this song’ and send me a link to ‘Too Much Rope’ by Roger Waters. That banging in the beginning would make my heart skip a beat, in a bad way, and he’d play it A. for his amusement and B. well, because I needed Roger Waters in my life.

Yours truly circa ’94-’96.

There’s no secret that many of the good ol’ timers are still going strong; Rolling Stones are kicking it even in their 70’s, Ritchie Blackmore’s brought back Rainbow, Iron Maiden are still shredding away and Alice Cooper is still the coolest cat in town. Sadly, Black Sabbath’s retired, Lemmy, Bowie and Dio’s passed away, and when all the good one’s are gone, who’s going to take over? In times like these, times where the biggest new musical acts tends to be pretty faces with an army of social media experts and a team of ten that writes them a hit of a pop song that’ll come down like a plague of locusts gone rogue, yes, in times like that, we need kids like Maddox more than ever.

Stadiums and arenas seems to be mostly for the olden golden Gods and teenagers in thongs, and you gotta go searching in dingy dive bars, basements, caves, mountain tops and trees to find the real talent – bands that deserves armies of fans and private airplanes with marble fireplaces, bands that will blow your mind and melt your brain. We’ve had Beatlemania, Woodstock, the swinging 60’s and the sensational 70’s where rockstars ruled the world. For some reason, it feels like the majority of the 2017 population of planet earth doesn’t recognize talent even if it’d come at you as despite nearly being knocked over by a wall of sound. Some of the best musicians and bands I know are working day jobs to support their musical careers, slavin’ away between nine and five in some soul-killing, uninspiring and draining job all so they can spend their evenings and weekends shredding the f* out. We need more parents like Maddox’s mum and dad – you gotta get ‘em while they’re young before they fall into the dark whole of mainstream and mindless pop. We need a musical revolution, and kids like Maddox can make that happen. Little man, please pick up a guitar, bass, or get behind the drums – you might just be the savior of rock ’n’ roll.

Massive thanks to both Maddox and his dad for potentially saving future generations, and letting me snap the photo above to share with the world.