The Metal Voice's Jimmy Kay spoke with legendary DJ Neal Kay in an exclusive live interview. Topics covered in the chat include Blaze Bayley, Clive Burr's exit, Dennis Stratton, Iron Maiden songwriting court case, joining Rush on the Hemispheres tour, and his thoughts on Iron Maiden continuing without Steve Harris. Watch below.
Neal Kay was asked to confirm if there was indeed a second guitarist who played (rumour Paul Cairns played guitar and was uncredited) on Iron Maiden's legendary The Soundhouse Tapes, or was it just Dave Murray who did all the guitar work?
Neal said, "Dave Murray unquestionably, Dave Murray played on it. When I met the band there was only one guitarist in the band. Paul Di'anno was singing, Doug Sampson was on the drums, Steve Harris was playing bass and Dave Murray was the guitarist."
Kay continued, "I have also been involved in some crazy court case about all this recently. I got a letter from a lawyer who said, 'listen we want to borrow your Soundhouse Tapes cassette because we want to check it out more precisely'. The London lawyer left a phone number and I was really annoyed. These guys (the people the lawyer represented) were claiming that they wrote some of the chord structures to some of the songs and some of the lyrics. I got this letter that kind of said if would I help them and basically... I just wanted to tell them to F-off. I phoned them up and said, 'listen you, whoever you are, I hope you got the deepest pockets on the planet if you think you are going to tackle Iron Maiden in the court of law. Not only is this stuff you are telling me rubbish but I never knew any of these guys when I first met the band (Iron Maiden). None of them were there, there was only Dave Murray and I have been repeatedly told that Dave played on the recordings at Spaceward studios'. They came to me out of desperation thinking I would back them, I don't know where these people get off, they must be damaged psychologically."
The Soundhouse Tapes is the debut EP by Iron Maiden, and features the first recordings by the band. Released on November 9, 1979, it features three songs taken from the demo tape recorded at Spaceward Studios on December 30 and 31, 1978. The three tracks ("Iron Maiden", "Invasion" and "Prowler") appear in a rougher form than they would on the band's eponymous debut studio album and subsequent singles, as they were all recorded in one session.
Watch Part 1 of the interview with Neal Kay below:
Neal Kay's new official biography will be released in September by author Stjepan Juras with a forward by Iron Maiden's Steve Harris.
