If like me you have more than a passing interest in music history, perhaps and more significantly the way in which any given band or artist begins their eventually successful career, then this is very much one that does just that.
Okay, so Iron Maiden went on to be mega huge, but as with any band back before those awful TV talent shows, they paid their dues and put in the hard work in the pub’s and clubs.
What Bob does so well here is tell it as if he is talking directly to you, yes his time with the band was less than a year, but in that time he played over 50 gigs with them.
Here is relative detail he tells of the onstage theatrics of the pre DiAnno vocalist, the offstage highs and lows.
With previously unseen photographs and a very detailed list of gigs played, Bob gives us “most” of his stories and facts from his meticulous diaries.
After his stint with Maiden he moved onwards to Praying Mantis, once again he tells it like it was, highs and lows and then of course moves on to the famous Metal For Muthas tour.
Personally for me this was when both Maiden & Mantis were at their best and having witnessed them for myself it brought back some great memories!
The often hilarious backstage antics and the tension in the bands is very well and carefully documented here.
After his exit from Mantis Bob then joined Weapon (Nowadays Weapon UK), I was a bit disappointed that Bob did not give us a chapter on his time with them, but I guess the publishers wanted him to concentrate on the other two.
All this is interspersed with little anecdotes and some of Bob’s personal memories of bands he had himself seen.
The back page has an edited version of a Pete Frame style Family Tree.
A must have book not only for fans of the bands but for anyone who wants to be taken back to the days of Pub rock and the birth of NWOBHM.
