Description
Double picture disc album with poster. Limited 200 copies
The Killer World Tour lasted from February 1981 to December 1981, with a total of 131 concerts. It was Iron Maiden’s first actual world tour. The tour began in the UK and continued into Europe. After that, Iron Maiden played for the first time in Japan and the United States, which connected to Judas Priest. The Killers album was released on February the 9th and it reaches #78 on the Billboard charts, and stays in the chart for 17 weeks. It reached sales of 200,000 sales (four times the sales of their debut album) at the time. On the day of the release the album is reviewed in Sounds Magazine who calls the album mediocre and a definite flop. They also go on and says that Iron Maiden as a band wouldnt go far. The Killers tour starts in England a week later and quite soon it shows that band are onto something much bigger than predicted by Sounds magazine. The tickets for the 3 Japan shows that will take place in May of 1981 goes on sale already in February and all tickets are sold out in less than 2 hours. So Maidens popularity exploded with Killers but not everything was positive. One particular member thought he had to adopt a rock star lifestyle by being in successful rock band. That member was Paul DiAnno and after abusing lots of alcohol and drugs the band had to cancel and reschedule shows during the tour. Band leader and founder Steve Harris wasnt going to let this happen and cancelling shows was intolerable and a bit into the tour he realized that Di’Anno had to go. This album however was recorded very early into the tour at Taunton Odeon in Taunton, England on the 28th of February 1981. This was only the 11th gig on the tour and so far the band hadnt left England so what you hear here is a band still very hungry and anxious to get this going and reaching the next level on the steps to stardom.
Track list:
1. The Ides Of March
2. Wrathchild
3. Purgatory
4. Sanctuary
5. Remember Tomorrow
6. Another Life
7. Genghis Khan
8. Killers
9. Innocent Exile
10. Murders In The Rue Morgue
11. Twilight Zone
12. Phantom Of The Opera
13. Iron Maiden
14. Running Free
15. Transylvania
16. Drifter
17. Prowler