Description

Uk pressing with black EMI label and warning sticker on cover

The 12’ version of 2 Minutes To Midnight features the hilarious backstage quibbling in Mission From ‘Arry, where the bandmates engage in a rather Spinal Tap-esque argument. This was the first single from Powerslave and it rose to number 11 in the UK Singles Chart and number 25 on Billboard Top Album Tracks. The song has references to the Doomsday Clock, the symbolic clock used by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In September 1953 the clock reached 23:58, the closest it ever got to midnight. This occurred when the United States and Soviet Union tested H-bombs within nine months of one another. Despite popular belief, the song does not reference Cuban missile crisis, nor did the Doomsday Clock note any change related to it. In fact, at the time of the crisis, the clock was showing seven minutes to midnight. In 1984, when the song was recorded, the clock was showing three minutes to midnight. ‘Rainbows Gold’ was written by British progressive rock band Beckett. According to Nicko McBrain commenting the single in ‘Listen With Nicko Part VI’, the members of Iron Maiden were friends with members of Beckett. The band’s manager, Rod Smallwood, commented this version: “This was originally done by a band called Beckett who the band liked a lot. Adrian used to do a cover of another of their songs ‘Rainclouds’ in his band ‘Evil Ways’. Beckett was from Newcastle and had a great singer called Terry Wilson Slesser (incidentally I was Beckett’s agent prior to meeting Maiden)”. The song’s lyrics are fairly surrealistic, featuring a lyric Catch your soul, he’s willing to fly away, which Steve Harris previously borrowed and slightly altered to Catch my soul, it’s willing to fly away in the song ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ on Iron Maiden’s 1982 album The Number Of The Beast. ‘Mission from ‘Arry’, is a recording of an argument between bassist Steve Harris and drummer Nicko McBrain. The argument happened after a show in Allentown, Pennsylvania during the band’s World Piece Tour, and occurred due to a misunderstanding on stage between the two due to technical issues with Harris bass, which had led to McBrains drum solo going wrong. Because Harris bass was not working, he asked the closest man he could find – a light rigger – to tell McBrain to extend the solo. Rather than following proper procedure, the man started shouting to McBrain, which allegedly caused the drummer to ruin his solo. An angry McBrain had a confrontation with the man (it is unclear if anything physical happened) that Harris felt was unnecessary. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson was recording the argument with a concealed tape recorder. Allegedly the argument had calmed down before Dickinson started recording it and riled the two men up again by asking Nicko what he would have wanted the man to do had he been trying to tell him that the lighting truss above his drum kit was about to fall down, to which he replied “Well, I guess someone would’ve had to drag me out the fucking way or else I’m dead!”. The recording ends when the tape recorder was found. The last sound is of Harris saying “Some cunt’s recording this”. It was said that, after the tape recorder was found – and quickly turned off – the tape was rewound and played back, causing all of the men involved to “sit around and had a good laugh”.

Track list:
1. 2 Minutes To Midnight
2. Rainbows Gold-Montrose cover
3. Mission From Arry