Trivia

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Trivia

Here is some trivia about the creation of Eddie.

I first put this onto my facebook page and the Maiden fans enjoyed it.

So I thought I would make this a permanent feature of my website.

This is probably only of interest to Iron Maiden fans but it's the kind of stuff that even Iron Maiden don't know about.

Have fun folks.

Click on one of these pictures to get a new subject.

Scroll down for more.

Click on one of these pictures to get a larger version of that picture.

I was talking to a friend about when I used to live in Finsbury Park in London in the mid 1970's, and how run down it was back then. Well I went to look on Google Earth to see if it was still there and how much it had changed, and then I realized that I could get a street view. So this is a picture of the railway bridge and the wall and the houses in the background that inspired the background of the first Iron Maiden album cover. Of course it was night, there was a big moon in the sky and the trees weren't there then (it was over thirty years ago).

The one remaining old curvy lamppost is the one that I used on the first Maiden cover. It seems that it has become famous in it's own right.

it even has it's own facebook page;

https://www.facebook.com/Ironmaidenslamppost/

NB.

You will have to copy and paste the address,

I tried to make it a link but it didn't work

For those who wish to know, this is Endymion Road N4, in London UK. it is the North Western exit from Finsbury Park N4.

The house I rented a room in was just around the corner in Oakfield Road (down to the end and turn to the right)

have fun

Thanks to Google Earth for the photos.

When I moved away from Oakfield Road in London, I ended up living in this block of appartments in Finchley, North London. It's called Etchingham Court.

Back in the late 1970's it was very run down and surrounded by huge trees and gardens that had run wild. The facade of the building was just bare bricks then, and the windows were original 1920's steel frame windows (very cold in winter).

They were rental apartments and the top floors had holes in the roof, so when it rained or snowed it would land on the floor and drip through the ceiling of the ground floor.

Also it was rife with cockroaches.

It was horrible and most of my friends were unemployed, as was most of England, but we had some good times here.

It is here that I invented Eddie and painted the first three album covers.

There is some text on the photo, to read it you must enlarge the picture (click on it)

Thanks to Google Earth for the photos.

EDDIE KILLS SANTA CLAUS

Here is a small version of the very first Christmas card that I painted for Maiden back in about 1980 I think.

It's actually the apartment I used to live in in North London. It's the same block of apartments that you can see on the Killers album, but this is the inside of it.

That's my couch and my cat hiding behind it. His name was "Magus Matterguru, master of the universe." and he had a sister, she was called "Catblack the wizard's hat" but she isn't in the picture. They are both long dead now, but the picture remains. Have fun guys.

all the best

That's a photo of me back in about 1985. On my red couch in the apartment I owned in Finchley, North London. It's not the Etchingham Court Apartment, it's a different one just around the corner. Whilst Etchingham Court was very run down, Finchley it'self was quite nice. This time I lived almost opposite a park.

I was busy painting the "Somewhere in Time" cover for Iron Maiden.

Below are two photos of my painting studio back then. On the easel is the original, half finished painting of "Somewhere in Time"

I tried to zoom in so you could see it better, but there was not much detail.

A Friend of mine, Michael Kenny. Who some of you may know has been Steve Harris' roadie for many, many years. Came over for dinner with some other friends not too long ago. He bought along this old, unfinished painting of mine.

This is the first version of the "Piece of Mind" cover.

The story behind it goes like this;

Steve Harris had the original idea for this picture and he kept saying to me that he wanted Eddie "Sitting in the corner of a padded cell and looking really mad." So that is what I painted. But it's his idea and so it's a bad composition. Because non-artists cannot compose pictures properly. This composition is not the way it should be done. But he was so emphatic about it that I did it anyway.

When it got to this stage they saw it and realized that is wasn't really looking great. So then they asked me to stop and do it my way. which is the cover you now have on the CD.

So then Michael asked me if he could have this unfinished version. So I gave it to him.

This is what I ended up with.

THE

LAMPPOST

THE

BACKGROUND

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS CARD

THE EASEL

IN 1985

POM V1