The world of music are full of funny stories about bands members and how they got in or got out of their bands. Here’s one story about Paul Mario Day, Iron Maiden‘s first singer:
“It’s hard to remember the details, but I remember Steve being the bass player playing in a band at the Bridge House in Camden. It was Gypsy’s Kiss. I knew the guitar player because he was maybe one year above me at school, but never knew him to talk to. I knew Steve and I thought, ‘He’s bloody good.’ I heard he was only playing for three years and I thought,‘He’s bloody amazing!’ That was forgotten.
I was working as a motorcycle mechanic in East London. I was outside the workshop and I saw Steve Harris and a group of guys walking past the workshop. I never really was in a band, I just worked with guitar players in bedrooms, just sort of learning, experimenting, becauseI wasn’t really a singer. I just felt I could sing.
So I said to the group of people and I focused on Steve because I’ve seen him before: ‘I think I’m a singer. Could I join your band?’ And he went, ‘No.’ I went, ‘Okay, no problem.’ I went back to work. A few days, or maybe a week or two later, Steve says, ‘I couldn’t say anything because the singer was with me of the band.’ I don’t know who it was and he says, ‘Yeah, I’m interested. Do you want to come and have a blow?’
So I did, they liked me and straight away,I was singing some of Steve’s songs. He wrote some songs before the Iron Maiden period, they were in the old band. I sang and he wanted me to stay. I seemed to fit and then we started rehearsing. Then all the songs were being written and I was singing his songs.”
“This is my opinion. When I sang in Iron Maiden, it was a new pub band and nobody wanted to see or hear them. We were all nobodys all trying to make the best music we could and fighting for an audience.”
