It was 1984. The summer was turning into autumn as the world’s metal community expectantly looked forward to the next masterpiece from Iron Maiden. The band was on a roll and had kept improving album by album. They were set to conquer the world with their fifth album Powerslave, which was due to be released on 3 September that year, after which they would embark on their biggest tour ever – the World Slavery Tour, which saw them play 189 gigs spread over 331 dates.
That was still a bit into the future. For now, everybody looked forward to the first glimpses of new music, which would be released on the 2 Minutes To Midnight single and EP on 6 August 1984.
The single sold well (for a metal single), barely missing out on the Top 10 in their native UK. It made it into the Irish Top 10 though, and also saw some level of charting in Germany.
The single was made available in a number of formats, including an extended 12’’ maxi which had the exciting-sounding track Mission From ‘Arry on side B. It was exclusive to the 12’’ single, with a title that looked like it would another epic Maiden-track. A mission! It almost has the air of another epic storytelling Maiden track, filled with a grandiose adventure tale with lots of action and excitement.
They would have been right about the action and excitement, but nobody expected what they got.
When people got the release, they found that Mission From ‘Arry wasn’t a song at all. It was a recording of the band members having a… discussion? A heated exchange? They would surely not be arguing, would they?
Mission From ‘Arry is a 6:40 long candid recording of an angry argument between bassist Steve Harris and drummer Nicko McBrain. It took place backstage after a show at Fairgrounds in Allentown, Pennsylvania on 18 August 1983 during the band’s World Piece Tour.
Bruce: It wasn’t deliberate.
Steve: ‘E made a mistake…
Nicko: Now, I know it ain’t deliberate.
Steve: …for fuck’s sake.
Nicko: I didn’ know that at the time, right? I still didn’t that know Steve ‘ad a problem wif ‘is bass…
Steve: That’s wha’ I’m sayin’.
Nicko: …luckily enough, by the time I finished the poxy solo, ‘e ‘ad ‘is bass workin’ again.
Steve: It was all that fucking grief…
Bruce: All it takes is the guy…
Nicko: The grief was, because I bollocked ‘im up, n’ I ‘appened to tell ya, now I ‘ave to go out n’ apologize right. Fuck ‘im, I’m gonna go n’ apologize to ‘im!
Bruce: Well all you gotta do…
Nicko: It’s not for me to apologize. I bollocked ‘im cause ‘e fucked me up. Right there, ‘e fucked me up. ‘E was wrong!
Bruce: All you gotta do…no ‘e wasn’t wrong.
Nicko: ‘E was.
Steve: ‘E wasn’t wrong.
Nicko: ‘E did not ‘andle it…’e’s not even fuckin’ communicating, right?
Steve: Aw! I don’ wanna fuckin’ argue about this, it’s fucking stupid…I fink you’re really out of order, I fink…honestly.
Nicko: No bollocks! Oh I am not out of order!
Steve: You are. You’re a’itude is out of order!
Nicko: ‘E…no it ain’t!
Steve: It is!
Nicko: No it ain’t. The guy fucked me up!
Steve: I know ‘e did…
Nicko: Well then that’s out of order…
Steve: …’e din’ mean to.
Nicko: (close to hysteria) LOOK, I’M NOT SAYIN ‘E FUCKIN’ MEANT TO ‘ARRY!!!
Nicko McBrain was a new recruit at the time. Piece of Mind was the first album he appeared on, and the following World Piece Tour was his first time out with the band.
During the Allentown concert, bassist Steve Harris (affectionately known as ‘Arry to band and crew) encountered a technical issue with his bass rig just as they ended a song. As luck would have it, McBrain was about to head into his regularly scheduled drum solo, which might buy them enough time to fix it.
Harris grabbed a hold of one of the nearest roadies, which happened to be one of the lighting riggers, and asked him to go and get McBrain’s attention and tell him to extend his drum solo to give them the needed time to get things working. In other words… he was sent out on a mission from ‘Arry.
Unfortunately, instead of giving this task to someone who might know how to communicate effectively with a drummer during a performance, it was given to someone with no such experience. Consequently, things did not go well.
The incident is well covered in the second part of the History of Iron Maiden documentary series. “Ah, god, yeah. It was unbelievable,” says Harris with a grin. “I remember it so well. It was in Allentown, Pennsylvania.”
“I was sitting there,” McBrain said, “in full drum solo mode. ‘Tara-ta-trrrrrrr-ta-ta-bom-bom!’ And I get this prod on my back, halfway through this rude, dynamic part of my drum solo! I’m going, ‘WHAT?!!’ And this guy’s back there, going, ‘Oy! Blah-hah-hey!’ and pointing somewhere. And, I can’t just stop and talk to him! I didn’t have a clue what he was saying. So I go again, ‘WHAT?!!’ And all I can hear is still, ‘Hoi-foo-foo-foo-‘Arry!’ I thought, ‘Arry? What’s up with ‘Arry? I just kept drumming, telling him to fuck off!”
In short, the crew member was unable to get his message across effectively, which distracted McBrain to the point that his drum solo got messed up. He stood up, threw his sticks down on the snare drum with some force in frustration, raised his arms and screamed out loud. The sticks bounced back up high up into the air, and the crowd cheered, thinking this was all part of the act. It no doubt looked very cool, but McBrain was angry. After the show he found the roadie and chewed him out, calling him all sorts of names, telling him in no uncertain words to never do that again.
Steve Harris was walking past as it happened and felt the roadie didn’t deserve the amount of vitriol thrown in his direction. “He ended up messing up his solo,” said Harris, “or so he says. It didn’t sound that way to me, […] but I said, it wasn’t his fault. I was trying to get a message to you, because of the problem, blah and blah, so and so. And then I asked Nicko to apologize to him.”
“I said, I’m not apologizing!” says Nicko. “ME apologizing to HIM? No chance! Hell will freeze over before that! Nope, I was having none of that! HE should be apologizing to ME!”
Bruce: All you’ve got to do Nicko, is just go to the guy and say…
Steve: You didn’ know, n’ ‘e didn’ know, arright?
Bruce: “Sorry about shouting. It was a misunderstanding. But in future, tell Bill” – that’s all you gotta say.
Nicko: No. No.
Bruce: N’ that way, he’s a fuckin’ proud geezer…
Steve: Wha’s, wha’s the ma’er with ya?
Bruce: He goes…
Nicko: Look…
Steve: Cause if this is some sorta pride…
Nicko: I bollocked ‘im…no it ain’t pride. It’s, it’s not fuckin’ pride.
Steve: Well wha’s the ma’er wif ya?
Bruce: It is pride.
Nicko: Oh bollocks!
Steve: What’s the matter wif ya?
Nicko: The guy was wrong to ‘ave been fuckin’ dere to do wha’ ‘e done!
Steve: I know. All I’m, all I’m gonna say is that when you’re goin’ up tomorrow…
Bruce: No it isn’t wrong. What’s ‘e supposed to do? Turn ’round…
Steve: …this is a different a’itude, cause this is fucking stupid!
Nicko: I told ‘im straight out not to do it again.
Bruce: What’s ‘e supposed to do? What’s ‘e?…
Nicko: I’m not gonna go out n’ apologize for sayin’ that to ‘im.
Bruce: ‘E’s NOT!
Nicko: …’e was outta fuckin’ order
Bruce: ‘E’s not out of order
The fact that the guy had been on a ‘mission from ‘Arry’ to pass on a message at least explained things, but the way he had gone about it was still very frustrating to McBrain. This led to quite a heated exchange of views that fizzled out after some 15 or 20 minutes. And that would have been that, if it hadn’t been for vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
We can thank Dickinson for taping the argument. He found it all so amusing that he decided to record it with his concealed Walkman-sized tape recorder. The argument was dying down when he appeared in the dressing room with his tape recorder and asked them what was going on. They started telling him, which only served to re-ignite the argument. Things were proceeding exactly as Dickinson had hoped.
“I thought, this is getting so absurd,” Dickinson said in the History of Iron Maiden documentary, “because the stuff that was coming out was just funny. So I got my little Walkman, put a tape in, switched it on, and snuck it in there.”
Harris grins as he recalls what happened. “Bruce came in after the row had been going on for a bit, and maybe was simmering down a bit. And he’s coming in, and he’s put the old tape on and stood in front of the tape and started winding us both up!”
“It had all calmed down,” McBrain said, “and Bruce came in and he’d got a bloody cassette [recorder] in his back pocket, and he said, ‘Oi, Nick! What would happen if he tried to tell you the lighting truss was going to fall on your head?’ And I said, ‘Don’t you fucking well start,’ and ‘Arry said, ‘Yeah, he’s got a good point, ain’t he?’ So we started the argument again and that led to this whole thing that was recorded!”
The taped discussion is as such a repeat of the first one that wasn’t recorded. Dickinson can be heard deftly steering the disagreement away from any conclusion.
Bruce: What ‘appens if the lighting truss is gonna fall down on yer ‘ead? Does ‘e go?…
Nicko: Well then somebody drags me out o’ the fuckin’ way, or else I’m dead, right?
Bruce: Yeah, but don’t…I mean…you know.
Steve: I fink your a’itude is totally fucking out of order.
Nicko: No it ain’t. No it ain’t.
Steve: Yes it is!
Nicko: No it ain’t. If I’d ‘a known…now I’m the fuckin’ cunt all of a sudden!
Steve: No, you’re not the cunt.
Bruce: You’re not a cunt.
Nicko: Because I told ‘im ‘e was out of order, n’ I didn’t know ‘e was on a mission from you to tell me that ‘is bass, your bass was FUCKED!
Of course, it couldn’t last. “Steve found the tape recorded in the end,” says Dickinson. “That’s how the whole argument finished, where he goes, ‘Some cunt’s been recording this!’ and turns it off.”
Right there and then, Harris and McBrain were both upset at the subterfuge. “Steve grabbed him, and I pulled the cassette out,” McBrain told the crowd during a fan Q&A at Rock and Roll Ribs on 10 December 2016. He put the tape on the floor to stomp on it and break it, at which point Dickinson panicked.
“Next thing, Bruce got away from ‘Arry and he gut punched me! I mean, he gave me a good BOOM! Ugh! Argh! With that, he’s picked the cassette up and buggered off down to the hospitality parlour. I’m livid now, getting my breath back. I looked at ‘Arry, who said ‘Leave! Don’t do it!’ I told him, ‘Steve, nobody resorts to violence in any band I played in in the past or in the future. I’m going to go kick this fuckin’ idiot!’ I was steaming down, and found Bruce sitting on the couch. He stood up when he saw me coming at him. I was seriously going to leave the band. Honest, I was going to leave. He stood up and said, ‘Nick! I’m sorry!’ I stopped like they do in cartoons, you know… skidding to a stop with black smoke coming! I shouted, ‘What?!! What do you mean you’re sorry?!’ He holds the cassette up, and he said, ‘I forgot that I’ve got some lyrics for a song called Powerslave on this cassette. I had to save it.’ And that was our best album!”
Luckily, Dickinson’s pleads to save the tape were heard. “Nicko, bless him, saw the funny side of it,” Dickinson summarised. “In fact, we all saw the funny side of it.”
Half a year or so later, the tape was brought into the band’s next studio sessions as they were recording the Powerslave album. Everybody remembered the incident only too well, and they decided to give it a listen. It was played loudly and clearly over the studio sound system. Everybody were on the floor in stitches.
“We sat in the studio and played it, and we couldn’t stop laughing,” Nicko said. “And ‘Arry looked at me and said, ‘It would make a great b-side, wouldn’t it?’ I went, ‘you reckon?’ He went, ‘Yeah, cor, it would be dangerous!’ I go, ‘Yeah, that is dangerous, you and me going at it!’ So that’s it. That’s how that came about.”
As Mission From ‘Arry was scheduled for release, it needed to be given some writing and production credentials. The track credits almost becomes the punchline to this story. Hilariously, the track was put down as a Harris/McBrain composition, giving Nicko McBrain his first and only writing credit on an Iron Maiden track.
The clincher? “Produced and Engineered by Bruce Dickinson”!
The track has always been considered a very funny glimpse of a Spinal Tap-esque band argument. Far from every band would have been willing to release something like this. The fans warmed to the band’s ability to laugh at themselves, praising their down-to-earth mindset and willingness to have a laugh alongside their fans at their own expense.
Some fans would however question the validity of the argument, suggesting that it was staged or created on purpose. McBrain has always fiercely refuted such claims. “Still, to this day, some of you think that this was a choreographed piece of entertainment for all you guys and girls,” McBrain said in 1990. “Well, I can tell you it fucking well was not. It was, in fact, the very fucking only argument I’ve ever had with Steve Harris. After this extravaganza, we thought it was so funny we had to let you guys hear it.”
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