“If a fan got too excited and stood up, a security guy would bang them on the head with rolled up newspapers – it was like Whac-A-Mole”: Iron Maiden manager recounts band’s early Japan shows
Since forming in 1975, Iron Maiden have performed quite literally thousands of shows to audiences across the world. But doing so hasn’t made them forget some of the hilarious stories from their earlier gigs.
And as the British metal juggernaut’s manager for the last 45 years, Rod Smallwood has pretty much seen it all.
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In a new interview in the latest print issue of Classic Rock, he explains how he wanted Maiden to be a “hugely successful international band”, which is why they opted to tour in Japan before America, a country widely considered to be the golden ticket to mainstream success.
“Metal is a worldwide thing, and I always wanted Maiden to be a hugely successful international band,” he says. “I wanted parallel development across the world.”
But those early Japan shows revealed customs they weren’t expecting beforehand, like audiences being seated during heavier rock shows.
“We loved Japan. It was such a different culture to experience,” he goes on, recounting a show at Koseo Nenkin Hall in Tokyo on 21 May, 1981.
“One of the weirdest things for us was how the audiences were all seated. If a fan got too excited and stood up, a security guy would bang them on the head with rolled up newspapers. So the fan would sit down, but then another would stand up somewhere else, and then – bang! – they’d sit down. It was like Whac-A-Mole. Quite extraordinary.”
Of course, Iron Maiden went on to conquer America anyway, and Smallwood recalls the first time he felt that they’d made it.
Speaking on the band’s show at the Seattle Coliseum on 28 June, 1983, he remembers: “It was our first sell-out arena show in America. By this time we’d sold 380,000 albums there. I remember the exact figure.
“We’d done all of these support tours and now it was time to headline. So do we do theatres or do we go for arenas? If I knew then what I know now, then there’s no way I’d have done arenas. I mean, platinum albums don’t always sell out arenas. So I like to think it was inspiration, but looking back, it was more fucking madness that worked.
“Seattle was the sixth show on that tour. Sold out, 13,000 people. And believe me, I was very, very grateful. On that same tour we also sold out [New York City’s] Madison Square Garden. We rode to the venue in stretch limos, and I’ll never forget that feeling of: ‘Fucking great, we’ve done it!’”
View a full list of Iron Maiden’s upcoming tour dates via their official website.
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