On New Year’s Eve, 1978, Iron Maiden recorded a four-song demo at

On New Year’s Eve, 1978, Iron Maiden recorded a four-song demo at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge. Hoping the recording would help them secure more gigs, the band gave a copy to Neal Kay , who, at the time, was managing a heavy metal club called “Bandwagon Heavy Metal Soundhouse”. After hearing the tape, Kay began playing the demo regularly at the Bandwagon, and one of the songs, “Prowler”, eventually went to number 1 in the Soundhouse charts, which were published weekly in Sounds magazine. A copy was also acquired by Rod Smallwood , who soon became the band’s manager. As Iron Maiden’s popularity increased, they released the demo on their own record label as The Soundhouse Tapes , named after the club. Featuring only three tracks (one song, “Strange World”, was excluded as the band were unsatisfied with its production), all 5,000 copies sold out within weeks.