Question(s) about Urchin (Adrian Smith)
maclen
any of these):
- This was Adrian Smith's pre-Maiden band. When Adrian was originally
offered a spot in Maiden after Tony Parsons was gone, he turned it
down because he thought the band had a good chance at making it.
- There is a snippet of Urchin playing "She's A Roller" on the 12
Wasted Years video with Adrian singing.
- Dave Murray was briefly a part of Urchin.
- As far as I know, their official output consists of two singles with
the songs: "Black Leather Fantasy" b/w "Rock 'n' Roll Woman", and
"She's A Roller" b/w "Long Time No Woman".
- Urchin used to play a song that evolved into "22, Acacia Avenue"
I was able to get my hands on a promo 45 of the "Black Leather
Fantasy" single (for the youngsters out there, a 45 is a 7" vinyl
single!), so from it I've learned the following:
- Urchin was formed in 1974 (the single is from '77, and the band
write-up says that it was formed "three years ago".
- In '77, the band consisted of Maurice Coyne (g.), Adrian Smith (g.),
David Hall (v.), Alan Levett (bs.) and Barry Tyler (dr.).
- "Black Leather Fantasy" was written by Adrian, "RnR Woman" by Alan
Levett.
My questions are:
- Did Urchin release any more songs other than these four?
- Did Dave Murray record with Urchin? and, does he appear in the
"Roller" single?
- Who wrote the songs in the "Roller" single (I don't have this single
and I can't find any info on it!)
- Is the full video performance of "Roller" available anywhere?
- Are there ANY live Urchin recordings floating around?
I've found out that there is very little information on Urchin on the
'net. I'm trying to put together sort of an "Adrian Anthology" and
I'm trying to gather as much info as I can. My next task after
getting all the Urchin info sorted out will be to research his "The
Untouchables" period (I know there are some live recordings of this
band floating around).
If you have any rare Maiden, Maiden-related recordings, please e-mail
me. Chances are I'll have something Maiden that will interest you.
maclen
Robert Skoog
>
> - Did Urchin release any more songs other than these four?
Not what I know of. There was however talk about that they did a recording
in late 78 but that was never released.
> - Did Dave Murray record with Urchin? and, does he appear in the
> "Roller" single?
Acourding to the Official Maiden he did appear on "She愀 A Roller" 7".
I don愒 know if he愀 on both tracks or just the "Roller".
> - Who wrote the songs in the "Roller" single (I don't have this single
> and I can't find any info on it!)
I Don愒 know.
> - Is the full video performance of "Roller" available anywhere?
NO, sorry. That would be so cool if Adrian released the entire concert.
> - Are there ANY live Urchin recordings floating around?
Yes, there is. I have three. One radio recording from 77 / 778 and
then I have 2 bootlegs from 78 - 80. On one recording they say that
"this is the last Urchin show, ever!" so that would be from late 79 or
early 80.
> I've found out that there is very little information on Urchin on the
> 'net. I'm trying to put together sort of an "Adrian Anthology" and
> I'm trying to gather as much info as I can. My next task after
> getting all the Urchin info sorted out will be to research his "The
> Untouchables" period (I know there are some live recordings of this
> band floating around).
>
> If you have any rare Maiden, Maiden-related recordings, please e-mail
> me. Chances are I'll have something Maiden that will interest you.
Have a look at my page, you might find something to use there.
Robert
--
Check out my latest news on - http://w1.340.telia.com/~u34014312/index.htm
Filip
> I've found out that there is very little information on Urchin on the
> 'net. I'm trying to put together sort of an "Adrian Anthology" and
> I'm trying to gather as much info as I can. My next task after
> getting all the Urchin info sorted out will be to research his "The
> Untouchables" period (I know there are some live recordings of this
> band floating around).
First off, I wanna let you know that I've got a dubbed tape that contains
Urchin demos and singles from around '76 and '77. The following songs are on
it:
See Right Through You
Walking Out On You
I Just Wanna Rock
Watch Me Run Away
Count Me Out
I Gotta Go
She's A Roller
Long Time No Woman
Black Leather Fantasy
Rock & Roll Woman
I should mention that the dubbed tape did not have much info on it, so some
of the track titles, my friend (Igor) and I had to come up with.
On the other side of the tape there's a live show by Psycho Motel
(Nottingham, 1996) and has seven songs on it (5 of them can be found on the
State Of Mind, Psycho Motel debut album, and two other songs which we
weren't sure where they were from). Haven't listened to this tape in a long
time though, I'll give it a listen, maybe more light will be shed on it :)
I used to have a Maiden website up a few years ago which I did with a friend
(some of you might remember Filip & Igor's Iron Maiden Page, I'm thinking
Forostar should be able to remember it :), and we had an entire section of
the website which concentrated on The Entire Population Of Hackney (the Iron
Maiden secret-gig, if you wanna call it that). We did some research on it
and I believe it will be of some help to you, because the whole thing was
pretty much Adrian's idea. Some songs they played, for example, are old
Urchin songs that were never released.
Our webisite has beend down for a long time but I've still got the Hackney
text saved up, and here it is (copied/pasted):
The show was held on 19th of December, 1985. Adrian decided to get together
with some old
friends and play a couple of shows. They played the Marquee Club, in London
under the name
The Entire Population Of Hackney. They also played a show under the name The
Sherman Tankers,
but there's not much info on it, but it is known that The Sherman Tankers
did a gig at Red
Lion in Gravesend.
The band line-up for the gig (The Entire Population Of Hackney) looked like
this:
Adrian Smith (guitars & lead vocals)
Andy Barnett (guitars & vocals)
Dave Colwell (guitars & vocals)
Mike Connelly (bass guitar)
Nicko McBrain (drums)
Kenny Mountain (vocals, and guitar on "Try" only)
Bruce Dickinson (vocals on last three songs only)
Adrian, Andy and Dave are all from a small place by London, called Hackney,
so the three of them
are "the entire population of Hackney" so that's where the band name comes
from.
The setlist looked like this:
-Juanita (written by Barnacle/O'Neill)
-See Right Through You (Urchin song, written by Adrian)
-Reach Out (written by Dave Colwell)
-Chevrolet (ZZ Top cover)
-Lady (also an Urchin song, written by Adrian)
-Guitar solo (by Adrian, of course, this solo later developed into the solo
Adrian and
Dave (Murray) played on Somewhere On Tour)
-Silver And Gold (another Adrian's song which he's had for some time,
released officialy five years
later with ASAP in 1989)
-That Girl (song co-written by Andy Barnett, in the band FM, Andy sings on
this one)
-Fighting Man (written by Dave Colwell, released as a B-side on ASAP's
Silver And Gold
single in 1989)
-School Days (written by Dave Colwell, Dave sings on this one, released as a
B-side on
ASAP single Down The Wire in 1989)
-Drum solo (by Nicko)
-When She's Gone (often misspelled as She's Gone, NOT a Black Sabbath cover,
but Adrian's song,
later released as a B-side on ASAP's Down The Wire single, 1989)
Encore:
-Try (Kenny Mountain's song, Kenny sings and plays guitar on this one)
-Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)
-2 Minutes To Midnight (Bruce singing)
-Rosalie (Bob Seger cover, Bruce singing again)
-Tush (ZZ Top cover, Bruce singing again)
Hope this helps you in your "Adrian Anthology" quest.
Filip
SKlein69
Bon Scott song with shortly before he died.
" Some cunt's recording this." Steve Harris-- Mission From Arry
Vlad
not sure about the Bon Scott thing.
Vlad
Chump
> > - Is the full video performance of "Roller" available anywhere?
>
> NO, sorry. That would be so cool if Adrian released the entire concert.
The footage contained on the Maiden 12 Wasted Years video, I am told, was
filmed as a promo clip for She's A Roller.
That's about all I know... but if it's a promo clip, then it's gotta be out
there somewhere.
Cheers,
Nausea