Heavy metal historians will always associate the live album with Iron Maiden. Not only are Eddie and the boys responsible for a paragon of the format in Live After Death, but they’re apparently dedicated to immortalising as many of their own shows as possible. Maiden England, Rock In Rio, Flight 666, En Vivo! – all of them have reaffirmed this band’s drive to broadcast their performances across an entire global fanbase.
The Beast’s reputation for live recordings makes it all the more stunning when you learn that, for 20 years, they kept one of their finest locked in a vault. Beast Over Hammersmith could have been a breakout live album three years before Live After Death announced Maiden’s on-stage excellence to anyone who’d never bought a ticket. Captured on March 20, 1982 (two days before The Number Of The Beast came out) at the Hammersmith Odeon, it shows a band in majestic form at the height of their relevance. So why was it shelved for so long?
