Adrian Smith and Dave Murray: Twin Guitars! Malcom Dome: Adrian brought a very strong song-writing talent to the band, as well as talent as a guitarist. And he and Dave worked because there's no ego problem there. The twin guitarists have to work together. There's not point having one say, "I want to do that solo... I'm not letting YOU do it", and the other one going, "oh no, that's MINE, mate!" What Dave and Adrian have always been able to do is dovetail. They complement each other. Their styles are sufficiently similar to their working in a focus, and they actually melt. They are sufficiently different so they don't overlap. And it worked brilliantly at the time, and certainly on Killers, you can see the start of the whole thing. It was embryonic, but it was there. And Number Of The Beast was the focus of the whole thing. Steve Harris: I always wanted to have a twin lead guitar thing, so it was like, you know, harmony guitars, but also, like, both taking solos. And this point, if they both sound the same style, it's pointless having one do a solo and then the other one does a solo, it's just going to sound like the same person. So it's great that they're both very different in style. I mean, Dave is probably the more fluent in the sense that he would just rattle off a solo just off the top of his head or whatever when you think about it. Whereas Adrian would work things out more. Consequently sometimes, the solos are very memorable 'cause he tends to work more melody lines within the solos. So it's a very contrasting sort of style, really, you know. Adrian Smith: Well, I've known Dave since we were 15 years old, you know. We started off playing together, we were friends before we even started music. So we always had an understanding as far as playing goes. Purely because we'd known each other for so long. So… we had a lot in common, we grew up listening to the same music and had the same influences, so… and we're not the sort of guys who try to outdo each other all the time. We was working together as a unit, I think. A lot of times, you find in a band the two guitarists trying to outdo each other, but I think we realised the importance of being sort of a unit. Dave Murray: When Adrian joined there was all that… you know, everything was suddenly all set in stone, you know, the foundations were there. As far as that particular time in our career. And it was great to be able to, you know.. being a friend as well, you know, you have got to deal with somebody you know, or whatever… So that made it really nice. Adrian Smith: I think we probably took the two-guitar thing, which was originally one of the first bands with probably Wishbone Ash to do that. I think we just took it into another area. Dave Murray: We actually complement each other, I mean it's more like team work. You're playing together and you want to complement each other, and I think that's been the beauty of this band, and within the structure of Iron Maiden's songs as well you can actually sort of weave together completely different, so you when the nucleus is right there and then they spread out and they come back. I think that's how it's been great, and I think that's one of the strength within the songs as well is being able to do that. Adrian Smith: That's about personalities as well, you put your personality into the music. Mick Wall: Dave Murray is a lead guitarist, and he'll go on stage and he'll improvise, he'll go with the flow. Adrian is far more of a rhythm player, he's a great lead player as well, but he's also a songwriter. He also likes rhythm and groove, and he will have his parts extremely well worked out before he goes on stage. Martin Birch: Dave… They're two different characters obviously, but Dave is very laid back as a person. I don't think I've ever met anybody more laid back than Dave is, as a person. But underneath that calm exterior there's a hard rocker in there. And you go and say to him, "Davey, play a solo, you know we've discussed what kind of, you know, where to go and all that…" and he just plays it, I mean he comes up with some wonderful stuff. Off the top of his head most of the time, which was great with him doing it. And Adrian is slightly different, I mean Adrian puts a lot more sort of kind of thought to preparing a solo. And he might work out a bit the harmonies to go certain places. Dave Murray: On tour we'd actually tried to change things 'round and maybe keep the same melodies, some of the key little features of that solo. But most of the time it was sort of spontaneous. And that way it keeps you on your toes, it makes it more interesting. Some times it would come off and some times it doesn't quite work, but that's how it should be I think. Mick Wall: They were fairly static, as live performers, and you had Steve Harris who literally runs all over the place, and of course Bruce Dickinson who'd be swinging from the chandeliers, you know. |
Adrian Smith--as known by Bruce Dickenson From Iron Maiden.com I first met Adrian when I was in Samson and he’d just joined Iron Maiden. We were over the road from each other in different studios; we were doing the second Samson album and he was doing ‘Killers’. He was very much the new boy in the band, but I was really impressed with the style of his guitar playing. And he was dead rock and roll. He was skinny, pasty and waiflike, and he looked really cool! He’s a pretty mellow person, and he’s got a very dry sense of humour. His nickname in the band used to be Willie-Orwontee - not for nothing! He likes to take his time over things, which is not a bad thing and in the old days when we used to do soundchecks together, we’d all be waiting for him, he’s such a perfectionist over sound. In a world populated by faceless guitarists who all go to school to learn how to do it and end up all sounding virtually indistinguishable, Adrian has evolved a tone and style that is all his own and is unique. Nobody sounds like Adrian, and that is priceless. His guitar playing sounds lazy, like the notes are almost falling over each other but they never do. You actually hang on every note that he plays, because you don’t quite know where it’s going to go next. He’s a very good athlete. When he plays football or tennis, he has a natural grace, and that’s what his guitar playing’s like. When he plays football, he gets the ball and you think, ‘He’s never going to get past that guy’, but suddenly, there’s a little shuffle and he’s dribbled past him. And it’s like watching him play guitar. I swear to God the timing is the same! When he left the band in 1990, I think everybody was a bit surprised at how much we missed him and certainly, I don’t think anybody had realised how much the fans would miss him - big time. I wouldn’t have rejoined Iron Maiden if he wasn’t in the band. I just don’t think it would have been complete without Adrian, and now, it’s great having three guitarists. I think possibly one of the greatest tracks he’s ever written is on the new album; it’s called ‘Paschendale’. When I was writing stuff with him for the album, I noticed he had lots of Siegfried Sassoon and other war books lying around, and he was researching this track. It’s a fantastic song and really evocative of the whole horrific period of warfare - a stunning piece of music, ten minutes long. Adrian’s philosophy, I guess, goes back to something we were talking about one drunken night. He turned around and said, 'The thing about me is, all I’m interested in is just having a bit of a sing and a play', and that is at the root of everything that is Adrian. He’s happy having a drink, having a sing and playing guitar. And for something that’s that simple, he does it alarmingly well - especially the guitar playing. Dave and I grew up in the same area of London and I think we probably met at the local youth club, through a mutual friend called Dave McLaughlin. I knew that Dave McLaughlin was already playing guitar and I told him that I was a singer. I wasn’t, but I thought I’d get in with these guys! Then I think Dave Mac introduced me to Dave Murray and we started playing together; they played guitar and I sang. When I first met him, he was a complete Hendrix nut and he loved Robin Trower and Santana, but I think he likes more blues based stuff these days. Back then, he had two guitars - he was very professional! His spare guitar from Woolworths wasn’t working, so I bought it off him for five quid and my dad fixed it, and that was my first guitar. It was a really nice guitar, as you can imagine! Dave Mac drifted out of the band into other things, and Dave Murray and I carried on playing together for a few years until he decided to broaden his horizons and eventually he joined Iron Maiden. I carried on with the band we’d had, which became Urchin; he actually came back into the band for a while after he fell out with Iron Maiden’s singer, but then he went back to them. Before they did the first album, Iron Maiden asked me to join them, but my band was doing quite well, so I turned it down. Then they asked me again in 1980. I think Dave rang up and said, 'Look, I think you really should do it' and I did. Dave is so easy-going and he’s a quiet guy. He has his moments, but generally, he goes with the flow. If you had six guys like Bruce or six guys like Steve in the band well, you need a combination of personalities. That’s what the chemistry of the band’s all about. In fact, I guess Dave and I are fairly similar. We’re both pretty laid-back and we’ve always got on very well. Another good thing about Dave is that he’s always got a smile on his face. He has good energy, which is always a good quality to have in a band. He’s a very consistent player, so it’s hard to pick his best moment on ‘Dance Of Death’, but the song ‘Rainmaker’ is one of my favourites and he wrote that with Steve, so I suppose I’d have to say that really. Dave’s a very good guitarist, but he’s not the kind of guy who tries to outdo everybody. There’s enough scope in Iron Maiden’s music for all three guitarists to express themselves. The phrase 'Let the music do the talking' springs to mind when you talk about Dave. He’s always been able to express himself very well through the guitar. He’s got his own style and sound, and that’s a rare thing. Everyone who plays guitar wants to have that and he always has, even when he’d just started playing. We could plug into the same amp and he’d still sound like him. If you hear Dave playing, you know it’s Iron Maiden straight away. |
