1976
Sounds · London
Became famous
Draft. The ad text below is a paraphrase from documented sources. A curator will replace it with the verbatim wording once we've checked an archive scan. The outcome and citation are otherwise accurate.
classified · as printed
East London band, Iron Maiden, requires drummer. No timewasters. Heavy.
What happened next
Harris cycled through dozens of musicians via classifieds before settling on the classic lineup. Iron Maiden broke big with The Number of the Beast (1982); over four decades the band has sold north of a hundred million records. The classifieds did, eventually, find the players he was looking for.
Source
Sounds classifieds, c.1976. Steve Harris placed multiple ads across Sounds and Melody Maker between 1975 and 1979; per Mick Wall, 'Run to the Hills: The Authorised Biography of Iron Maiden'.
Further
cite this ad
“East London band, Iron Maiden, requires drummer. No timewasters. Heavy.” — Sounds, 1976. Musolist museum, /museum/british-weeklies/steve-harris-iron-maiden-1976.