2 Minutes To Midnight
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2 Minutes To Midnight
"2 Minutes to Midnight" is a song by the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, featured on their fifth studio album, ''Powerslave'' (1984). It was released as the band's tenth single, and first from the album on 6 August 1984. It rose to number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and number 25 on ''Billboard'' Top Album Tracks. The band's first single to exceed five minutes in length, it remained their longest until the release of "Infinite Dreams" in November 1989. Synopsis A protest song about nuclear war, "2 Minutes to Midnight" was written by Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson. The song attacks the commercialisation of war and how it is used to fuel the global economy (“The golden goose is on the loose and never out of season”), how rich politicians profit directly from it (“as the reasons for the carnage cut their meat and lick the gravy”) and how after a war concludes, the world is left in a far worse condition than before the war began, resulting in future wars and the de ...
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Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harris, lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson, drummer Nicko McBrain, and guitarists Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers. The band have released 41 albums, including 17 studio albums, 13 live albums, four EPs and seven compilations. They have also released 47 singles and 20 video albums. Two electronic games have been released with Iron Maiden soundtracks, and the band's music is featured in a number of other video games. As pioneers of the new wave of British heavy metal movement, Iron Maiden achieved initial success during the early 1980s. After several lineup changes, the band went on to release a series of UK and US Platinum and Gold albums, including 1980's eponymous debut album, 1981's '' Killers'', 1982's '' The Number of the Beast' ...
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H-bombs
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lower mass, or a combination of these benefits. Characteristics of nuclear fusion reactions make possible the use of non-fissile depleted uranium as the weapon's main fuel, thus allowing more efficient use of scarce fissile material such as uranium-235 () or plutonium-239 (). The first full-scale thermonuclear test was carried out by the United States in 1952; the concept has since been employed by most of the world's nuclear powers in the design of their weapons. Modern fusion weapons consist essentially of two main components: a nuclear fission primary stage (fueled by or ) and a separate nuclear fusion secondary stage containing thermonuclear fuel: the heavy hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, or in modern weapons lithium de ...
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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio to its west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest, New York to its north, and the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east. Pennsylvania is the fifth-most populous state in the nation with over 13 million residents as of 2020. It is the 33rd-largest state by area and ranks ninth among all states in population density. The southeastern Delaware Valley metropolitan area comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the state's largest and nation's sixth most populous city. Another 2.37 million reside in Greater Pittsburgh in the southwest, centered around Pittsburgh, the state's second-largest and Western Pennsylvania's largest city. The state's su ...
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Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The city has a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the fastest-growing major city in Pennsylvania and the state's third largest city, behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It is the largest city in both Lehigh County and the Lehigh Valley, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th most populous Metropolitan statistical area, metropolitan area in the U.S. as of 2020. Allentown was founded in 1762 and is the county seat of Lehigh County. Located on the Lehigh River, a tributary of the Delaware River, Allentown is the largest of three adjacent cities, along with Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Bethlehem and Easton, Pennsylvania, Easton, in Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties that form the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylv ...
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Steve Harris (musician)
Stephen Percy Harris (born 12 March 1956) is an English musician who is the bassist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, primary songwriter and founder/leader of heavy metal music, heavy metal band Iron Maiden. He has been the band's only constant member since their inception in 1975 and, along with guitarist Dave Murray (musician), Dave Murray, the only member to appear on every album. Harris has a recognisable and popular style of bass playing, particularly the "gallop" which can be found on many Iron Maiden recordings, such as the singles "Run to the Hills" and "The Trooper". In addition to his role as the band's bass player, writer and backing vocalist, he has undertaken many other roles for the group, such as producing and co-producing their albums, directing and editing their live videos and performing studio keyboards and synthesisers. He has been cited as one of the greatest heavy metal bassists. In 2012, Harris released his debut solo album, ''British Lion (album), British ...
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Best Of The 'B' Sides
''Best of the 'B' Sides'' is a compilation of B-sides by the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released on 4 November 2002 as part of the Eddie's Archive box set. Each track was remastered and the set came with a running commentary from Rod Smallwood. It covers all of their singles from their first (1980's "Running Free") to 2000's " Out of the Silent Planet", although several of the band's original B-sides were excluded from the collection: "Total Eclipse" (from "Run to the Hills", 1982, although this has been added to the album '' The Number of the Beast'' from 1998 onwards), "Mission From 'Arry" (from " 2 Minutes to Midnight", 1984); "Bayswater Ain't a Bad Place to Be" (from "Be Quick or Be Dead", 1992); and "I Live My Way" (from "Man on the Edge", 1995). Also missing are the band's cover of Thin Lizzy's "Massacre" (from " Can I Play with Madness", 1988) and a number of live B-sides. The album is described on the band's website as "a collection that not only reveals much a ...
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Newcastle Upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is also the most populous city of North East England. Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius and the settlement later took the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. Historically, the city’s economy was dependent on its port and in particular, its status as one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres. Today, the city's economy is diverse with major economic output in science, finance, retail, education, tourism, and nightlife. Newcastle is one of the UK Core Cities, as well as part of the Eurocities network. Famous landmarks in Newcastle include the Tyne Bridge; the Swing Bridge; Newcastle Castle; St Thomas’ Church; Grainger Town including G ...
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Rod Smallwood
Roderick Charles Smallwood (born 17 February 1950) is an English music manager, best known as the co-manager of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. With his business partner, Andy Taylor, whom he met while studying at Trinity College, Cambridge, he founded the Sanctuary Records Group in 1979, which became the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest independent music management company in the world until its closure in 2007. Prior to managing Iron Maiden, Smallwood managed Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel. Biography Smallwood was born and raised in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, where he grew up listening to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones on the radio and playing cricket and rugby union. It was only when he began attending university that his musical interests expanded and he began listening to Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead and The Doors. In the autumn of 1968, Smallwood began studying architecture at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he soon b ...
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The First Ten Years (boxed Set)
''The First Ten Years'' is a series of 10 CDs and double 12" singles by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released between 24 February and 28 April 1990, in commemoration of the band's ten-year recording anniversary. Each CD/double 12" contains two singles, complete with original B-sides and artwork, as well as an edition of "Listen with Nicko", a spoken-word track in which drummer Nicko McBrain would recount the history behind each song specific to that release. Each part in the series included a special voucher, all ten of which could be exchanged by mail order for a limited edition storage box. Iron Maiden also released '' The First Ten Years: The Videos'' on VHS videotape and laserdisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ..., containing all 16 of the band's p ...
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Nicko McBrain
Michael Henry "Nicko" McBrain (born 5 June 1952) is an English musician, best known as the drummer of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden since 1982. Having played in small pub bands since 1966 from the age of 14, McBrain paid his bills after graduating from school with session work before he joined a variety of artists, such as Streetwalkers in 1975, Pat Travers, and the French political band, Trust. He joined Iron Maiden (replacing Clive Burr), in time to debut on their fourth album ''Piece of Mind'' (1983), and has remained with them since, contributing to a total of fourteen studio releases, as well as being the third-longest serving member of the band. Biography McBrain was born in Hackney, London, and first wanted to learn the drums at a young age after watching Joe Morello performing with The Dave Brubeck Quartet on television. At the age of ten, he started to play drums with pots, pans and other kitchen utensils, before, to his parents' dismay, he began drumming on th ...
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Terry Slesser
Terry Slesser (also known as Terry Wilson-Slesser) is a blues rock singer from South Shields, England. He is chiefly known for his role as vocalist in ex- Free guitarist Paul Kossoff's band Back Street Crawler, renamed Crawler after Kossoff's death in 1976. History In the early 1970s, Slesser joined Beckett, replacing original singer Rob Turner, who had been killed in a car accident. Beckett released one self-titled album in 1974, produced by Roger Chapman of Family. Slesser then joined Back Street Crawler and its successor band, Crawler, for the balance of the 1970s. Following the demise of Crawler, Slesser joined the band Geordie in 1980, after its lead singer, Brian Johnson, joined AC/DC, subsequent to the death of Bon Scott. In 1981 after the departure of Paul Di'Anno, Slesser unsuccessfully auditioned for the lead vocal in Iron Maiden (as mentioned by Steve Harris on the Iron Maiden ''The Early Days'' DVD, In 1983, Slesser joined the band Charlie as lead ...
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Beckett (band)
Beckett were an English hard rock band formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1970. The band released one self-titled album in 1974 and disbanded shortly thereafter. Original singer Rob Turner was killed in a car crash and replaced by Terry Wilson-Slesser, who would later go on to perform with Back Street Crawler and then Geordie whose previous front man Brian Johnson left to join AC/DC in 1980. Iron Maiden copyright lawsuit In 2017, Beckett songwriter Brian Ingham sued Iron Maiden for copyright infringement over two popular songs, " Hallowed Be Thy Name" and "The Nomad", which lifted musical sections and lyrics from the song "Life's Shadow". Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood Roderick Charles Smallwood (born 17 February 1950) is an English music manager, best known as the co-manager of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. With his business partner, Andy Taylor, whom he met while studying at Trinity College, Ca ... was the agent for Beckett and a teenage Steve Harris saw th ...
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