BBC Archives is taken from the Eddie's Archives Box set comprised of three double CDs. This double CD contains four different shows which are BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show recorded in 1979, Reading Festival recorded in 1980, another Reading Festival recorded in 1982 and last but not least Donington Monsters of Rock recorded in 1988. This review will then be divided into four different parts.

Part 1 : BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show recorded on the 14th of November 1979
This looks almost like Jurassic Maiden. The Friday Rock Show was an institution in Great Britain in the late seventies and early eighties. Iron Maiden was the fourth band to be featured on this radio show after Def Leppard, Samson (with a young singer called Bruce Bruce) and Praying Mantis. Although Bruce Dickinson appeared with Samson, at the time Iron Maiden recorded this show Paul Di’Anno was still a member of the band. I don’t know about you, but I really can’t stand this guy with his noise vocals and I would certainly never have been a fan of the band hadn’t Bruce replaced him before the recording of The Number Of The Beast. The line up is one of Maiden'sfirst line ups ever with Paul Di’Anno on vocals, Steve Harris on bass, Dave Murray and Tony Parsons on guitars and finally Doug Sampson on drums. Of the four tunes the band played that night Iron Maiden, Running Free, Transylvania are taken from the self titled first Iron Maiden album while Sanctuary didn’t appear on the original release (but later on the remaster series). The sound is surprisingly good for such an old recording.
Track list : Iron Maiden, Running Free, Transylvania and Sanctuary

Part 2 : Reading Festival recorded on the 23rd of August 1980
At this time, there was little doubt that, when it came to rock and metal, Reading was the sole British summer festival that offered fans the opportunity to really check out what was happening (remember in 1980 there was no internet and the metal press wasn’t really filled out). Iron Maiden was booked onto the second day of the festival appearing second to headlining UFO (ironically Samson also played on that day with that man Bruce Bruce leading from the front). The line up is the one that recorded Maiden self titled first album with Paul Di’Anno on vocals, Steve Harris on bass, Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton on guitars and finally Clive Burr on drums. The band played Killers which was not released at the time this show happened. The sound is also very good.
Track list : Prowler, Remember Tomorrow, Killers, Running Free, Transylvania and Iron Maiden

Part 3 : Reading Festival recorded on the 28th August 1982.
The band went back at Reading in 1982 with two significant changes. The first one is that they were headlining the event this time, and the second one is that both guitarist Dennis Stratton and vocalist Paul Di’Anno had gone. In their place were Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson. This show is taken from the same tour as the Beast Over Hammersmith show that is available on this box too and the songs featured on this show are all available on the Beast Over Hammersmith CD. I don’t think this stuff brings anything special to the CD and the box set.
Track list : Wrathchild, Run To The Hills, Children Of The Damned, The Number Of The Beast, 22 Acacia Avenue, Transylvania, The Prisoner, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Phantom Of The Opera and Iron Maiden

Part 4 : Donington Monsters of Rock recorded on the 20th of August 1988
This show is very close to the one they recorded at Birmingham for the Maiden England DVD and later CD release with Adrian Smith for the last time on guitar (even though he is now back in the band). Although you’ll find only eight songs on this release, this one contains three songs that were not on Maiden England which are Wrathchild, The Trooper and Hallowed Be Thy Name. The sound is very excellent as for all four shows on this recording.
Track list : Moonchild, Wrathchild, Infinite Dreams, The Trooper, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, The Number Of The Beast, Hallowed Be Thy Name and Iron Maiden

All in all, this is an excellent album that deserves the attention of every Maiden fan out there. Sadly one will have to buy the box to get this stuff as the band does not plan to release all three CD separately. I have only two complaints about this stuff. The first one is that some songs appear on different shows such as the Iron Maiden song that is on all four different show. The second one is that two of the four shows are also available on other recordings. As I said above, the show recorded at Reading Festival in 1982 is taken from the same tour as the Beast Over Hammersmith show and all the songs are available on the CD. Besides, the show recorded at Donington Monsters of Rock in 1988 is also taken from the same tour as the Maiden England CD. I would have rather seen other shows appearing on this CD, shows such as the Piece Of Mind world tour or the Somewhere In Time world tour to get a larger panel of past Maiden shows. They might however be released on a future Eddie’s Archives Box part 2 who knows ?