Iron Maiden Killers: the night Eddie got his axe
A dark street, a victim's hands clutching at his shirt, and Eddie grinning over a bloody axe. The street is real. The painter lived there.
On the first Iron Maiden album Eddie was a face in the dark, half hidden behind a street lamp. On Killers he steps right into the light. Grinning, in a torn shirt, a bloody axe in his fist, while someone below him grabs at his shirt in a last, hopeless move. This is the picture where Eddie stopped being a mascot and became the star of the show.
A street in North London
The painting is by Derek Riggs, the man who invented Eddie. The street behind him is not a fantasy set. It is Etchingham Court in North Finchley, the block of flats where Riggs lived at the time. So the scariest corner of every metal fan's record collection was, in real life, the view from the painter's window.
That is the trick Riggs used again and again: an ordinary place, painted in sharp detail, with something that should not be there standing right in the middle of it. Killers looks like a crime scene somebody has just walked into.
One band ending, another beginning
Killers came out in the UK on 16 February 1981. It was recorded at Battery Studios in London with producer Martin Birch, the first of nine albums he would make with the band. It was also the first album with guitarist Adrian Smith, and the last with singer Paul Di'Anno. A year later Bruce Dickinson was in, The Number of the Beast was out, and the rest is history.
So the man with the axe stands right on the line between the street-punk Maiden of the early days and the stadium band they became.
About the poster
This is the Killers sleeve printed as a large 55 × 75 cm (22 × 30 in) portrait poster, from 2022. It is an original magazine insert, never hung, with no staple holes, folded three times as issued. The sheet is double-sided, with Venom "Welcome to Hell" on the back, so one sheet gives you two classic covers.
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Quick answers
Who painted the Iron Maiden Killers cover?
Derek Riggs, the artist who created Eddie and painted most of Iron Maiden's classic covers.
Where is the street on the Killers cover?
It shows Etchingham Court in North Finchley, London, where Derek Riggs lived at the time.
When was Killers released?
On 16 February 1981 in the UK.
How big is the poster?
55 × 75 cm (about 22 × 30 inches), portrait. It is a separate insert, so it has no staple holes, and it is folded three times as issued.
What is on the other side?
Venom "Welcome to Hell". The sheet is double-sided, so you choose which cover goes on the wall.