Killers "Murder One"

Killers was formed back in the summer of 1991. Cliff Evans was living in New York with Arnie Goodman, the manager of Fastway. Steve Hopgood, who played in Battlezone with Di'Anno previously, called Evans and outlined his plans for a new band. Di'Anno and Hopgood flew over to New York from the U.K. where they formed a band.

Within a few days, Killers had hired John Gallagher (from Raven) to play bass on a short-term basis. Former member of Drive She Said and New York session player Ray Detone was brought in on second guitar.

Shortly afterward, a live album called Assault on South America was recorded, featuring a number of Iron Maiden and Battlezone tracks and covers of "We Will Rock You" and "Smoke on the Water". This was funded by Rock in Rio promoter Carlos Genesio and to be released primarily for the South American market. "Recorded in Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela in Summer of 1993" is splashed on the back cover. However, according to John Gallagher, the South American tour fell thorough so the entire album was recorded on a mobile recording truck in New York. Later, a Canada-based record company called Magnetic Air Productions issued a pirate (bootleg) release worldwide, under a different cover, with no royalties being paid to the band.

Killers then played two days of showcases at Arnie Goodman's New York City studio for several major record companies including Virgin, EMI, Sony and BMG. Representatives flew into New York from all over the world to see Killers play. They played only Iron Maiden songs because the band had not written any material. Maiden songs played included "Phantom of the Opera" and "Wrathchild" which evidently impressed a BMG representative enough to give the band a $250,000 contract. BMG were unaware that these songs had been recorded previously.

Once Killers had the record deal, they started to write the first album entitled Murder One. Rob Fraboni was recruited to produce the record. The band moved to Binghamton, where they stayed in a motel in which the owner had a set up rehearsal studio. The album was written in about in two weeks. Fraboni then took Killers to White Crow Audio (Burlington, Vermont) to record the drums which took about half a day. Finally, vocals and final mixing were performed at The Powerstation in New York.

Track list:

1. Impaler 04:00   
2. The Beast Arises 04:45   
3. Children of the Revolution (T. Rex cover) 03:38   
4. S & M 07:31   
5. Takin' No Prisoners 05:47   
6. Marshall Lokjaw 04:35   
7. Protector 04:53   
8. Dream Keeper 05:31   
9. Awakening 05:22   
10. Remember Tomorrow (Iron Maiden cover) 05:36   

Total Time:  51:38  

All songs written by Killers except "Remember Tomorrow" written by Harris and Di'anno, and "Children Of The Revolution" written by Marc Bolan

Can be downloaded free from Di'Anno's site

Recording information:

Recorded at White Crow Studios, Burlington, VT and The Power Station, New York City.