The Soundhouse Tapes  The Soundhouse Tapes is the debut EP by Iron Maiden, and features the very first recordings by the band. Released on 9 November 1979, it features three songs taken from the demo tape recorded at Spaceward Studios on 30/31 December 1978. The three tracks - "Prowler", "Invasion" and "Iron Maiden" - appear in a rougher form than they would on the first Iron Maiden album and subsequent singles as they were all recorded in one session. Although major retail chains tried to order large quantities of the record, the band only distributed 5,000 copies, available by mail order alone, which eventually sold out in just a few weeks. Because of this, the EP is now a valuable collectors item, which has been sold at up to £800 online. In the midst of punk rock's peak in the UK, Iron Maiden struggled to secure gigs out of the East End of London and decided that a demo would be an ideal way to try to remedy this. The band decided to record at Spaceward Studios, Cambridge after hearing a demo tape recorded there by former vocalist Dennis Wilcock's band, V1. Although this would be more expensive than recording in London, bassist Steve Harris comments, "We decided that doing it on the cheap was a false economy. We knew we'd only probably get one go at it, and we wanted it to sound the best we could." To save money, the band booked a session New Year's Eve weekend 1978, (30/31 December) which cost them £200, and recorded four songs, "Prowler", "Invasion", "Strange World" and "Iron Maiden". Harris states, "We didn't know what to expect, going into the studio for the first time. We just hoped the engineer was gonna be good enough to record us, and that was it, really. We just went in there with a naïve attitude and, as it happens, it was pretty good. The songs were very together already. We didn't have to arrange much. They were very tight, 'cause we were doing them live all the time. We knew exactly what we needed to do. It was just a question of whether we could record it all in time. But we went in and the tracks went down really quick. I think we did most of them in the first take." Following this New Year's Eve session, the band were due to return a few weeks later to remix and rerecord some parts, however, according to guitarist Dave Murray, "they wanted an extra £50 off us for the master tape and we just didn't have it on us at the time.