Maiden Manhattan Redux: Gramercy Killers

Okay, here's a quickie.

Yesterday, in a post pinpointing the exact street location of a shot of Iron Maiden in 1981, I found a pic of a bootleg disc which boasted a cover photograph presumably shot on the same day (the boys are wearing the same gear in the shot). Upon seeing that photograph, heavy metal chef Andy R. said...

the pic on the cd cover looks like University Place and 10th st.

...by which he means 28 East 10th, the building Alec Baldwin lives in.

As much as I relish the idea of Iron Maiden strolling down University Place, that didn't seem right to me. Plus, ... I had a hunch.

I keep meaning to finish my proper post about it, by the Gramercy Park Hotel over at the bottom end of Lexington Avenue at East 21st Street hasn't always been a plush destination. Long before celebrated hotelier Ian Schrager refurbished the place, the Gramercy Park Hotel was a study in witheringly elegant decrepitude. In the 1980's, moreover, it was arguably the rock n' roll hotel for stars either rising or dimming. If you were a new band swinging into New York City to play Irving Plaza or the Palladium or any number of now long-since-closed downtown venues, there was a more-than-likely chance they'd have put you up at the Gramercy. From the Psychedelic Furs and the Stranglers through Motorhead and The Clash .... droves of amazing bands stayed at the Gramercy Park Hotel in the 1980s,

As such, I figured....being that Maiden were booked to play at Palladium just across the park and down Irving Place at the Palladium at the time, it would have made perfect sense for them to have stayed at the Gramercy Park Hotel as well.

So, upon walking back from dropping Oliver off at school this morning, I took a stroll by the Gramercy to see if my hunch was correct. Sure enough it was.

On the cover of the bootleg, Iron Maiden are pictured hanging out on the northwest corner of East 21st Street and Lex. The stately building behind them is One Lexington Avenue. Here is that very corner today...which, incidentally, is just the other end of the same block this original photo was taken.