The Soundhouse Tapes

The Soundhouse Tapes is probably the most wanted collector's item when it comes down to Maiden records.
Sadly enough, the bootleggers have also realised this, therefore there are a lot of fake The Soundhouse Tapes copies floating around the collector's circuit. Some of these copies are actually pretty close to the original release. Being a Maiden collector myself, I'd hate to see anyone pay a large amount of money for anything less than the real thing. Therefore I made a very detailed description of what the real thing looks like. If you ever consider buying a copy of The Soundhouse Tapes I strongly suggest you take a close look at all the details I've described below.
I'm more or less involved in a small 'project' of creating a list of The Soundhouse Tapes bootlegs, a fellow Maiden-fan who's also busy working on this list is Tomi Kause.

The Soundhouse Tapes, the FULL description

• Material of cover:

  The cover is made out of a heavy kind of paper (a light version of cardboard) and it opens from the top.
  

• Front of cover:

• Colour:
  Dark orange or light red (it's a bit balanced, I'd say it's dark orange, though)
  
• Logo:
  Black letters, 'Iron' is written above 'Maiden', the logo is centered above the picture (the words 'Iron' and 'Maiden' are both left aligned in the center)
  
• Picture:
  The front cover has a colour picture of a live performance, it shows the singer (Paul, if I'm not mistaken) with his left fist raised and holding a microphone in his right hand, also on the background you can see either one of the guitar players or Steve, I think it's Steve.
  
• Title:
  At the bottom of the sleeve the words The Soundhouse Tapes are written in a calligraphed manner.
  

• Back of cover:

• Colour:
  The back of the cover is in the same colour as the front.
  
• Pictures:
  At the top of the cover one can find 5 pictures, from left to right they are: Doug Sampson, Dave Murray, Paul Di'anno, Steve Harris and a picture showing a stage shot (it's an unclear picture showing the drumkit along with the background of the stage).
  The corresponding names of the persons on the pictures are written underneath the pictures as I've typed them above, the names are printed in a handwritten fashion and nothing is written under the fifth picture.
  At the bottom 5 more pictures have been printed, being from left to right: Maiden 'eadbangers (first picture), Live shots from the Music Machine. (the next three pictures) and Rob Loonhouse.
  The text as I've written it above is exactly the way it appears under the pictures, again the text is hand-written.
  All pictures which appear on the back are black and white pictures.
  
• Story:
  Neal Kay has hand-written a small story about Iron Maiden, the exact text says:
  Every so often, one special band emerges from the mass of untried and unknown hopefuls which fill the streets of the Rock World. Iron Maiden is JUST one such band, bringing with their emergence, a style of Rock Music, so hard, gritty and honest in its delivery that only success can justify their hard toil!
  The tracks on this E.P. were the first ever recorded by the band and are the authentic unremixed cuts taken from the demo tape recorded at Spaceward studios in Cambridge on December 30th 1978, and, subsequently presented to me in The Soundhouse a week later.
  After one hearing it was obvious that Iron Maiden would become one of the leaders of present day heavy metal, combining the sort of talent and hard drive that the music world must not ever ignore. Neal Kay.
  

  NOTES:
  It's quite unclear when the letters were meant to be capitalised or not (because of Neal's funny handwriting), so I may have made an error or two concerning that, also the word must (in the last sentence) is underlined and the same goes for Neal's signature.
  

• Song listing:
  On the right of Neal's text one finds a double line separating Neal's text from the track listing, on the right of this line the following text appears:
  SIDE 1
  Iron Maiden
  

  SIDE 2
  1. Invasion
  2. Prowler
  

  Front photo:- Live at the H.M. Soundhouse Kingsbury, taken by Rob Loonhouse.
  Back photos by Chris Harler.
  Label + Sleeve design + artwork by Steve Harris.
  This record is dedicated to Maiden fans everywhere
  

  ROCK HARD
  RECORDS
  Rok. 1.
  

  NOTES:
  Both instances of the word 'side' (along with the corresponding numbers, i.e. 1 resp. 2) are printed capitalised in a small font.
  The song titles are written in the same calligraphed fashion as the title on the front of the sleeve.
  The text starting at 'Front photo..' until '..fans everywhere' is written in the same handwriting as the text under the pictures (this is a different handwriting than Neal's).
  The words 'ROCK HARD' are written in a thinnish font and these words are actually a bit larger than the word 'RECORDS'.
  The words 'Rok. 1.' are, again, handwritten.
  

• The record itself:
  

• The vinyl:
  The vinyl itself is just a regular black version.
  
• The paper:
  The paper which contains the side's description is nearly the same colour as the sleeve of the single, it's slightly darker, though.
  

• Side 1:
  

• Above the hole in the center:
  It has the following text above the hole in the middle:
  All rights of the manufacturer and of the owner of the recorded work reserved (NOTE: this is written in a curved manner along the upper half of the round-shaped paper)
  IRON
  MAIDEN (NOTE: this is the regular logo it appears centered on the paper, the words Iron and Maiden are left aligned with respect to one another)
  The Soundhouse Tapes (NOTE: this is written in the same calligraphed style as it was on the front of the sleeve)
  
• Left of the hole in the center:
  

  SIDE 1
    45
    RPM
  

  NOTES:
  SIDE 1 is, again hand-written, 45 and RPM appear in boldface letters and 45 is bigger than RPM
  

• Right of the hole in the center:
  (P) 1979 Rock Hard Records Ltd
  

  Sanctuary Music Ltd
  

  NOTES:
  All of the text on the right of the hole is hand-written
  

• Below the hole in the center:
  

      Iron Maiden		(NOTE: calligraphed)
     (Steve Harris)	(NOTE: handwritten)
  Produced By Iron Maiden	(NOTE: handwritten)
       ROCK HARD		(NOTE: big 3-D letters)
        RECORDS		(NOTE: calligraphed)
         ROK 1		(NOTE: handwritten)
  

  unauthorised public performance broadcasting and copying of this record prohibited
  

  NOTE:
  This is written in a curved manner along the lower half of the round-shaped paper, also the distance between the words 'record' and 'prohibited' is bigger than the distance between the other words
  

• Etchings on the vinyl in the run-off area:
  *EG*, SA, and ROK-1-A. There is also a very faint etching which I think is LYN 7627-IT.

  NOTE:
  These etchings have been provided by Chris Payne, who took them from an original copy.
  

• Side 2:
  

• Above the hole in the center:
  Idem as on side 1
  
• Left of the hole in the center:
  

  SIDE 2
   45
   RPM
  

  NOTES:
  SIDE 2 is, again hand-written, 45 and RPM appear in boldface letters and 45 is bigger than RPM
  

• Right of the hole in the center:
  (P) 1979 Rock Hard Records Ltd.
  

  Sanctuary Music Ltd.
  

  NOTES:
  All of the text on the right of the hole is hand-written, the only difference with side 1 is that on side 2 both sentences are concluded with a period, it seems that the 2nd sentence on side 1 also has a period (which is very hard to make out) but the first sentence certainly doesn't end with a period
  

• Below the hole in the center:
  

       Invasion - Prowler		(NOTE: calligraphed)
  (Steve Harris) (Steve Harris)	(NOTE: handwritten)
     Produced By Iron Maiden	(NOTE: handwritten)
           ROCK HARD		(NOTE: big 3-D letters)
            RECORDS		(NOTE: calligraphed)
             ROK 1		(NOTE: handwritten)
  

  unauthorised public performance broadcasting and copying of this record prohibited
  

  NOTE:
  This is written in a curved manner along the lower half of the round-shaped paper, also the distance between the words 'record' and 'prohibited' is bigger than the distance between the other words
  

• Etchings on the vinyl in the run-off area:
  *EG*, SA, and ROK-1-B. There is also a very faint etching which I think is 7628-IT.

  NOTE:
  These etchings have been provided by Chris Payne, who took them from an original copy.