in walks his dad. 'Son,' he says, 'today's a very special day. It's your fifth birthday, and we've got a very special surprise for you.' 'Oh no,' says Eddie. 'Not another fucking hat! Once Iron Maiden had secured a record contract with EMI, the band's manager Rod Smallwood decided that the band needed "that one figure who utterly stamped his presence and image on the band in a way that was obvious enough to make a good album cover." After seeing some of his artwork on a Max Middleton poster, Smallwood set up a meeting with Derek Riggs and asked to see some of his other illustrations, in the midst of which was the band's first album cover. Originally created as an idea for a punk record (which Riggs states in the 12 Wasted Years documentary was based on an alleged Japanese soldier's skull stuck to an American tank), the band had extra hair added to the illustration, making it more suitable to their style of music, and transferred the name from the original masks they used onstage. Surmising that the creature had "great visual continuity," Smallwood decided it would be used for all of the band's artwork. Smallwood claims that Rupert Perry, EMI's then managing director, came up with the idea that Eddie could become a more active part of the band's concerts, originally portrayed by Smallwood himself, wearing an Eddie mask and a leather jacket. The classic "walk-on" Eddie was created for The Beast on the Road tour by Dave Beazley after seeing a pantomime version of Jack and the Beanstalk, which used similar giants, consisting of "basically a bloke on stilts but dressed up to look about tall." As the band's stage show expanded, an additional gigantic Eddie was also incorporated at the back of the set during "Iron Maiden", which, like the "walk-on" Eddie, would match the theme of the current tour, such as the , mummified version used during the World Slavery Tour, which shot sparks from its eyes. Eddie's debut appearance was on the band's first single cover, "Running Free", in which his face was covered by a shadow to protect his identity before the release of the band's first album. Since then, Eddie has assumed a different guise for each cover, such as a "mummified Egyptian god" for Powerslave, a lobotomised mental patient for Piece of Mind, emerging from a grave in Live