Iron Maiden

The first rock concert I attended was at the Edinburgh Playhouse in November 1988. Iron Maiden were headlining and were one of the world's biggest heavy metal bands at the time. I went with schoolmates Chris and Paul and we thoroughly enjoyed the show. Paul and I have seen Maiden several times over the years and when a Scottish date was announced for 2023, it was time to organise a trip through to Glasgow. The band remain hugely popular and the venue was the cavernous Hydro arena, which holds up to 14,000 people and has both seated and standing areas. I rendezvoused with Paul in Kincardine and he drove us through to the large multi-storey car-park next to the concert venue, where a flat fee of £11 is charged.

The Hydro opened in 2013 and offers a purpose-built facility for big touring acts who formerly frequented the barn-like SECC. This was somewhat akin to playing an aircraft hangar and acoustics were generally unsatisfactory. Large arenas are always a compromise in terms of sound quality but the Hydro fares better than most. The queueing system and ticket inspection ran smoothly and we were quickly inside. There were many bars and fast-food stands on the concourses and the usual hefty prices applied. Ditto the merchandise stall. Clearly these income streams go a long way towards financing mega tours. That's par for the course at any major music event. In fact the whole financial model now relies heavily on the live experience. Physical CD sales may be a thing of the past but top acts are earning more money than ever. It's not unusual to pay £100 or more to see a high-profile show nowadays. In that context, £75 for an Iron Maiden ticket wasn't actually extortionate. Our generously padded seats were up in the gods but directly in line with the centre of the stage. Toilet facilities were available on every level. The Hydro is bowl-shaped and we were some distance from the performers but large video screens provided close-up shots. So the venue offers a comfortable gig-going experience, but what about tonight's main attraction? Iron Maiden's roots lie firmly in the east end of London and the band was formed in 1975 by bass guitarist Steve Harris. He has been the driving force behind Maiden's success and is the principal songwriter. Bands rarely work as democracies and 'Arry is firmly in charge of the ship. A fitness fanatic and lifelong supporter of West Ham Football Club (often wearing their strip onstage), Harris is now aged 67 but still bounds all over the place while playing. Few long-standing rock groups keep a constant line-up and Iron Maiden are no exception, although the players involved since the band turned fully professional haven't changed greatly over the years. Along with Harris, guitarist Dave Murray has appeared on every album since the boys inked their first recording contract in 1979. The eponymous LP was released the following year to great acclaim, entering the UK charts at #4. Fellow six-stringer Adrian Smith came on board for the second album, displacing Dennis Stratton who was a fine musician but somewhat older than the rest and perhaps not completely aligned with the image the management were projecting. Dennis later found success with Lionheart and Praying Mantis. He still speaks warmly of his Iron Maiden tenure.

The senior member of the current line-up is drummer Nicko McBrain, who at the age of 71 has the most physically demanding job. Renowned as the joker of the pack, he signed up in 1983 following the departure of Clive Burr. A great character, Nicko once appeared on the Sooty & Sweep kids TV show and is completely open about the fact that he's a born-again Christian. Clive Burr sadly passed away at the age of 56 due to complications caused by multiple sclerosis. The band had organised several benefit shows on his behalf after he lost the ability to play drums and earn a living. Singer Bruce Dickinson is something of a heavy-metal polymath. Besides fronting the band with his "air-raid siren" vocals, Bruce is a published author, fully qualified airline pilot (even flying the band's own plane between gigs) and a useful fencer. He also presented the rock show on BBC Radio 6 and was instrumental in launching Trooper beer, bearing the Maiden logo but sadly not available at tonight's concert as Heineken own exclusive rights to alcohol sales within the Hydro. Bruce isn't the original singer but first joined the band as far back as 1982, in time for the Number of the Beast album, which truly established Maiden as an international act. His predecessor was Paul Di'Anno (real name Paul Andrews) who sang on the first two albums and still tours his own Iron Maiden show to this day. Di'Anno's gruffer style suited the band undeniably at the time but it was Dickinson's more operatic approach that bumped the band up to the status of global superstars. There are of course those who still insist Di'Anno is the real voice of Iron Maiden. He was especially brilliant on the first album - and never again did the band embrace such a variety of moods - but you are absolutely kidding yourself if you believe the lads would have conquered the world with Paul at the helm. Bruce took the music into the stratosphere. I find it incredible that's he still performing at this level after undergoing radiation therapy for throat cancer less than a decade ago.

Adrian Smith took a 10-year hiatus from the band as the 90s dawned. He was replaced by ex-Gillan guitarist Janick Gers, who had been working on Dickinson's debut solo album, Tattooed Millionaire. Bruce himself jumped ship in 1993 and Maiden continued with Blaze Bayley (real name Bayley Cook) on vocals. He had fronted promising UK rockers Wolfsbane who secured a major American deal with production mogul Rick Rubin. The buzz around the Staffordshire outfit failed to translate into hard sales and Blaze was never going to pass up the chance of joining an outfit of Maiden's stature. He recorded two albums that divided opinion among the fanbase. Venues became smaller around this time although it was a challenging period for all traditional rock bands, due to the grunge revolution. Today's concept of classic rock, attracting multiple generations of fans hadn't yet begun and Maiden halted the lean spell by tempting Dickinson and Smith back into the fold, thus recreating the best-known version. I am certain money talked here. The two members who had stepped away from the band found out the hard way that solo success is not easy to find. Meanwhile, Gers was invited to stay, thereby creating a three-pronged guitar assault. Maiden were back in business and I saw the reunion tour at a packed Glasgow SECC. From that day to this, the Irons have drawn large crowds wherever they play and the age of the audience ranges from 15 to 75. New albums are fewer and further between but the band put out Senjutsu in 2021 to critical acclaim. Maiden probably have enough old-school fans craving physical product to make a CD release financially worthwhile. The vinyl medium has re-appeared in recent years and forms a high-end collectors market. Modern technology makes it cheaper to record music as computer software can perform complex tasks within seconds that would previously have required hours of tinkering with analogue machinery and tapes.

Finally, tonight's show. The tour was focussing on the Somewhere in Time album from 1986 and the deeper cuts from Senjutsu were also featuring in the set list. I got this information from the official website and made sure I refreshed my knowledge of these releases. Of course, the back catalogue is vast and the band threw in nuggets from all parts of their career, with the exception of the material from the Blaze Bayley era (although they do sometimes perform these songs). I never look at reports of previous shows in an attempt to work out what tracks might be played. I much prefer to be surprised on the night. Neither do I film segments of gigs on my phone. I can understand folk recording the opening or closing sequences, but to point a device at the stage for a complete song, or more? Nah, not for me. The playback quality must be dreadful in any case. The support band was Lord of the Lost - a Hamburg based outfit who represented Germany in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Yes, the annual event does sometimes feature metal. I quite liked the band and they grew on me as their set progressed. A modern sound, rather like Swedish metal outfit Ghost. As the lights dimmed for Iron Maiden, the UFO classic Doctor Doctor was played over the PA. Steve Harris is a huge fan of the veteran UK hard rockers (who are sheer class). Long-time frontman Phil Mogg is currently recovering from a heart attack. We wish him well. Maiden opened with Caught Somewhere in Time and this went down a storm, as the tracks from the album have been somewhat neglected in recent years. Bruce Dickinson was in amazing form and the whole band was on fire. They are such a well-drilled machine, you wouldn't expect anything less. I haven't yet mentioned the seventh member, Eddie the Head. The perennial mascot appears on the album covers and all promotional literature. Eddie also makes several appearances at every show, walking on stage in the form of a 12-foot monster. You don't mess with Ed. The obvious question is how long can the band keep doing these high-energy performances? Clearly there is gas left in the tank and I hope to see them at least one more time. Up the Irons!

Glenrothes walks

A handful of new towns were constructed in central Scotland within two decades of WW2 ending. The aim of the project was to ease overcrowding in older urban areas. Glenrothes in Fife is now home to 40,000 residents. The town was planned in the late 1940s and was the second such settlement to be built, after East Kilbride in Lanarkshire.

A new "super pit" named Rothes Colliery was sunk in the surrounding area and was intended to provide employment for over a thousand men. After being opened in 1958 by the Queen in a blaze of publicity, the colliery experienced geological problems and only delivered a tiny fraction of its anticipated output, closing a few years later. Glenrothes became instead a centre for the manufacture of electronic components and was chosen as the administrative centre for Fife Regional Council in 1975 - a function carried out at Fife House to this day, although the local government has been rejigged as the single-tier Fife Council. In terms of walking opportunities, it's easy to dismiss the new towns as featureless identikit affairs with no traditional High Street and and endless succession of roundabouts. This attitude however does them a great disservice. Myriad footpaths were baked into the development plans and historical detail certainly exists as the new towns were built over a patchwork of farms and hamlets that already had a long-standing presence. Yes, there are modern art installations everywhere you look in Glenrothes but there are also hidden gems from days gone by. I decided to explore some of this heritage and arrived by bus on a sunny evening after work. I have of course visited the centre of Glenrothes countless times since childhood and the bus station is integrated with the Kingdom Shopping Centre and other leisure facilities. Smaller precincts exist throughout the town. Conspicuous by its absence is a rail connection, although two lines run close by. Markinch Station is situated on the East Coast Main Line and the curiously named Glenrothes with Thornton is a junction halt at the point where the Fife Circle intersects with the trunk route. Both of these stations are a couple of miles away from Glenrothes town centre (as the crow flies) and are not close enough to function as stand-alone rail options (a connecting bus service being required). One has to wonder why the town planners failed to fully integrate rail services, particularly when two (now closed) freight branches actually ran into Glenrothes - one of which now exists as a footpath (Boblingen Way) that bisects the town and has a viaduct at either end. A missed opportunity methinks. The bus links are superb, it has to be said.

I had figured out a course that would encompass parkland, woodland trails, pavement walking and a nature reserve. The vast Riverside Park has a wide variety of facilities and terrain, plus an amusing array of hippo sculptures. I crossed the River Leven and picked up the Fife Pilgrim Way. This 65-mile inland route approximates the medieval passage between the Firth of Forth and the holy town of St Andrews. I soon branched off through residential streets and crossed a road artery on a slender concrete footbridge. After a short woodland wander, I emerged at the ruins of Pitcairn House - the earliest known stone-built dwelling in what's now Glenrothes. Dating from the mid-17th century, the hall style house was most likely two stories in height. The remains of the east gable reach 20 feet but the rest of the building has collapsed to its foundations. Security fencing has been erected to deter people from climbing on the stonework but the effect on photography is a negative one. Can't have it all, I suppose. I pushed on to the north-western fringe of the town, crossed the main road and entered the Formonthills community woodland - basically the foothills of the Lomond twin peaks. I wandered up to a stone circle (pictured above) which I believe is a modern creation. Glenrothes does actually contain the remnants of ancient stone circles at Balfarg and Balbirnie but they lie outside the scope of this report. My schedule for today was coming to an end as I had to catch a local bus back to the town service in order to hook up with the express service home. After a rest by the standing stones, I walked down to Pitcairn Avenue. The following evening, I returned by bus to the point where I'd left off and headed out to Coul Den nature reserve, right on the northern edge of Glenrothes. This area has an industrial past, the small loch once serving as a reservoir for the John Haig whisky bottling plant in Markinch. Partially drained in the 1980s when the factory closed, the loch is now a breeding site for swans, coot, moorhen and little grebe. It also provides a home for frogs, toads and newts, dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies. There is also a variety of plants of national importance, including ragged robin and common spotted orchid.

A viewpoint just beyond the car-park offered an excellent vista of green trees and blue water. A very peaceful location with barely any traffic noise. I set off along one of the gravel paths which led to the Conland Burn. A flight of steps took me out of the valley and into the Formonthills community reserve. A patchwork of paths returned me to the stone circle and I continued past the point where I had caught the bus the previous night. A couple of woodland trails brought me to the Lothrie Burn and I eventually emerged on the A911, where I continued into Riverside Park, following the stream towards its meeting point with the River Leven. I had hoped to check out the redevelopment of Leslie House - a grand Restoration-era mansion that was ravaged by fire in 2009. Completed in 1672, the property sat in extensive grounds and was considered one of the finest country homes in Scotland. After a succession of owners - including the Countess of Rothes who proved a heroine on the Titanic lifeboat she skippered, leading 35 people to safety - Leslie House was gifted to the Church of Scotland in 1952 and transformed into a retirement home. A development firm took over in 2005 and obtained planning permission to convert the property into luxury apartments, but this scheme literally went up in smoke. The gutted shell deteriorated with each passing year and was certainly in a parlous state when I visited a while back. Finally in 2020, Fife Council approved plans to create 24 residential units in the main house, plus six new builds within the grounds and two restored gatehouses. The future of the A-listed mansion and its outbuildings has been secured and a new chapter begins. Work is now well underway but - as I had suspected - access to the construction site was blocked. I managed to find a vantage point that revealed part of the mansion's upper stories and it was pleasing to see evidence of a phoenix-like return.

Edinburgh tram walk - part 2

When the modern Edinburgh tram system commenced operation in 2014, it was three years late and £375 million over budget. Such scenarios are not uncommon and people soon forget the difficult birth once the benefits of the new transport link are realised. There was however some unfinished business in the capital city. Due to cashflow issues, the original scope of the project was truncated and trams from the airport proceeded no further than York Place in the city centre, rather than run the additional three miles to Leith and Newhaven on the Firth of Forth. What rankled with many was the fact that huge sums had been squandered on the awkward procedure of diverting underground utilities in order to prepare a clear passage for the tram tracks down the mile-long Leith Walk. These works caused massive disruption to residents and business owners over a lengthy period and the end result was Leith would see no benefit from the re-introduction of tram services.

Finally in March 2019, Edinburgh City Council approved the extension all the way to Newhaven and it was ready to roll in June 2023. The original tram network was dismantled in 1956 and now Edinburgh takes its place among the handful of major UK cities who have re-established this efficient method of moving large groups of people from one side of the city to another. I gave the new line a couple of weeks to bed in before heading over one evening to see what all the fuss was about. A few weeks previously, I had taken the tram as far as Edinburgh Park in the airport direction and walked part of the way back. I decided to adopt a similar strategy tonight and boarded a tram on Princes Street, paying £2 cash at the platform machine for a single ticket. It's nice to see a choice of payment options and not just card only. We swung off the main thoroughfare, past St Andrew Square, along York Place and down Leith Walk. The tram was busy with commuters heading home and I noted the wheelchair spaces in the middle carriage. I'm hoping to bring my dad over for a ride on the complete network (he can remember the original system) and the set-up is disabled friendly, the platforms and tram doors being at exactly the same level. There were two intermediate stops on Leith Walk before reaching the foot, at which point the tram halted again before continuing along Commercial Street. As we headed along Ocean Drive beside the modern docks, I caught a glimpse of the evening sun shining directly upon the historic quayside at Leith Shore. Now I realised why the Proclaimers wrote an evocative song about this sight. The terminus was around 400 yards short of Newhaven Harbour and I walked along to the Firth of Forth, noting a fish & chips restaurant with ample outdoor seating, situated within the B-listed Victorian market buildings - a perfect place to take the old man. The adjacent Loch Fyne oyster eatery might strain the wallet rather more! I wandered along the pier and inspected the 1869 lighthouse. Catches have been landed at Newhaven for centuries and today's harbour dates from 1837, undergoing an enlargement in 1890. The market halls were erected in 1896 but declined in the mid-20th century as Leith established itself as the dominant maritime force in the area. Newhaven itself was swallowed up by the ever-expanding boundaries of the Edinburgh Corporation. Restoration of the market complex took place in the 1990s and limited amounts of fish are still traded here, keeping the working aspect of the port alive.

Heading back alongside the tram tracks, I spotted the Royal Yacht Britannia docked by the Ocean Terminal shopping and leisure centre. The famous craft was decommissioned in 1997 and permanently docked in Leith as a museum. To continue sailing would have required an expensive refit and the government at the time decided to retire the boat. Britannia had been built in Clydebank and launched in 1954. I saw her on active service in Dundee during my student years. 300,000 people now visit the yacht each year and I did the tour in the early 2000s. Sheer opulence is a good way to describe the interior. Tonight I had a quick look around the Ocean Terminal Centre and it features 80 shops, six restaurants and numerous bars/cafés. There is also a cinema (all seats less than a tenner), roller-skating rink, fitness studio and children's play area. Back on Ocean Drive, I cut across to the old Leith Shore and re-joined the tracks at the tram halt of the same name, which was located 200 yards along Bernard Street. I decided to take the next service back up the hill as I wanted to attend my monthly German meet-up and time was pressing on. In any case, I had traipsed up Leith Walk many times in the past and already knew the lie of the land. One wonders if the system will be further extended in the future. The only significant earthwork required in the new phase was the construction of a ramp on the approach to the Newhaven terminus. I'm sure it would not be difficult to continue on-street running along the waterfront far as Granton. But that argument is for another day. My verdict of the current extension was a massive thumbs up.

A few weeks later, my dad and I drove to Ingliston Park & Ride, near Edinburgh Airport. Dad's disabled badge allowed us to park just yards from the platform and we were soon travelling towards the city. Boarding had been simple and the wheelchair rolled straight on without a hiccup into one of the two designated spaces. Dad enjoyed spotting the familiar landmarks and we eventually arrived at Newhaven. Unfortunately the heavens opened as we proceeded towards the harbour and we dived into Asda to escape the downpour. Venturing out again, the weather was still unsettled and we decided to go into the Brewer's Fayre restaurant by the quayside, rather than chance fish & chips in the open. The right decision, as it turned out. The usual chain pub grub was on offer but it was perfectly acceptable and the rain had stopped by the time we emerged to make the return journey. Dad was very impressed by the speed of the trams and how silent they were. He managed to pick out his old flat and workplace on the way. A successful mission.