Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Remembering ‘out of this world’ Maiden gig
and black T-shirts. Retired sub-editor Steve Taylor described the Caird Hall gig as “out of this world”.
“I wore my jeans, Adidas baseball boots, black T-shirt and Wrangler denim – with all the usual rock band patches on it like Led Zep, UFO, Maiden, Lizzy, Quo, Sabbath, Boston to name just a few,” said Steve, from Dundee.
“I was into hard, head-banging heavy metal and Maiden were on the up. It was hugely exciting.
“I’m pretty sure it was the last time the original singer ( Paul Di’Anno) fronted the group before Bruce Dickinson came in and propelled them to stardom.”
The gig came about thanks to three l ads from the Dundee schemes who brought the rock band to the city.
A film charting the early careers of the fledgling promoters was released last year. Schemers tells of the rapid rise of Dave McLean who, with pals John and Scot, put on gigs in the 1970s and 80s.
Dave, who went on to have a successful career in the music business, remembers: “Our biggest gig was at Caird Hall with Iron Maiden.”
He said he feared the gig would be a “disaster”, but he was blown away to find more than 1,000 people queued up outside on the night.
“It was a bit of a shambles,” he recalled. “I had no crew booked, no catering booked – they rolled up in two arctic trucks. I had to get crews from off the street and my mum made the sandwiches.
“I’d sold about 200 tickets, only because we’d done absolutely no promotion. We were absolutely useless. And the band had no profile really, but they went to number four that weekend.”