It was 1982, when I discovered running, about the same time as Iron Maiden released the single ‘Run To The Hills’ , both of which had a lasting impression on my younger self.

I was now working, earning a wage, maybe not the best one, but enough for an 18 year old of the time, and enough to finance my record buying habit, and a pint or three at the weekend.

I bought Iron Maiden’s latest single, the picture disc version of ‘Run To The Hills’ , which showcased their new singer, Bruce Dickinson. Dickinson’s vocals gave Maiden a new sound, which I thought at the time to be not dissimilar to Deep Purple, albeit without the keyboards. Nicknamed Bruce ‘Air-Raid Siren’ Dickinson, by the music press , his vocal style was highly reminscent of Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan, a total contrast to the punkish rasp of the ‘Maiden’s previous vocalist , Paul Di’anno.

Anyway, my first time going for a ‘jog’, as we called it back then, was about the time this record was released.

I puffed and panted my way through a half hour’s jog, probably as much as a mile long, and returned home red faced and sweating, to the front room of my folks’ house, where I slumped down on the sofa, and gradually regained my breath. Evidently , you were supposed to feel energised , exhilarated , and all that kind of thing after running, but I just felt sore and tired. Of course, the old adage ‘no pain, no gain’ came to mind, maybe I had picked that up from a family member, a teacher at school, maybe a work colleague, but it proved to be right. I would have another go at this jogging /running lark the following day, but for now I was going to listen to my record’ Run To the Hills’, I guess the title was appropriate to me, because in time, I would run to the hills, and up and down them, as I metamorphosed down the following days , months and years, into a long distance runner, a running machine, one who successfully tackled 10k, half and full marathons races to surprisingly good results. I even completed the Aberdeen Marathon , in just over 3 hours and 9 minutes which was really something to be proud of.

My inspirational song, ‘Run to the Hills ‘was the first single released from Iron Maiden’s breakthrough album ‘ Number of the Beast’, produced by the legendary Martin Birch, who had previously worked with Deep Purple, which spoke volumes for me , as I was a big fan of Deep Purple, and later, he worked with Whitesnake and Blue Oyster Cult , both of which were also bands who were high up on my list of favourites.

I was , in my eyes, the coolest kid on the block as I had the picture disc .

I put in on the turntable , and cranked up the volume as far as it would go, on the Boots Audio record player as my folks were out, the neighbours could complain, I wouldn’t have to deal with that.

The essential Iron Maiden sound was still in evidence, the changes of pace in the music, the duelling guitars , the galloping rhythms of the bass, and of course , Bruce’s voice was the icing on the cake, so to speak. Maiden sounded more sophisticated now, still as energetic, but less raw and punky as they had been on the first two albums, they were a band evolving into a classic heavy metal / hard rock band, like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath or Rainbow, ready to become a world class contenders on the global stage, which they were and still continue to be decades later.

Forty years later, they are still going and still turning out music which rocks, and they’re still damn good., and I can remember meeting the early Iron Maiden line up, in the Paul Di’anno era, in Aberdeen’s famous

‘Other Record Shop’ , where I got my copy of ‘Running Free’ signed by the band, seeing them in concert several times over the years , on the ‘Metal for Muthas ‘ tour with Praying Mantis, and the Bandwagon Heavy Metal Soundhouse with Neal Kay, in February 1980, playing support to Judas Priest later that year, and the ‘Peace of Mind’, and ‘Somewhere in Time’ tours later in the ’80s, those were heady days for gigs in Aberdeen!

When I play ‘Run to the Hills’, I am transported back to the early ’80s, when I was full of energy like that music, for the duration of such a song, I am back in simpler times, which its nice to return to now and again.

As a well known American songwriter once said, ‘ Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now’.