Martin Birch on Real Rock Labhttps://realrocklab.com/people/martin-birch/Recent content in Martin Birch on Real Rock LabHugoen-usThu, 01 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000Run to the Hills: How Iron Maiden Wrote the Old West Without Ever Seeing Ithttps://realrocklab.com/run-to-the-hills-how-iron-maiden-wrote/Thu, 01 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000https://realrocklab.com/run-to-the-hills-how-iron-maiden-wrote/<p><em>Steve Harris learned the frontier from paperback westerns, then flipped the camera on the people those books rooted for. Forty-four years later the song is still the loudest history lesson in metal.</em></p> <h2 id="four-englishmen-and-a-pile-of-louis-lamour-novels">Four Englishmen and a pile of Louis L&rsquo;Amour novels</h2> <p>In early 1982, <a href="https://realrocklab.com/bands/iron-maiden/">Iron Maiden</a> had a new singer, a British tour already booked, and no album. What they did have was a bass player who read a lot of cowboy books.</p>