Iron Virgin was a 70's pop band who were formed in Edinburgh, Scotland. They played in and around Edinburgh venturing to England  and even Luxembourg on occasion. Back in 1973, Decca assigned their best producer, Nick Tauber, who produced Thin Lizzy (The Boys Are Back in Town)  to scour Scotland for a new band for the Deram (Decca) label. He came to a small town in Scotland to listen to the band and, at the intermission revealed nothing of what he thought about them. However at the end of the show, he said that this was the best live band he'd seen since The Move (a very successful British band). So the band went down to London to record some demos in Decca's West Hampstead studio which eventually was bought by the Moody Blues. Justin Hayward and the rest of the band were quite often there while Iron Virgin were there.
    Consequently, the band was signed to Decca Records. The band wanted to record their own composition for their first release, but Decca had other plans.
 

Read a great Glam Rock  article featuring Iron Virgin

They decided (no-one really knows why) that they should record "Jet" which, at the time, was an album track on Paul McCartney's "Band on the Run" album. The single was recorded and ready for release in December of 1973 but Decca, not renowned for their insight, didn't get it released until February of 1974. Back in those days, there was no commercial radio and, to have a hit, it really had to get national airplay on the BBC. Emperor Rosko, who you might say was a  Wolf-Man Jack impersonator, had a show called Rosko's Round Table on the BBC which showcased each week's new releases. Iron Virgin's "Jet" got its first airing on that show. Neil Sedaka was one of the reviewers and they gave it a pretty decent review although nothing spectacular. Slowly but surely it got played here and there on the BBC. The band was ecstatic,  convinced that they had a fabulous hit on their hands. Not so much because of their version, but because Jet was a pretty darn good pop song. A few weeks later, just as the single was gaining some momentum, Paul McCartney released it as a single. The rest, as they say, is history.
 
 

The "B" side was penned by Gordon Nicol and called "Midnight Hitcher." It was a song about hitch-hiking from Edinburgh, down through England and across to Amsterdam. Gordon met his brother and some other friends (who could afford to get the train ) in Harwich where the ferry crossed the English Channel and had a pretty amazing time in Amsterdam.
 

Gordon has now ditched the platform boots and long hair for a kilt
and is delighting audiences around Dallas with his poetry recitals.
Click on the green banner below for more info.

 
 

                                          Check out Jan Art's German web site featuring Iron Virgin
 
 

ery.html
 
 

 

Home	About	Audio Sampler	Client List	Commercials	Community	Equipment	Foreign Language
Industrials	Map	Music Libraries	Product	Rates	Recent Projects	SFX	Talent & Demos
Testimonials	Training Tapes	Voice Demo Production	Web Audio

3906 Lemmon Avenue Suite 215, Dallas, Texas 75219, USA
(214) 559 4288  (214) 559 4325 Fax  (214) 332 0913 Pager