Irn-Bru's '˜phenomenal' surprise for Iron Maiden

WORLDS collided yesterday afternoon as Scottish pop and English metal proved to be a match Maiden heaven.

Irn-Bru and Iron Maiden exchanged online banter ahead of the band's Scottish shows. Picture: Contributed.

Soft drinks giant Irn-Bru, which is well-known for its imaginative marketing campaigns and quirky sense of humour, became the toast of social media on Tuesday as legendary heavy metal group Iron Maiden prepared to kick off the Scottish leg of their Book of Souls world tour with a gig at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro.

On Monday, the vintage heavy metallers, whose most commericially-successful hits include Run to the Hills and The Number of the Beast, got the ball rolling when they tweeted a mocked-up Irn-Bru logo, altered to read ‘IRN-MDN’, to complement an announcement that they were on their way to Scotland.

Irn-Bru quickly responded in typically-droll fashion by adapting the slogan from one of their old campaigns: “From one metal legend to another... we salute you #maidenscotlandfromgirders”.

Then, much to the delight of the East London metal gods, a ‘phenomenal’ consignment, courtesy of Irn-Bru makers AG Barr, arrived yesterday afternoon at the SSE Hydro: Several glass bottles of Scotland’s other national drink emblazoned with the altered lettering.

A photograph of one of the special IRN-MDN bottles sat next to a Marshall head was then shared by Iron Maiden across their social media feeds and has since gone viral, having been shared thousands of times on Facebook alone.

The altered Irn-Bru logo as mocked-up by Iron Maiden. Picture: Contributed.

Iron Maiden thanked the drinks firm for coming up with the goods, tweeting: “Hats off to @irnbru, who had these delivered to the @TheSSEHydro”.

Irn-Bru then hinted that the (presumably) limited edition bottles might not be so limited after all, when they replied: ““Nae bother lads. Stacks more where that came from”.

Tonight, the band, which has been on the go in one form or another for 42 years, is in the north east to perform at Aberdeen’s AECC. They will then return south to play five dates in England before crossing the Atlantic to commence the American leg of their world tour.