Mr Michael McBrain leaves the stage for the final time with Iron Maiden. The passage of time has a strange way of suddenly bringing things into focus; and cliche as it sounds, it really does feel like yesterday when I got the call to fly over to Jersey to shoot the band for the first time with their “new” drummer where they were writing and rehearsing what became ‘Piece of Mind’. He was obviously pretty well known from The Streetwalkers, Trust and Pat Travers but he was the absolute perfect fit for Maiden so it makes sense that it’s been 42 years. Despite occasional bouts of moaning (you may remember my first book “what are we doing this for?”) Nicko was always a lot of fun, warm hearted and very funny - one of my favourite memories is being abandoned by him in the wilderness of the Scottish Highlands, pre cell phones and having to knock on cottage doors until I found someone with a working phone who managed to get hold of a car to take me to the gig that night. I was absolutely livid and went straight to the dressing room to voice my displeasure - only for Nicko to open the door smiling to greet me with his familiar convivial cockney “alo maaateeee” and we ended up having a good laugh about it instead. Anyway - enjoy your retirement! It is well earned. Head over to rosshalfin.com for more pictures. #rosshalfin #ironmaiden #nickomcbrain