"From the ever growing tales-from-the-road files comes this story told to us by Aaron Chapman of The Town Pants. The Vancouver band is fresh from an eventful European tour playing shows in such countries as Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Finland. One of the highlights of the continental jaunt, according to Chapman, the group's mandolinist and tin-whistle player, came during a set at a gig a Stockholm bar called the Dubliner.

The place is frequented by British expatriates and, it turns out, heavy metal stars looking for a bit of football on the telly and cor-it's-just-like-'ome-innit atmosphere. During the Town Pants' set, someone informed the band that the members of the venerable English hard-rock act Iron Maiden popped into the pub for a quick pint or three.

Now, the Pants a far from a metal outfit, but they recognized an opportunity to seize the day, as Chapman told the Straight, and launched into one of the mighty Maiden's better-known early 80's anthems. 'We're kind of a Celtic band, basically, so we just thought it would be funny to do 'Number of the Beast', and went into it", Chapman said. He admitted that "Number of the Beast" has never been a part of The Town Pants' usual repertoire, and he noted the group's performance was quickly cobbled together from one or two of the members collective high school memories.

In any case, it seemed to pass muster with the veteran metal mavens. "We did our best to pull it off," Chapman said, "and they came up to us and said 'Man, that was great!' They loved it." Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers joined The Town Pants on-stage later for an encore, jamming along with one of the Town Pant's own tunes. The Town Pants play... but don't expect any headbanger classics to be on the set list."

--Georgia Straight Music Notes December 1999