IN 1979, as they were busy touring the provinces and making a name for themselves, Iron Maiden spent a night in Abergavenny.

The “Running Free” metal heads weren’t in town to paint the town red and “Run to the Hills”, they were simply bedding down for the night in the Park Guest House on the Hereford Road.

The date was Friday, October 12, and the East End rockers had yet to release their debut album and embark on a career that would lead to world domination, but every story starts somewhere, and that story was the Memorial Hall in Newbridge.

Featuring a line-up of Paul Di'Anno on vocals, Dave Murray and Tony Parsons on guitars, Steve Harris on bass, and Doug Sampson on drums, the lads played Newbridge of a fee of £100 before bedding down for the night in their Hereford Road base for the pricey sum of £38.

The itinerary reads, "Check in in the afternoon. Get key so you can get back in late. BE QUIET! Pay in morning!"

Why the Maiden boys chose to stay in Aber, and not Newbridge is anybody's guess, but leafy Monmouthshire must have made a lasting impression upon them because they returned in spectacular style in the late 1980s.

Now fronted by the swashbuckling pilot Bruce Dickinson, whose operatic flair would take Maiden to new heights, and who founded Cardiff Aviation, now Caerdav Aviation in 2012, the lads who put the heavy in metal chose Tintern Abbey as the setting to film a video for one of their most well-known songs.

In July 1798, William Wordsworth immortalised Tintern Abbey and the surrounding area in his famous verse - ‘Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.’

To Wordsworth’s poetic eye, “The still, sad music of humanity” had neither power to “chasten nor subdue” when a soul was in the presence of “A presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime.”

As anyone who has visited these romantic ruins will testify, its roofless majesty still strikes a chord in the same key that would have resounded with Wordsworth all those moons ago.

Even on the dullest of days, the towering and exquisite architect manages to capture something of the elusive and infinite.

And in 1988, Iron Maiden set up camp there and asked, "Can I Play With Madness?"

Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing the video for the first song off their "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" album will know the answer is a resounding yes!

Featuring a strange and sinister monk, an authoritative and anal teacher, and a group of school kids attempting to draw Tintern Abbey, the video harks back to a time when videos were a little less about lots of flesh, Botox, and choreographed moves, and more about the story.

And the story here is spectacular!

One kid who is obviously a hardcore Maiden fan is busy drawing a picture of the band's famous mascot Eddie, instead of the monastery, much to the teacher's wrath.

Before you can say, "Hammer House of Horror" Eddie appears in the sky, the teacher disappears down a hole, and things get really weird!

Probably best just to watch the video for yourself if you want to get a real feel for its flavour!