aintree iron

[rsbiotech]

what is the aintree iron

[heatherglen]

This may help

www.louisville.edu/~tavan001/MerseytalkA.html

[Chessman]

Its a Tree.

[sddsddean]

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Music/Question144072.html

[Johnmof]

There was a lot of speculation as to what this meant when Scaffold included it in "Thank you very much". One of the theories was that it referred to the shoes on the horses running in the Grand National.

[jno]

the author explains - or rather, doesn't - here

[Johnmof]

For a moment I thought that the input by Mike McCartney (McGear) was genuine, till he mentioned that it was coming up for 30 years since he came up with the phrase. He's about a decade out.

[spinchimp]

I lived in Aintree in Liverpool when the song was released. There was a lot of speculation at the time about the 'aintree iron', and I don't think the tree was ever mentioned. Most people thought it meant the black bull area (mentioned in the article in the weblink)  which is indeed an iron shaped group of buildings (Back Bull is a pub). I think in the end the conclusion was that the lyric was a bit of nonsense, as no local people had ever heard the phrase before the song was released. 
 
 
 

[jno]

Johnmof, I think that claim from McGear was originally made (in the pages of the Guardian) 10 years or so back, as I recall, so no need to doubt his good faith. As it was printed, not just posted direct on to a website, his identity would have been checked.