Iron Maiden Confirms Paris & London Gigs

Iron Maiden are to perform at the Ominisport De Bercy Arena in Paris on Tuesday 1st July as part of their Somewhere Back In Time World Tour 2008.

Steve Harris says “We’ve had many great shows at the Omnisport De Bercy venue over recent years and it was actually the first place in Europe we played with the current line up back in 1999. The atmosphere there is always electric thanks to the energy of the fans and we’re really looking forward to playing there again.

It’s also tremendous to be able to use the profile of the ‘Live After Death’ DVD to do what is effectively an 80’s show. It will be enormous fun and changing the approach to the songs we play tour by tour keeps it fresh and interesting for both the band and the fans alike. l think ‘Powerslave’ was an incredible show with the Egyptian theme and I’m looking forward to seeing it all again myself.”

“Maiden Mania” is currently gripping the world as tickets sales of the 2008 World tour fly out of the box offices in Australia, India, Japan, North and South America and now Europe.

In Scandinavia this week the band sold out 3 stadium shows in Sweden and Finland with all 123,500 tickets purchased in a mad rush within two hours of going on sale.

The ‘SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME’ World Tour is in three sections, the travel for the first being by very unique means with the group customising a Boeing 757 aircraft, which will carry the band, their crew and over 12 tons of equipment from city to city. This first section of the tour opens in Mumbai India on Feb 1st, continuing through Australia and Japan before arriving in Los Angeles. The entourage then fly to Mexico then onto Maiden’s first ever visits to Costa Rica and Colombia, then on to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rica and New York, before finishing in Toronto, Canada, on March 16th. Over the 45 day period on this leg alone the band is anticipated to play to well over 400,000 fans in 21 cities in 10 countries, flying close to 50,000 miles in this refitted 757 which will be flown largely by vocalist and Astraeus Airline Captain Bruce Dickinson.

Comments Bruce Dickinson, “Looking at the list of places we would like to play we have always had problems joining up the dots. But without having sea containers all over the place slowing down the whole touring process and by having our own plane it has made it far easier to tour distant places like Australia for the first time in15 years. We have already had a great reaction from fans there, where the arenas in Melbourne and Sydney sold out in less than half an hour respectively!”

The second leg of the tour will be in mid-May to mid -June in North America while the final third leg takes place in July and August in stadiums and major festivals around Europe. In total the band are expected to play to well in excess of one and a half million fans during the whole tour.

Tickets go on sale to the public 10.00 am on Friday 30th of November, but members of the Iron Maiden fan club will get special and exclusive first access to purchase tickets on Wednesday 28th November. Watch the site for further information!

As for the London show, Iron Maiden will be playing their first ever stadium show in the UK at the Twickenham Rugby Stadium in London on Saturday 5th July 2008 as part of their Somewhere Back In Time World Tour 2008. Despite headlining major UK festivals like Reading and Donington many times and selling out stadiums around the World, the band have never before elected to play a stadium in the UK and intend to make this first time a very special occasion.
The 50,000 capacity celebrated home of English Rugby will be transformed into a Maiden mecca with fans travelling in from all parts of the country and further afield for this one and only UK show of 2008.

This will be a spectacular return to UK shores for both Iron Maiden and their fans. Maiden have consistently performed headline stadium shows outside the UK and “Maiden Mania” is currently gripping the world as tickets sales of the 2008 World tour fly out of the box offices in Australia, India, Japan, North and South America and now Europe with many shows selling out within only a few hours.

Steve Harris “It could be a bit of an understatement to say how excited we all are to be playing this show next summer. We’ve got hell of a tour planned visiting old and new fans all over the world but as always it’s great to get home and play here in London especially at such a prestigious stadium as Twickenham. Fans who travel out to Europe for our stadium shows there have for a while been asking us to play one here as the audience in a stadium is much closer to the band than at a big festival and can see so much better. As some people will know I am a big football fan but have heard much about what a great stadium Twickenham is from our rugby mad manager!! So l’m definitely looking forward to savouring that atmosphere We played a couple of nights at Earls Court just before Christmas at the end of our last album tour and you always get such a great feeling playing at home with all your friends and family there. It’s going to a fantastic occasion.”

A full supporting bill for Twickenham will be announced shortly

Somewhere Back in Time World Tour 2008

This first leg of Iron Maiden’s ‘SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME’ World Tour will open in Mumbai India on Feb 1st, and continue through Australia, Japan, Los Angeles and Mexico, followed by the band’s first ever concerts in Costa Rica and Columbia, and then on to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rica and New York, before finishing in Toronto, Canada, on March 16th. Over the 45 day period it is anticipated that Maiden will play to well over 400,000 fans in 21 cities in 10 countries, flying close to 50,000 miles in the specially refitted plane (full schedule below).Comments Bruce Dickinson, “I have been flying commercial passenger jets for Astraeus Airlines for a few years now and we are commissioning an Astraeus Boeing 757. It will go in for overhaul, painting and conversion in November which will then give us time to ensure we have all the necessary safety documentation, especially with regard to fire safety. It also means it could possibly be flying commercial air routes decked out in Maiden colours for a couple of months before we start!

“Looking at the list of places we would like to play we have always had problems joining up the dots. With sea containers in various places it slows down the whole touring process, which is fine if you want a holiday but not if you want to play. It’s great to see places but we don’t want to sit around for a week waiting for gear to get from, say, Australia to South America, so this way we can get to more fans in more places en route in the same time period”

To tie in with forthcoming 2008 releases on DVD of the classic ‘LIVE AFTER DEATH’ concert video (full details coming soon) this tour, aptly entitled ‘SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME’, will revisit the band’s history by focusing almost entirely on the 80’s in both choice of songs played and the stage set, which will be based around the legendary Egyptian Production of the 1984-85 ‘Powerslave Tour’. This will arguably be the most elaborate and spectacular show the band have ever presented, and will include some key elements of their Somewhere In Time tour of 1986/7, such as the Cyborg Eddie.

Steve Harris comments “l always loved the Powerslave show which I think was arguably our most spectacular ever, so taking it out again is really going to be a lot of fun. Taking our own 757 really makes it a lot more flexible for us and we intend to ram into the specially constructed cargo holds as much of the show as we possibly can. The schedule we have been able to put together due to this flexibility l think is very exciting, taking us to some places we haven’t been in a long while like Australia and some we have never been to like Columbia and Costa Rica. It is always refreshing going to new places and we hear the fans there are incredible! It’s a lot of flying but will be well worth it.

“As always when planning these tours we sadly aren’t always able to get to everywhere that we’d like to for various logistical and timing reasons
and there are probably fans out there who might be disappointed. We promise we will try even harder the next time around to get to those places.”
Full Schedule for the first leg
SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME World Tour 08

February
Fri 1st - Mumbai, India - Bandra Kurla Complex
Mon 4th - Perth, Australia - Burswood Dome
Wed 6th - Melbourne, Australia - Rod Laver Arena
Thu 7th - Melbourne, Australia - Rod Laver Arena
Sat 9th - Sydney, Australia - Acer Arena
Sun 10th - Sydney, Australia - Acer Arena
Tue 12th - Brisbane, Australia - Entertainment Centre
Fri 15th - Yokohama, Japan - Pacifico Yokohama
Sat 16th - Tokyo, Japan - Messe
Tue 19th - Los Angeles, USA -The Forum
Thu 21st - Guadalajara, Mexico - Auditoria Telmex
Fri 22nd - Monterrey, Mexico - Arena Monterrey
Sun 24th - Mexico City, Mexico - Sports Palace
Tue 26th - San Jose, Costa Rica - Saprisa Stadium
Thu 28th - Bogota, Columbia - Simon Bolivar Park

March
Sun 2nd - Sao Paulo, Brazil - Skol Arena Anhembi
Wed 5th - Porto Allegre, Brazil - Gigantinho
Fri 7th - Buenos Aires, Argentina - Ferrofcarril Oeste Stadium
Sun 9th - Santiago, Chile - Pista Atletica
Wed 12th - Puerto Rico - San Juan Coliseo
Fri 14th - New Jersey, USA - Izod Centre
Sun 16th - Toronto, Canada - Air Canada Centre

The Iron Maiden Fan Club have made special arrangements at as many shows as possible for their members to get first access to buy tickets by way of an special pre-sale in advance of the tickets going on sale to the public.

Latest Fan club first pre-sales have been arranged as follows:
Los Angeles, New York & Toronto - Tuesday 6th November
Mexico City - 28th November
Monterrey & Guadalajara, Mexico - Thursday 8th November

Existing fan club members will automatically receive log in information via a private message. To join the fan club now just click here!

The fan club are also running a special draw for their members whereby 60 winners and a friend will be given first access to the venue and be first to the stage barrier at as many shows as possible. Full details will be announced early next year on www.ironmaiden.com.

We are sorry but it is not logistically possible to arrange pre-sales or first to the barrier competitions in either India or Latin America.
The second leg of the Tour will take place mid May to mid June with further concerts in North America, followed by the third leg European Tour, extensively covering most of Europe in Stadiums and major Festivals. In total the band are expected to play to well in excess of one and a half million fans during the whole tour.

“We Don’t Want to Look Like Our Own Version of an Iron Maiden Cover Band”

ason Nahrung of Australia’s The Courier-Mail recently conducted an interview with Bruce Dickinson. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Thanks to Blabbermouth.netOn the band’s enduring popularity:

“Maiden is a unique band. You could say we’re one of the last of the originals. If anything, the fan base has regenerated. There’s a whole new generation — two new generations — of kids turning up. We played Sweden and filled 50,000-seat soccer stadiums. We never filled a soccer stadium in the mid-’80s. You look now and the first 50 rows are 16-year-olds. On our last tour we were able to play a new album (the 80-minute ‘A Matter of Life and Death’) in its entirety, and still sell out a worldwide tour of arenas. The fans are attracted to us because we are still an active musical force.”

On Iron Maiden being a more relaxed outfit than it used to be:

“Fifteen to 20 years ago we were under the gun, doing loads of touring. We were frazzled. People couldn’t give it their best. It was like a sports team, someone was always injured. Now we know it’s better to take three months off than to do a bad job. Our performance has improved, the reliability of the performance has improved as well.”

On Ancient Egypt seeming a natural backdrop for a tour from one of the most flamboyant of bands:

“As for Egypt, you could overrate the pudding on that one. We were interested in it in the mid ’80s, and (the songs) ‘Revelations’ and ‘Powerslave’ take imagery from that era, but it’s such a fabulous era to plunder. There’s an outrageousness about Egypt and there’s an outrageousness about heavy metal bands. Making these enormous stone pyramids for everyone to look at seems like heavy metal madness. They were over the top in monument construction — minimalists they were not. That strikes a chord — we’re hardly Bauhaus in our aspirations.”

Bruce talks about his favorite songs from the new Iron Maiden record

In a recent interview with Revolver magazine, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson spoke about some of his favorite songs off the band’s new CD, A Matter of Life and Death, which is scheduled for release in North America on September 5 via Sanctuary Records.

“These Colours Don’t Run”:

Bruce: “It’s about what motivates soldiers and what they fight for. Some of them have a big flag tattooed on their ass and genuinely believe all the patriotic stuff, and they’ll get their heads blown off for Uncle Sam. But I think most of them fight because if they didn’t, their buddies would get killed.’

“The Longest Day”:

Bruce: “It’s about D-Day and the kind of ordeals that 18-year-old kids were put through to accomplish what they did that day. It’s something that we’re not exposed to now. Yes, there are people who go and do extraordinary things and wrestle hand to hand with Taliban guys in Tora Bora armed only with a knife. But we don’t know how they do it because it’s hidden. Most of these kids on D-Day were 18, and they had six months to be turned into these fighting machines. So the song is a musical version of ‘Saving Private Ryan’, in a sense.”

“Brighter than a Thousand Suns”:

Bruce: “I spent most of my adolenscence under the shadow of the atomic bomb. I was brought up in a generation that was led to believe that a claxon siren would go off, and you’d just have four minutes to kiss your ass goodbye. This generation has a different paranoia. Today, it’s all about terrorism. We just thought we were going to get wiped off the face of the earth. So the song looks at how you reconcile building something as destructive as the bomb with sleeping at night.”

“Lord of Light”:

Bruce: “Just imagine there was a whole range of places between Heaven and Hell and that you got to pick, and that Lucifer is, in fact, the ‘lord of light’ downstairs, which is kind of what his name means. And all this stuff about the vengeful, eternal God wagging his finger and punishing you is all just a load of PR nonsense.”

Sources: Blabbermouth.net