Iron Maiden will perform in Bangalore in February 2009 during the fourth and final leg of its ‘Somewhere Back in Time World Tour 08’.
Iron Maiden, that began the tour in India with a performance in Mumbai on 1 February 2008, will be taking to the skies once again in 2009 for the final leg of the tour, starting in Dubai on 13 February 2009.
Loaded with a full complement of band, crew and 12 tons of stage set and equipment, the band’s customised Boeing 757, christened Ed Force One by the fans and flown again by Astraeus Airlines Captain and Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, will once again be circumnavigating 80,000km around the planet for concerts in 19 cities in 11 countries, making it 37 countries in total visited on this tour, playing to almost two million fans.
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Taking off in early February, Maiden will make their first appearances in New Zealand for 16 years, via Dubai and Bangalore, followed by the long haul journey for a return to Mexico and finishing with an extended run through Central and South America to include countries and cities they have not visited before
Iron Maiden’s February 2009 itinerary:-
13 – UAE – Dubai Media City Amphitheatre
15 – India – Bangalore Royal Challenge Rock In India
20 – New Zealand – Auckland Mount Smart Stadium
21 – New Zealand – Christchurch. AMI Stadium
25 – Mexico – Monterrey Estadio Technologico.
26 – Mexico – Guadalajara Arena VFG Jalisco.
28 – Mexico – Mexico City Fero Sol Stadium Complex
1 to 29 March 2009 – South and Central America.
The tour revisits the band’s history by focusing almost entirely on the 80’s in both choice of songs played and the stage set, which is based around the legendary Egyptian Production of the 1984-85 ‘Powerslave Tour’ which was featured on the recent DVD “Live after Death”.
Comments Bruce Dickinson, “This unique way of touring earlier this year with everyone and all our gear onboard the plane helped to make 2008 easily one of the most successful, exciting and fun years in the band’s career. Taking Ed Force One around the planet and playing to our fans in so many different countries was an incredible experience for all of us For me personally, flying and performing was one of the most challenging and satisfying things I’ve ever attempted despite the rigours and all the logistical difficulties we encountered. In fact it was so much fun we decided to do it again as a final leg of this tour All in all this will be a fantastic way to round off a tremendous year for the band before we take a bit of time off and then start work on a new studio album.”
Says Steve Harris, “We will once again be loading onto the plane as much of the production and stage set as we can ram in, along with arranging plenty of pyro for all the shows!! We will also be changing round the set list and replacing some of the songs, mainly with songs from the first four albums as the Early Days tour a few years back didn’t visit any of these places so we thought the fans would like to hear some of that even earlier material. This tour is likely to be the last time we play many of these songs live so we really will be giving it everything we have got!”
The Iron Maiden plane Ed Force One has been back in regular airline service since the end of the first leg in March this year and has been used for the ‘Bruce Air’ fan club flying trips during the European leg of the tour, as well as Bruce flying various missions to bring troops back home from tours of duty in Afghanistan and collecting stranded British tourists in the recent major airline closures. However the Boeing 757 will be taken back into the hangar soon to be completely refitted and its Maiden livery restored, says the official Maiden website.
In Bangalore, the event is being organised by DNA Networks and the special fan club pre-sale will be open to the fan club members via www.dnanetworks.com on 15 December with tickets going on sale to the public and at retail outlets on 26 January
