IRON MAIDEN continue their MAIDEN ENGLAND WORLD TOUR into 2013 with a welcome return to the U.S.A., stopping off to play some select shows en-route to Latin America where they will once again headline at the legendary Rock In Rio Festival, Brazil their show there having recently sold-out to 70,000 fans in just a couple of hours.
Following the hugely successful opening leg of the MAIDEN ENGLAND TOUR 2012, Maiden’s most extensive tour of North America for many years, the band wanted visit even more U.S. cities where their fans hadn’t had a chance to see them play for a very long time, so utilizing the journey to Brazil seemed an ideal opportunity to make this happen. Very special guests on all the dates will be Megadeth*.
The U.S dates will begin with a first-ever visit to Raleigh, NC, for the opening show on September 3rd at the Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion followed by taking Metal back to country music capital Nashville, TN, where Maiden haven’t played in over twenty years, at the Bridgestone Arena on September 5th. There will also be shows in Kansas City, MO, Sprint Center on September 7th, St Louis, MO, Verizon Wireless on September 8th and the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, NV on September 12th, all last visited way back in 2000 on the Brave New World Tour. There will also be a return to Austin, TX, for a show at the 360 Amphitheater on September 10th, the first time the band have played in that city since the original Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son Tour twenty-five years ago!
Before they finally head south to Brazil, Maiden will also headline a very special event at the San Manuel Amphitheater, San Bernardino, CA. The Battle Of San Bernardino will take place on Friday 13th September. Anthrax, Testament, Sabaton and Overkill will join tour special guests Megadeth for this performance only, making for a big, loud and exciting day out for Metal fans in Southern California.
Tickets for the Las Vegas and San Bernardino shows go on sale April 12th. Tickets for Raleigh, Nashville, St Louis and Austin go on sale April 13th. Tickets for Kansas City go on sale May 17th. Check local details or www.ironmaiden.com for exact on sale times.
An exclusive first ticket pre-sale for Iron Maiden Fan Club members will run on Wednesday, April 10th. Fan Club members will also be eligible in the draw to be ‘First To The Barrier’.
Lead singer Bruce Dickinson explains,
“As Maiden fans know, we’re going back to Brazil to headline Rock In Rio again, so we thought that on our way down south we should certainly stop off and do a few more shows in the U.S if we possibly could. We especially wanted to try and play some more cities we’ve not visited for a while, so we’re really excited about seeing our fans again in places we’ve not been to in over a decade, and in some cases over two decades, and for our first-ever visit to Raleigh! We’ll be bringing with us the same full production we had on the Maiden England Tour in North America last year so fans can expect to see the huge lightshow, stage set, various incarnations of Eddie, plenty of pyro and all kinds of other exciting stuff”
Bassist and founder member Steve Harris continues,
“We know how popular the History of Maiden Tours are with fans of all ages and we love visiting cities we haven’t been to in many years as it gives us a chance to play to new audiences. We had a huge amount of fun with the set list* for this Maiden England Tour when we opened in North America last year as we got to play songs we had not played in a very long time like “Seventh Son,” “The Prisoner” and “Afraid To Shoot Strangers,” as well as fan favourites like “The Trooper,” “Aces High,” “The Clairvoyant,” “The Number Of The Beast,” “Wasted Years” and “Run To The Hills.” That opening leg of the tour was so enjoyable for the whole band, we’re really looking forward to coming back to see our fans again and a lot of new faces too! ”
The MAIDEN ENGLAND WORLD TOUR marks the third chapter in the History of Iron Maiden, a journey which began in 2004 with The Early Days DVD and subsequent 2005 Early Days Tour. Part Two followed in 2008 with the Live After Death DVD and the band embarking on their ground-breaking Somewhere Back In Time World Tour 2008/9, which saw them play to over two million fans in almost 40 countries, flying between shows on five continents on their customized Boeing 757, named Ed Force One, piloted by vocalist Bruce Dickinson and covered in full by the DVD Flight 666.
Now MAIDEN ENGLAND sees the band recreate the stage show of the 1988 Seventh Son Tour and playing many songs from that legendary tour and the 1989 concert VHS video titled “Maiden England”, which lends its name to this tour and was released as a double-disc DVD, Maiden England ’88, for the first time ever on March 26, 2013, debuting at #1 on the Soundscan DVD chart in the USA and also #1 in Canada.
Widely considered one of the most important and influential rock acts of all time, IRON MAIDEN have sold almost 90 million albums worldwide, played over 2000 live performances across 58 countries around the globe, and released 15 studio albums including the most recent, The Final Frontier, their biggest ever album chart success attaining No.1 positions in over 28 countries.
Iron Maiden continue to be actively dedicated to ensuring their fans always have full access to the best possible tickets in the fairest possible way. Manager Rod Smallwood comments:
“We are trying to ensure that our fans get the tickets they want in the prime positions without paying over the odds to ticket scalpers. Maiden get infuriated with the way fans sometimes have to pay more than the ticket price to get good positions at our shows. So we will, wherever possible, with the assistance of the Promoters, arrange a paperless ticketing system at least for the front sections to try to eliminate as much of the ticket scalping and exchanges as we can. We put this into practice on our North American Tour in 2010 and also last year; it worked well and we received many positive comments back from our fans, so we intend to increase this where feasible. With paperless ticketing, only those who actually pay initially for the tickets will get into the show so scalping is generally avoided (please see the comments from Ticketmaster below). We are also doing everything we can to avoid any drain of prime tickets going to the Secondary Ticketing sites which we feel make unfair profits from music fans.
As we consider all our fans to be VIPs, no tickets will be held specifically for VIP use. At some venues, the Promoter may provide the option for fans to pay extra for “VIP Parking”, early access, access to “VIP Bar” etc. But these will be purely optional for ticket holders only and will not be tied to ticket locations – the ability to get the best tickets should be the same for everybody outside of the usual presales.
Finally, we are of course once again arranging exclusive ticket pre-sales for our fan club members so they can be quick off the mark for great tickets and will also continue to run the draw in appropriate venues for fan club members so they can be ‘First To The Barrier’ prior to the show. We hope that these measures will help our fans as much as possible and ask that they keep checking for details on our website.”
TICKET MASTER comments:
Where possible the North American Iron Maiden shows will operate a paperless ticket policy. Select tickets will be sold via Ticketmaster’s Paperless Ticket delivery, which means fans will not receive a physical concert ticket for their entry into the event. Buying paperless helps ensure fans have secure and convenient access to event tickets at the intended original sale price. On the day of show, concertgoers just need to bring the credit card they used for the ticket purchase and a government-issued photo ID to the concert. All members of the ticket purchaser's party must be present at the same time to enter the venue. The venue’s ticket usher will swipe their credit card upon entry and present each person in their party with seat locator slips for quick access into the show. To purchase paperless tickets or for more information, fans should visit http://www.ticketmaster.com/paperless or call the Ticketmaster charge-by-phone number at 1-800-745-3000.
*MEGADETH (megadeth.com)
Megadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1983 with its roots in thrash metal, a genre that its founder, singer/songwriter and guitarist Dave Mustaine helped pioneer. The band has since released 13 studio albums. Megadeth consists of Dave Mustaine (vocals, guitars), Chris Broderick (guitars, background vocals), David Ellefson (bass, background vocals) and Shawn Drover (drums, percussion, background vocals). Megadeth rose to international fame in the 1980s and was ranked as one of the "Big Four" bands of thrash metal along with Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, who were responsible for creating, developing and popularizing the thrash metal genre. Megadeth has received 11 Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance and 7 Platinum certifications. Their last studio album, TH1RT3EN was released in 2011 debuting at position #1 on The Billboard Hard Rock Albums chart. Megadeth's 14th studio album, Super Collider is due for release on June 4, 2013.
*North American 2012 set list: “Moonchild,” “Can I Play With Madness,” “The Prisoner,” “2 Minutes To Midnight,” “Afraid To Shoot Strangers,” “The Trooper,” “The Number Of The Beast,” “Phantom Of The Opera,” “Run To The Hills,” “Wasted Years,” “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son,” “The Clairvoyant,” “Fear Of The Dark,” “Iron Maiden,” “Aces High,” “The Evil That Men Do,” “Running Free.”
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 12:49PM 
