IRON MAIDEN Announces Support Acts For U.K. Tour

February 18, 2011

Live Nation has announced that the special guests for IRON MAIDEN's "The Final Frontier World Tour" U.K. dates have now been confirmed, and they are some stellar names from the world of rock and metal.

Australian rockers AIRBOURNE will be joining MAIDEN for all regional shows except Belfast; power metal heroes DRAGONFORCE will support at the Belfast show on Wednesday, August 3 and also the London O2 show on Friday, August 5; metalcore behemoths TRIVIUM will support in London at the O2 on Saturday, August 6.

The U.K. shows will be the culmination of IRON MAIDEN's "The Final Frontier World Tour". The first leg of the 2011 tour started last week in Moscow and sees the band travelling "around the world in 66 days", a 50-thousand-mile odyssey aboard Ed Force One, their specially customized Boeing 757, piloted by airline captain and lead singer Bruce Dickinson. The plane will carry band, crew and many tons of equipment across 5 continents to thirteen countries, visiting 26 cities for 29 shows. After the round-the-world dates, the tour continues into Europe before returning to the U.K. in July for an extensive 10-city arena tour covering the length and breadth of the U.K. By the time "The Final Frontier World Tour" finishes in London at the O2 in early August, MAIDEN will have played 101 shows, in 40 countries, to over 2 million fans since the tour began in June 2010.

"The Final Frontier World Tour" is in conjunction with the band's 15th studio album released in August 2010 which went straight to No. 1 in the album charts in 28 countries worldwide. This week the band received a Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance" for the song "El Dorado", from "The Final Frontier" album.

Speaking on the addition of their support acts, IRON MAIDEN's manager Rod Smallwood had the following to say: "As our fans know, MAIDEN like to give them value for money, and we think the addition to different parts of our U.K. tour of these three tremendous up and coming bands — AIRBOURNE, DRAGONFORCE and TRIVIUM — certainly does that. They will add to what we fully intend to make a series of memorable nights for the fans when we are 'coming home' later in the year for the final climactic round of 'The Final Frontier World Tour'."

On supporting IRON MAIDEN for the first time, AIRBOURNE had the following to say: "IRON MAIDEN, IRON MAIDEN's hard-working crew and IRON MAIDEN's hard-rocking crowd are all people who stand up for rock'n'roll the world over and we love and respect them all. We can't wait to open fire upon that hallowed stage. Long live metal, long live MAIDEN and long live Eddie!"

TRIVIUM are currently in the studio with producer Colin Richardson working on their fifth studio album. On supporting IRON MAIDEN again, guitarist/vocalist Matt Heafy comments: "We couldn't be more honoured and excited to share a stage with the legendary IRON MAIDEN. This will be TRIVIUM's first U.K. show in a long time and we'll have a new record under our belts to debut. Lights out, London, for an immense night of metal. Up the irons."

DRAGONFORCE's Herman Li adds: "We are so excited to be playing with the greatest heavy metal band of all time again! We had some of the best times of our careers touring with MAIDEN back in 2005. IRON MAIDEN have inspired us tremendously throughout the years and we can't wait to get back on stage to support them in Belfast on August 3rd and for their hometown show on August 5th. Here we go, up the irons!"

The dates are as follows:

Jul. 20 - Scotland, Glasgow - SECC (w/ AIRBOURNE)
Jul. 21 - Scotland, Aberdeen - AECC P&J Arena (w/ AIRBOURNE)
Jul. 23 - England, Newcastle - Metro Radio Arena (w/ AIRBOURNE)
Jul. 24 - England, Sheffield - Motorpoint Arena (w/ AIRBOURNE)
Jul. 27 - England, Nottingham - Trent FM Arena (w/ AIRBOURNE)
Jul. 28 - England, Manchester - MEN Arena (w/ AIRBOURNE)
Jul. 31 - England, Birmingham - NIA (w/ AIRBOURNE)
Aug. 01 - Wales, Cardiff - CIA Arena (w/ AIRBOURNE)
Aug. 03 - Northern Ireland, Belfast - Odyssey (w/ DRAGONFORCE)
Aug. 05 - England, London - O2 Arena (w/ DRAGONFORCE)
Aug. 06 - England, London - O2 Arena (w/ TRIVIUM)

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