IRON MAIDEN Announces U.K. Arena Tour

British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN have announced the following U.K. tour dates for 2011:

Jul. 20 - SECC, Glasgow
Jul. 21 - AECC P&J Arena, Aberdeen
Jul. 23 - Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne
Jul. 24 - Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield
Jul. 27 - Trent FM Arena, Nottingham
Jul. 28 - MEN Arena, Manchester
Jul. 31 - NIA, Birmingham
Aug. 01 - CIA Arena, Cardiff
Aug. 03 - Odyssey, Belfast
Aug. 05 - O2 Arena, London

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Saturday, November 20.

This will be an extensive 10-city arena tour for the final run of dates on their "Final Frontier World Tour 2010/11". For the first time in many years, the band will be playing shows across the full length and breadth of the U.K., including places they've not visited for up to three decades!

Commented bassist Steve Harris: "Everything in the MAIDEN camp has been so full-on these last five years or so that we haven't travelled around the U.K. to play for our home fans for almost that long. These fans supported us by coming to Twickenham Stadium, Reading and Leeds festivals, Download and more recently Sonisphere so we thought we should get off our backsides and do the travelling this time and get round the country to see them all. We very much look forward to playing all four home countries and a couple of places we haven't been for a very long time, Aberdeen and Belfast! And playing the O2 gets us as close to the East End of London where MAIDEN started off than we have been for many a year, probably since the Ruskin Arms! All in all, l think this is going to be a very special series of shows and a wonderful way to end this whole world tour.

"We intend to take the full stadium show into the U.K. arenas and fit everything we possibly can into each venue.

"The set list will be different to this year's tour. Of course, we will play more songs from the new album and some other recent material, but we intend to include a healthy dose of older fan favorites, too, for those who haven't seen us before, plus a spectacular light show and stage set, not forgetting, of course... Eddie!"

The U.K. shows will be the culmination of "The Final Frontier World Tour", which began in June 2010 with a hugely successful 25-date tour throughout North America, followed by selected European stadium and festival shows, including Knebworth Sonisphere in the U.K. As recently announced, early next year Ed Force One will fly the band, crew and equipment 50,000 miles around the world, visiting thirteen countries before the band take a short break prior to the extensive European tour (more announcements soon) of which the U.K. is the final leg.