IRON MAIDEN Announces U.S. Tour Dates

British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN will open their highly anticipated "The Book Of Souls" world tour in the USA in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on February 24, flying in on their enormous Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet Ed Force One, piloted by vocalist Bruce Dickinson, carrying band, crew and stage production and equipment over 55,000 miles around the world visiting around 35 countries.

The full list of U.S. dates:

Feb. 24 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ BB&T Center
Feb. 26 - Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
Feb. 28 - Las Vegas, NV @ Mandalay Bay Events Center
Mar. 30 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
Apr. 05 - Detroit, MI @ Palace Of Auburn Hills
Apr. 06 - Chicago, IL @ United Center
Apr. 11 - Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
Apr. 13 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
Apr. 15 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum

Tickets start going on sale October 8. As usual, there will be an exclusive pre-sale for IRON MAIDEN fan club members, details of which can also be found on www.ironmaiden.com along with information on how fan club members can participate in the draw to be "First To The Barrier."

Bruce comments: "We cannot wait to get back out on tour.

"MAIDEN thrive on touring and getting out to our fans, it's also what we enjoy the most.

"When we play in Fort Lauderdale, it will be 19 months since our last show at Sonisphere in the U.K. so we will be raring to go.

"On previous Ed Force One tours, we only had time to play New York, L.A. and Florida. For the world tour next year, we've made more time in order to take Ed Force One to our fans in many more parts of the country, like Tulsa where we haven't played since 1987 on the 'Somewhere In Time' tour and Tacoma, where we haven't played in 15 years, along with Vegas, Detroit, Chicago and Denver too this time round.

"We wanted to start off in Ft. Lauderdale, so we could first visit Nicko's [McBrain, drums] Rock 'N' Roll Ribs nearby and have a few Trooper beers to celebrate the start of 'The Book Of Souls' world tour!

"We will, of course, visit Canada too and those dates will be announced very soon!

"We haven't decided on the set list as yet and won't until we start rehearsing, but we really look forward to playing a number of new songs live, especially as the recording was so much live. However, as it's been a while since we saw you all, I am sure we will include plenty of older fan favorites too. I think the fans will be delighted by what we have in mind. We are also in the middle of creating the new show, and rest assured we are working hard to bring you all something spectacular, something with a lot of heart!!! You certainly deserve it for your patience."

Support on the trek will come from THE RAVEN AGE, the band led by IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris's son George Harris.

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 unofficial ticketing agencies.

"MAIDEN get infuriated with the way fans sometimes have to pay more than the agreed ticket price at our shows. So we will, wherever possible and with the full assistance of the promoters, arrange a paperless ticketing system at least for the floor and best seated sections to try to eliminate as much of the ticket scalping and exchanges as we can. We put this into practice for North American dates since 2010 and it worked well and we received many positive comments back from our fans. The intention is with paperless ticketing that only those who actually pay initially for the tickets will get into the show so scalping is generally avoided. We are also doing everything we can to avoid any drain of tickets to the secondary ticketing sites which we feel make unfair profits from music fans.

"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 contest 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 web site."

Ticketmaster 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 (also known as Credit Card Entry),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 www.ticketmaster.com/paperless or call the Ticketmaster charge-by-phone number at 1-800-745-3000.