IRON MAIDEN Mania Hits Western Canada

Within two hours of going on sale this morning at 10 a.m., IRON MAIDEN's "Somewhere Back in Time" tour had sold over 60,000 tickets for its five-city run through Western Canada in early June, the band's first comprehensive tour of the region in twenty years. With Calgary, Edmonton and Regina selling out within an hour, Vancouver and Winnipeg were not close behind with just a few hundred tickets left available after the first two hours and those are going fast. This has led to the promoter and band manager now scrambling to find more ways to supply the enormous fan demand. The band is releasing the majority of their guest tickets to the fans and the promoter is working with the band's production manager to find more room if possible. Even if some tickets may have to be stamped with a slightly restricted side view, fans will still be able to experience the incredible communal atmosphere of a MAIDEN concert. Ticketless fans can contact the box offices over the next few days about these added availabilities.

Calgary made a great case for Metal City North America (although somewhere in Eastern Canada may have something to say about that soon). Selling out the originally available 10,500 tickets in a little over 30 minutes, the show had the highest pre-sale ever for the band in North America. Just before the public on sales for their concerts MAIDEN make it possible for their fan club members to get the first chance at the box office and in Calgary fans snapped up an incredible 6,512 of the best tickets!! This is over a thousand more than even last week's Madison Square Garden huge fan club pre-sale in New York!!!

Says vocalist Bruce Dickinson: "We are truly overwhelmed by this response, especially as some of these cities we haven't played in 20 years!! Being Brits we are always very comfortable with Canadians and it will be a great pleasure to get back on the prairies again. It was always a LOUD response there! We look forward to this immensely and hope to give you all a show to remember."

MAIDEN's North America leg of the global "Somewhere Back in Time World Tour 08" starts in Texas on May 21 and ends on June 21 somewhere in Canada! The band already circled the planet in their customized Boeing 757 flown by vocalist Bruce Dickinson taking them to 23 sold out shows in 10 countries in 45 days and a distance of almost 50,000 miles, making it an average of a major show every alternate day with each one an average of about 2,000 miles apart. Following the North America leg the band make an extensive tour of stadiums and major festivals around Europe by the end of which they will have played to some one and a half million fans.

On May 13, EMI will release the "Best of .....1980 - 1989" album, aptly entitled "Somewhere Back in Time" and featuring 14 classic tracks from this period.