IRON MAIDEN: North American Tour Dates Announced

From the last night (February 19),amid the pandemonium in front of 14,000 screaming fans at a packed Los Angeles Forum, IRON MAIDEN announced the first leg of its eagerly anticipated North American summer tour.

As tickets for IRON MAIDEN's current "Somewhere Back In Time - World Tour 08" dates at the Los Angeles Forum and New Jersey's Izod Centre sold out months in advance, the band is delighted to announce it is coming back for more major USA concerts this summer which will take it to a number of cities it has not played in many years along with a return to the Los Angeles area with two nights at the 16,000-capacity Verizon Amphitheatre on Friday, May 30 and Saturday, May 31. Tickets for the majority of these shows will go on sale to the public on Saturday, March 1. A special pre-sale will be made available exclusively to members of the IRON MAIDEN fan club, who will also be eligible to enter to be "First to the stage barrier."

The "Somewhere Back In Time - World Tour 08" was inspired by MAIDEN's recently released DVD, "Live After Death" (New Door Records/Ume). Filmed and recorded over four spectacular nights at Long Beach Arena on the "Powerslave Tour" in 1985, this has long been a benchmark for rock concert videos and live albums, and the CD remains one of the biggest-selling live albums ever with sales in excess of six million worldwide. With the video having been largely unavailable for many years, the fans' massive interest in this legendary concert continues to this day with the DVD debuting at No. 1 on charts around the world (including The UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and Finland),as well as No 2 on the Billboard chart in the U.S. and Canada.

This tour revisits the band's history by focusing almost entirely on their classic '80s period in both choice of songs played and the stage set, which is based around the legendary Egyptian production of that "Powerslave Tour" as portrayed on the "Live After Death" DVD. This will arguably be the most elaborate and spectacular show the band have ever presented. Furthermore the band intends to bring along for this summer leg of the tour the colossal mummy of Eddie, as featured on the "Live After Death" DVD, along with various other elements of the show that would not fit on their 757 on the first leg of this tour, which included the shows at the Forum and Izod Centre.

Says vocalist Bruce Dickinson: "We are all greatly looking forward to getting back to see our fans in places like Texas, the South West and Seattle where we haven't played for quite some time. And for this leg we will be able to bring along all Eddie's toys which we couldn't get on our plane during the first leg. We are all having a great time on this tour and really can't believe the excitement it is creating round the world and the huge numbers of people who are turning out to see us. It makes for a really very exciting time for all of us, fans and band alike."

IRON MAIDEN North American tour dates:

May 21 - San Antonio, TX - Verizon Wireless
May 22 - Houston, TX - Woodlands
May 25 - Albuquerque, NM - Journal Pavilion
May 26 - Phoenix, AZ - Cricket Pavilio
May 28 - Concord, CA - Concord
May 30 - Los Angeles, CA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
May 31 - Los Angeles, CA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Jun. 02 - Seattle, WA - White River Amphitheatre

Fan-filmed video footage of IRON MAIDEN's February 9, 2008 concert at the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia can be viewed below (courtesy of "twojawas").