Iron Maiden #8: A matter of life and death

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IRON MAIDEN Celebrates World Tour With Release Of Ultimate Tour Souvenir Single - Nov. 23, 2006

IRON MAIDEN has been touring in support of its critically acclaimed "A Matter of Life and Death" album since early October when they kicked off the trek in the U.S. (where the album entered the Billboard chart at No 9 and has sold 132,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan). By the end of the tour — which climaxes with two shows at London's Earl's Court Arena on December 22 and 23 — they will have played 44 concerts to half a million fans in 18 countries across North America, Japan and Europe

As a grand finale to the tour, EMI will release what has to be the ultimate MAIDEN tour souvenir on December 26, and is to release the band's first-ever limited-edition digital single.

Commented bassist Steve Harris, "We're having a fantastic time on this tour and the fans everywhere have been absolutely brilliant. The reaction to us playing the entire album from start to finish has been amazing. We're releasing this single with live tracks specially recorded on the tour, and our own version of FOCUS' 'Hocus Pocus' to celebrate all the fun we are having."

This exclusive digital single — a live version of "Different World" recorded during the European tour — will be available for a limited period only and will be deleted upon official release. The digital single can be downloaded day of release, December 26, in MP3 format that is compatible with PC, MP3 player, iPod and Mac. Fans who pre-order this exclusive digital single (and any of the single traditional formats digitally, as listed below) between midnight on Sunday, December 3 and Monday, December 25 will get to hear an exclusive interview with Steve Harris.

This unique offer is only available as a pre-order from the IRON MAIDEN Official Digital Store at www.ironmaiden.com. Pre-orders will be delivered on December 26, when the format will be deleted and no longer available. This exclusive live version is in MP3 format that is compatible with PC, MP3 player, iPod and Mac!

Three traditional collectable formats will be available from local record stores from Tuesday, December 26:

* Two-track CD — special souvenir price of Ł1.99 with previously unreleased live version of "Iron Maiden"

* Limited-edition 7" picture disc with previously unreleased live version of "Fear Of the Dark"

* Limited-edition DVD single with souvenir poster/2007 calendar. Includes the animated video directed by Howard Greenhalgh, and the previously unreleased live version of "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg", and the new studio recording of FOCUS' "Hocus Pocus". There is also a full picture library of live photos from the tour for fans to enjoy.

All singles contain different tour photos, and live songs from "A Matter of Life and Death" European Tour 2006

As a special bonus to fans, Steve Harris' daughter Lauren Harris and her band have been added for all dates from and including Den Bosch Holland on November 26 through to the two nights at Earl's Court, London December 22-23.

Said manager Rod Smallwood: "Lauren supported MAIDEN in Japan on our first two European shows in Denmark and went down really well, so we have added her to the U.K. section of the tour. Lauren will play for about 25 minutes each night prior to TRIVIUM. This will not change the current running times of our shows or the sets played by IRON MAIDEN and TRIVIUM."

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Op donderdag 6 september 2007 21:56 schreef -_Guitarist_- het volgende:
Bruce had het er vorig jaar over dat het misschien de laatste tour is die Maiden ooit zal gaan spelen....

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Finally available on DVD for the first time, EMI Records are proud to announce the eagerly awaited release of the Double Disc DVD of LIVE AFTER DEATH, the legendary recording of Maiden's four night stand at Long Beach Arena, California, in 1984. In the shops 4th February 2008 (5th in the US), the release will coincide with the start of the band's "Somewhere Back In Time World Tour" on which they will recreate many of the aspects of this original and spectacular show.

Disc one contains the recording of this full 90 minute concert. Originally filmed on 35mm, the footage comes alive on DVD resulting in a visually stunning film that far outstrips the usual live video of the '80's. The disc carries two sound options - the original concert audio specially mixed into 5.1 Surround Sound by Kevin Shirley, Maiden's producer since 1999, plus the original stereo sound track by Martin Birch, the band's producer from 1981 to 1993. Originally released on video in 1985, this has been largely unavailable for the past 20 years

Disc two has Part 2 of the 'History of Iron Maiden', continuing on the Maiden story from "The Early Days" DVD, along with rare and unseen bonus footage in the form of BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN, ROCK IN RIO '85, and 'ELLO TEXAS, all in all giving a total running time of well over three hours. Plus of course the photo galleries, relevant promo videos, artwork galleries, tour dates, tour programme and other features which all combine to make Maiden DVDs a very special and utterly comprehensive treat for their fans.

Manager Rod Smallwood explained "The original video of Live After Death has not been readily available for a long time so its good that we finally got around to this. lt was one of the first full concerts to be filmed after the advent of video and of course the live album, recorded on a different night to the video, has long been considered to be one of the seminal Metal live albums and has sold millions since. Fans have been begging us to do this DVD for some time now but we wanted to wait until we were able to recreate that whole tour to go with it and also to make it part of a series of DVDs that we are putting together around the band's history. And of course we are making sure that now we have got to it we will be giving the fans everything we can find from that period!!"


FULL LIST OF CONTENTS

Disc 1 -- LIVE AFTER DEATH
Live After Death concert with Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio (90 minutes)

Set list --
Churchill Speech/Aces High
2 Minutes to Midnight
The Trooper
Revelations
Flight of Icarus
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Powerslave
Number of the Beast
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Iron Maiden
Run to The Hills
Running Free
Sanctuary


Disc 2 -- DOCUMENTARY / BONUS CONCERT FOOTAGE

1.The History of Iron Maiden -- Part 2 (60 mins) -- Documentary.
Band members, crew, friends and associates talk about the period in the band's career which saw the writing, recording and release of the Powerslave album, and later Live After Death, and the subsequent massive touring. And not just the serious side!!

2. Behind the Iron Curtain ( 57 mins approx) Documentary and Live -- shot during Maiden's historic tour of Poland and other parts to the Eastern Bloc in 1984 featuring interviews, live and offstage footage capturing the atmosphere of this remarkable journey behind the Wall at the height of the Cold War.

3. Live Footage - Rock in Rio '85 (50 mins approx)
Highlights from the Maiden set supporting Queen on the first day of the first Rock in Rio in front of 300,000. A bloody and stirring performance!!

4. Ello Texas -- 15 minutes -- Interview and live. Caught by a film crew in 1983 at the Alamo and sound checking their show in San Antonio.

5. Artwork Gallery, Tour Programme, Tour dates and photo gallery

6. Promotional clips for Aces High and 2 Minutes to Midnight

Subtitles for All documentary footage --
PAL version -- English HOH / Dutch / French / German / Italian / Swedish / Portuguese / Spanish
NTSC Version -- English HOH / Brazilian Portguese / Latin Spanish


LIVE AFTER DEATH was filmed and recorded towards the tail end of 'The World Slavery Tour' over a record breaking four sold out nights at Los Angeles' 13,200 capacity Long Beach Arena. Featuring tracks from their first five albums both the album and video topped the international charts around the world. The tour opened in Warsaw in August 1984 and concluded in Los Angeles July 1985. It covered 193 concerts in 21 countries, including an incredible 112 arena shows in just the USA and Canada (both where the album went Platinum), and saw the band playing to over a million fans in North America alone. This was the most ambitious, longest and most gruelling tour Maiden ever experienced.

As the second instalment to 2004's international chart topping The Early Days DVD The Second Disc features the highly anticipated 'THE HISTORY OF IRON MAIDEN PART II' which gives an insight, humorous and otherwise, into the making of the record as well as exploring the creativity and the background pressures created through the sheer hard work and the physical toll that comes with success at this level for a touring band.

Also packed in on the second disc are more extras with three more rare and unseen gems from the period:

BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN, which was first released in April 1985 as a 35 minute video documentary, illustrates the quite remarkable story of how Iron Maiden became the first major band from the West to play large arenas in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Hungary at a time when these markets were still very much "Behind the Iron Curtain". This 57 minute DVD version features a lot of extra footage not included on the original retail release. Prior to this DVD the only time it had been seen was on a special MTV airing in 1984. With complete access on the tour, filmmaker and director Kenny Fueurman, gives the viewer a candid insight into the world of Maiden at this groundbreaking time in their career. It also contains interviews with some of the thousands of fans who attended their shows, and their reaction to having Maiden play there for the first time despite their album being out of reach in the old Eastern Bloc countries, where at the time it would cost almost a month's wages! Also included is the infamous incident of the band gate crashing an unsuspecting private wedding party and becoming the evenings 'entertainment' in return for a Polish vodka or three!

Extensive research allowed the producers to retrieve footage of highlights from the band's biggest ever show when they played in Brazil to a sea of rock fans estimated to be somewhere between 250,000 to 350,000 on the first night of the first ROCK IN RIO festival in Feb1985. Maiden went on just prior to headliners QUEEN and cemented their place in the heart of South American fans. Despite best endeavours this 50 minutes clip of extremely rare concert footage is admittedly not in the greatest shape and in parts was beyond repair, but at the request of fans hungry for a record of the historical performance, it has been included in the package as a special bonus.

Another small but also previously unavailable 15 minute feature is 'ELLO TEXAS, which gives a candid glimpse of Iron Maiden performing to the US audiences with further band interview footage at the Alamo. Historically this recording from 1983 should have been included in 2004's EARLY DAYS DVD but it only came to light during research for this Live After Death DVD and is included now for interest.

In essence, Live After Death, the double disc DVD gives over five hours of content, giving the most complete and in depth exploration of Iron Maiden during what was considered their most pivotal album and tour of their long and distinguished history.