Somewhere Back in Time World Tour was a concert tour by Iron Maiden in 2008 and 2009 to promote the DVD release of their 1985 concert video Live After Death. To tie in with the tour, a new greatest hits compilation - Somewhere Back In Time - The Best Of: 1980-1989 - was also released. These combined with Iron Maiden's Bruce Airways service (where singer Bruce Dickinson flies fans to concerts) and their most expansive merchandise campaign - including an individual tour shirt for each concert among other things - mean this tour was heralded as the band's most important in many years. Many of the band's songs had not been played in a long time, as much as 21 years in one case, and never played by the current line-up which includes Janick Gers who joined the band in 1990. A subsequent tour documentary titled Flight 666 was released in April 2009 with an accompanying DVD and soundtrack, with a limited release of the documentary into cinemas. The World Slavery Tour's stage had been the biggest and most complicated the band ever designed, but a number of modifications were made for this tour.

The tour used an updated version of the band's 1984-5 World Slavery Tour stage set, which carried an Ancient Egyptian theme, and the band played a set focussing on the 1980s - specifically the years when albums Powerslave (1984), Somewhere in Time (1986) and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988) were released. The only song the band played that was not from the 1980s was the title track from 1992's Fear of the Dark album, because it is one of the band's best known songs. During the whole tour Iron Maiden played to more than 2 million people worldwide.

[edit] Tour commentary

Iron Maiden's Boeing 757 tour plane, nicknamed "Ed Force One."

The first leg of Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back in Time World Tour opened in Mumbai, India on February 1, and continued through Australia, Japan, Los Angeles and Mexico, followed by concerts in Costa Rica ,Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rico and New Jersey, before finishing in Toronto, on March 16. Over the 45 day period the band played 23 concerts to over 500,000 fans in 11 countries, flying close to 50,000 miles in the specially refitted plane: Boeing 757, dubbed "Ed Force One" after a competition to name the plane. On this leg of the tour, the Iron Maiden: Flight 666 movie was filmed.

Concerning concerts in Scandinavia, EMA Telstar announced that the Iron Maiden tour will be the biggest rock tour that any band has ever undertaken in these Nordic regions. Comments tour promoter Thomas Johansson of EMA Telstar:

"We are all very proud to be making history by giving our rock fans the biggest Nordic Rock Tour there has ever been and certainly one of the most spectacular. Maiden is so hugely popular with the Nordic peoples that we wanted to ensure that as many fans as possible got the opportunity to see this very special show next year as we expect demand for tickets to be enormous.",^[1]

Maiden had also announced that they would be returning to cities that they hadn't returned to for years. Western Canada is included, as their five city run through Western Canada had sold out the very day they went on sale. Calgary and Regina had sold out in just under an hour. Edmonton sold out completely in a few hours. Winnipeg and Vancouver sold out within two hours. Calgary also had the highest pre-sale ever for the band, in which they sold out half the tickets. Edmonton and Regina were not far behind. Says Dickinson about the results: "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."^[2] Most recently they played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Tickets to this show were sold out. During the performance of "Powerslave" the band's instruments lost power for a brief period of time and they passed time by playing football on the stage. Once the equipment was fixed they returned and asked the audience if they should play the last verse of the song or do the next one. The band opted to play the next song which was "Heaven Can Wait". Rarely ever have Maiden been canceling gigs in the past 2 years, but due to storm damage to the PA and lights at the Metalway Festival in Zaragoza, Spain, Maiden had to cancel their July 12 date. The Metalway Festival in Zaragoza could be rescheduled, but it seems unlikely that Maiden can appear for their fans in Zaragoza.^[3] The March 15th presentation, in São Paulo's Race Course, had Maiden's all-time biggest attendance for them as sole performers (not a festival). Bruce Dickinson announced to the crowd that "100.000 fans" were at the venue, and later the number was resized to 63.000.

[edit] Support acts

Opening bands for this tour are:

• First Leg: Lauren Harris, Vanishing Point, Behind Crimson Eyes, Parikrama.
• Second Leg: Lauren Harris^[4]Anthrax (May 30 and 31 only) and Trivium (Holmdel only)^[5].
• Third Leg: Lauren Harris, Within Temptation (London and Assen only), Kamelot (Assen), Avenged Sevenfold (not at every show), Trooper (Bucharest), Made of Hate (Warsaw), Salamandra (Prague), Slayer (Lisbon and Mérida), Tainted (Christchurch)
• Fourth Leg: Lauren Harris, Carcass, Atreyu, Morbid Angel, Anthrax (Bogota), Ágora (Mexico City), IRA (Monterrey), M.A.S.A.C.R.E. (Lima), Witchblade (Chile)

[edit] Setlist

[edit] Personnel

• Bruce Dickinson – lead vocals
• Dave Murray – lead and rhythm guitars
• Adrian Smith – lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals
• Janick Gers – lead and rhythm guitars
• Steve Harris – bass, backing vocals
• Nicko McBrain – drums, percussion

with

• Michael Kenney – keyboards

[edit] Tour Dates

[edit] Asia & Oceania Leg

Fan club members join Iron Maiden to sing the chant during "Heaven Can Wait".

Date	City	Country	Venue
				Tickets sold	Tickets on sale	Percentage sold
February 1, 2008	Mumbai	India	Bandra-Kurla complex	30,000	30,000	100%
Australia
February 4, 2008	Perth	Australia	Burswood Dome	14,000	14,000	100%
February 6, 2008	Melbourne	Australia	Rod Laver Arena	14,000	14,000	100%
February 7, 2008	Melbourne	Australia	Rod Laver Arena	14,000	14,000	100%
February 9, 2008	Sydney	Australia	Acer Arena	20,100	20,100	100%
February 10, 2008	Sydney	Australia	Acer Arena	20,100	20,100	100%
February 12, 2008	Brisbane	Australia	Entertainment Centre	13,500	13,500	100%
Japan
February 15, 2008	Yokohama	Japan	Yokohama Pacifico	5,000	5,000	100%
February 16, 2008	Tokyo	Japan	Makuhari Messe	10,000	10,000	100%

[edit] American Leg

Date	City	Country	Venue
				Tickets sold	Tickets on sale	Percentage sold
February 19, 2008	Los Angeles, CA	United States	The Forum	17,200	17,200	100%
February 21, 2008	Guadalajara	Mexico	Auditorio Telmex	11,500	11,500	100%
February 22, 2008	Monterrey	Mexico	Monterrey Arena	12,500	12,500	100%
February 24, 2008	Mexico City	Mexico	Foro Sol	50,000	50,000	100%
February 26, 2008	San José	Costa Rica	Estadio Ricardo Saprissa	30,000	30,000	100%
February 28, 2008	Bogotá	Colombia	Simón Bolívar Park	55.000	55.000	100%
March 2, 2008	São Paulo	Brazil	Estádio Palestra Itália	45,000	45,000	100%
March 4, 2008	Curitiba	Brazil	Pedreira Paulo Leminski	23,000	23,000	100%
March 5, 2008	Porto Alegre	Brazil	Gigantinho	16,000	16,000	100%
March 7, 2008	Buenos Aires	Argentina	Estadio Ricardo Etcheverry	30,000	30,000	100%
March 9, 2008	Santiago	Chile	Pista Atletica	30,000	30,000	100%
March 12, 2008	San Juan	Puerto Rico	Coliseo De Puerto Rico	16,500	16,500	100%
March 14, 2008	East Rutherford, New Jersey	United States	Izod Center	15,154	15,154	100%
March 16, 2008	Toronto, Ontario	Canada	Air Canada Centre	16,766	16,766	100%
May 21, 2008	San Antonio, Texas	United States	Verizon Wireless Amphitheater	14,667	19,982	73%
May 22, 2008	Houston, Texas	United States	Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion	13,108	15,861	83%
May 25, 2008	Albuquerque, New Mexico	United States	Journal Pavilion	12,973	12,973	100%
May 26, 2008	Phoenix, Arizona	United States	Cricket Wireless Pavilion	12,435	19,921	67%
May 28, 2008	Concord, California	United States	Sleep Train Pavilion	12,500	12,500	100%
May 30, 2008	Irvine, California	United States	Verizon Wireless Amphitheater	17,133	17,133	100%
May 31, 2008	Irvine, California	United States	Verizon Wireless Amphitheater	17,133	17,133	100%
June 2, 2008	Auburn, Washington	United States	White River Amphitheatre	14,188	19,508	71%
June 3, 2008	Vancouver, British Columbia	Canada	Pacific Coliseum	15,150	15,150	100%
June 5, 2008	Calgary, Alberta	Canada	Saddledome	12,000	12,000	100%
June 6, 2008	Edmonton, Alberta	Canada	Rexall Place	14,000	14,000	100%
June 8, 2008	Regina, Saskatchewan	Canada	Brandt Centre	7,000	7,000	100%
June 9, 2008	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Canada	MTS Centre	12,500	12,500	100%
June 11, 2008	Chicago, Illinois	United States	Allstate Arena	15,254	15,300	99%
June 12, 2008	Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio	United States	Blossom Music Center	11,028	21,340	51%
June 14, 2008	Holmdel, New Jersey	United States	PNC Bank Arts Center	13,340	16,996	80%
June 15, 2008	New York City	United States	Madison Square Garden	20,000	20,000	100%
June 17, 2008	Camden, New Jersey	United States	Susquehanna Bank Center	7,779	25,265	31%
June 18, 2008	Columbia, Maryland	United States	Merriweather Post Pavilion	11,211	15,000	78%
June 20, 2008	Mansfield, Massachusetts	United States	Comcast Center	20,000	20,000	100%
June 21, 2008	Montréal, Québec	Canada	Parc Jean-Drapeau	25,000	35,000	72%

• According to sponsors and the Flight 666 documentary, the concert held in Costa Rica marks the biggest of the region, Central America, with over 27000 attendants.

[edit] European Leg

Date	City	Country	Venue
				Tickets sold	Tickets on sale	Percentage sold
June 27, 2008	Bologna	Italy	Gods of Metal	40,000	40,000	100%
June 29, 2008	Dessel	Belgium	Graspop Metal Meeting	55,000	55,000	100%
July 1, 2008	Paris	France	Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy	17,500	17,500	100%
July 2, 2008	Paris	France	Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy	17,500	17,500	100%
July 5, 2008	London	England	Twickenham Stadium	60,000	60,000	100%
July 9, 2008	Lisbon	Portugal	Super Bock Super Rock	35,000	35,000	100%
July 11, 2008	Mérida	Spain	Via de la Plata Festival	30,000	30,000	100%
July 12, 2008	Zaragoza	Spain	Metalway Festival	40,000	(Cancelled)	100%
July 16, 2008	Stockholm	Sweden	Stockholm Olympic Stadium	33,000	33,000	100%
July 18, 2008	Helsinki	Finland	Helsinki Olympic Stadium	48,000	48,000	100%
July 19, 2008	Tampere	Finland	Ratina Stadium	30,000	30,000	100%
July 22, 2008	Trondheim	Norway	Lerkendal Stadium	26,000	26,000	100% [6]
July 24, 2008	Oslo	Norway	Valle Hovin	30,000	35,000	85%
July 26, 2008	Gothenburg	Sweden	Ullevi Stadium	57,132	57,132	100%
July 27, 2008	Horsens	Denmark	Horsens Gods Bane Pladsen	15,000	25,000	60%
July 31, 2008	Wacken	Germany	Wacken Open Air	85,000	85,000	100%
August 2, 2008	Attica	Greece	Terra Vibe Park	40,000	40,000	100%
August 4, 2008	Bucharest	Romania	Cotroceni Stadium	27,000	27,000	100%
August 7, 2008	Warsaw	Poland	Gwardia Stadium	33,000	33,000	100%
August 8, 2008	Prague	Czech Republic	Slavia Stadium	37,000	37,000	100%
August 10, 2008	Split	Croatia	Poljud City Stadium	29,650	33,000	92.16%
August 12, 2008	Budapest	Hungary	Sziget Festival	72,000	72,000	100%
August 14, 2008	Basel	Switzerland	St. Jakobshalle	11,000	11,000	100%
August 16, 2008	Assen	Netherlands	TT Circuit Assen	30,000	30,000	100% [7]
August 19, 2008	Moscow	Russia	Olympic Stadium (Moscow arena)	41,000	40,000	100%
February 10, 2009	Belgrade	Serbia	Belgrade Arena	22,000	22,000	100%

• The Metalway Festival appereance was cancelled due to bad weather.

• The EUROPEAN LEG was the biggest sales achievement in band's career - Most shows were sold out in rapid time and streams of tickets were officially extra added due to high demand. WACKEN OPEN AIR'08 "Night Of Iron Maiden" attracted highest number of fans for festival IRON MAIDEN gig on 2008/09 tour. According to "Metal Hammer DE"- "...not less than 83.000 metal maniacs from all over the world attended this show".

[edit] Asia & Oceania Leg II

Dave Murray and Steve Harris in Mansfield, MA.

Date	City	Country	Venue
				Tickets sold	Tickets on sale	Percentage sold
February 13, 2009	Dubai	UAE	Media City Amphitheatre	15,000	15,000	100%
February 15, 2009	Bangalore	India	Palace Grounds	30,000	30,000	100%
Oceania
February 20, 2009	Auckland	New Zealand	Mount Smart Stadium	20,000 [8]	20,000	100%
February 22, 2009	Christchurch	New Zealand	Westpac Arena	10,000	10,000	100%

[edit] American Leg II

Date	City	Country	Venue
				Tickets sold	Total Tickets	Percentage sold
February 25, 2009	Monterrey	Mexico	Estadio Universitario	30,500	35,000	86%
February 26, 2009	Guadalajara	Mexico	Arena VFG	11,800	13,600	90%
February 28, 2009	Mexico City	Mexico	Foro Sol	52,000	54,000	97%
March 3, 2009	Alajuela	Costa Rica	Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto	22,000	22,000	100%
March 5, 2009	Caracas	Venezuela	Poliedro de Caracas	25,000	25,000	100%
March 7, 2009	Bogota	Colombia	Simon Bolivar Park	55,000	55,000	100%
March 10, 2009	Quito	Ecuador	Estadio Aucas	35,000	35,000	100%
March 12, 2009	Manaus	Brazil	Sambodromo	20,000	20,000	100%
March 14, 2009	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Praça da Apoteose	22,000	22,000	100%
March 15, 2009	São Paulo	Brazil	Autodromo de Interlagos	100,000*	100,000*	100%
March 18, 2009	Belo Horizonte	Brazil	Mineirinho	22,000	22,000	100%
March 20, 2009	Brasilia	Brazil	Estádio Mané Garrincha	28,000	28,000	100%
March 22, 2009	Santiago	Chile	Club Hipico Santiago	65,000	65,000	100%
March 26, 2009	Lima	Peru	Estadio Nacional	40,000	40,000	100%
March 28, 2009	Buenos Aires	Argentina	Velez Sarsfield Stadium	50,000	50,000	100%
March 31, 2009	Recife	Brazil	Jockey Club de Pernambuco	28,000	28,000	100%
April 2, 2009	Sunrise, Florida	United States	BankAtlantic Center	21,000	21,000	100%

• There are rumours of the producers that more than 95,000 tickets were sold for the São Paulo concert. Official numbers were around 65,000, due to organizator's problems with fire department and security hiring for the actual attendance.

• On the Latin American Leg in 2009 Iron Maiden played 16 gigs to well over half a million people. Their show at Autodromo de Interlagos had the biggest attendance for a rock music event in history of the venue. All number figures according to local reviews sites statistics, published and multiplexed many times.

[edit] References

http://rockinindia.com/relive.php

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Iron Maiden

• Official website
• Iron Maiden at the Open Directory Project
• [1]