Iron Maiden Live After Death enters the UK charts at number 1

World tour ticket sales break box office records; Within Temptation added to UK stadium bill; Sky News coverage of Iron Maiden in India; Channel 9 coverage of Australian tour

Iron Maiden’s year has got off to a roaring start with the February 4th release of the band’s long-awaited DVD Live After Death smashing straight into the UK music DVD charts at Number One not only outpacing its nearest competitor by three to one, but outselling the rest of the Top 6 combined!

Internationally it has been a similar story with no.1’s in Australia (gold first day), France, Italy, Sweden, Spain, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland and Germany, where the DVD also spectacularly crashed into the Top 10 Album chart due to such unprecedented high sales! Live After Death also entered the music DVD charts at no. 2 in Portugal, Norway and Ireland and Top 3 entries are expected from the USA and Canada later this week.

This news comes as Iron Maiden announce the addition of Dutch band Within Temptation to the bill of their previously announced July 5th show at Twickenham Stadium, the first time Iron Maiden have played a stadium gig on home turf as opposed to headlining the major festivals. This will be Maiden’s only UK show this year.

Lead singer Sharon den Adel of Within Temptation adds: “Everyone in the band is a big Iron Maiden fan and the previous times we played with them have been an amazing experience. We are very honoured to play with Maiden in such an amazing stadium! It’ll definitely be a night to remember!”

With USA’s mighty Avenged Sevenfold also appearing as Special Guests on the bill the Twickenham show is already proving to be the highlight of British rock fans’ 2008 calendars.

Iron Maiden kicked off their record-breaking SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME World Tour in Mumbai, India on Feb 1st, before it rolled into Australia last week – their first visit to the country in 15 years. Sky News joined the band from departure in the UK through the Indian leg to document just how enormous Maiden’s international profile is. If you missed the coverage which rolled across the network for two whole days, check it out here to experience the Maiden Boeing 757, the fan hysteria and exclusive footage of the first night of the tour in Mumbai.

http://uk.youtube.com/user/tellyb0x666

Channel 9 News in Australia also caught up with the band landing in Sydney and this level of high news visibility is expected to follow the band in every country throughout this tour.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=377726

This tour, during which Maiden is expected to play to over one and a half million fans in the next six months, sees Iron Maiden consolidate their reputation not only as one of the greatest live acts on the planet but also as one of the biggest ticket selling bands ever.

‘Maiden Mania’ is currently gripping countries around the world as tickets for the 2008 World Tour flew out of box offices everywhere when they went on sale last year. In San Paolo the 42,000 capacity Palmeiras Stadium sold out in just a week; Mexico City’s 22,000 capacity Sports Arena sold out in a record-breaking four days leading to the show being moved to the 51,000 Foro Sol Stadium, which is already very close to sell out; a first ever visit to Colombia, where first day ticket sales were the biggest for any music event there ever, saw the Simon Bolivar Stadium in Bogota sell out the 30,000 original capacity in 10 days and this has now been extended to 50,000; 14,000 capacity arenas in Sydney and Melbourne sold out in less than half an hour with second shows being added in both cities; 25,000 fans in each of Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica have already snapped up all available tickets with the promoter asking the venues if he can get more fans in to see the show.

The story continues in North America where shows in major arenas in LA, New York & Toronto sold out weeks in advance; and in the summer, when Maiden take the show round Europe, 125,000 tickets were sold in just over 2 hours last November for three stadium shows in Sweden and Finland. All in all it promises to be a momentous tour and year for Maiden!

Being able to tour the Southern Hemisphere in such a concentrated way is all due to the band taking their own plane – along with their entire 50 man crew, 12 tons of equipment and stage set – around the world with Astraeus Airline Captain Bruce Dickinson at the helm. As The Age in Australia reports:

“Some bands achieve such colossal levels of success that they get to ride in their own jet. But very few actually fly the damn things themselves. British heavy metal kings Iron Maiden have taken the DIY ethos to a new level – albeit with a much bigger budget than most heavy metal bands – when singer Bruce Dickinson flew his band into the country this week in a specially refitted Boeing 757.”

Reviews of Mumbai:

Mumbai Mirror: (Headline “The Evening City Went Aces High”):

“It was exactly at that desperately awaited stroke of 7.59pm, that Mumbai’s collective adrenaline, energy, and frantically fluctuating blood pressure levels rushed from almost 30,000 heads and toes at Bandra’s MMRDA grounds. As one of heavy metal music’s most revered super-gods stepped on to the stage, the black T-shirted swarm of helplessly eager metalheads almost risked screaming their lungs out of their mouths [and] as the frenetic crowd went berserk trying hard to believe its ears, the band exploded into a full-blown live-wire act.”

Bombay Times: (Headline “Hallowed Be Their Name!”):

”The legendary UK heavy metal band kickstarted their ‘Somewhere Back In Time’ World Tour 2008 in Mumbai and boy, what a start it was!… thousands of fans screaming their lungs and heads out in excitement, disbelief and sheer pleasure. It was…a dream come true for any metal fan – to see and hear Maiden live! LOUD music, mindblowing guitar riffs and a voice that can match no other, this was not just a concert, it was an experience. ‘Scream for me Bombay’ Bruce shouted and boy did Mumbai scream! Truly this night was Maid-en heaven”

This ‘SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME – WORLD TOUR 08’, revisits the band’s history by focusing almost entirely on the 80’s in both choice of songs played and the stage set, which is based around the legendary Egyptian Production of the 1984-85 ‘Powerslave Tour’. This will arguably be the most elaborate and spectacular show the band has ever presented, and includes some key elements of their Somewhere In Time tour of 1986/7, such as the Cyborg Eddie.