Iron Maiden

Rock in RIo 2001 (EMI)

Your Captain today is a rock legend

Story Highlights
Iron Maiden frontman, Bruce Dickinson now works as a commercial pilot
The band are considered legends of the heavy metal scene
Dickinson began flying for fun, but wanted to pilot something larger

Read the CNN Article

In 45 days during Feb/Mar Maiden flew almost 50,000 miles in their customised Boeing 757 piloted by vocalist and Airline Captain Bruce

Dickinson, playing 23 shows in 10 countries around the planet. That is an average of a show every alternate day for almost seven weeks

with an average distance of over 2000 miles between each show. Was it worth this almighty effort? This is what the media thought.

CANADA

TORONTO SUN newspaper Tue Mar 18 Headline “Maiden turns back time”

“The calendar says 2008 but at sold-out Air Canada Centre Sunday night, Iron Maiden made sure it was 1984 all over again….Dickinson kept the energy high while the trio of guitarists stood side by side at the front, weaving their own metal magic during The Trooper as Dickinson waved a large Union Jack”

CHARTATTACK magazine Mon 17 mar

“Simply it is an epic event. Iron Maiden blows through most of their ‘80s hits…whipping the crowd into a frenzy. When Bruce Dickinson announces a number of additional summer dates the place goes off. Your reporter’s now very boozy subjects [detailed at the start of this article] and the three 13 year-old boys behind them lock horns. The metal torch has been passed. Long live Iron Maiden”


New Jersey, USA

KNAC.COM

“Yet it is almost imperative to catch this band while they are in such fine form and savor the brilliant memory of this unparalleled live act. In a world of decrepit corporate posturing and global unrest, in a time of epic strife and rampant social deconstruction, deceitfulness and terror... was there ever a better moment to witness something so true?”


CHILE

EL MERCURIO newspaper 10.03.08

“The day of the Beast has come. Yesterday at 20:25 hrs, the Pista Atlética of the National Stadium , one of the few times ever to be filled to maximum capacity, reached boiling point …”Aces High” was the first punch and the Chilean fans responded at fever pitch”

LA TERCERA 10.03.08 newspaper. Headline “Iron Maiden Unleash Metal Passion in the Pista Atlética”

“28,000 people went to the fourth and the greatest concert of the band in the country..the Beast Iron Maiden roared last night with a great force in the pista atlética”


ARGENTINA

PAGINA 12 newspaper. 7 March 2008. Headline “Iron Maiden Strikes Again”

“A perfect night, heavy metal in its purest state with no pretence”


BRAZIL

IG (SP show review)

Headline: Maiden Iron Maiden back to the golden years left the stage to a standing ovation

“It wasn´t even funny.Everybody knew the score.Parque Antartica filled with 40K people on a Sunday,the feeling was like that of a championship football match...Not even the heavy rain that fell 10 min before the concert started could dampen the enthusiam of the fans : at each drop the crowd screamed "maiden maiden" with the same intensity.This is was the first stop in Brasil on the Somewhere Back in Time” tour and of course Iron Maiden won the game by a far score...

O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper review of the SP show – headline “40 Thousand See Iron Maiden At Stadium”

“The 40,000 fans of varying ages and from different parts of the country that packed out the Park Antartica in Sao Paulo went into ecstasy and sang along with Iron Maiden…after 2 hours the band said goodbye and showed that Iron Maiden is as brightly burnished as ever”

Nós somos diferentes. - Folha de S. Paulo - São Paulo /SP - 3/3/2008 - Pág. 10

“(From Bogotá, Colombia) We are different. People here, in the front, please be careful. We don’t want anybody to be hurt in here, so that other people can say that the heavy metal is violent. We also suffer a lot of prejudice because we’re different, because of our long hair.(…) Fans leave the place with the certain that they are really different.”


COLOMBIA

Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper review of the Colombian show – headline “We Are Different”

“The show begins and 50,000 Colombians dive into a Nirvana of molten metal”

“Iron Maiden leave the stage on top of the world, leaving no doubt at all the Metaleros really are different!!!”


COSTA RICA

La Nacion newspaper review of the Costa Rica show – headline “Iron Maiden Shook Central America From Tibas”

“Thousands of Costa Rican fans and Central Americans lived an historic night when Iron Maiden made their debut in the isthmus 33 years after their formation. Such was the madness provoked by Bruce Dickinson when he shouted “Costa Rica you’re the best”, that 27,000 followers responded with a deafening roar”

“Fans came from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and others. Some still couldn’t quite believe that the group was actually there, at what was for them the most important rock concert ever to have happened in Costa Rica….The mood at El Saprissa was one of pure euphoria. The fans were jumping about so much it seemed the whole building had left the ground!”

MEXICO

Milenio Mexico newspaper review of the Mexico City show – headline “More Than 50,000 Say Goodbye To Iron Maiden In Their Last Concert In Mexico”

“Without doubt, after this concert, Iron Maiden has gone down in history. They’re still the best Heavy Metal band, and Mexico will be

waiting with open arms for when they come back”

LOS ANGEGLES, USA

L.A. TIMES Feb 21st Headline “The band turns the way-back machine to vintage year 1985 for its monumental stage set”

“You can never accuse Iron Maiden of wimping out. The three-decade English rock institution proved that Tuesday night at The Forum”

“Blues roots were banished – supercharged Saxon folk is what these warriors do, and in a world where the West is cowering, the rafter-stacked audience found cause for triumphal revelry”

OC REGISTER Feb 20th Headline “Rediscovering Iron Maiden At Its Beastly Best”

“ Bruce Dickinson told the crowd that this new Somewhere Back In Time World tour 08 has everything to do with ‘Live After Death’ which was recorded at Long Beach Arena across four nights in 1985…(that’s) the most impressive point: a whole new generation of teenagers, many of whom appear to be following Maiden round the globe on this trek, is now discovering that the band hasn’t lost the slightest bit of edge.

ARTISTDIRECT.COM

“Up the Irons, Slaves to the power of metal. The beast is back. Iron Maiden remain as mighty as ever”


AUSTRALIA

Drum Media (Perth)

“Iron Maiden will never grow old, sell out or lose their balls of steel. Iron Maiden scream like no other, perform like no other and rocked the socks off Perth like no other”.

Rave Magazine (National)

“Maiden vault out onto the stage to a universally enraptured response at the sold out Burswood Dome. Quite simply the band is magnificent – the Egyptian-themed Powerslave stage set, the lighting and pyrotechnics and the ten foot Somewhere In Time Eddie figure that strides out onto the stage - Iron Maiden combine what is without a doubt the finest live performance my eyes and ears have beheld..Strolling exhaustedly back towards Melbourne’s city lights I feel I understand just a little of what it is that drives so many folks to leave home and hearth, time and time again, to follow this band around the globe”.

Drum Media (National)

Its not easy to write a review when left speechless after a gig, but it must be done…At 9.15pm Iron Maiden graced Sydney for the first time in a couple of decades in explosive fashion and delivered one of the best live performances, I, and no doubt, any of the 20,000 avid fans have witnessed.

“An Iron Maiden show really is something else..never have I seen or heard so many fans sing an entire set, word-for-word and scream, chant and clap in unison.. it was the engaging interaction with the crowd achieved through an electrifying entrancing performance from all members that the evening became magic.”

Beat Magazine (Melbourne)

“They’re an event band of the highest magnitude and metal shows of this calibre can’t soon be forgotten”

InPress magazine (Melbourne)

“..one would be expecting something pretty f**king spectacular. And sure enough, as the night unfolded, the greying lords of metal delivered a most fantastic show of epic proportions”…exploding onto the elaborate, multi-tiered, golden-jewelled, mummy occupied Egyptian stage, the lads burnt through classic after classic, perpetuating the awesomeness (as if pyrotechnics, fireworks, 14 foot walking mummies weren’t ridiculously fantastic enough already)”.

“The four guitar horsemen stood tall at the helm of the stage in unison, a sight almost too epic for some minds; Steve Harris reflecting a sceptre of light off his bass, casting a majestic beam upon the capacity audience”

“Iron Maiden aren’t afraid to deliver rock and metal shows in complete excess (in the best way possible) and will stand the test of time as an unsurpassed collection of rock gods”

Daily Telegraph (Sydney)

“The band did not disappoint. It was more a military attack than a concert with the band spraying the crowd with metal pellets in the form of ‘greatest hits’ with punishing precision”

Canberra Time (Canberra)

“When the band hit the stage the release of tension in the house was enormous. And Iron Maiden did not let anyone down. The band was in incendiary form”


INDIA

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

“Two events defined the first day of the second month of this year. One: the much-anticpated T-20 match between India and Australia and two; the Iron Maiden concert that took place at the MMRDA grounds

”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

”There was non-stop action on stage. With three different backdrop sets..two costume changes by Bruce, and a larger-than lifesize Eddie, the concert was not just to be heard, but also seen”

“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”

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

“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”

“As the frenetic crowd went berserk trying hard to believe its ears, the band exploded into a full-blown live-wire act.”

“Bruce always says..he wants to reduce the entire crowd to the size of his fist, so that he can sing and scream to each of them. Boy did he do that at the MMRDA on Friday!”