News : Ed Force One set to land in Australia in just under 4 months

If you didn’t already know Iron Maiden will soon be returning to Australia to take part in 2 stadium shows in Melbourne and Sydney and 5 mammoth Soundwave festival shows across Australia. The band are set to tour the world for 66 days for the first leg of their Final Frontier tour with destinations including Australia, Russia, America, Singapore, Mexico and for the very first time Indonesia.

Tickets are still available through respected outlets for the Australian tour dates. Get in quick before dirty scalpers take them all and sell them on eBay.

Press release:

Following on from the recent announcement of IRON MAIDEN’s Australian tour dates in February and March 2011, we can now reveal that the band, along with their crew and many tons of equipment, will be arriving into Australia onboard Ed Force One –a customized Boeing 757 – on their continuing mammoth Final Frontier World Tour! Once again piloted by lead singer and qualified Airline Captain Bruce Dickinson, the plane will be flying 50,000 miles round the globe, playing 29 shows and visiting 26 cities in thirteen countries across 5 continents heading into more new Frontiers of uncharted Maiden territory!!!

The first show will be on Feb 11^th in Moscow’s Olympic Stadium, after which the Boeing 757, which will have new designs to tie in with the new album and tour, will fly the band to Singapore and Indonesia for Maiden’s first ever shows there, before arriving in Australia to headline two arena dates and five Soundwave Festivals. EF1 then turns its attention briefly to the Northern Hemisphere with a first show ever in South Korea and two shows in Tokyo, before heading all the way across the Pacific, a journey (which, believe it or not!) is 6660 miles for two shows in Mexico. An extensive series of stadium shows through five South American countries follows, including a first visit to Belem, Northern Brazil, and, via Puerto Rico, the band will play the final show on this leg of the tour in Tampa, Florida, USA on April 17^th, exactly 66 days after Moscow! (full dates below)

Says Bruce, “We were taken aback by the fantastic reaction from everyone to EF1 during the 2008/09 World Tour. As our fans all know from the “Flight 666” film, which documented the trials and tribulations we underwent in order to get the whole project literally off the ground, the end result was well worth all the effort and complex logistics we had to deal with! The band and crew enjoyed themselves so much travelling that way, it seemed only logical to set up this part of The Final Frontier tour in the same way so we could get to see as many fans as possible all over the World, only this time we’re pushing the boundaries even further and going to more places Maiden has never been before… in true Frontier style!! We very much look forward to playing in Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea for the first time, as well as revisiting our fans everywhere else.

“The set list will be different to this year’s tour. Of course we will play more songs from the new album and some other recent material, but we will include a healthy dose of older fan favourites as we will be playing to so many new faces who we know will want to hear those songs live for the first time. We will cram into the plane as much of the production we used this year as is physically possible, including of course Eddie, and intend to replicate the spectacular light show in as many places as we are able. All in all it promises to be a fantastic trip for everyone!! So see you all soon”.

Since its release in August on EMI (UME in the US), “The Final Frontier” – the band’s 15^th studio album – has proved their most successful chart album to date, registering the #1 sales chart slot in 28 countries around the globe; from Lebanon, Arabia and India in the East, to Canada in the West, New Zealand down South, throughout UK and Europe and across Latin America, as well as reaching No.1 in Billboard’s European, Tastemaker and Rock Charts, and No.4 in the USA, which is the band’s highest position ever there.

The dates for IRON MAIDEN’S Round The World Trip on Ed Force One are:

FEBRUARY

Fri 11 Moscow, RUSSIA Olympiski

Tue 15 Singapore Singapore Indoor Stadium

Thu 17 Jakarta, INDONESIA Stadium Utama Gelaro Bung Karno Senayan

Sun 20 Bali, INDONESIA Garuda Wisnu Kencana

Wed 23 Melbourne, AUS TRALIA Hisense Arena

Thu 24 Sydney, AUSTRALIA Entertainment Centre

Sat 26 Brisbane, AUSTRALIA Showgrounds (SOUNDWAVE FEST)

Sun 27 Sydney, AUSTRALIA Eastern Creek Raceway (SOUNDWAVE FEST)

MARCH

Fri 4 Melbourne, AUSTRALIA Showgrounds (SOUNDWAVE FEST)

Sat 5 Adelaide, AUSTRALIA Bonython Park (SOUNDWAVE FEST)

Mon 7 Perth, AUSTRALIA Steel Blue Oval (SOUNDWAVE FEST)

Thu 10 Seoul, KOREA Chamsil Gymnasium

Sat 12 Tokyo, JAPAN Super Arena

Sun 13 Tokyo, JAPAN Super Arena

Thu 17 Monterrey, MEXICO Banamex Theatre

Fri 18 Mexico City, MEXICO Foro Sol

Sun 20 Bogota, COLOMBIA CC Sapo

Wed 23 Lima, PERU Estadio San Marcos

Sat 26 Sao Paulo, BRAZIL Morumbi Stadium

Sun 27 Rio De Janeiro, BRAZIL HSBC Arena

Wed 30 Brasilia, BRAZIL Nilson Nelson Parking Lot

APRIL

Fri 1 Belem, BRAZIL Parque De Exposicoes

Sun 3 Recife, BRAZIL Parque De Exposicoes

Tue 5 Curitiba, BRAZIL Expotrade

Fri 8 Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA Velez Sarsfield

Sun 10 Santiago, CHILE Estadio Nacional

Wed 14 San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA Coliseo De Puerto Rico

Sat 16 Sunrise, Florida, USA Bank Atlantic Center

Sun 17 Tampa, Florida USA St Pete Times Forum

For more information, go to: www.soundwavefestival.com – www.ironmaiden.com – www.ticketek.com.au