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MAIDEN VOYAGE 2016 - INSIDE IRON MAIDEN'S BOOK OF SOULS TOUR
Feature by Johnny Black, first appeared in Audience magazine.
The t-shirts say it all.
Seen from the stage, an Iron Maiden concert is an ocean of Maiden t-shirts, with tens of thousands of devotees proudly displaying various incarnations of the band’s zombie-robot mascot Eddie. If you’re a star-watcher, you’ll have seen everyone from Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters to Robbie Williams and Miley Cyrus sporting Maiden shirts. Walk along any city street and you’ll see teenage girls, many of whom know little about Iron Maiden, wearing the same t-shirts bought in their local fashion outlet.
And it doesn’t stop there because, after over thirty years in the business, Maiden now occupy the rarified air of being not just a band, but an icon. That’s why you’ll also see young hipsters clad in Maiden t-shirts, even though their personal tastes run to math-rock, glitch or sensitive singer-songwriters. These kids apparently wear the shirts 'ironically’ but however they wear them, they’re a clear indication that the significance of Iron Maiden extends far beyond the accepted limits of metal fandom.
During their current Book Of Souls tour, Maiden’s personal 300-seater 747 jet airliner, Ed Force One (piloted by vocalist Bruce Dickinson), will fly them almost 75,000 miles, to 70 concerts on six continents to be seen by over 1.5m fans.
"It is quite remarkable that, after 36 years, we are still on the up in many parts of the World," declares manager Rod Smallwood. "I think it has a lot to do with fact that the band is still very contemporary in attitude, continually appeal to a younger audience and insist on playing new albums live! And how bloody great live they are!"
Smallwood’s assessment is right on the money, because Maiden defy the traditional music biz logic whereby a band fast-approaching its fortieth anniversary could reasonably be expected to settle into a comfortable formula, simply knocking out the hits for an ever-decreasing audience.
The inner circle around Maiden describe themselves as 'family’ and, that being the case, Smallwood sits in the role of daddy, having managed them since 1979. As well as guiding Maiden on an ever-upward path, he and his business partner, Andy Taylor, later founded the Sanctuary Records Group, which became the UK’s largest independent record label and the biggest independent music management company in the world until its closure in 2007.
Like Smallwood, agent John Jackson of K2 came aboard in 1979. "I always work very closely with Rod," he reveals, "This tour has been in the planning stages for almost a year, so Rod was able to pinpoint each market to be covered almost to the exact date."
He adds, "This is by far their biggest tour to-date playing close to 40 countries including their first ever visit to China."
These days, with his focus entirely on Maiden, Rod Smallwood says, "We are very proud of just how many countries we have managed to visit, starting way back in the mid 1980s when we were the first major international band to play behind the Iron Curtain, in Poland and Yugoslavia, the inaugural Rock in Rio in 1985 and the start of a wonderful relationship with Latin America, through to 2008 onwards when we first started travelling on Ed Force One."
The Book Of Souls tour kicked off on February 24 with a sell-out at The BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which Revolver magazine hailed as "another memorable performance from the musical giants. Classic heavy metal. Classic Maiden."
Smallwood enthusiastically agrees that, "Fort Lauderdale was special. Being the first one, you get to really see whether the fans are gonna like the set list and show production you have slaved over for months. Fortunately they did."
While John Jackson handles booking for Maiden worldwide, American dates have been looked after for the past twelve years by Rick Roskin, Co-Head of Contemporary Music, CAA. "The trickiest element for me is the logistics of finding the right venues and venue availability in what usually is a tight time frame, because Maiden and their management are incredibly hands-on. Every detail matters and they refuse to compromise. Working with and representing them is a privilege."
Although the opening three date of the tour were in Roskin’s territory, the focus quickly shifted to the Latin countries for most of March, with Tour Director Ian Day and Maiden’s famed Killer Krew settling in for the long haul.
Ian Day describes himself as "the new boy. I’ve only been with them for sixteen years." He points out that the travelling party varies because, "In America, for instance, we pick up local sound and lights. There are also people who come and go, like merchandisers, poster sellers, people who look after our VIP rooms, photographers, video guys. Regulars are in the region of about 50 - 60 crew, including the band party. At maximum we can be 100 people."
The buck pretty much stops at Day when Iron Maiden go on the road. "Essentially I oversee everything that Iron Maiden do live. I set up the tours, do the deals, and get them running, with the help of two guys who work with me, one is in charge of Transport and the other looks after private planes and things like that."
Although Day remains in overall control, "about three months out from the start of the tour, I hand over to our Production Manager, Patrick Ledwith, and he runs the lighting, sound and all that side of it."
Ledwith’s years in the industry have seen him work with Metallica, David Bowie and U2, but he’s been with Maiden since 2010. Even a tour as intensive as Book Of Souls doesn’t phase Ledwith because over the decades he’s encountered teams of bishops exorcising the stage because they believed the artist was the anti-christ, hotel staff in Greece handing out napkins so the band could wipe tear gas fired by riot police from their faces and, let’s not forget, the small matter of the Japanese earthquake. "We were nine minutes from landing in Tokyo when we heard it had hit."
His long experience of working on major touring productions fits Maiden’s requirements like a glove. "The secret," he says, "is staying well ahead of the game, being prepared, having a back up plan for every eventuality. If things go pear-shaped, you have to be ahead of it."
Fortunately, the only major incidence of anything going pear-shaped so far on The Book Of Souls tour was the collision between Ed Force One and two ground tugs in Chile, which necessitated the 747 being taken out of service for several days. (See our Box Out for details)
Minimising the potential for such unforeseen incidents involves months of advance planning. "We started work in the middle of 2015," says Jeremy Smith, Ops Manager of Rock-It Cargo. "The first thing we did, in conjunction with management, was to look at two or three different worldwide touring schedules. We thought about how much time we needed to allow between particular territories, partly because we were going to some new places, such as El Salvador and China. We had to be sure to build in enough time for customs clearance, security and airport handling on arrival."
Despite the relative complexity of Maiden’s stage sets, the team has encountered no serious problems in 2016. Befitting the album's title and theme, the stage set is decorated in the style of Mayan Architecture. The band's mascot, Eddie, in his Mayan guise from The Book of Souls album cover, appears at two points during the show: as a walking puppet during "The Book of Souls" and as an inflatable head during "Iron Maiden". In addition, an inflatable goat/devil appears during "The Number of the Beast".
Sam Booker, MD of specialist set and drapes company Hangman, has worked with Maiden for 13 years and says, "Any Maiden fan will tell you, one of the defining elements of a new Maiden tour is the huge picture drapes which accompany each song. Not only do they have new ones for each tour and a different one for each track in the show, but every drape is hand-painted. That is not common nowadays because creating them is a time-consuming process but it provides the defining look for Maiden’s stage sets and is very important to them."
Iron Maiden’s love affair with Latin America extends back, as Smallwood has pointed out, to the inaugural Rock in Rio in 1985, so satisfying fans south of the border is very important to them. Their three Mexican shows in early March sold out almost immediately with tickets between US$22.52 andUS$112. "These shows were incredible!" declares Memo Parra of promoters OCESSA. "Mexicans love Iron Maiden. Fans went crazy throwing beer, cups were flying all over the arena."
The other ten South American dates were promoted by Phil Rodriguez, CEO of Move Concerts, whose relationship with the band extends back to that 1985 Rock In Rio gig. "If we combine the Fort Lauderdale show, which we also promoted, with the 10 Lat Am shows we total 259,513 tickets sold for a total gross of $US14,254,367," he tells us. "In El Salvador – their first time in that market – the show was a national event with government dignitaries at the airport for their arrival. In Buenos Aires the audience was louder than the band as they sang along, and in Fortaleza the heat was about 30 degrees Celsius but the band killed it."
The band kicked off its eleven North American dates with a stop at Madison Square Garden on March 30. "That show sold out in minutes six months ago," points out Smallwood. "The first week scanned sales of each of our last seven albums increased after the show, highly unusual in what is still a declining market for physical sales!"
After two spectacular nights at the newly renovated Forum in Los Angeles, Maiden fly to the Far East for a pair of Tokyo dates which virtually sold out in the space of one day. "Their previous show was cancelled due to the great east Japan earthquake in 2011," remembers Ichiro Aono, Director of Creativeman Productions, "so 2008 was the last time they played here. We've had a lot of feedback hoping we could have booked bigger venues for the shows."
The most anticipated of their Asian dates, however, must be those in Beijing and Shanghai during their first visit to China. Adam Wilkes, Director at AEG China, observes, "Hard rock and heavy metal is a niche market in China, but there is a core audience that is very passionate about the genre. The tickets, from US$60 to US$235 are selling strong and steady."
The Chinese market remains enigmatic for Western entrepreneurs with its many levels of bureaucracy, censorship regulations and seemingly endless paperwork. "China is both exciting and interesting," muses Smallwood. "It will be fascinating from a cultural standpoint to see how the fans react and how they compare with a typical Maiden audience. It is not a straightforward proposition especially playing in the capital, Beijing, but we hope it all works out."
Exciting it certainly is, but China is far from the end of The Book Of Souls tour. From there they jet across to Australia and New Zealand, follow up with a pair of South African stops, and spend June and July playing stadiums, arenas and major festivals in Europe, finally ending the marathon run in Germany at Wacken Open Air, the world’s biggest metal festival.
"By the time we finish in August," concludes Smallwood, "if you add in The Book Of Souls tally, Iron Maiden will have performed over 2000 concerts in 63 countries round the globe, and we're not finished yet! Not by a long chalk! There’s our Trooper British Ale, the new Ed-Phones created by Steve, and our new computer game, Legacy Of The Beast set to launch in a few months."
All of which should keep him busy at least until that 40th Anniversary comes round…
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IRON MAIDEN'S PERSONAL PLANE - ED FORCE ONE
Iron Maiden is the only band in the world to tour in its own customised 747, Ed Force One, flown by its vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
"Ed Force One created scenes in every airport," says Phil Rodriguez of Move Concerts. "In Fortaleza the motorway next to the airport came to a full stop as people got out of their cars to see the plane land. At every airport the local ground staff would come over to take pictures."
There are, of course, significant benefits to having everything - band, crew and equipment - all in one place but, as Maiden discovered on March 12, there can also be disadvantages.
After a triumphant show at Chile’s Estadio Nacional, Ed Force One was being prepped to fly to Argentina when two of its engines were damaged in a collision with ground tugs.
At this point in the tour, explains Rod Smallwood, "we had about 100 people on board - Maiden and crew, supports Anthrax and The Raven Age with crews, the air staff and the production people from our Latin America promoters."
All of them plus 25 tons of gear had to be got to Cordoba virtually overnight for the show at Estadio Mario Kempes.
"In the planning stages," says Jeremy Smith of Rock-It Cargo, "we built the show in such a way that we could get the full universal rig, stage set, drapes, backline, FOH audio and lighting controls, monitors, wardrobe and production, loaded into the belly of the 747. 25 tons, 9 pallets and four big bins like you see at airports filled with suitcases."
At 9.30am on the morning of the 12th Smith and the Killer Krew had to extract it all from the belly, while Matt Purton of ACS aircraft brokers busied himself finding an alternative flying option. "We had planned for this scenario, so we had a plan of action in place," he explains, "and managed to charter a plane locally for the passengers."
Meanwhile, engineers were being flown in from Jeddah and Iceland to oversee the fitting of the two new 5-ton $4m engines, sourced from Germany. "Normally a single engine replacement takes four to five days," says Jeremy Smith, "but they did two in three days."
Smith also sourced a pair of trucks with drivers willing to drive overnight across the Andes into Argentina, and clawed back some precious time by convincing the Argentinian customs authorities to relax their border crossing processes, and come instead directly to the stadium in Cordoba.
"It’s not often you find the Andes in the way of your next show with about 12 hours from scratch to get your people and 25 tons of equipment there," sums up Smallwood, "but our Killer Krew stepped up to the plate as they always do, and had alternative travel arrangements worked out within hours for band, crew and equipment."
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IRON MAIDEN'S KILLER KREW
As well as Tour Director Ian Day and Production Manager Patrick Ledwith, Maiden’s merry band known as The Killer Krew consists of a tight community of professionals whose loyalty and stubborn determination to make things happen is unquestioned.
Martin Walker, FOH Sound Engineer
I picked up this gig in 2012, prior to which I’d been doing sound for Judas Priest for sixteen years.
Every band presents a sound engineer with unique challenges, attempting to represent them as close as possible to how they want to sound, within the confines of each venue's acoustics. With Maiden, our preferred system is the Meyer Leo and I use a Digico SD7 console.
The Sao Paulo show was one of the most satisfying on this tour - a great performance by the band, a huge enthusiastic crowd, a perfect night for a rock show (temperature and weather-wise) and a well set-up P.A
Rob Coleman, Lighting Designer
I’ve previously worked with Paul Weller, The Darkness and others but I’ve been with Maiden since 2006.
We usually have 6 or 7 lighting crew, with some of the essential components being 50 VL3500 wash lights, 30 Martin Mac Viper moving spots, 124 Martin Mac auras and 27 Clay Paky Sharpys. Depending on the size of the show we also have another 40 or so moving lights for the audience along with 36 crowd blinders.
Most heavy rock shows these days rely on a large upstage LED wall which inevitably reduces the light show to just key light and audience lights. Maiden have such interesting stage sets that I get something specific to light. A vital part of the job is to create a design that fits and compliments the stage set, while making sure that the dynamics of the band can be matched, and that all the set pieces, “Eddies”, devils and so on are well lit.
Rik Benbow, Stage Manager
Having learned my craft at London’s legendary Town And Country Club I have stage managed for over 25 years, with George Michael, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others.
I’m a one-man team, really, although I use the carpenters’ eyes and ears on load-in and out!
The only difference between this tour and anyone else's is Ed Force One. The crew get a little taste of being a celebrity with all the people awaiting the arrival of the plane and being photographed boarding and disembarking. Personally I prefer my place behind the scenes keeping the wheels turning!
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THE TOUR PROMOTERS HAVE THEIR SAY
Paul Dainty, Founder and Exec Chairman, Dainty Group, Australia
Maiden are one of those stand-out bands that continue to draw big crowds and I’m delighted to have been working with them since 2008. We’ve done all seven of the Australian and New Zealand shows, and they’re selling well with prices between Aus$99 and $149.90.
Attie Van Wyk, Big Concerts, South Africa
When I started working with Maiden in 1995, I remember 'Eddie' making his first live appearance on-stage in Johannesburg. It was a total shock to the audiences and the establishment… it was truly glorious! Our tickets for Cape Town are on 87% capacity and Johannesburg is on 65% capacity. We only sold 12 000 tickets in 1995 and hopefully we will end up with more than double that attendance on this tour.
Ossy Hoppe, Wizard Promotions, Germany
In my thirty years of promoting Maiden, they have never been bigger than they are now. Their Album "The Book Of Souls" debuted at No1 in Germany and reached gold-status and within five weeks. Tickets are running fast, with Berlin already sold out with an average ticket price of €84.30.
Rob Trommelen, Head Promoter, Mojo, Netherlands.
Mojo has worked with Maiden since since they started touring in Europe. This time, they will play the fantastic Gelredome in Arnhem, where the current ticket sales figure is 20,000 which is on track. As a band, they’re still growing here.
Thomas Johansson, Chairman and CEO, LiveNation, Sweden
Paul DiAnno was still their singer when I first worked with Maiden in1980.They played a 3,000 capacity room in Stockholm as support to Kiss! Of course both those bands now play stadiums.
Martin forsmann, vice president, sweden rock Festival
I think it is probably close to impossible for new bands to reach that Iron Maiden/Metallica level. So many aspects of the music business as a whole have changed since those mega bands established themselves in the top. All of our dates, in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Russia, Finland and Poland, will either be sold out or very close. In all, we will do about a quarter of a million tickets.
Stuart Galbraith, Promoter, Kilimanjaro Live
I have worked with Maiden since 1988 when they headlined Monsters of Rock at Donington. In 2009 I started Sonisphere and have been fortunate to have Maiden headline the festival throughout Europe from 2007 through to this year when they are appearing at Sonisphere Italy and Switzerland.
Steven Todd, promoter, Live Nation, Poland
Incredibly, they are growing each time they come back, we fully expect to sell out stadiums in both Wroclaw and Prague. One of the great stories about Maiden in Poland is that in 1984 they turned up unannounced at a Polish wedding in a hotel and played Smoke On The Water for the bride and groom!
Andrea Pieroni, Managing Director, Live Nation, Italy
When a was young boy, 14 years old in 1981, the first show I attended was Iron Maiden! In 2007, Maiden became the first heavy metal band ever to play the Olympic Stadium in Rome! This time, Milan sold out out 11,000 tickets in one day. I expect Trieste to sell out, 15,000, by the end of May. Rome is the biggest, cap 30,000 outdoor, and we expect to end up with 25,000+ people.
Mario Grdosic, promoter, Croatia
This is my first time working with the band, and hope it will not be the last! We are very pleased with how the tickets are going, and bear in mind this market has never had any quick sell-outs, because people tend to buy closer to the show date. At the moment, four months before our show, we already sold 50% of all tickets available.
Javier Arnaiz, Director, Mad Cool, Spain
Maiden has a very strong fan base in Spain and I’d say they have grown even stronger during the last couple of years. Of our four dates, the Barclaycard centre in Madrid sold out in 24 hours. Seville is taking us a bit more time but sales are doing well, with an average ticket price of €70.
Patrick Svitek, Nucoast Productions, Slovakia
Having been on sale for seven weeks, we have sold over 5,000 tickets for their show at Zilina Airport, where tickets cost from €50 to 80. I dare to say that they are more popular here than ever.
Michel Welter, den Atelier sarl, Luxembourg.
Our Rockhal date sold very quickly! We did a pre-sale event at our club, The Atelier, in the city of Luxembourg, during which we sold the first tickets at 6am with free coffee, doughnuts, posters and flames. That was an event in itself, close to 3000 people queued up around the block at 5:00am, totally crazy… but got us tremendous press as well. The remaining tickets then sold quickly through regular outlets.
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THE TOUR SUPPLIERS SPEAK
Jeremy Smith, Ops Manager, Rock-It Cargo
We had to build the show in such a way that we could get the full universal rig, stage set, drapes, backline, FOH audio and lighting controls, monitors, wardrobe and production, loaded into the belly of the 747. 22 tons, 9 pallets and four big bins like you see at airports filled with suitcases.
Me and Sam from Hangman worked many hours, lots of meetings at the warehouse, lots of measuring, so we could re-jig the whole stage set to make it fit.
It’s very important to the band that every show we play is the full show, it will be the same for every audience anywhere in the world.
Matt Purton, Director Commercial Jet Sales - Air Charter Service
As a global aircraft broker, we have been involved with the movement of Maiden’s equipment for nearly 15 years. The job is too big for one person to deal with, so we have a dedicated team of seven, all of whom fly with the plane. Between them, they’re fluent in four languages, and in places like China we use our local office to be able to communicate properly with the authorities, airports and suppliers.
Sam Booker, Director, Hangman
Maiden take four set crew on the road with them to deal with all the set and props on a daily basis. However, we have a much larger team at Hangman who come up with the ideas and make them a reality in the first place. These range from designers, artworkers, painters, sculptors and CAD drawers, through to welders, sewers and carpenters. We never quite know what we’re going to need so although we employ a core team on a full time basis, we also rely on a larger crew of regular freelancers to cover every eventuality.
Gary Marks, MD, ML Executives
Having their own 747 makes moving the equipment over long distances easier, but it also makes the the only artists we deal with that require you to take all your equipment to an empty warehouse so it can be measured and fitted to an aircraft pallet before having a flame proof bag custom made to fit around it. For this tour the PA and monitors are supplied locally to all the venues, but we supply, among other things, the Digico SD7 control packages, a rack of analogue outboard and amplification for the bands own wedges.
Phil Mercer, Project Manager, PRG XL Video
We first worked with Iron Maiden back in December 2006, providing an IMAG package for the Earl’s Court show at the end of the ‘A Matter Of Life And Death tour’, but this time we are providing a Camera Package, LED Sidescreens (in certain territories) and crew. I’m too young to remember the days when every big rock show had painted back-drops, but I actually love the look of them and find it refreshing that they haven’t been replaced with a large upstage LED screen!
Mark O’Herlihy, VP of Sales And International Integration, PRG Nocturne
This is the first Iron Maiden tour for Nocturne/PRG, and we are providing a basic four camera flight pak system and crew, comprising two FOH long lens cams, two hand-held cams in the pit and two 21’-7, 7/8 wide, 11’-9 3/4 high LED walls stage left and right, for the USA and certain European dates.
Keith Maxwell, Pyrotek Special Effects
I started in 2008 as an independent contractor hired by Pyrotek. For this particular tour, we are focusing on flame and dry ice effects throughout the show however, there are a few pyro elements for the songs Powerslave and Iron Maiden that stand out. The flames during Number Of The Beast provide a real highlight. When I press that button and hear the roar from the crowd, visually it looks great and it makes what I do a lot of fun.
Barry Drinkwater, CEO, Global Merchandising Services
We’ve supplied all of the merch for this tour and, while it’s no surprise that the t-shirts are selling well, it’s good to see the one-off design event shirts developed by Rod and the band, doing particularly well. Another uniquely Maiden item is Trooper beer, a particularly fine British ale, and it’s a great buzz for me to see non-British beer drinkers enjoying it for the first time.
Amy Keeling, Tzell Travel
We’ve been providing travel services for Maiden since 2004, and on this tour it has been predominantly hotel rooms for about 100 people, not only traveling on Ed Force One but also a small charter and sometimes buses. Having the 747, with those additional seats, they love to have their friends and family aboard, so we get lots of last minute room additions, cancellations and changes. One fact that sets them apart is their ability to hire the best people and once you are a member of the Iron Maiden family, they take care of family.
Steven "Creech" Anderson, Senior Manager of Lighting Sales and Accounts, Premier Global Production Company
Premier Global Production Company and I first worked with Iron Maiden in 2013, although I had worked with both Ian Day and Patrick Ledwith on other tours in the past.
The equipment we’re supplying is mostly quite standard, although there are a few custom pieces such as the Circular Truss which has fabric stretched across the radius with “Eddie’s” face printed in the middle. The truss is ladder beam built in the UK which pins together in small sections enabling it to fit in an airplane pack. We have also manufactured down-pipes which help to extend lights below the Tyler Truss which is being used on the tour. Our Power distribution sled enables our touring electrician to keep everything plugged in and narrows down the need for lots of connections.
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Feature by Johnny Black, first appeared in Audience magazine.
The t-shirts say it all.
Seen from the stage, an Iron Maiden concert is an ocean of Maiden t-shirts, with tens of thousands of devotees proudly displaying various incarnations of the band’s zombie-robot mascot Eddie. If you’re a star-watcher, you’ll have seen everyone from Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters to Robbie Williams and Miley Cyrus sporting Maiden shirts. Walk along any city street and you’ll see teenage girls, many of whom know little about Iron Maiden, wearing the same t-shirts bought in their local fashion outlet.
And it doesn’t stop there because, after over thirty years in the business, Maiden now occupy the rarified air of being not just a band, but an icon. That’s why you’ll also see young hipsters clad in Maiden t-shirts, even though their personal tastes run to math-rock, glitch or sensitive singer-songwriters. These kids apparently wear the shirts 'ironically’ but however they wear them, they’re a clear indication that the significance of Iron Maiden extends far beyond the accepted limits of metal fandom.
During their current Book Of Souls tour, Maiden’s personal 300-seater 747 jet airliner, Ed Force One (piloted by vocalist Bruce Dickinson), will fly them almost 75,000 miles, to 70 concerts on six continents to be seen by over 1.5m fans.
"It is quite remarkable that, after 36 years, we are still on the up in many parts of the World," declares manager Rod Smallwood. "I think it has a lot to do with fact that the band is still very contemporary in attitude, continually appeal to a younger audience and insist on playing new albums live! And how bloody great live they are!"
Smallwood’s assessment is right on the money, because Maiden defy the traditional music biz logic whereby a band fast-approaching its fortieth anniversary could reasonably be expected to settle into a comfortable formula, simply knocking out the hits for an ever-decreasing audience.
The inner circle around Maiden describe themselves as 'family’ and, that being the case, Smallwood sits in the role of daddy, having managed them since 1979. As well as guiding Maiden on an ever-upward path, he and his business partner, Andy Taylor, later founded the Sanctuary Records Group, which became the UK’s largest independent record label and the biggest independent music management company in the world until its closure in 2007.
Like Smallwood, agent John Jackson of K2 came aboard in 1979. "I always work very closely with Rod," he reveals, "This tour has been in the planning stages for almost a year, so Rod was able to pinpoint each market to be covered almost to the exact date."
He adds, "This is by far their biggest tour to-date playing close to 40 countries including their first ever visit to China."
These days, with his focus entirely on Maiden, Rod Smallwood says, "We are very proud of just how many countries we have managed to visit, starting way back in the mid 1980s when we were the first major international band to play behind the Iron Curtain, in Poland and Yugoslavia, the inaugural Rock in Rio in 1985 and the start of a wonderful relationship with Latin America, through to 2008 onwards when we first started travelling on Ed Force One."
The Book Of Souls tour kicked off on February 24 with a sell-out at The BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which Revolver magazine hailed as "another memorable performance from the musical giants. Classic heavy metal. Classic Maiden."
Smallwood enthusiastically agrees that, "Fort Lauderdale was special. Being the first one, you get to really see whether the fans are gonna like the set list and show production you have slaved over for months. Fortunately they did."
While John Jackson handles booking for Maiden worldwide, American dates have been looked after for the past twelve years by Rick Roskin, Co-Head of Contemporary Music, CAA. "The trickiest element for me is the logistics of finding the right venues and venue availability in what usually is a tight time frame, because Maiden and their management are incredibly hands-on. Every detail matters and they refuse to compromise. Working with and representing them is a privilege."
Although the opening three date of the tour were in Roskin’s territory, the focus quickly shifted to the Latin countries for most of March, with Tour Director Ian Day and Maiden’s famed Killer Krew settling in for the long haul.
Ian Day describes himself as "the new boy. I’ve only been with them for sixteen years." He points out that the travelling party varies because, "In America, for instance, we pick up local sound and lights. There are also people who come and go, like merchandisers, poster sellers, people who look after our VIP rooms, photographers, video guys. Regulars are in the region of about 50 - 60 crew, including the band party. At maximum we can be 100 people."
The buck pretty much stops at Day when Iron Maiden go on the road. "Essentially I oversee everything that Iron Maiden do live. I set up the tours, do the deals, and get them running, with the help of two guys who work with me, one is in charge of Transport and the other looks after private planes and things like that."
Although Day remains in overall control, "about three months out from the start of the tour, I hand over to our Production Manager, Patrick Ledwith, and he runs the lighting, sound and all that side of it."
Ledwith’s years in the industry have seen him work with Metallica, David Bowie and U2, but he’s been with Maiden since 2010. Even a tour as intensive as Book Of Souls doesn’t phase Ledwith because over the decades he’s encountered teams of bishops exorcising the stage because they believed the artist was the anti-christ, hotel staff in Greece handing out napkins so the band could wipe tear gas fired by riot police from their faces and, let’s not forget, the small matter of the Japanese earthquake. "We were nine minutes from landing in Tokyo when we heard it had hit."
His long experience of working on major touring productions fits Maiden’s requirements like a glove. "The secret," he says, "is staying well ahead of the game, being prepared, having a back up plan for every eventuality. If things go pear-shaped, you have to be ahead of it."
Fortunately, the only major incidence of anything going pear-shaped so far on The Book Of Souls tour was the collision between Ed Force One and two ground tugs in Chile, which necessitated the 747 being taken out of service for several days. (See our Box Out for details)
Minimising the potential for such unforeseen incidents involves months of advance planning. "We started work in the middle of 2015," says Jeremy Smith, Ops Manager of Rock-It Cargo. "The first thing we did, in conjunction with management, was to look at two or three different worldwide touring schedules. We thought about how much time we needed to allow between particular territories, partly because we were going to some new places, such as El Salvador and China. We had to be sure to build in enough time for customs clearance, security and airport handling on arrival."
Despite the relative complexity of Maiden’s stage sets, the team has encountered no serious problems in 2016. Befitting the album's title and theme, the stage set is decorated in the style of Mayan Architecture. The band's mascot, Eddie, in his Mayan guise from The Book of Souls album cover, appears at two points during the show: as a walking puppet during "The Book of Souls" and as an inflatable head during "Iron Maiden". In addition, an inflatable goat/devil appears during "The Number of the Beast".
Sam Booker, MD of specialist set and drapes company Hangman, has worked with Maiden for 13 years and says, "Any Maiden fan will tell you, one of the defining elements of a new Maiden tour is the huge picture drapes which accompany each song. Not only do they have new ones for each tour and a different one for each track in the show, but every drape is hand-painted. That is not common nowadays because creating them is a time-consuming process but it provides the defining look for Maiden’s stage sets and is very important to them."
Iron Maiden’s love affair with Latin America extends back, as Smallwood has pointed out, to the inaugural Rock in Rio in 1985, so satisfying fans south of the border is very important to them. Their three Mexican shows in early March sold out almost immediately with tickets between US$22.52 andUS$112. "These shows were incredible!" declares Memo Parra of promoters OCESSA. "Mexicans love Iron Maiden. Fans went crazy throwing beer, cups were flying all over the arena."
The other ten South American dates were promoted by Phil Rodriguez, CEO of Move Concerts, whose relationship with the band extends back to that 1985 Rock In Rio gig. "If we combine the Fort Lauderdale show, which we also promoted, with the 10 Lat Am shows we total 259,513 tickets sold for a total gross of $US14,254,367," he tells us. "In El Salvador – their first time in that market – the show was a national event with government dignitaries at the airport for their arrival. In Buenos Aires the audience was louder than the band as they sang along, and in Fortaleza the heat was about 30 degrees Celsius but the band killed it."
The band kicked off its eleven North American dates with a stop at Madison Square Garden on March 30. "That show sold out in minutes six months ago," points out Smallwood. "The first week scanned sales of each of our last seven albums increased after the show, highly unusual in what is still a declining market for physical sales!"
After two spectacular nights at the newly renovated Forum in Los Angeles, Maiden fly to the Far East for a pair of Tokyo dates which virtually sold out in the space of one day. "Their previous show was cancelled due to the great east Japan earthquake in 2011," remembers Ichiro Aono, Director of Creativeman Productions, "so 2008 was the last time they played here. We've had a lot of feedback hoping we could have booked bigger venues for the shows."
The most anticipated of their Asian dates, however, must be those in Beijing and Shanghai during their first visit to China. Adam Wilkes, Director at AEG China, observes, "Hard rock and heavy metal is a niche market in China, but there is a core audience that is very passionate about the genre. The tickets, from US$60 to US$235 are selling strong and steady."
The Chinese market remains enigmatic for Western entrepreneurs with its many levels of bureaucracy, censorship regulations and seemingly endless paperwork. "China is both exciting and interesting," muses Smallwood. "It will be fascinating from a cultural standpoint to see how the fans react and how they compare with a typical Maiden audience. It is not a straightforward proposition especially playing in the capital, Beijing, but we hope it all works out."
Exciting it certainly is, but China is far from the end of The Book Of Souls tour. From there they jet across to Australia and New Zealand, follow up with a pair of South African stops, and spend June and July playing stadiums, arenas and major festivals in Europe, finally ending the marathon run in Germany at Wacken Open Air, the world’s biggest metal festival.
"By the time we finish in August," concludes Smallwood, "if you add in The Book Of Souls tally, Iron Maiden will have performed over 2000 concerts in 63 countries round the globe, and we're not finished yet! Not by a long chalk! There’s our Trooper British Ale, the new Ed-Phones created by Steve, and our new computer game, Legacy Of The Beast set to launch in a few months."
All of which should keep him busy at least until that 40th Anniversary comes round…
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IRON MAIDEN'S PERSONAL PLANE - ED FORCE ONE
Iron Maiden is the only band in the world to tour in its own customised 747, Ed Force One, flown by its vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
"Ed Force One created scenes in every airport," says Phil Rodriguez of Move Concerts. "In Fortaleza the motorway next to the airport came to a full stop as people got out of their cars to see the plane land. At every airport the local ground staff would come over to take pictures."
There are, of course, significant benefits to having everything - band, crew and equipment - all in one place but, as Maiden discovered on March 12, there can also be disadvantages.
After a triumphant show at Chile’s Estadio Nacional, Ed Force One was being prepped to fly to Argentina when two of its engines were damaged in a collision with ground tugs.
At this point in the tour, explains Rod Smallwood, "we had about 100 people on board - Maiden and crew, supports Anthrax and The Raven Age with crews, the air staff and the production people from our Latin America promoters."
All of them plus 25 tons of gear had to be got to Cordoba virtually overnight for the show at Estadio Mario Kempes.
"In the planning stages," says Jeremy Smith of Rock-It Cargo, "we built the show in such a way that we could get the full universal rig, stage set, drapes, backline, FOH audio and lighting controls, monitors, wardrobe and production, loaded into the belly of the 747. 25 tons, 9 pallets and four big bins like you see at airports filled with suitcases."
At 9.30am on the morning of the 12th Smith and the Killer Krew had to extract it all from the belly, while Matt Purton of ACS aircraft brokers busied himself finding an alternative flying option. "We had planned for this scenario, so we had a plan of action in place," he explains, "and managed to charter a plane locally for the passengers."
Meanwhile, engineers were being flown in from Jeddah and Iceland to oversee the fitting of the two new 5-ton $4m engines, sourced from Germany. "Normally a single engine replacement takes four to five days," says Jeremy Smith, "but they did two in three days."
Smith also sourced a pair of trucks with drivers willing to drive overnight across the Andes into Argentina, and clawed back some precious time by convincing the Argentinian customs authorities to relax their border crossing processes, and come instead directly to the stadium in Cordoba.
"It’s not often you find the Andes in the way of your next show with about 12 hours from scratch to get your people and 25 tons of equipment there," sums up Smallwood, "but our Killer Krew stepped up to the plate as they always do, and had alternative travel arrangements worked out within hours for band, crew and equipment."
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IRON MAIDEN'S KILLER KREW
As well as Tour Director Ian Day and Production Manager Patrick Ledwith, Maiden’s merry band known as The Killer Krew consists of a tight community of professionals whose loyalty and stubborn determination to make things happen is unquestioned.
Martin Walker, FOH Sound Engineer
I picked up this gig in 2012, prior to which I’d been doing sound for Judas Priest for sixteen years.
Every band presents a sound engineer with unique challenges, attempting to represent them as close as possible to how they want to sound, within the confines of each venue's acoustics. With Maiden, our preferred system is the Meyer Leo and I use a Digico SD7 console.
The Sao Paulo show was one of the most satisfying on this tour - a great performance by the band, a huge enthusiastic crowd, a perfect night for a rock show (temperature and weather-wise) and a well set-up P.A
Rob Coleman, Lighting Designer
I’ve previously worked with Paul Weller, The Darkness and others but I’ve been with Maiden since 2006.
We usually have 6 or 7 lighting crew, with some of the essential components being 50 VL3500 wash lights, 30 Martin Mac Viper moving spots, 124 Martin Mac auras and 27 Clay Paky Sharpys. Depending on the size of the show we also have another 40 or so moving lights for the audience along with 36 crowd blinders.
Most heavy rock shows these days rely on a large upstage LED wall which inevitably reduces the light show to just key light and audience lights. Maiden have such interesting stage sets that I get something specific to light. A vital part of the job is to create a design that fits and compliments the stage set, while making sure that the dynamics of the band can be matched, and that all the set pieces, “Eddies”, devils and so on are well lit.
Rik Benbow, Stage Manager
Having learned my craft at London’s legendary Town And Country Club I have stage managed for over 25 years, with George Michael, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others.
I’m a one-man team, really, although I use the carpenters’ eyes and ears on load-in and out!
The only difference between this tour and anyone else's is Ed Force One. The crew get a little taste of being a celebrity with all the people awaiting the arrival of the plane and being photographed boarding and disembarking. Personally I prefer my place behind the scenes keeping the wheels turning!
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THE TOUR PROMOTERS HAVE THEIR SAY
Paul Dainty, Founder and Exec Chairman, Dainty Group, Australia
Maiden are one of those stand-out bands that continue to draw big crowds and I’m delighted to have been working with them since 2008. We’ve done all seven of the Australian and New Zealand shows, and they’re selling well with prices between Aus$99 and $149.90.
Attie Van Wyk, Big Concerts, South Africa
When I started working with Maiden in 1995, I remember 'Eddie' making his first live appearance on-stage in Johannesburg. It was a total shock to the audiences and the establishment… it was truly glorious! Our tickets for Cape Town are on 87% capacity and Johannesburg is on 65% capacity. We only sold 12 000 tickets in 1995 and hopefully we will end up with more than double that attendance on this tour.
Ossy Hoppe, Wizard Promotions, Germany
In my thirty years of promoting Maiden, they have never been bigger than they are now. Their Album "The Book Of Souls" debuted at No1 in Germany and reached gold-status and within five weeks. Tickets are running fast, with Berlin already sold out with an average ticket price of €84.30.
Rob Trommelen, Head Promoter, Mojo, Netherlands.
Mojo has worked with Maiden since since they started touring in Europe. This time, they will play the fantastic Gelredome in Arnhem, where the current ticket sales figure is 20,000 which is on track. As a band, they’re still growing here.
Thomas Johansson, Chairman and CEO, LiveNation, Sweden
Paul DiAnno was still their singer when I first worked with Maiden in1980.They played a 3,000 capacity room in Stockholm as support to Kiss! Of course both those bands now play stadiums.
Martin forsmann, vice president, sweden rock Festival
I think it is probably close to impossible for new bands to reach that Iron Maiden/Metallica level. So many aspects of the music business as a whole have changed since those mega bands established themselves in the top. All of our dates, in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Russia, Finland and Poland, will either be sold out or very close. In all, we will do about a quarter of a million tickets.
Stuart Galbraith, Promoter, Kilimanjaro Live
I have worked with Maiden since 1988 when they headlined Monsters of Rock at Donington. In 2009 I started Sonisphere and have been fortunate to have Maiden headline the festival throughout Europe from 2007 through to this year when they are appearing at Sonisphere Italy and Switzerland.
Steven Todd, promoter, Live Nation, Poland
Incredibly, they are growing each time they come back, we fully expect to sell out stadiums in both Wroclaw and Prague. One of the great stories about Maiden in Poland is that in 1984 they turned up unannounced at a Polish wedding in a hotel and played Smoke On The Water for the bride and groom!
Andrea Pieroni, Managing Director, Live Nation, Italy
When a was young boy, 14 years old in 1981, the first show I attended was Iron Maiden! In 2007, Maiden became the first heavy metal band ever to play the Olympic Stadium in Rome! This time, Milan sold out out 11,000 tickets in one day. I expect Trieste to sell out, 15,000, by the end of May. Rome is the biggest, cap 30,000 outdoor, and we expect to end up with 25,000+ people.
Mario Grdosic, promoter, Croatia
This is my first time working with the band, and hope it will not be the last! We are very pleased with how the tickets are going, and bear in mind this market has never had any quick sell-outs, because people tend to buy closer to the show date. At the moment, four months before our show, we already sold 50% of all tickets available.
Javier Arnaiz, Director, Mad Cool, Spain
Maiden has a very strong fan base in Spain and I’d say they have grown even stronger during the last couple of years. Of our four dates, the Barclaycard centre in Madrid sold out in 24 hours. Seville is taking us a bit more time but sales are doing well, with an average ticket price of €70.
Patrick Svitek, Nucoast Productions, Slovakia
Having been on sale for seven weeks, we have sold over 5,000 tickets for their show at Zilina Airport, where tickets cost from €50 to 80. I dare to say that they are more popular here than ever.
Michel Welter, den Atelier sarl, Luxembourg.
Our Rockhal date sold very quickly! We did a pre-sale event at our club, The Atelier, in the city of Luxembourg, during which we sold the first tickets at 6am with free coffee, doughnuts, posters and flames. That was an event in itself, close to 3000 people queued up around the block at 5:00am, totally crazy… but got us tremendous press as well. The remaining tickets then sold quickly through regular outlets.
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THE TOUR SUPPLIERS SPEAK
Jeremy Smith, Ops Manager, Rock-It Cargo
We had to build the show in such a way that we could get the full universal rig, stage set, drapes, backline, FOH audio and lighting controls, monitors, wardrobe and production, loaded into the belly of the 747. 22 tons, 9 pallets and four big bins like you see at airports filled with suitcases.
Me and Sam from Hangman worked many hours, lots of meetings at the warehouse, lots of measuring, so we could re-jig the whole stage set to make it fit.
It’s very important to the band that every show we play is the full show, it will be the same for every audience anywhere in the world.
Matt Purton, Director Commercial Jet Sales - Air Charter Service
As a global aircraft broker, we have been involved with the movement of Maiden’s equipment for nearly 15 years. The job is too big for one person to deal with, so we have a dedicated team of seven, all of whom fly with the plane. Between them, they’re fluent in four languages, and in places like China we use our local office to be able to communicate properly with the authorities, airports and suppliers.
Sam Booker, Director, Hangman
Maiden take four set crew on the road with them to deal with all the set and props on a daily basis. However, we have a much larger team at Hangman who come up with the ideas and make them a reality in the first place. These range from designers, artworkers, painters, sculptors and CAD drawers, through to welders, sewers and carpenters. We never quite know what we’re going to need so although we employ a core team on a full time basis, we also rely on a larger crew of regular freelancers to cover every eventuality.
Gary Marks, MD, ML Executives
Having their own 747 makes moving the equipment over long distances easier, but it also makes the the only artists we deal with that require you to take all your equipment to an empty warehouse so it can be measured and fitted to an aircraft pallet before having a flame proof bag custom made to fit around it. For this tour the PA and monitors are supplied locally to all the venues, but we supply, among other things, the Digico SD7 control packages, a rack of analogue outboard and amplification for the bands own wedges.
Phil Mercer, Project Manager, PRG XL Video
We first worked with Iron Maiden back in December 2006, providing an IMAG package for the Earl’s Court show at the end of the ‘A Matter Of Life And Death tour’, but this time we are providing a Camera Package, LED Sidescreens (in certain territories) and crew. I’m too young to remember the days when every big rock show had painted back-drops, but I actually love the look of them and find it refreshing that they haven’t been replaced with a large upstage LED screen!
Mark O’Herlihy, VP of Sales And International Integration, PRG Nocturne
This is the first Iron Maiden tour for Nocturne/PRG, and we are providing a basic four camera flight pak system and crew, comprising two FOH long lens cams, two hand-held cams in the pit and two 21’-7, 7/8 wide, 11’-9 3/4 high LED walls stage left and right, for the USA and certain European dates.
Keith Maxwell, Pyrotek Special Effects
I started in 2008 as an independent contractor hired by Pyrotek. For this particular tour, we are focusing on flame and dry ice effects throughout the show however, there are a few pyro elements for the songs Powerslave and Iron Maiden that stand out. The flames during Number Of The Beast provide a real highlight. When I press that button and hear the roar from the crowd, visually it looks great and it makes what I do a lot of fun.
Barry Drinkwater, CEO, Global Merchandising Services
We’ve supplied all of the merch for this tour and, while it’s no surprise that the t-shirts are selling well, it’s good to see the one-off design event shirts developed by Rod and the band, doing particularly well. Another uniquely Maiden item is Trooper beer, a particularly fine British ale, and it’s a great buzz for me to see non-British beer drinkers enjoying it for the first time.
Amy Keeling, Tzell Travel
We’ve been providing travel services for Maiden since 2004, and on this tour it has been predominantly hotel rooms for about 100 people, not only traveling on Ed Force One but also a small charter and sometimes buses. Having the 747, with those additional seats, they love to have their friends and family aboard, so we get lots of last minute room additions, cancellations and changes. One fact that sets them apart is their ability to hire the best people and once you are a member of the Iron Maiden family, they take care of family.
Steven "Creech" Anderson, Senior Manager of Lighting Sales and Accounts, Premier Global Production Company
Premier Global Production Company and I first worked with Iron Maiden in 2013, although I had worked with both Ian Day and Patrick Ledwith on other tours in the past.
The equipment we’re supplying is mostly quite standard, although there are a few custom pieces such as the Circular Truss which has fabric stretched across the radius with “Eddie’s” face printed in the middle. The truss is ladder beam built in the UK which pins together in small sections enabling it to fit in an airplane pack. We have also manufactured down-pipes which help to extend lights below the Tyler Truss which is being used on the tour. Our Power distribution sled enables our touring electrician to keep everything plugged in and narrows down the need for lots of connections.