Fact #139614
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Iron Maiden begin their The Book Of Souls World Tour with a show at The BB+T Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.Full article:
MAIDEN VOYAGE - INSIDE IRON MAIDEN'S BOOK OF SOULS TOUR
Feature 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 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 almost forty 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 they never listen to metal. These kids claim to wear the shirts 'ironically’ but even so, 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, seen by over 1.5m fans.
"It is quite remarkable that, after 36 years, we’re 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 their 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 world’s biggest independent music management company until its closure in 2007.
Like Smallwood, agent John Jackson of K2 came aboard in 1979. "I 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 ever playing close to forty countries including their first ever visit to China."
The Book Of Souls tour kicked off on February 24 with a sell-out at The BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hailed by Revolver magazine as "Classic heavy metal. Classic Maiden."
Smallwood enthusiastically agrees. "Fort Lauderdale was special. Being the first one, you get to see whether the fans are gonna like the set list and show production. Fortunately they did."
While John Jackson handles booking for Maiden worldwide, Rick Roskin, Co-Head of Contemporary Music, CAA, has looked after their American dates for the past twelve years. "The trickiest element for me is finding the right venues and 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."
Although the opening three dates were in Roskin’s territory, the focus quickly shifted to Latin America for most of March, with Tour Director Ian Day and Maiden’s famed Killer Krew settling in for the long haul.
Day describes himself as "the new boy. I’ve only been with them for sixteen years." He points out that the travelling party varies between 60 and 100 people 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."
The buck pretty much stops at Day once Maiden hit the road. "Essentially I oversee everything Maiden do live. I set up the tours, do the deals, and get them running."
Although Day maintains overall control, "about three months out from the start of the tour, I hand over to our Production Manager, Patrick Ledwith, who runs the lighting, sound and that side of it."
Ledwith’s career has 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 bishops exorcising the stage because they believed the artist was the anti-christ, hotel staff in riot-torn Greece handing out napkins so the band could wipe tear gas 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 tours fits Maiden’s requirements like a glove. "The secret," he says, "is 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 with 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. "We started by looking at two or three different worldwide touring schedules. We considered 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 build in enough time for customs clearance, security and airport handling."
Befitting the album's title and theme, The Book Of Souls 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, says, "Any Maiden fan will tell you, one of the defining elements of a new Maiden tour is the huge hand-painted picture drapes which we create. Not only do they have new drapes for each tour but also a different one for each track. That is not common nowadays because creating them is a time-consuming process but it provides the defining look for Maiden’s stage sets."
Iron Maiden’s love affair with Latin America extends back to 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 their long-term associate Phil Rodriguez, CEO of Move Concerts. "If we combine the Fort Lauderdale show, which we also promoted, with the ten 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."
The band kicked off its eleven North American dates with a stop at Madison Square Garden on March 30. "That sold out in minutes six months ago," points out Smallwood. "Sales of each of our last seven albums increased after the show, highly unusual in 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 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, are those in Beijing and Shanghai during their first visit to China. Adam Wilkes, Director at AEG China, observes, "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. "It will be fascinating from a cultural standpoint to see how the fans react and how they compare with a typical Maiden audience," muses Smallwood. "It is not a straightforward proposition especially playing in the capital, Beijing, but we hope it all works out."
Exciting it undeniably 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," 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 PLANE - ED FORCE ONE
Iron Maiden is the only band in the world to tour in its own customised 747, Ed Force One, piloted by vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
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, 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.
Jeremy Smith of Rock-It Cargo reveals, "We had built the show in such a way that we could get the full universal rig, 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."
At 9.30am on 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."
Simultaneously, engineers were being flown in from Jeddah and Iceland to oversee the fitting of 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 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 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 loyal and stubborn professionals.
Martin Walker, FOH Sound Engineer
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.
Rob Coleman, Lighting Designer
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.
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 actually get something specific to light.
Rik Benbow, Stage Manager
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 a stand-out band that continues to draw big crowds and I’m delighted to have worked 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 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%. We sold 12 000 tickets in 1995 but we expect to double that 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 quickly reached gold status. 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. 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’ve 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 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 great story 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 I was a boy, 14 years old in 1981, the first show I attended was Iron Maiden! 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 with Maiden, and I hope not the last! We are very pleased with how the tickets are going, bearing in mind this market never has any quick sell-outs. At the moment, four months before our show, we’ve already sold 50% of all tickets.
Javier Arnaiz, Director, Mad Cool, Spain
I’d say Maiden have grown even stronger in Spain during the last couple of years. Of our four dates, the Barclaycard centre in Madrid sold out in 24 hours. Seville is taking a bit longer 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, with prices from €50 to 80. I dare 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 and posters. Close to 3000 people queued up around the block at 5:00am, totally crazy… but it got us tremendous press. The remaining tickets then sold quickly through regular outlets.
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THE TOUR SUPPLIERS SPEAK
Jeremy Smith, Ops Manager, Rock-It Cargo
At my interview with Rock-It, fifteen years ago, it came out that I was an Iron Maiden fan, so they gave me the account.
It’s very important to the band that every show we play is the full show, so it is the same for every audience anywhere in the world. 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 into the belly of the 747.
Matt Purton, Director Commercial Jet Sales - Air Charter Service
As global aircraft brokers, we have been involved with the movement of Maiden’s equipment for nearly 15 years. The job is too big for one person, so we have a 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 communicate properly with the authorities, airports and suppliers.
Gary Marks, MD, ML Executives
Having their own 747 makes moving the equipment over long distances easier, but it also makes them 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 and amplification for the band’s own wedges.
Phil Mercer, Project Manager, PRG XL Video
We first worked with Maiden back in December 2006, providing an IMAG package for the Earl’s Court show on the 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 backdrops, but I 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 tour, we are focusing on flame and dry ice throughout the show, with a few pyro elements for the songs Powerslave and Iron Maiden. The flames during Number Of The Beast provide a real highlight. When I press that button and hear the crowd roar, it makes what I do a lot of funned it looks great.
Barry Drinkwater, CEO, Global Merchandising Services
We’ve supplied all the merch for this tour and, while it’s no surprise that the t-shirts are selling well, it’s great 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 fine British ale. 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. On this tour it’s predominantly hotel rooms for about 100 people. Having the 747, with those additional seats, they love to have friends and family aboard, so we get lots of last minute room additions, cancellations and changes. One fact that sets them apart is that once you are a member of the Iron Maiden family, they take care of family.
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Feature 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 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 almost forty 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 they never listen to metal. These kids claim to wear the shirts 'ironically’ but even so, 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, seen by over 1.5m fans.
"It is quite remarkable that, after 36 years, we’re 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 their 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 world’s biggest independent music management company until its closure in 2007.
Like Smallwood, agent John Jackson of K2 came aboard in 1979. "I 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 ever playing close to forty countries including their first ever visit to China."
The Book Of Souls tour kicked off on February 24 with a sell-out at The BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hailed by Revolver magazine as "Classic heavy metal. Classic Maiden."
Smallwood enthusiastically agrees. "Fort Lauderdale was special. Being the first one, you get to see whether the fans are gonna like the set list and show production. Fortunately they did."
While John Jackson handles booking for Maiden worldwide, Rick Roskin, Co-Head of Contemporary Music, CAA, has looked after their American dates for the past twelve years. "The trickiest element for me is finding the right venues and 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."
Although the opening three dates were in Roskin’s territory, the focus quickly shifted to Latin America for most of March, with Tour Director Ian Day and Maiden’s famed Killer Krew settling in for the long haul.
Day describes himself as "the new boy. I’ve only been with them for sixteen years." He points out that the travelling party varies between 60 and 100 people 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."
The buck pretty much stops at Day once Maiden hit the road. "Essentially I oversee everything Maiden do live. I set up the tours, do the deals, and get them running."
Although Day maintains overall control, "about three months out from the start of the tour, I hand over to our Production Manager, Patrick Ledwith, who runs the lighting, sound and that side of it."
Ledwith’s career has 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 bishops exorcising the stage because they believed the artist was the anti-christ, hotel staff in riot-torn Greece handing out napkins so the band could wipe tear gas 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 tours fits Maiden’s requirements like a glove. "The secret," he says, "is 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 with 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. "We started by looking at two or three different worldwide touring schedules. We considered 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 build in enough time for customs clearance, security and airport handling."
Befitting the album's title and theme, The Book Of Souls 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, says, "Any Maiden fan will tell you, one of the defining elements of a new Maiden tour is the huge hand-painted picture drapes which we create. Not only do they have new drapes for each tour but also a different one for each track. That is not common nowadays because creating them is a time-consuming process but it provides the defining look for Maiden’s stage sets."
Iron Maiden’s love affair with Latin America extends back to 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 their long-term associate Phil Rodriguez, CEO of Move Concerts. "If we combine the Fort Lauderdale show, which we also promoted, with the ten 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."
The band kicked off its eleven North American dates with a stop at Madison Square Garden on March 30. "That sold out in minutes six months ago," points out Smallwood. "Sales of each of our last seven albums increased after the show, highly unusual in 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 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, are those in Beijing and Shanghai during their first visit to China. Adam Wilkes, Director at AEG China, observes, "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. "It will be fascinating from a cultural standpoint to see how the fans react and how they compare with a typical Maiden audience," muses Smallwood. "It is not a straightforward proposition especially playing in the capital, Beijing, but we hope it all works out."
Exciting it undeniably 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," 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 PLANE - ED FORCE ONE
Iron Maiden is the only band in the world to tour in its own customised 747, Ed Force One, piloted by vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
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, 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.
Jeremy Smith of Rock-It Cargo reveals, "We had built the show in such a way that we could get the full universal rig, 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."
At 9.30am on 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."
Simultaneously, engineers were being flown in from Jeddah and Iceland to oversee the fitting of 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 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 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 loyal and stubborn professionals.
Martin Walker, FOH Sound Engineer
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.
Rob Coleman, Lighting Designer
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.
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 actually get something specific to light.
Rik Benbow, Stage Manager
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 a stand-out band that continues to draw big crowds and I’m delighted to have worked 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 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%. We sold 12 000 tickets in 1995 but we expect to double that 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 quickly reached gold status. 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. 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’ve 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 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 great story 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 I was a boy, 14 years old in 1981, the first show I attended was Iron Maiden! 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 with Maiden, and I hope not the last! We are very pleased with how the tickets are going, bearing in mind this market never has any quick sell-outs. At the moment, four months before our show, we’ve already sold 50% of all tickets.
Javier Arnaiz, Director, Mad Cool, Spain
I’d say Maiden have grown even stronger in Spain during the last couple of years. Of our four dates, the Barclaycard centre in Madrid sold out in 24 hours. Seville is taking a bit longer 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, with prices from €50 to 80. I dare 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 and posters. Close to 3000 people queued up around the block at 5:00am, totally crazy… but it got us tremendous press. The remaining tickets then sold quickly through regular outlets.
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THE TOUR SUPPLIERS SPEAK
Jeremy Smith, Ops Manager, Rock-It Cargo
At my interview with Rock-It, fifteen years ago, it came out that I was an Iron Maiden fan, so they gave me the account.
It’s very important to the band that every show we play is the full show, so it is the same for every audience anywhere in the world. 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 into the belly of the 747.
Matt Purton, Director Commercial Jet Sales - Air Charter Service
As global aircraft brokers, we have been involved with the movement of Maiden’s equipment for nearly 15 years. The job is too big for one person, so we have a 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 communicate properly with the authorities, airports and suppliers.
Gary Marks, MD, ML Executives
Having their own 747 makes moving the equipment over long distances easier, but it also makes them 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 and amplification for the band’s own wedges.
Phil Mercer, Project Manager, PRG XL Video
We first worked with Maiden back in December 2006, providing an IMAG package for the Earl’s Court show on the 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 backdrops, but I 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 tour, we are focusing on flame and dry ice throughout the show, with a few pyro elements for the songs Powerslave and Iron Maiden. The flames during Number Of The Beast provide a real highlight. When I press that button and hear the crowd roar, it makes what I do a lot of funned it looks great.
Barry Drinkwater, CEO, Global Merchandising Services
We’ve supplied all the merch for this tour and, while it’s no surprise that the t-shirts are selling well, it’s great 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 fine British ale. 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. On this tour it’s predominantly hotel rooms for about 100 people. Having the 747, with those additional seats, they love to have friends and family aboard, so we get lots of last minute room additions, cancellations and changes. One fact that sets them apart is that once you are a member of the Iron Maiden family, they take care of family.