Iron Maiden kicked off the ‘Maiden England’ world tour in at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Charlotte, North Carolina last night, Thursday 21st June.
This is the third chapter in the history of Iron Maiden, a journey which began in 2004 with ‘The Early Days’ DVD and subsequent 2005 ‘Early Days Tour’ where only songs from the first four albums were played. Part two followed in 2008 with the ‘Live After Death’ DVD and the band embarking on their groundbreaking ‘Somewhere Back In Time World Tour 2008/09’, which saw them play to over two million fans in almost 40 countries with a set primarily gleaned from ‘World Slavery Tour 1985/86’.
Guitarist Adrian Smith recently said in an interview with The Aquarian: “Well, we just thought it’d be fun to revisit that period in time—there were some good songs there. It’s just great revisiting some of the songs we haven’t played for a long while. It keeps us fresh and it’s just, you know, we got a lot of new fans coming on board now, a lot of younger fans who probably never saw or were around when we did that tour. That’s one factor of it for us revisiting that time and I think there’s some good songs from that period, so it’s fun to do.”
Vocalist Bruce Dickinson commented: “We have great fun playing the history of Maiden tours because it gives us an opportunity between new albums to go out and play songs from our earlier catalogue. It’s always fantastic seeing the crowd reaction from a new generation of fans who have never experienced some of these tracks performed live before, and of course we know our longstanding fans will enjoy seeing the original ‘Seventh Son Tour’ revisited — with many other surprises!
“Our intention is to play about two thirds of the original track list of ‘Maiden England’, including some songs we have not played live in a very, very long time, plus other favourites we just know the fans are going to want to hear! We always try to give our fans a great show musically, but we have always tried to make it as entertaining and memorable an experience as we can visually. And we all feel this show is going to do that splendidly!”
Last night’s setlist was:
Moonchild
Can I Play With Madness?
The Prisoner
2 Minutes to Midnight
Afraid to Shoot Strangers
The Trooper
The Number of the Beast
Phantom of the Opera
Run to the Hills
Wasted Years
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
The Clairvoyant
Fear Of The Dark
Iron Maiden
Aces High
The Evil That Men Do
Running Free
Eddie made three appearances during the set, all in different guise, during ‘Run To The Hills’, ‘Seventh Son…’ and of course, ‘Iron Maiden’.
IRON MAIDEN – ‘MADE IN ENGLAND’ NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2012
JUNE
Thu 21
Charlotte, NC, USA
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Sat 23
Atlanta, GA, USA
Aarons Amphitheatre at Lakewood
Tue 26
Boston, MA, USA
Comcast Center
Wed 27
Wantagh, NY, USA
Jones Beach
Fri 29
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Susquehanna Bank Center
Sat 30
Washington, DC, USA
Jiffy Lube Live
JULY
Mon 2
Newark, NJ, USA
Prudential Center
Wed 4
Milwaukee, WI, USA
Marcus Amphitheater – Summerfest
Thu 5
Chicago, IL, USA
First Midwest Bank Amphitheater
Sat 7
Ottawa, CANADA
Bluesfest
Sun 8
Quebec City, QC, CANADA
Colisee Pepsi Arena
Wed 11
Montreal, QC, CANADA
Bell Centre
Fri 13
Toronto, ON, CANADA
Molson Amphitheater
Sat 14
Sarnia, ON, CANADA
Bayfest
Mon 16
Buffalo, NY, USA
Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
Wed 18
Detroit, MI, USA
DTE Music Theatre
Thu 19
Indianapolis, IN, USA
Klipsch Music Center
Sat 21
Cadott, WI, USA
Rock Fest
Tue 24
Winnipeg, MB, CANADA
MTS Center
Thu 26
Calgary, AB, CANADA
Scotiabank Saddledome
Fri 27
Edmonton, AB, CANADA
Rexall Place
Sun 29
Vancouver, BC, CANADA
Pacific Coliseum
Mon 30
Seattle, WA, USA
White River Amphitheatre
AUGUST
Wed 1
Salt Lake City, UT, USA
USANA Amphitheatre
Fri 3
San Francisco, CA, USA
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Sat 4
Sacramento, CA, USA
Sleep Train Amphitheater
Mon 6
Phoenix, AZ, USA
Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion
Thu 9
Irvine, CA, USA
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Fri 10
Irvine, CA, USA
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Sun 12
Albuquerque, NM, USA
Hard Rock Pavilion
Mon 13
Denver, CO, USA
Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
Wed 15
San Antonio, TX, USA
AT&T Center
Fri 17
Dallas, TX, USA
Gexa Energy Pavilion
Sat 18
Houston, TX, USA
The Woodlands
Thanks to ironmaidenbrasil.com for the pictures. There’s a lot more on their site which you can see by clicking here.
