Acknowledging both their roots (their 1979 debut "The Soundhouse Tapes" was IRON MAIDEN's first official release on vinyl) and reputation for bringing history to life, IRON MAIDEN will release their longest ever song, with a duration of over eighteen minutes, "Empire Of The Clouds", as a limited-edition 12-inch picture disc single for Record Store Day on April 16. Taken from MAIDEN's latest studio album "The Book Of Souls", the single is housed in a uniquely artworked sleeve, featuring a replica of the actual newspaper story reporting on the fate of the R101 airship, which is the focus of the song. Written by MAIDEN vocalist Bruce Dickinson, it will be made available through Parlophone Records (BMG in the U.S.A) with the B-side featuring an in depth audio interview with Dickinson about the inspiration for the track, which has been a truly personal labor of love and is, he claims, "a very poignant story, a very human story, a story of ambition and dreams." Supporting Record Store Day for the very first time with an IRON MAIDEN piece, director of strategic marketing at Parlophone, Paul Fletcher, explains how the band came to be involved. "After the success of 'The Book Of Souls' last year and especially with the reaction to the double vinyl format, I felt that a song like 'Empire Of The Clouds' needed to be immortalized in some way," he said. "It was never going to be a radio track/single, so after discussions with management, we went down the 'let's educate and commemorate a real tragedy that Bruce had chosen to portray in this amazing song.' As usual with MAIDEN, they turned the package into something special with unique commissioned artwork and the idea to license historic material from the Daily Mirror archives from 1930. The result is an incredible package that both vinyl collectors and MAIDEN fans will be keen to own." IRON MAIDEN is currently on "The Book Of Souls" world tour, playing to over 1.5 million fans across 36 countries and 6 continents, traversing the planet in their brand new Boeing 747 jet Ed Force One, carrying band, crew, equipment and over 20 tons of stage production, on a 60-thousand-mile journey.
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