Says founder member and bassist Steve Harris We are having a great time on the Give Me Ed ... 'Til I'm Dead Tour. Its fun playing material from Brave New World back to the early eighties and certainly judging from the reactions and the amount of people showing up at the gigs its been fun for the fans too!! We are really proud of the new record and are very much looking forward to playing a number of the new songs along with some other stuff we havent played for a while
However the DANCE OF DEATH WORLD TOUR will herald a major change in how the band tour in the future as this will be the last long arena tour the band will undertake. The band will certainly continue recording and touring for years to come but as manager Rod Smallwood says We want to explain this carefully and at length to our amazing fans so there is no confusion and because they deserve a full explanation. After Spring 2004 the band will not go out on the road for up to nine months touring with an album as we have up to now. As a progression from the scheduling around the Give Me Ed and Dance of Death tours we will further break the album / tour cycle. Recording will be mainly in the winter ( then releasing the album when it is ready and appropriate) and touring in the Summer. We really enjoy the festivals and outdoor shows where Maiden fans congregate in numbers. There is a real atmosphere of community and this is something which really lifts the band.
Whilst arena tours will be a thing of the past, there may be occasional arenas in certain areas where a festival or outdoor gig isnt feasible. We know we have fans in many parts of the world who wish to see the band and we will try to spread out the shows as fairly as possible and play for as many of you as possible within these parameters. And although touring will be much shorter we could in fact be playing live more regularly, which the band also like the idea of .
We are announcing this up front of the DANCE OF DEATH Tour to be fair to fans who live in the cities we may not get to play in again and there will be a lot obviously on this forthcoming tour. We hope you understand and that you can still make it to see us in future. Since l started managing Maiden in 1979 we have played over 1700 gigs in many, many parts of the World. We have tried to get to as many of you as we could over the years and we know that many of you have travelled huge distances to come to our shows. Although we would expect to return to all the countries we play at some point we hope more of you will try to join us somewhere and enjoy the camaraderie of the Maiden travelling gang!!!
