Before playing at the Velez Sarsfield stadium, in Argentina, the greatest current legend of metal, Iron Maiden he made time and spoke with the Argentine newspaper Clarín.
In a telephone conversation with the journalist Glory Warrior, the charismatic vocalist Bruce Dickinson, recalled his time in Buenos Aires and the altercation when he displayed an English flag, he commented on the importance of the tour they are doing -the Somewhere Back in Time, which took them all over the planet and it achieved records of 23 packed stadiums in Asia, Australia, North, Central and South America.
The marathon and epic tour of Iron Maiden found them in one of the best times the band is going through in their entire career, and led to a documentary film, Flight 666, that is soon to premiering on April 21. we hope that Dickinson and yours continue touring and releasing records for several more years.
Then the full interview:
How do they cope with such a big tour?
This tour has left us great wonders, nothing like this has ever been done, on this scale. But the best thing for me is always to get on the plane and continue traveling… (laughs). I'm telling you: without Ed Force One, we wouldn't have been able to do a tour like this. It would have been uneconomical, it would have tortured us. But the concept is not new, of course. When we started playing with Maiden, we were riding a mike with the techs and the leads, and the whole crew was in the back in a trailer. Here the bus is an airplane, and the pilot becomes the driver of the bus… (laughs).
But it is not possible that I will give you the leather to pilot the whole tour ...
Either I am a pilot, or I am a co-pilot: still, it takes two people to operate that thing. But I can't fly it all the time; I get off a stage at 11 at night and I can't fly a plane less than twelve hours later: it would be illegal. And we follow the rules. But I believe I have commanded a third of this entire journey; in this last stretch, maybe more.
And in the middle of the trip around the world, the economic crisis and recession fell ...
Well, this is very interesting because, if I tell you the numbers for South America, this ticket sales in Argentina was 20 percent higher than last year. We played for 65.000 people in São Paulo, when in 2008 there had been 37.000. Last year we played for 28.000 thousand people in Chile, and now we sold 55.000 tickets… It's totally incredible. The financial recession and the economic crash have not changed our budget either: in this section of the tour we are spending much more money, and we put on special shows in places where we have been before. In Buenos Aires, for example, they will now see the complete European show.
What can we expect?
We're going to add some Killers and Number of the Beast tracks (and maybe a few others) to the list that we haven't played in a long time, and this is probably the last time we'll do them live. For people it will be very special, I think. And we bring the great Eddie, the real “Big Eddie” from Europe, plus a very spectacular technical setup, explosions and all. This time we bring everything.
And a new generation of fans has already joined ...
Well, I think we actually have two new generations: one came in the '90s, and now there is another. They are boys between the ages of 13 and XNUMX. Ours is not a “grown-up classic rock” crowd, but a totally cool crowd. Look (laughs), we're almost like the Rolling Stones of heavy metal. Today there are very few bands faithful to all the history that they carry behind. Many have a thirst for celebrity, we don't. Yes, of course, when we stay at the hotel in Buenos Aires we will have to go out protected because it is full of people outside, but we do not exploit that situation. We don't like to be famous individually, but on stage and as Iron Maiden. We are not special. Any of our fans can do what we do, if they try hard enough.
Have you got used to the Argentines whistling and yelling every time the British flag appears during “The Trooper”?
Well, you better get used to it. It is part of the show, and there is nothing to do to it. And it has nothing to do with the Malvinas war (it doesn't say Falklands, it says Malvinas). The song tells of a 19th century English military disaster, a catastrophe where many people died. Everyone knows that it is not a personal attack on the Argentines, and certainly no lack of respect, in any way, to those who fought in the Malvinas War.
They know it, but they whistle just the same.
(Laughs.) And I got used to it too! I look forward to that whistle, always. If they didn't, they would surprise me! ...
Source: Clarín