As its done in recent years, the design of the official Iron Maiden xmas card open to everyone. This is the card that gets sent to FC members and to friends of the band.
Each year, the standard has been amazingly high and it’s been a real challenge to choose a winner.

Send us your designs - conforming to the specifications below - and the winner will be picked by Rod, be printed and sent to loads of people. The winner will get a credit on the card and a signed Derek Riggs print (and some other goodies). Iron Maiden will also award prizes to any runners up we particularly like, and even if your card isn't chosen to be printed the favourites В will be used on the official website throughout December.

Your design needs to be A5 size (about 21 by 15 cm) - it's up to you which way round it goes (portrait or landscape). The picture is entirely up to you.

Now here's the important stuff - as the design will be printed, you need to make sure you have a high-resolution image that you can send if your card is chosen. If you're hand painting or drawing, no problem, but if you're creating your design from scratch in Photoshop or whatever, please make sure you do it at 600dpi and not at the lower resolution you'd use for things that are going to be displayed only on a monitor. Keep the original in a very safe place, and send us a copy.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR DESIGN
**************************
Please send in your submissions as lower-resolution JPEG or GIF images вЂ" Don’t send the huge hi-res file until we choose the winner.

Please make sure that you name your file with your own name - eg. JimSmith.jpg
Email you entries to this address, title your email 'XMAS CARD' and please make sure you include your contact details.

This competition is open to everyone - fanclub members and non-fanclub members.

Closing date for entries is 15th October, The winner wil announced within a couple of weeks of that date (sometimes decisions are hard to make!) Good luck!

Adrian's new Jackson guitar was stolen after the show in Athens on Saturday night.

Can all Maiden fans please be on the lookout for the guitar.
It will be extremely hard to get rid of as it's the only one in the world.
There will be a reward of a Maiden tour jacket and I'm sure a hand written letter of thanks from Adrian for anyone with information leading to the recovery of the guitar.

DESCRIPTION:
JACKSON STRAT COL. WHITE ADRIAN SMITH SIGNATURE MODEL, WHITE SCRATCH PLATE
EBONY FRETBOARD
ADRIAN SMITH SIGNATURE ON FRONT OF HEADSTOCK
HUMBUCKER BRIDGE PICK-UP
TWO SINGLE COIL PICK-UPS
RECTANGULAR BLACK MOULDED JACKSON GUITAR CASE.

The serial number of the guitar is 8467

If you have any info, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mestrock.se has uploaded 30 high-quality photos of Saturday's (July 26) soccer game between the official IRON MAIDEN team, Iron Maiden FC, and Gothenburg, Sweden's Paddington's Allstars that took place a few hours before MAIDEN's concert at the Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg. In scorching heat (one of the warmest days of the Swedish summer so far), Iron Maiden FC won by 5 goals to 2. MAIDEN bassist Steven Harris scored two goals and said afterwards that he was happy his team got revenge for the loss in Gothenburg in 2005.

Later the same evening, IRON MAIDEN played to its biggest Swedish audience yet, with official ticket sales figures of 56,132, according to Live Nation. The concert received the highest possible ratings (5 out of 5) in the two major Swedish newspapers Expressen and Aftonbladet.

A personal message from Captain Bruce Dickinson
Dear 666 passenger,
I am gutted to have to tell you that Astraeus Airlines have been forced to remove the Iron Maiden decals (artwork transfers) from the Boeing 757 and that its now highly unlikely that operational proceedures will allow enough time to have the Ed Force One livery reinstated for my Bruce Air trips.
When we originally commissioned the 757 from Astraeus it was due to be reverted back to their normal airline branding at the end of the first leg of our tour.  However Astraeus were getting such great feedback from passengers and airports around our tour, that they asked if they could retain the Iron Maiden decals when they took the plane back for their own normal charter flights.  We thought this was great and it has since been flying European and Middle East routes with spectacular reaction.

Unfortunately for us, 'Ed Force One' was the only plane available from the Astraeus fleet to fly a new and regular route into and out of an African country on a recent new route.  The striking Iron Maiden imagery had a violent reaction from the locals as they regarded the artwork, particularly that of Eddie, as very bad ju ju. Not only would local passengers refuse to board the plane because of the artwork, but other passengers were refusing to board planes of other airlines parked nearby in case they were tainted by the evil spirits!  This resulted in some furore among the attending passengers and even more among the airlines involved!  As the liveried 757 is owned and maintained by Astraeus, they had no alternative but to strip off all the Iron Maiden artwork and return the plane to its usual livery to be able to continue on the new route .

As most seats on these trips were taken up before I announced that we would be using Ed Force One (Warsaw/Prague was already sold out), I really hope this isn't too much of a disappointment to you, and I much look forward to welcoming you aboard Bruce Air Flight AEU 666.

The team at ICT will keep you advised of any developments.

Best wishes,

Bruce

Iron Maiden invited American/Norwegian melodic metallers KAMELOT as support band for their show, at the massive TT Circuit location on August 16 in Assen, Netherlands.

For  more information visit Kamelot's Myspace page

As a tribute to Iron Maiden Kerrang! has persuaded some of their favourite bands to record unique covers of their greatest anthems, for an exciting free CD entitled Maiden Heaven. The tracklisting and details for this world exclusive release will be revealed next month and we want YOU to get involved too by designing the album's artwork!

Feel free to interpret the cover's concept in any way you wish by using any medium at your disposal. A K! panel will select the winner and contact them in due course. Your entry can be submitted as a high-resolution JPG (300dpi - 150mm x 150mm) and should be e-mailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or alternatively, you can send in your original artwork, but please note it cannot be returned. The deadline for this competition is May 26.

What's in it for you? In addition to having your artwork adorn the cover of this incredible album, the winning entrant will also win a year's subscription to Kerrang!.

Iron Maiden пуснаха артуърка на излизащия на 12 май сборен албум на "Somewhere Back In Time - The Best Of: 1980-1989 "за свободен download

Maiden will be finishing their 2008 touring schedule in Russia at Moscow's Olympic Stadium on Tuesday August 19th. This will be the first time the band have visited the Russian capital since June 1993, 15 years ago. This will be the last show in 2008 so much consumption of vodka is to be expected after this show.

Tickets for these shows will go on sale to the public immediately today - Friday 18th April.

Tickets will be available from www.concert.ru (we should have an English link for you soon!)

Iron Maiden confirm that they will be playing at the Metalway Festival, Feria de Muestras, Zaragoza, Spain on Saturday July 12th 2008.

Other acts appearing include Slayer, Avantasia, Baron Rojo, Iced Earth, Rose Tatoo, Avengend Sevenfold, Lauren Harris and Leyenda.

Tickets for the festival go on sale tomorrow, Friday April 18th at 11am GMT via www.ticktackticket.com

You can find out more about the Metalway Festival on their website - www.metalwayfestival.com

Gillett Entertainment Group is proud to announce that iron Maiden will headline HEAVY MTL festival.
This is a unique event in North America, which will take place on Saturday June 21st and Sunday June 22nd at Parc Jean-Drapeau.
The full HEAVT MTL Line Up is :

For more information visit : www.heavymtl.com

UK's What Records will release "Chemical Wedding - Original Soundtrack" on May 19.

"Chemical Wedding" is a feature film written by IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson and long-time Monty Python editor Julian Doyle, who also directed the film. The film is a gothic sci-fi extravaganza set in Trinity College Cambridge, where a scientific experiment goes awry resulting in the resurrection of the infamous Edwardian occultist Aleister Crowley, who was immortalized into pop culture by the likes of THE BEATLES, Jimmy Page and Ozzy Osbourne. The soundtrack includes two tracks from IRON MAIDEN and two tracks from Bruce.

"Chemical Wedding - Original Soundtrack" track listing is as follows:

01. Chemical Wedding - BRUCE DICKINSON
02. Hush Hush Here Comes the Bogie Man - HENRY HALL / VAL ROSING.
03. Fanlight Fanny - GEORGE FORMBY
04. Man of Sorrows - BRUCE DICKINSON
05. Wickerman - IRON MAIDEN
06. Can I Play With Madness - IRON MAIDEN
07. Separation - SKIN
08. Une Faune Apres Midi - DEBUSSY
09. The Alleluya Chorus - HANDLE
10. (Excerpt) Violin Concerto – MOZART

Directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn of Banger Films Inc. — creators of the critically acclaimed, award-winning documentary "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" and its soon-to-be-released follow-up "Global Metal" — are looking for fans' "home videos" for possible use in the upcoming IRON MAIDEN documentary that follows the band's current "Somewhere Back in Time" tour. "So if you captured the excitement of Ed Force One landing, fan mayhem at the airport, camping or lining up outside the venues on your cell phone, camera or video camera, please upload your clips to our special YouTube group 'Somewhere Back in Time Fan Videos.' (Please note we are NOT looking for any fan footage of the concert performances.) Directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn will review all videos. If selected, fans will be contacted with further details. Deadline for submissions: May 1, 2008. Go to this location to upload your video."

Producer Kevin Shirley is currently in the studio mixing IRON MAIDEN tracks for a new feature documentary that follows the band's current "Somewhere Back in Time" tour. The film is being helmed by directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn of Banger Films Inc. — creators of the critically acclaimed, award-winning documentary "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" and its soon-to-be-released follow-up "Global Metal".

For the official tour documentary, Scot and Sam are following the band in the air and on the stage, giving fans behind-the-scenes and front-and-center access to one of the most-talked-about metal tours of 2008.

The president of the Bulgarian fanclub Dimitar Petrov and the members of the managing committee Liubomir Baliev , Gergana Popova , Stanlly Milev and the owner and administrator of the website Nickola Petras will appear as guests on Z-rock's BRUTALLICA show. The show will be on Wednesday (09.04.2008) and the guests will appear 30 minutes after the start of the show in 21:00

Френските ни приятели от www.MaidenForum.fr ни съобщиха, че на 30 Юни 2008 ще се проведе среща с цел събиране на благотворителност за организацията CliveAid. За повече информация шрпчетете оригиналния текст, който ни е изпратен.

CLIVE AID PRESENTS:

IRON MAIDEN CONVENTION - CLIVE AID 'UNE NUIT A PARIS'

BLAZE BAYLEY - HERVE MONJEAUD
COVERSLAVE - DREAMCATCHER
NOTB - ROCK 'N' ROLL VOLTAGE
MAIDENFORUM - DJ MOTORFAB

MONDAY JUNE 30TH 18:30

LES CAVES SAINT SABIN, 50 RUE SAINT SABIN, 75011, PARIS, FRANCE

The Flyer:

We're pleased to inform you that an Iron Maiden Convention will take place in Paris on June 30th 2008, the day before the two concerts performed by the band on July 1st & 2nd.

It will happen at Les Caves St Sabin, 50 rue Saint Sabin 75011 Paris, France

Nearest tube stations: Chemin Vert/Br?guet Sabin.
http://www.lescaves.org/

Following the successful previous edition from February 2007 in Paris La Cantada club, we deciced to do it again this year but with the CliveAid support.

CliveAid is a fund located in England created to raise money for former Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr who is suffering from multiple sclerosis.
http://www.cliveaid.com/

This fund is well known from the organisation of many concerts and other events around the world done with the Iron Maiden family logistic support.

CliveAid was the people behind the Iron Maiden concerts performed to support Clive Burr in London Brixton Academy on 2002 et 2007 and Carling Apollo on 2005.

Here's the details of this event called Iron Maiden Convention - CliveAid 'Une nuit ? Paris':

- Fans meeting

- French tribute band to Iron Maiden Coverslave
http://www.coverslave.fr.st

- Parisian Heavy/Thrash metallers Dreamcatcher
http://www.dreamcatcher-net.com

- Meet & greet with Blaze Bayley (former d'Iron Maiden singer)
http://www.planetblaze.com/

- French illustrator Herve Monjeaud who works for Iron Maiden. He did SBIT Tour 2008 poster and many special events t-shirts for them so praised by the fans. He also works for french Iron Maiden fanzine Neighbour Of The Beast. Herve will bring some of his best original artworks and will draw Eddie's sketches for the lucky people who'll gently ask.
http://www.hervemonjeaud.com

- French Iron Maiden fanzine Neighbour Of The Beast staff (Old fanzine issues, subscription, t-shirts...)
http://notbis.blogspot.com/

- Parisian record shop Rock'N'Roll Voltage well knonw from the collectors (Iron Maiden collectors, LP's, CD's, merchandising, t-shirts...)

- French Iron Maiden Bulletin Board staff “MaidenForum”
http://MaidenForum.fr

- DJ Motor Fab (All night long Iron maiden music only) DJ Motor Fab is a famous old school metal DJ who works at Black Dog Parisian Metal pub.

- Iron Maiden videoclips

- CliveAid staff, (merchandising, Iron Maiden prizes to be won)
http://www.myspace.com/cliveaid

All raised money wil go to Clive Aid fund.

Tickets will go on sale at the end of this week on http://www.fnac.com

Last minute unexpected guests could join the party...

After the great gigs in USA and Canada. Iron Maiden are pleased to announce new dates for North America.

SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME -- WORLD TOUR 08'  CANADA SUMMER TOUR DATES:

Tue 03 June - Pacific Coliseum Vancouver, BC    
Thu 05 June - Saddledome Calgary, AB
Fri 06 June - Rexall Place Edmonton, AB
Sun 08 June - Brandt Center Regina, SK
Mon 09 June - MTS Centre Winnipeg, SK

SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME -- WORLD TOUR 08' USA TOUR DATES:
5/21/08 San Antonio, TX Verizon Wireless
5/22/08 Houston, TXВ  Woodlands
5/25/08 Albuquerque, NM Journal Pavilion
5/26/08 Phoenix, AZ Cricket Pavilion
5/28/08 Concord, CA Concord
5/30/08 Los Angeles, CA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
5/31/08 Los Angeles, CA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
6/2/08В В  Seattle, WA White River Amphitheatre

Bulgarian Official Iron Maiden Fan club members will travel to Athens, to see Iron Maiden live on 2nd august. The tickets are here and are waiting for their owners. This is first activity organized by the “Official Fan club Iron Maiden Bulgaria.

For now 15 members will have the luck to see their idols from few meters in the front section of the stage. There are still tickets for the show and if you wish to join, please contact us.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

With the overwhelming success of the current 'Somewhere Back In Time World Tour '08', and the recent No 1 selling DVD 'Live After Death', EMI Records are proud to release a very special album on CD and double picture disc vinyl on 12th May to chart the first decade of the band's extraordinary career. The album celebrates the essence of the current tour by featuring most of the essential tracks from the band's first seven studio albums and one live album, recorded between 1980 and 1989, and is aptly also entitled 'SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME'

Here is the tracklis:

1. Churchill Speech (0.49)
2. Aces High (4.36)  
3. 2 Minutes To Midnight (6.00)  
4. The Trooper (4.11)   
5. Wasted Years (5.06)   
6. Children Of The Damned (4.35) 
7. The Number of The Beast (4.53)  
8. Run To The Hills (3.53)   
9. Phantom Of The Opera -- Live (7.21)
10. The Evil That Men Do (4.34)   
11. Wrathchild -- Live (3.07)   
12. Can I Play With Madness (3.31)  
13. Powerslave (6.47)
14. Hallowed Be Thy Name (7.12)
15. Iron Maiden -- Live (4.50)

In an unprecedented move to let younger fans hear, understand and appreciate the quality of these recordings EMI launch the unique SOMEWHERE BEST IN SOUND whereby the curious/adventurous can download the entire album without charge from www.ironmaiden.com as a high quality audio file (WMA) which is a typically powerful 320 kbps. Fans will then be able to listen to the entire album at their leisure three times before the download expires.  The listener is then given a simple option to upgrade and purchase the album as a full traditional DRM-free download (so they can then copy or do as they like with the album). The Cover is illustrated by the legendary Derek Riggs.

From onstage last night (Feb 19), amid the pandemonium in front of 14,000 screaming fans at a packed Los Angeles Forum, Iron Maiden announced the first leg of their eagerly anticipated North American summer tour.

Tickets for Iron Maiden's current "SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME -- WORLD TOUR 08" dates at the Los Angeles Forum and New Jersey's Izod Centre sold out months in advance, the band are delighted to announce they are coming back for more major USA concerts this summer which will take them to a number of cities they have not played in many years.

Wed 5/21/08 San Antonio, TX - Verizon Wireless
Thu 5/22/08 Houston, TX - Woodlands
Sun 5/25/08 Albuquerque, NM - Journal Pavilion
Mon 5/26/08 Phoenix, AZ - Cricket Pavilion
Wed 5/28/08 Concord, CA - Concord
Fri 5/30/08 Los Angeles, CA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Sat 5/31/08 Los Angeles, CA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Mon 6/2/08 Seattle, WA - White River Amph

According to IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson, the group's concert in Tokyo, Japan tonight (Saturday, February 16) was filmed for an upcoming DVD. No further details are currently available.