Quote:Maiden make their plans quite far ahead, and the current Maiden England World Tour was “in the pipeline for a few years”, according to the manager. He reiterates the Maiden modus operandi, alternating new album tours and History tours, and says “it was fairly obvious to most of the fans that the next stage would be the Maiden England tour, following the Somewhere Back In Time and Early Days tours.”

So, with this cycle ending, what’s up next?

Rod says the 2012-13 tour has been a tremendous success, with Maiden revisiting places they haven’t been to in 20 years or more, like Charlotte and Salt Lake City in the US, and visiting places they have never been before, like Paraguay. Huge audiences have turned out for Maiden at every stop, and Rod also highlights this summer’s momentous Friends Arena concert in Stockholm as being “magic”.

As we already know, Iron Maiden will not be releasing a new album in 2014, with singer Bruce Dickinson suggesting that 2015 is the likely year for a new studio effort. Rod pretty much confirms this, saying that “at some stage, I guess we’ll be looking at another album”, which leaves open the question of what Maiden might do or not do in 2014.

“It’s fairly obvious, we’re nearer to the end of our career than the start,” the manager says, “and they want to do a bit of touring every year, every summer.” So that’s pretty solid confirmation that Iron Maiden will indeed be touring in 2014. Sounds like a summer tour is in the works, which fits rather well with Maiden’s preferred mode of touring these days.