Ahead of their upcoming tour, Iron Maiden have asked fans to limit their use of phone cameras throughout the run of shows.
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The metal veteran’s ‘Run For Your Lives’ tour is due to kick off in Budapest next week (May 27), and will see Bruce Dickinson and co. stop by Bratislava, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Birmingham, Manchester, London, and more. You can check all dates here and find any remaining tickets for the shows here.
The worldwide trek marks their 50th anniversary as a band and will see them playing a setlist made up exclusively of songs from their first nine studio albums, with frontman Dickinson previously teasing that the band would “be doing stuff we’ve never, ever done before”.
The mammoth run of dates will also see the debut of drummer Simon Dawson, following the retirement of long-term sticksman Nicko McBrain, who announced he would be stepping away from touring after suffering a minor stroke in 2023 which left him partially paralysed on his right side from the shoulder down.
With the first night of the tour edging closer, their manager Ron Smallwood, recently took to the band’s website to share a post titled, “Put away your phones and get ready to Run For Your Lives!”, in which he urged gig-goers attending the tour to experience the shows “in the moment” rather than through a phone screen.
The post nodded to their anniversary, saying that ‘The Trooper’ artists wanted fans to experience the show “as they would have when many of these songs were first played live back in 80’s”.
“We really want fans to enjoy the shows first hand, rather than on their small screens,” Smallwood added. “The amount of phone use nowadays diminishes enjoyment, particularly for the band who are on stage looking out at rows of phones, but also for other concertgoers.
“We feel that the passion and involvement of our fans at shows really makes them special, but the phone obsession has now got so out of hand that it has become unnecessarily distracting, especially to the band. I hope fans understand this and will be sensible in severely limiting the use of their phone cameras out of respect for the band and their fellow fans.”
Meanwhile, Iron Maiden have announced an “unrestricted” new documentary film – including the late Paul Di’Anno’s final interview. The film, which will celebrate 50 years of the band, is due to drop later this year.
Along with appearances from longtime fans and names such as Javier Bardem, Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich and KISS’ Gene Simmons, rare archival footage and all-new animated sequences of the band’s legendary mascot, Eddie, will all be included too.
Elsewhere, Dickinson recently announced a graphic novel made with soil from William Blake’s grave, and opened up about the Di’Anno era song he can no longer sing.
