LISTEN: Bruce Dickinson talks The Book Of Souls UK Tour, possible setlist changes & secondary ticketing
Ahead of Iron Maiden’s tour going on sale this morning, Bruce Dickinson dropped by Planet Rock for a chat with Paul Anthony.
The UK leg of the Book of Souls World Tour takes in 11 dates in May 2017, and Bruce told Paul he can’t wait to hit the road.
“The thing I love about touring the UK is, well, just touring the UK,” Bruce said. “It’s fantastic to tour your own country for a while. I’ll thoroughly enjoy every moment of it.”
Speaking about the flak the band have received for not announcing dates sooner, Bruce quipped: “Stick on social media goes with the territory! I think people by and large just ignore it because it’s the same half or dozen people, y’know!”
Asked by Paul whether the setlist will veer much from their festival shows, Bruce explained: “We don’t change the set (between individual shows) and one of the reasons is there’s so much going on in terms of not just lighting cues but pyro cues - and obviously there’s a small matter of having a punch up with Eddie and ripping his heart out - all the associated things that go with it.
“Frankly if you just randomly started changing things around, I think the wheels would fall off the bus. It’s complicated enough as it is.”
He added: “Having said that we are looking at possibly a couple of changes (for the 2017 tour)… what those changes might be we’ve got to go into rehearsals and find out.”
Quizzed about Iron Maiden’s measures to tackle ticket touting, which includes limiting tickets to four per sale and the ticket buyer presenting ID at the shows, Bruce explained that it’s to protect the fans.
“In general we try and keep our costs as low as we can,” Bruce said. “If you’re going to do that you’ve got to make sure that those people that do want to see the band can afford to see the band.
“As opposed to these people who buy hundreds of tickets then we see them sell them at stupid, stupid prices that bear no real relevance to people’s everyday lives, ridiculous money. It’s just not fair and it’s just pure greed.”
He continued: “I think what we’re doing is really cool, it’s an effort to genuinely stamp it out, I’m sure that some wicked uncle will figure out some way of trying to pull a flanker on it but in general if you pay £58 for a top price ticket then that’s the price you’ll pay and you’ll be able to get in.
“So many people tiptoe around it, they don’t want to make waves y’know and they just think it’s the status quo but it doesn’t have to be the status quo. People should be able to get a fair price and they should be able to get in. End of.”
You can listen to Bruce’s full interview below where he also talks about how Iron Maiden owe it all to the fans, his recent aviation antics and the devilishly strong new Trooper beer Red N’ Black.
Tickets to Iron Maiden’s Book Of Souls tour are on sale from Planet Rock Tickets from 9am today (30th September).
See Iron Maiden at the following shows:
MAY 2017
Nottingham Motorpoint Arena – Thu 4th
Manchester Arena – Mon 8th
Sheffield Arena – Wed 10th
Leeds First Direct Arena – Thu 11th
Newcastle Metro Radio Arena – Sun 14th
Glasgow SSE Hydro – Tue 16th
Aberdeen GE Arena – Wed 17th
Liverpool Echo Arena – Sat 20th
Birmingham Barclaycard Arena – Sun 21st
Cardiff Motorpoint Arena – Wed 24th
London O2 Arena – Sat 27th