Legendary metallers Iron Maiden have announced a 2017 U.K. tour with Shinedown in continued support of their latest full-length The Book Of Souls. Founder/bassist Steve Harris says:
“As it’s been so long since our last full UK arena tour, we really wanted to get to our fans in as many cities as possible. We’re really looking forward to it, especially visiting places we haven’t been to for a very long time like Leeds where we haven’t played since 2005 and Liverpool where we haven’t played since 1990. The whole band is really enjoying this tour and although we love playing festivals and stadiums, it is terrific to return to the intimacy and atmosphere of arenas. The songs from The Book Of Souls album and the new Maya-themed Eddies and stage sets have gone down really well and fan reaction has been amazing. And of course we know our fans appreciate us playing a lot of the older songs too, which we will continue to do.”
Shinedown’s Zach Myers also commented:
“Iron Maiden are the kings of metal and one of the greatest live bands of all time. It’s an honour to be touring with them in Europe and in their home country and to play in front of their fans. We can’t wait to see you in 2017!!!”
There will be an exclusive pre-sale for Iron Maiden’s fan club members. Details and information on how members can participate in a draw to be the “first to the barrier” can be found at IronMaiden.com. Tickets will go on sale beginning at 9:00 A.M. on Friday, September 30th LiveNation.co.uk.
4/22 – Antwerp, BE | Sportpaleis
4/24 – Oberhausen, DE | König-Pilsener-Arena
4/28 – Frankfurt, DE | Festhalle
5/02 – Hamburg, DE | Barclaycard Arena
5/04 – Nottingham, UK | Motorpoint Arena
5/06 – Dublin, UK | 3arena
5/08 – Manchester, UK | Arena
5/10 – Sheffield, UK | Arena
5/11 – Leeds, UK | First Direct Arena
5/14 – Newcastle, UK | Metro Radio Arena
5/16 – Glasgow, UK | SSE Hydro Arena
5/17 – Aberdeen, UK | AECC GE Oil & Gas Arena
5/20 – Liverpool, UK | Echo Arena
5/21 – Birmingham, UK | Barclaycard Arena
5/24 – Cardiff, UK | Motorpoint Arena
5/27 – London, UK | O2 Arena
In an effort to ensure that their fans are able to buy tickets at their intended price rather than at the ludicrously inflated prices, the band are working with Live Nation and Ticketmaster to protect them from secondary ticketing sites and counterfeiters tickets. Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood explains:
“We do not want our fans being ripped off either by counterfeit tickets or through costly mark-ups on so called secondary ticketing websites. These problems now affect the UK more than any other country outside of the U.S.A. We believe the most successful way to prevent this is by implementing Paperless ticketing. This proved highly successful in reducing piracy at our previous London shows in 2013 and on our North American tours since 2010. This is a simple procedure and goes a long way to minimising the resale of tickets and reducing fraud by requiring the original cardholder purchaser to be present at entry.
We have been working with our UK promoter Live Nation and Ticketmaster to ensure that we can operate a Paperless ticketing system, in full or in part, at all the UK venues we’ll play in 2017. We are also instigating a number of additional measures which we believe will directly help our fans to access tickets in the fairest, safest way and at the intended price.”
The following actions are being into place for the upcoming tour:
– Ensuring that every venue will operate Paperless ticketing, either 100% or partial.
– Working in co-operation with Live Nation and Ticketmaster, Paperless ticketing means that the original cardholder is required to present their debit or credit card and photographic ID at the point of entry with their guest(s).
– Setting Conditions of Purchase so that tickets are not for resale. Ensuring to the best of our abilities, in conjunction with Live Nation and Ticketmaster, that secondary ticketing sites are prevented from listing our shows and to invalidate tickets should any appear on these secondary sites.
– Setting a maximum limit of 4 (four) tickets per person per show.
– To use Purchaser Names on tickets where they are not paperless and to require the cardholder to be present at the show, with picture ID.
– A dedicated team to monitor ticket sales in real-time throughout the exclusive Iron Maiden Fan Club pre-sale http://ironmaiden.com/fan-club/presales, any other presales and the general public on sale to ensure that ticket limits are being imposed and all suspicious activity is reported and investigated.
– A dedicated customer support team on hand to deal with any issues from fans with legitimate problems.
– Being aware of criminals and their methods to infiltrate our best practices and having the conviction to retrospectively cancel their inventory. This is especially in respect of automated bots and multiple card efforts which are used to garner large numbers of tickets at the onsale to the detriment of the fans.
– Reinforcing the message that if you buy a ticket from an unauthorised source, it will be either invalid or counterfeit. Do not become a victim.
Nigel Adams MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Music and Member of Parliament for Selby and Ainsty adds:
“I’m pleased that Iron Maiden are taking a principled position and standing up for music fans. I’d like to think the whole industry can learn from this initiative and use technology to put a stop to the industrial level of touting that has been a blight on the live music industry for so long.”