Somewhere Back in Time World Tour was a concert tour by the heavy metal band Iron Maiden in 2008 and 2009, focused on the band's 1980s material, in particular songs from Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. The tour tied in with the second part of the DVD series, entitled "The History of Iron Maiden", and prompted the release of a new greatest hits compilation, Somewhere Back in Time. The tour was advertised as a way of bringing back the 1980s stage show and forgotten "classics" for an audience of younger fans, not having been born in time to witness the original. Many of the band's songs had not been played in a long time, as much as 21 years in one case, and two of them ("Moonchild" and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner") never having been played by the current line-up. The stage set was based around that of the widely celebrated World Slavery Tour of 1984–85, featuring similar pyrotechnics and the return of the giant mummified Eddie, but also included a lighting rig and cyborg walk-on Eddie based on that of Somewhere on Tour 1986. The tour would also see the first use of Ed Force One, Iron Maiden's customised Boeing 757, designed to carry band, crew and equipment across continents, which is piloted by the band's lead singer Bruce Dickinson, who also received the qualifications to flight the Boeing 757. The ground breaking nature of the tour led to the documentary entitled Iron Maiden: Flight 666, released in select cinemas in April 2009, followed by a Blu-ray, DVD and CD release in May and June, which would top the music DVD charts in 25 countries. The 2008 tour was the second highest grossing of the year for a British artist, with the band reportedly playing to well over than 2 million people worldwide over both years.

Tour synopsis

The first leg of Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back in Time World Tour opened in Mumbai, India on 1 February, and continued through Australia, Japan, Los Angeles and Mexico, followed by concerts in Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rico and New Jersey, before finishing in Toronto, on 16 March. Over the 45-day period the band played 23 concerts to over 500,000 fans in 11 countries, flying close to 50,000 miles in the specially refitted plane: Boeing 757, dubbed "Ed Force One" after a competition to name the plane. On this leg of the tour, the Iron Maiden: Flight 666 film was shot. Concerning concerts in Scandinavia, EMA Telstar announced that the Iron Maiden tour will be the biggest rock tour that any band has ever undertaken in these Nordic regions. Tour promoter Thomas Johansson of EMA Telstar commented: "'We are all very proud to be making history by giving our rock fans the biggest Nordic Rock Tour there has ever been and certainly one of the most spectacular. Maiden is so hugely popular with the Nordic peoples that we wanted to ensure that as many fans as possible got the opportunity to see this very special show next year as we expect demand for tickets to be enormous.',"

Support acts

The opening bands on the tour were:

Setlist

Personnel

(Credits taken from the official tour programme.)

Tour dates