A Matter of Life and Death Tour

A Matter of Life and Death Tour

Adrian Smith, Dave Murray, Janick Gers and Steve Harris performing in Stuttgart on 7 December 2006
Tour by Iron Maiden
Associated album A Matter of Life and Death
Start date 4 October 2006
End date 24 June 2007
Shows 58
Iron Maiden tour chronology
Eddie Rips Up the World Tour
(2005)		 A Matter of Life and Death Tour
(2006-07)		 Somewhere Back in Time World Tour
(2008-2009)

A Matter of Life and Death and A Matter of the Beast were two concert tours by Iron Maiden from 2006 to 2007. The first tour was unique, as the set list primarily consisted of the band's most recent release, A Matter of Life and Death, in its entirety, although this got a mixed response from audiences.[1] Unusually, the first leg didn't include "The Number of the Beast", a song which Iron Maiden had previously played on every tour since its inception. The second part of the tour, in celebration of The Number of the Beast's 25th anniversary, saw the band playing four songs from said album as well as five from A Matter of Life and Death (although they had initially planned to play five songs from both releases).[2]

Contents

Opening bands

Tour dates

Date City Country Venue
North America
4 October 2006 Hartford, Connecticut United States New England Dodge Music Center
6 October 2006 Boston, Massachusetts Agganis Arena
7 October 2006 Camden, New Jersey Tweeter Center at the Waterfront
9 October 2006 Quebec City, Quebec Canada Colisée Pepsi
10 October 2006 Montreal, Quebec Bell Centre
12 October 2006 Uniondale, New York United States Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
13 October 2006 East Rutherford, New Jersey Continental Airlines Arena
16 October 2006 Toronto, Ontario Canada Air Canada Centre
17 October 2006 Auburn Hills, Michigan United States The Palace of Auburn Hills
18 October 2006 Rosemont, Illinois Allstate Arena
21 October 2006 Irvine, California Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
Asia
25 October 2006 Tokyo Japan Nippon Budokan
26 October 2006 Hiroshima Postal Savings Hall (Yuubinchokin Hall)
28 October 2006 Tokyo International Forum (Kokusai Forum)
30 October 2006 Osaka Osaka-Castle Hall Osaka-jo Hall
31 October 2006 Nagoya Citizens Hall (Shimin Hall)
Europe
9 November 2006 Aalborg Denmark Gigantium
10 November 2006 Copenhagen Valby Hallen
12 November 2006 Tampere Finland Icehall
14 November 2006 Helsinki Hartwall Areena
15 November 2006
17 November 2006 Stockholm Sweden Stockholm Globe Arena
18 November 2006
19 November 2006
20 November 2006 Gothenburg Scandinavium
21 November 2006 Oslo Norway Vallhall Arena
23 November 2006 Bergen Vestlandshallen
25 November 2006 Stockholm Sweden Stockholm Globe Arena
27 November 2006 Den Bosch Netherlands Brabanthallen
28 November 2006 Paris France Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy
30 November 2006 Barcelona Spain Palau Sant Jordi
2 December 2006 Milan Italy DatchForum
3 December 2006
5 December 2006 Zurich Switzerland Hallenstadion
7 December 2006 Stuttgart Germany Schleyerhalle
9 December 2006 Dortmund Westfalenhalle
11 December 2006 Cardiff United Kingdom Cardiff CIA
12 December 2006 Birmingham NEC
14 December 2006 Manchester Manchester Arena
15 December 2006 Glasgow Glasgow SECC
17 December 2006 Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
18 December 2006 Sheffield Sheffield Arena
20 December 2006 Dublin Ireland The Point
22 December 2006 London United Kingdom Earls Court Arena
23 December 2006
Middle East/Europe/Asia
9 March 2007 Dubai United Arab Emirates Desert Rock Festival
11 March 2007 Athens Greece Hellinikon Basketball Arena
14 March 2007 Belgrade Serbia Belgrade Fair Hall 1
17 March 2007 Bangalore India Eddfest, Bangalore Palace Grounds
Europe
2 June 2007 Ljubljana Slovenia Bezigrad Stadium
4 June 2007 Sofia Bulgaria Lokomotiv Stadium
6 June 2007 Ostrava Czech Republic Bazaly Stadium
8 June 2007 Ludwigshafen Germany Südweststadion
10 June 2007 Donington Park United Kingdom Download Festival
14 June 2007 Venice Italy Heineken Jammin' Festival
16 June 2007 Biddinghuizen Netherlands Fields of Rock Festival
17 June 2007 Düsseldorf Germany ISS-Dome
20 June 2007 Rome Italy Stadio Olimpico
21 June 2007 Bilbao Spain Bilbao Live Festival
23 June 2007 Dessel Belgium Graspop Metal Meeting
24 June 2007 London United Kingdom Brixton Academy

Set

Throughout the tour, the stage would be decorated to look like a First World War trench, with the wall canvases featuring painted sandbags and barbed wire, the stage floor decorated with barbed wire and mud as well as actual sandbags placed in front of the monitors. The podiums at the end of each runway came with actual barbed wire and searchlights (operated by Dickinson) and the bodies of two parachutists would appear from the lighting rig during "The Longest Day" (during "Iron Maiden" in 2007). As with previous tours, Nicko McBrain's drumkit featured a Sooty puppet, this time dressed in army attire.

During "Iron Maiden", a tank would appear from the back of the set (the rear runway transforming into the tank's wheels), topped with a binocular-wielding Eddie with flashing LED lights. The walk-on Eddie would also appear as an armed soldier during "The Evil That Men Do."

A Matter of Life and Death World Tour Setlists

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the The Number of The Beast, the band announced that they would play 5 songs each from The Number of the Beast and A Matter Of Life and Death throughout the 2007 part of the tour. However, only four songs from the Number Of The Beast were actually played, which meant that "Children Of The Damned" would be the only rarity in the setlist.[2]

References

  1. ^ Vincentelli, Elisabeth (31 December 2006). "Whole Albums in Concert". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/arts/music/31vinc.html?pagewanted=print. Retrieved 1 January 2009. 
  2. ^ a b A Matter Of The Beast summer tour '07) IronMaiden.com