HISTORY OF IRON MAIDEN: THE BOOK OF SOULS - 40 YEARS (2015 - 2017)

 2015–2017: The Book of Souls – 40 years

2015/2016 was the fortieth anniversary of the British formation. In February 2015, the group's website posted information that Bruce Dickinson had been diagnosed with a small, early-stage cancer nodule located on the back of his tongue. The singer underwent intensive radiotherapy and chemotherapy. In March, Nicko McBrain confirmed that the sixteenth studio album was ready for its release, but all promotional and concert plans of the band were conditional on the singer's health, which was gradually improving.
In the following weeks, the artists were honored with the "Bandit Award" and the "O2 Silver Clef Award". In April, 19 Iron Maiden albums remastered in 24 bits/96 kHz technology were made available via a special website on the iTunes platform, and the group's catalog was also adapted to the requirements of Hi-Res FLAC resolution by Tony Newton and Ade Emsley at Abbey Road Studios via Onkyo Music.

On May 15, it was announced that Bruce Dickinson had been completely cured of cancer. According to the group's manager, Rod Smallwood, it would take the singer several months to regain full fitness and physical condition, which resulted in the postponement of the tour promoting the new album to the beginning of 2016.
The market premiere of the group's sixteenth studio album is scheduled for the second half of 2015. The tension among the fans has grown even more.

On June 18, 2015, it was announced that the new album would be called The Book of Souls, it would be released on September 4, 2015 and would be the band's first double-disc studio album. On August 14, the worldwide premiere of the single "Speed ​​of Light" and the music video directed by Lexie Leon of The Brewery Productions took place. The image, in the convention of an electronic game from the 1980s, showed the formation's changes over 40 years of its career. Within a few days, it was seen by approximately 5 million viewers on YouTube.

 

On August 25, 2015, the band announced that they would go on tour in 2016 on a private jumbo jet. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson was to once again become the captain and pilot of a Boeing 747 - 400 Jumbo Jet (also known as the "Queen of Heaven") and travel through 6 continents, covering almost 88.5 thousand kilometers around the globe, and "The Book of Souls World Tour" he was to visit about 35 countries, including for the first time China and El Salvador. The four-engine plane was almost twice as large and more than three times heavier than the previous Boeing 757, used on tours in 2008, 2009 and 2011. The new "Ed Force One" could carry a band, crew and almost 25 tons of electronic equipment.

 

According to the management, the members of Iron Maiden were preparing for a tour in the United States starting at the end of February, then in early March the band headed to Central America, where concerts were planned, including: in Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica. Then "Ed Force One" headed to South America (concerts in Argentina, Chile, a few shows in Brazil), to return to the USA at the end of March, and then fly to Canada in the first two weeks of April. At the end of April, the band played concerts in Japan again, then the first concerts in China, and then went to New Zealand and Australia, where a series of concerts was planned for the first half of May 2016.  

 

According to the management's plans, "Ed Force One" came to Africa (the first concerts with Dickinson after 20 years after the visit with Blaze Bayley, which inaugurated the "The X Factour 1995" tour), which were the last stop before concerts in Europe, scheduled for the period from the end of May to early August.
The set design used during the tour resembled a huge Mayan temple, and the special effects and overall impressions of participating in the performances were described as the return of Iron Maiden in great style after a year-long break and a serious illness of the frontman.

 

The album The Book of Souls (2015) received positive response from both music critics and fans. In the first week after the premiere, it reached the first sales position in 24 countries, and in the following weeks it reached the top of the charts in 46 countries (taking into account both sales of physical media and digital files).
The Book of Souls (2015) ultimately topped the charts in: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Great Britain, Bolivia, Russia, Estonia.

 

More countries included: Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, UEA, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nepal, Nicaragua, Panama, Papua-New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Slovakia. The 16th studio album brought the group dozens of prestigious awards and distinctions, including over 20 "Silver", "Golden" and "Platinum" certificates - also in Poland. The next promotional singles were the funny concert video "Death Or Glory" and the over 18-minute long "Empire of the Clouds" (released on the occasion of the regular "Record Store Day 2016" celebrations).

 

In the fall of 2015, the management announced several dozen concerts of the "The Book of Souls World Tour 2016" tour, covering six continents and 35 countries, including the 24th concert at the Wrocław Stadium on July 3, 2016. The schedule included locations where the band performed many times, including: Graspop Metal Meeting (for the seventh time as a headliner), Wacken Open Air (for the third time), Download Festival in Donington (for the sixth time) and in Paris or Sonisphere Festival. The Polish concert of the tour turned out to be the largest individual performance (apart from festivals) that the band gave in this country. Nearly 40,000 people attended the concert that the group gave on July 3, 2016 at the Wrocław Stadium. Fans once again received the "Legacy of the Beast" game intended for IPODs and mobile phones equipped with the Android program. The soundtrack consisted of concert, previously unpublished versions of many of the group's greatest hits. 

 

The 2016 tour ultimately included 72 performances in 36 countries around the world, located on six continents. The last concert played as part of it took place on August 4 at Wacken Open Air in Germany, attended by approximately 100,000 people. The performance was broadcast via Wacken TV and Arte TV, thanks to which it was seen by over 27 million viewers. Online, paid streaming of the show in real time allowed us to break a record of 550,000 recipients, which, together with over 1.7 million fans physically participating in concerts in 2016, resulted in one of the best annual attendance results (approximately 2.3 million viewers). Steve Harris announced the European tour of his solo project British Lion, which included two Polish dates - Kraków and Gdańsk. Iron Maiden members confirmed in interviews that in 2017 fans could expect dozens of concerts, during which the group will continue "The Book of Souls World Tour 2016/17".

 

On September 23, 18 concerts in Germany, Belgium and the UK were announced as a continuation of the above-mentioned tour for 2017. All 13 concerts in Great Britain made up the largest (in terms of the level of audience interest) indoor tour that the band was to undertake in the British Isles in their career so far. It was noted that these would be the group's only European concerts in the coming year.
Management has introduced full control over the distribution of electronic tickets for the UK arena tour. This decision turned out to be an extremely good one, as second-hand ticket sales dropped by 95%, thanks to the fact that fans could buy tickets almost exclusively at the original price. 

 

About 120,000 were sold in one day alone. entry cards for British concerts booked for April 2017. In mid-January 2017, the dates of 25 summer concerts in North America were announced, in local sports arenas and amphitheaters with a capacity of over 20,000 seats. Due to the huge interest, management decided to add a second performance at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, scheduled for July 22, 2017.
This concert was the culmination of "The Book of Souls World Tour 2016/17". The performances booked for 2017 were almost completely sold out, many in record time. Within 56 hours of the sale of tickets for 25 concerts in the USA and Canada, 265,000 tickets were sold. 

 

Due to the fact that most of the 118 concerts of the tour took place in entertainment and sports arenas, the tour was more intimate than the previous few tours. Already at the end of February 2017, it became clear that all concerts of the tour would attract at least 2.5 million people. On March 24, 2017, it was announced that the next 12 catalog albums, starting with No Prayer for the Dying (1990) and ending with the live En Vivo! (2012) will be released on 180 gram audiophile vinyl. It was a continuation of the series of reissues started in 2014. The reissues were intended for market distribution in three tranches, respectively: May 19, June 23, July 21, 2017. 

 

Management also provided for the possibility of purchasing a special box that would hold all the albums - including The Book of Souls released in 2015. Significantly, the recommended series did not decide to reissue the Live at Donington albums and the A Real Live One / A Real Dead One set from 1993.
In an interview with Music Week on May 2, 2017, the band's manager Rod Smallwood confirmed that the circulation of Iron Maiden's full-length albums exceeded the threshold of 100 million copies sold. The band's achieved nothing more than just another milestone.

 

The tour promoting the double studio album The Book of Souls ended on July 22, 2017, after two concerts in Brooklyn, at the Barclays Center. Ultimately, as part of the "The Book of Souls World Tour 2016/17" concerts, the musicians played 117 times on six continents, in 39 countries, attracting approximately 3.2 million people (including 550,000 participants in a special live broadcast from Wacken Open Air). On average, over 27,000 fans participated in each performance, with as many as 74 performances booked in entertainment and sports arenas. The band's official website published an announcement of Bruce Dickinson's autobiography "What Does This Button Do".
The book, expected for several years, was very popular, it debuted in Great Britain at position #1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list, and the autobiography was also published in a Polish version by SQN. The game "Legacy of the Beast" has gained popularity over several months of its presence on the market and is also consistently updated.
Starting from July 2017, the most popular SF/Fantasy magazine in the world, "Heavy Metal", published a comic book in five episodes based on scenes known from the promoted game.

 

A souvenir from the tour was the live album The Book of Souls: Live Chapter, published on November 17, 2017. The release was released in several versions: a limited, audiophile vinyl version of 3 LP 180 grams, as a double booklet (analogous solution to The Book of Souls ) - for less demanding buyers there was a standard 2CD and Digital Download available for a fee.
The two CDs included 15 compositions, recorded both in sports arenas and in front of huge auditoriums gathered at stadiums and festivals, the headliners of which were Iron Maiden. This time, Steve Harris and Tony Newton were responsible for the sound. The concert video for "Speed ​​Of Light" (recorded in Cape Town, South Africa) promoting the whole thing heralded a high-quality product.

 

As in the case of Flight 666 from 2009, this time a concert compilation of recordings recorded during the same tour on several continents (in the case of The Book of Souls: Live Chapter, as many as six!) and in various countries around the world and in selected cities was prepared. What remains unchanged is the set list (the 2017 version has been retained) and the condition of the band. S. Harris took care to carefully select the final versions of individual compositions, coming from places such as South Africa, Poland, El Salvador, and Canada. There was also a Polish accent in the album program. The song "Death Or Glory" was recorded in Wrocław. On November 11, 2017, at 7 p.m. British time (GMT), the online premiere of "The Book of Souls: Live Chapter" took place. Streaming was done via youtube.com/Iron Maiden - the band's official YT channel. It was the first undertaking of this type in the history of the group. The film was later made available for Digital Download, an act of gratitude from management for four decades of loyalty from three generations of listeners. The premiere of the film, appropriately to the circumstances, was titled "Stream For Me, You Tube"!