Iron Maiden are to perform at the Ominisport De Bercy Arena in Paris on Tuesday 1st July as part of their Somewhere Back In Time World Tour 2008.

Steve Harris says “We’ve had many great shows at the Omnisport De Bercy venue over recent years and it was actually the first place in Europe we played with the current line up back in 1999. The atmosphere there is always electric thanks to the energy of the fans and we’re really looking forward to playing there again.

It’s also tremendous to be able to use the profile of the ‘Live After Death’ DVD to do what is effectively an 80’s show. It will be enormous fun and changing the approach to the songs we play tour by tour keeps it fresh and interesting for both the band and the fans alike. l think ‘Powerslave’ was an incredible show with the Egyptian theme and I’m looking forward to seeing it all again myself.”

“Maiden Mania” is currently gripping the world as tickets sales of the 2008 World tour fly out of the box offices in Australia, India, Japan, North and South America and now Europe.

In Scandinavia this week the band sold out 3 stadium shows in Sweden and Finland with all 123,500 tickets purchased in a mad rush within two hours of going on sale.

The ‘SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME’ World Tour is in three sections, the travel for the first being by very unique means with the group customising a Boeing 757 aircraft, which will carry the band, their crew and over 12 tons of equipment from city to city.  This first section of the tour opens in Mumbai India on Feb 1st, continuing through Australia and Japan before arriving in Los Angeles.  The entourage then fly to Mexico then onto Maiden’s first ever visits to Costa Rica and Colombia, then on to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rica and New York, before finishing in Toronto, Canada, on March 16th. Over the 45 day period on this leg alone the band is anticipated to play to well over 400,000 fans in 21 cities in 10 countries, flying close to 50,000 miles in this refitted 757 which will be flown largely by vocalist and Astraeus Airline Captain Bruce Dickinson.

Comments Bruce Dickinson, “Looking at the list of places we would like to play we have always had problems joining up the dots. But without having sea containers all over the place slowing down the whole touring process and by having our own plane it has made it far easier to tour distant places like Australia for the first time in15 years.  We have already had a great reaction from fans there, where the arenas in Melbourne and Sydney sold out in less than half an hour respectively!”

The second leg of the tour will be in mid-May to mid -June in North America while the final third leg takes place in July and August in stadiums and major festivals around Europe. In total the band are expected to play to well in excess of one and a half million fans during the whole tour.

Tickets go on sale to the public 10.00 am on Friday 30th of November, but members of the Iron Maiden fan club will get special and exclusive first access to purchase tickets on Wednesday 28th November. Watch the site for further information!