ROD'S DIARY - MAR 5 PORTO ALLEGRE

As this was the day after Curitiba, which is only 400 miles or so away, the equipment was all trucked there overnight. However we needed a crew there by noon as by then the staging, PA, lights, platforms would be ready for us to set up production, backline, monitors etc. So it was an earlier start for the band and departure about 10am for the short flight. Vans, fans, escort as usual to hotel.

Artwork by Felipe Franco of Bogota, Colombia

Madison Square Garden occupies two city blocks in lower-Midtown Manhattan between 7th & 8th Avenues and West 31st and West 33rd Streets, basking in the notoriety of its epic history. Howard Cosell called countless fights here; thousands of bands have played MSG and a scant few seven years ago, the Concert for 9/11was held here. The New York Knickerbockers play here (lately not so gallantly) and the New York Rangers hockey team calls Madison Square Garden home.

Being on tour in Canada, Maiden weren't able to appear at the Metal Hammer awards in person, so we thought you'd like to check out the acceptance videos...

By Ben Wener
Singer Bruce Dickinson explains how the British metal gods still attract teenage metalheads by the tens of thousands.

By MIKE ROSS
Imagine: A middle-aged man sits in front of 14,000 devoted heavy metal fans, talks about Samuel Taylor Coleridge and is hailed as the greatest hero the world has ever known.

By ACE BURPEE

They have the greatest mascot ever.
They've sold more than 100 million records and have never appeared on their own album covers.
With all due respect to The Beatles, The Police, Radiohead, The Doors, Coldplay, or any other band from any other era or genre, Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.
Period.

I've thought about it, and I've never been so sure of anything in my life.

ROD'S DIARY - MAR 3-4 CURITIBA

Santiago show day today and trying to catch up with this. But what a day yesterday, England embarrassed yet again at rugby and cricket. Beaten by the Scots is bad enough, but playing lousy again and after such a good win against France. We were 30,000 ft up over the Andes when it was played but I was recording on my slingbox. Luckily a Welsh mate texted me the score (and of course of the Welsh win!!!) so I didn't bother watching it which saved me the pain. And then bowled out for 110 to lose first test to the Kiwis, what a terrible performance. The England men's hockey team are at the same hotel as us here in Santiago -- they play India in their World Cup final today so lets wish them good luck, perhaps we can get one win over the weekend but it will be tough as India is very strong at hockey. And if anyone thinks hockey is a "girls" game think again, I played a couple of times at school and it was far more terrifying than rugby!!!

IRON MAIDEN recently released a best of album that celebrates the essence of the current tour by featuring most of the essential tracks from the band’s first seven studio albums and one live album, recorded between 1980 and 1989, and is aptly also entitled Somewhere Back in Time - The Best Of: 1980 - 1989.

Live in LA: Iron Maiden invokes Coleridge, Crowley, Eddie in Irvine
By Skylaire Alfvegren

"I've got to pinch myself and say it's not Long Beach Arena in 1985," Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson bellowed to the sold out crowd of 15,000 at the Verizon Amphitheater on Saturday night in Irvine. With a long hair to short hair ratio of 5:1 (oddly, same as the band's), "The Maiden Family" included seven and 57 year olds, all assembled for quarter-century old metal tunes, beginning with "Aces High." Theirs is a timeless pursuit: though Maiden's over three decades into their career, they've played to more southern Californians in the first half of 2008 than any year of their career (including the aforementioned four-night stint in '85). The band was in top form.