ROD'S DIARY FEB 25 introducing COSTA RICA

So off to airport about 11am for a leisurely 2 hour flight down to Costa Rica. All going great. Police escort to the airport. All these shows we have police escort back from show but also quite often to the show and to and from the airport -- not security (who's gonna hurt us!) just traffic. A lot of these big cities (Guadalajara 10 million, Monterrey 15 million, Mexico City 25 mill) have congested traffic. Taken by cars to steps of plane, did passport formalities at the foot of the steps, they took big luggage to put in hold, what a great change from airports normally. Looking good.

"At 5.45 met up with the entire band except Davey, who is quite ill at the moment with a bug, for a big press conference. About 12 news and music TV cameras, 30 or so photographers and about 60 media all packed into the room. Band came in and it was mayhem with photographers trying to get in position for a shot with the 5 of them. I gave them about 3 min then started press conference. Not too bad -- you always get a few stupid questions but those are usually from ill-informed major national newspapers but it at least shows they are there which is of course good from my point of view. The funniest one was the guy from Reuters who asked what our plans were for Australia -- I thinks he was an (ill informed) Aussie. He didn't know we had just been! "

IRON MAIDEN will finish its 2008 touring schedule in Russia at Moscow's Olympic Stadium on Tuesday, August 19. This will be the first time the band has visited the Russian capital since June 1993, 15 years ago.

IRON MAIDEN, SLAYER and ICED EARTH are among the confirmed bands for the Metalway Festival, set to take place Saturday, July 12 at Feria de Muestras, Zaragoza, Spain.