Happy birthday mr. Paul Di'anno!

As a tribute to Iron Maiden Kerrang! has persuaded some of their favourite bands to record unique covers of their greatest anthems, for an exciting free CD entitled Maiden Heaven. The tracklisting and details for this world exclusive release will be revealed next month and we want YOU to get involved too by designing the album's artwork!

Blaze Bayley (IRON MAIDEN, WOLFSBANE) has finished mixing and mastering his new solo album, "The Man Who Would Not Die", with former WOLFSBANE guitarist Jase Edwards at Jase's studio in Tamworth, Staffordshire, England.

Blaze Bayley (IRON MAIDEN, WOLFSBANE) will embark on a tour of Brazil in August. The dates are as follows:

Cliveaid, the organization which was set up in 2004 as a fund-raising event for former IRON MAIDEN drummer Clive Burr, will host a stage at the Hard Rock Hell II festival, set to take place December 5-7, 2008 at Prestatyn Sands, North Wales, UK.

Paul Sexton of Billboard had a chat with Bruce and had the following report;
Bruce Dickinson made his live debut with Iron Maiden at the end of 1981. He had viewed the group's early emergence from a ringside seat as lead singer with Samson, another of the bands in what the rock press dubbed "the new wave of British heavy metal."

Since then, he has been not only Iron Maiden's definitive lead singer, but an author, sportsman, a solo artist for five years in the 1990s, a radio DJ and a pilot. Before the May 12 release of "Somewhere Back in Time," a compilation of the band's '80s hits, and in the middle of the most successful global tour of the band's career, which launched February 1 in Mumbai, India (link contains photos), he sat down with Billboard to discuss his, and Maiden's, life and times.

Swedish metallers OPETH will be IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson's guests on Friday, May 30 during Bruce's weekly BBC 6 Music radio show, aptly named "The Bruce Dickinson Friday Rock Show". Listen to the program live via the Internet between 10:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. U.K. time at BBC.co.uk.

Previously, we had the pleasure of bringing to our readers the image that Derek Riggs used as a reference when painting the first Eddie. Hilary Whiteman has just interviewed Derek, the interview follows;
LONDON, England (CNN) -- His demonic face has stared maniacally from the cover of every Iron Maiden album since they released their first LP in 1980. Edward T. Head, better known as Eddie, is a former theater mask who over 30 years has grown a body and morphed into the most recognized member of the band.

"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! "

THE RUMORS ARE TRUE: IRON MAIDEN TO APPEAR ON ROCKLINE!
DT: May 8, 2008
Los Angeles, CA