One of Connecticut’s most popular rock groups, 1800 Band, is teaming up with the Iron Maidens & the Band of Brothers MS Motorcycle Ride team to play the first Iron Maidens’ HOG Wild Pig Roast Saturday, May 17, at City Sports Grille in Bristol. The event benefits the annual MS Motorcycle Ride and the more those in the state battling multiple sclerosis (MS).

Within two hours of going on sale this morning at 10 a.m., IRON MAIDEN's "Somewhere Back in Time" tour had sold over 60,000 tickets for its five-city run through Western Canada in early June, the band's first comprehensive tour of the region in twenty years. With Calgary, Edmonton and Regina selling out within an hour, Vancouver and Winnipeg were not close behind with just a few hundred tickets left available after the first two hours and those are going fast.

So, my brother and I fly down to LA to see Maiden at the Forum. The place was absolutely electric and completely packed. You could not have gotten another person in there with a crowbar. No bullshit amphitheater, no reserved seating crap, just a good, old-fashioned arena rock show complete with massive stage show, festival seating and great music. Maiden’s stage setup was similar (but not exact) to the Powerslave tour in 1984. They came out with Aces High and let me tell you, the place went ballistic. Bruce Dickinson rules, plain and simple; great voice, charismatic style, and incredible stage presence, the guy is truly the complete package and all you could ever ask for in a front man. Also, the surprise of the night for me was how well Adrian Smith played. You tend to forget how many great solos he plays on their vintage material.

Sexy Intellectual/MVD Entertainment has set a June 10 release date for a new DVD entitled "Iron Maiden And The New Wave Of British Of Heavy Metal" (cover artwork). The documentary is described in a press release as follows:

IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson was interviewed by Eddie Trunk of the "Friday Night Rocks" radio show on March 14 prior to the band's concert at the Izod Center (formerly Continental Airlines Arena) in East Rutherford, New Jersey. A couple of excerpts from the chat — which aired this past Friday night (March 21) on New York's Q104.3 FM — follow:

The very thought of the world's pre-emminent metal powerhouse playing an arena currently named for dress casual pastel preppie sportswear favored by geriatric tennis players and amateur 19th-hole golfers is not only frightening and hilarious but underscores the ridiculousness of pretentious naming rights in the era of a fractured US economy and ongoing war... and yet, in spite of this, tickets were being scalped at over two hundred bucks a pop. However troubled the times, however insane our superfluous misplaced ideals might be, there is one constant which cannot be ignored: Iron Maiden is an extraordinary live act upon which no monetary value can be placed for its fans and they are to be cherished in our time no matter what venue at which they perform.