Bruce Dickinson says Iron Maiden will have to 'go some to top The Book of Souls World Tour'

Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson says their sprawling Book of Souls World Tour was the “perfect storm” and they will have to “go some” to beat it.

Author: Scott ColothanPublished 7th Nov 2017

In a newly released clip promoting the release of live album ‘The Book Of Souls: Live Chapter’ next week, Bruce spoke about what he was going to miss about being on the road.

He says: “I will miss the shows, I will miss performing. I will miss hitting the high notes, ripping Eddie’s heart out, throwing bananas at the audience and pulling funny faces.

“We’ve got to go some to top this one, we really do, because this is almost the perfect storm.”


Opening in Sunrise, Florida in February 2016, The Book of Souls World Tour took in a total of 117 shows across six continents before coming to a close in July this year.

The jaunt included Iron Maiden’s first ever shows in El Salvador, Lithuania and China and it was the longest tour with Bruce on vocals since the Somewhere on Tour in 1986 to 1987.

Released on Friday 17th November worldwide on limited edition deluxe 2 CD hardcase Book, regular 2CD album and triple black vinyl LP formats, ‘The Book of Souls: Live Chapter’ comprises of 15 songs performed on the tour.

Three songs from their UK leg make the cut - ‘The Great Unknown’ at Newcastle Metro Radio Arena this May and ‘The Book of Souls’ and ‘Blood Brothers’ at Download Festival in June 2016.

Produced by Tony Newton and Iron Maiden’s very own Steve Harris, the album track-listing is based on the 2017 leg of The Book of Souls World Tour setlist and includes six tracks from their most recent record together with seminal classics from their back catalogue.

Steve comments: "We spent a huge amount of time working on this as I wanted to get it as close to the Maiden live experience as I possibly could and to represent our fans from different parts of the world.

“This meant listening to literally hours upon hours of tapes from every show, to select material and construct a sound that would run consistently across the whole album and capture the excitement of a new country like El Salvador alongside such regular favourites as Donington or Wacken.”

The full track-listing for ‘The Book of Souls: Live Chapter’ is as follows:

‘If Eternity Should Fail’ – Sydney, Australia
‘Speed of Light’ - Cape Town, South Africa
‘Wrathchild’ – Dublin, Ireland
‘Children of the Damned’ – Montreal, Canada
‘Death or Glory’ – Wroclaw, Poland
‘The Red and the Black’ – Tokyo, Japan
‘The Trooper’ - San Salvador, El Salvador
‘Powerslave’ – Trieste, Italy
‘The Great Unknown’ – Newcastle, UK
‘The Book of Souls’ – Donington, UK
‘Fear of the Dark’ – Fortaleza, Brazil
‘Iron Maiden’ - Buenos Aires, Argentina
‘Number of the Beast’ – Wacken, Germany
‘Blood Brothers’ – Donington, UK
‘Wasted Years’ - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil