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The EdHuntour
July – October 1999
 
Album
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Not long after the amazing announcement that Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith would rejoin Iron Maiden the new 6-member line up went on the road again in an uncharacteristically short tour in support of their compilation album and computer game Ed Hunter. It was also a chance to re-introduce the almost "classic" line up of the band to their legions of fans. Sadly, Adrian Smith had to miss some of the shows due to the death of his father, and the band omitted "Stranger In A Strange Land" from the set because Janick didn't have time to learn Adrian's solo. After Adrian did return, they decided to continue on without playing "Stranger..." because they felt it made the entire set move better. Moreover, some shows had to be cancelled on the US West coast due to an onstage accident in Los Angeles where Dave Murray broke a finger. The band sounded in top form and their three-guitar onslaught provided some interesting twists to some of the songs. The return of Bruce and Adrian seemed to galvanise the world, and the Ed Hunter Tour generated much more media attention and fan excitement than any of the the previous tours had. Bruce promised that the following album and tour would pave the way for the return to glory for heavy metal music, a feeling that seemed to be in the air during 1999.
Opening bands for this tour were: Voivod, Clutch, Monster Magnet, Soulfly and Puya for North America, and Megadeth for Europe.
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