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A Matter Of Touring
October 2006 – June 2007
Album
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Iron Maiden returned on the road in the autumn of 2006 for the promotion of their 14th studio album, A Matter Of Life And Death. Only this time, they couldn't choose which songs to drop out of the setlist and they eventually decided to play the entire album instead. As expected, the fans were once again quite divided over this decision and, while some loved the concept of playing the full album, others complained that some songs of the new album should have been left out in favour of older classics. Whatever people say, the band's decision was certainly the best one, as all song on A Matter Of Life And Death are coherently dealing with the darkest sides of humanity, and constitute a testament to each composer's song-writing skills. They simply couldn't leave any song from the album out!
Naturally, they also played some classics, like the long-awaited and always requested "Fear Of The Dark", or the inevitable and majestic "Hallowed Be Thy Name". They later made more room for more classics during the second leg of the tour, in early 2007, and during which only half of the new album was played. The first part of 2007 saw Maiden play places they'd never been before, although they'd thought about it in the past:
 I've always wanted to play in India, and I've always wanted to play in China, and places like that, just places we've never played before. I know that some of my favorite bands have played India a long time ago, and we've never got around to playing it for one reason or another. I've always wanted to go there, even as a tourist. Janick's been to Goa, but none of us has ever really had a chance to go there. 
Steve Harris – January 1996
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Performing in Bangalore or Dubai – brand new territories for Iron Maiden to conquer – like they did on that tour, had obviously been on Steve's mind for quite while and his dream finally came true when they played the Eddfest and the Desert Rock Festival, respectively. The rest of the tour saw the band play Europe once again and end up at the Brixton Academy for the closing gig.
All in all, this tour was a typical Iron Maiden tour, with outstanding performances of the tricky new songs, as well as the old crowd-pleasing classics. Wherever we were, Iron Maiden got all of us, no matter how far.
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