The following report is courtesy of John Dingwall Dailyrecord.co.uk:

IRON MAIDEN have laid the gauntlet down to their Scots fans... let's hear you if you think we rock hard enough.

The band play the SECC in Glasgow on Friday, December 15, and Scots heading to the gig are being challenged to outdo Maiden's European and Scandinavian fans who treat the band like rock gods.

I caught the band's sell-out show in Barcelona last week, in front of 18,000 mad Spanish fans who knew every word of the band's new Matter Of Life And Death album and the Irons delivered a blistering set.

That means Scots fans will have their work cut out to live up to their reputation as the best live audience in the world.

Just be prepared for a wonderful stage prop which will be rolled out towards the end of the show, which continues Maiden's reputation for theatrics.

And, of course, Eddie will be making his usual appearance during the show which also sees TRIVIUM acting as support.

Most of the album, if not all, will be performed on the night and it's themes of war and religion couldn't be more fitting with Iraq and muslim fundamentalism hot on the agenda.

Now in their 31st year together as one of the world's leading metal bands, guitarist Dave Murray said: "You want to capture the album live. So it's going to be a lot of fun. It should also be visually stimulating and as for playing, it's going to be a great challenge for us."

Meanwhile, dad-of three and Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson explained the thinking behind the songs on their latest CD.

He said: "It's real life as it surrounds us. That's what's all around at the moment.

"When I was a kid, it was all about the Cold War and the four minute warning and how we were all going to get dissolved into some radioactive cinder. There's a few other things now' terrorists, fundamentalists, dirty bombs, droughts, global warming, bird flu and God knows what. So there's a whole bunch of miniapocalypses out there waiting to get you. "We are kind of a blokey sort of band. We're not new men and all that kind of stuff. We're blokes. Wars and battles and struggles strike a chord. We have kids, so you sit there and think: 'Well what kind of a world are our kids going to grow up in?' So the new album touches all the bases really."

The singer added: "I've been in one or two war zones. Years ago I ended up in Bosnia in the middle of the war in Sarajevo, that was a very, very sobering experience. I've been to one or two of the African countries and experienced the after effects of wars. Civil wars and things like that are pretty vile. You just can't believe the depths of barbarity people will stoop to, particularly with respect to children. Not that it should make any difference. The human being is just the same. The other thing you notice is the way people bounce back. It's the way the people survive and try and rebuild afterwards. That's the other remarkable thing. So there's always some kernel of hope within all this carnage."

Bruce, 48, has to be one of the few genuine rock stars who records his million-selling albums during his holidays from work.

A qualified pilot, he made A Matter Of Life And Death when not clocking up the air miles nine-to-five.

Bruce admitted: "I'm a full-time airline pilot and I do everything I need to do on my days off - like booking some holidays. It's great when what you do on your holiday is doing stuff with Iron Maiden. It's cool. People say: 'what did you do on your holiday?' 'Oh I made an Iron Maiden record, you know."