IRON MAIDEN manager Rod Smallwood, on the road on their Somewhere Back In Time World Tour 2008, has issued the following tour blog:

"Up fairly early as a few things l need to get done. After a couple of hours work and go out to get some breakfast as feeling a bit stir crazy. A muffin with bacon and egg, delicious. Take a 20 min walk then return to room and work. Mid afternoon went back down to studio to check the intro footage with Dave. We spent a couple of hours making a few tweaks and then headed to the venue to be there before the audience were let in so we could run it "live" on screen with the whole intro package (I wont go into detail - wait til you see the show) which we did and I felt it worked well. It is something we will be adding to occasionally as we go along so it sort of represents the whole of this tour). Also ran it past Steve as I always would when music is involved as the footage of course has music to it. Steve is a real stickler on edits - as of course you would all expect - but fortunately this time, for a change(!), he was happy first time round so we were able to use it that night. I think it was a cool idea which works well so hope you all do too.

Published with kind permission from the copyright holder, the Iron Maiden Online Club.

No point going back to the hotel now so go to catering and get a decent meal and hang out backstage and in my room til time to go on. Usually second shows in venues are "lighter" than first ones as fans tend to rush out and get the first tickets. The first show here sold out in 15 minutes and second one added immediately so you would think out most manic fans grabbed the first show leaving the slow coaches to the second. So much for theory as this certainly wasn't the case here. The audience was every bit as loud as the first night and even the merchandise sales were almost exactly the same. And as promised by my Killer Krew the sound was on the money as was the rest of the show and that, along with a loud and passionate crowd, made it a great show and even better than the first. We are really hitting our stride - I don't think anything can stop us now!!

Thank you Melbourne for 2 magnificent reactions - we will most certainly be returning in the not too distant future.

I was intending to go back to the hotel and get a reasonably early night but after a really top gig it's just not possible to do this. Too much adrenaline rush. So common sense and an instinct for survival get chucked out of the window. Anyway I was always was a sucker for punishment and remain, as ever, virtually indestructible!!!!!

And so l found myself back at Bridie O'Reilly's along with most of the audience from the Rod Laver Centre it would seem! The place was packed, the landlord gave band and myself free drinks all night (oh dear!!) including vodka shots and even I seemed to be signing hundreds of autographs and posing for fan pics and this fact alone makes me sure most of our fans there were truly pissed!!

Another late night, but another great show.... and that is what counts!!

Rod.

(thanks: MaidenNorway.com)