The following report is courtesy of Ibnlive.com:

Come Friday (February 1st) and thousands of music fans in Mumbai will dance and rock to the tunes of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, who kick off their world tour Somewhere Back In Time with a performance in the city.

The six-member band performs in Mumbai for the first time on their third trip to India.

"Iron Maiden was born in December 1975 in England and in the last three decades has sold over 100 million copies of their albums worldwide," recalled Sajan Abraham, a music aficionado.

Steve Harris, one of the co-founders of the band, is also the bassist, with Bruce Dickinson as the lead vocal. The band includes lead guitarist Dave Murray, accompanied by Adrian Smith and Janick Gers. Nicko McBrain is the drummer.

Another fan, college student Shabrish Iyer, could barely suppress his excitement about the Friday night gig. "They are my favourite band and I wouldn't have missed them for anything in life," he said.

Nearly 100,000 fans are expected to throng the Bandra-Kurla Complex where the band will play.

Iron Maiden recorded their first song on the New Year's Eve in 1978 - The Soundhouse Tapes, which featured only three songs. The band sold 5,000 copies within weeks.

By 1980, the band figured in the top ten list of all the British album charts and became the leading proponents of the new wave of British heavy metal movement.

The band will leave for Australia straight after the gig in Mumbai. Their world tour will go on till August 2008 and will cover Japan, the US, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, Britain, Spain and France.