Iron Maiden, Ed Force One and the epic journey of Flight 666

In 2009 Iron Maiden released Flight 666, a concert film showing the inner workings of the band’s touring machine. But what made the six members tick? We spoke to them over a 12-month period, from the confines of Ed Force One, in late night bars, at the top of an Andean mountain range and in the midst of an Amazonian rainstorm.

For Iron Maiden fans, the Somewhere Back In Time world tour was the motherlode. The stage imagery and the songs were the same ones that have come to define heavy metal: Eddie in all his Egyptian Powerslave glory, Number Of The Beast, Piece Of Mind…

The list goes on: Spitfires, Winston Churchill’s ‘We shall never surrender!’ speech, fluttering Union Jacks, Rolls-Royce engines rumbling over the PA – it’s heavy metal’s finest pageantry on display. Not only was it the biggest tour a rock band had ever undertaken – 50,000 miles, 23 gigs, five continents and all in a heart-stopping 46 days – but the band had leased and converted an Airbus 757 into their very own “magic carpet” so that the logistics of touring on such an ambitious schedule could be achieved.

To top that, lead singer Bruce Dickinson could often be found piloting the plane on various different routes between gigs. Sing in a rock band? Easy! Sing on stage then fly the plane to Mumbai, you say? Even better…

A tour of this size took on a significance all of its own. Maiden’s manager Rod Smallwood took seriously an approach by two Canadian filmakers Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen who had recently finished work on their acclaimed indie film A Headbanger’s Journey. Sam and Scot wanted to get under Maiden’s skin to not only provide the band with the ultimate live DVD of their performance, but go one further and find a way of explaining the world of Iron Maiden. The resulting ‘rockumentary’ captured hearts and minds at indie film festivals and on the international stage.