IRON MAIDEN Is Biggest Foreign Concert Draw Ever In Chile

According to MaidenRevelations.com, Chilean newspaper La Tercera has called British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN the biggest foreign concert draw ever in Chile, with a total of 226,000 tickets sold for the seven shows the band has played in the country since 1996. This feat is made even more remrakble by the fact that MAIDEN was banned by the church from playing in Chile in 1992.

IRON MAIDEN wrapped its massive "Maiden England 2013 World Tour" on October 2 in front of an audience of 60,105 spectators at the national stadium Estadio Nacional in Santiago.

"Because we were banned in the '90s, people have felt a very strong connection to us," IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson told La Tercera. "And we have always brought great shows with us and worked hard not to disappoint the audience."

IRON MAIDEN first played in Santiago in 1996 at a time when the band was fronted by Blaze Bayley. The concert was attended by 18,000 fans and included the infamous "Blaze Gets Mad" version of the song "The Trooper".

During a brand new interview with Chile's Radio Futuro, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Dave Murray was asked if there are any plans for the band to return to the studio to begin work on material for the follow-up to 2010's "The Final Frontier".

"We've been out on tour quite a few months this year," Dave explained. "So when we finish, we're actually going to go and head back and take a break, really."

He continued: "We haven't got any plans, as such, really, what's gonna happen next year. Basically, we're just gonna wait and see. [laughs] But there's things that are going on in the meantime. I mean, we just had a beer come out — it's like the Trooper beer — and that's actually doing really well. So we'll just let the Trooper beer go on tour for us. [laughs] And then we're just gonna spend some time off recuperating. So I'm not quite sure what's gonna be happening next year. It's all up in the air."

IRON MAIDEN in August landed at position No. 1 on Billboard.com's "Hot Tours" list of top-grossing tours with $8.5 million in ticket sales from six performances on their summer tour of Europe. The shows were attended by a total of 121,280 fans, including a two-night, sold-out stand on August 3-4 at the O2 Arena in Lonon, England, where the band played to 27,000 fans. With totals added from this summer's Europe dates, overall ticket sales from the tour top $42 million from 45 reported concerts.