Release date has been confirmed as AUGUST 26. The official site is offering the chance to pre-order a HQ MP3 album for around £5, so check that deal out (personally, I prefer getting the real thing, if only for Maiden albums!).

Track listing is as follows:

1. Satellite 15….The Final Frontier     (8:40)
2. El Dorado     (6:49)
3. Mother Of Mercy     (5:20)
4. Coming Home     (5:52)
5. The Alchemist     (4:29)
6. Isle Of Avalon     (9:06)
7. Starblind     (7:48)
8. The Talisman     (9:03)
9. The Man Who Would Be King     (8:28)
10. When The Wild Wind Blows     (10:59)

This, ‘El Dorado’, is the first song released from the upcoming Iron Maiden album, “Final Frontier”. It’s available as a free MP3 download from the official site, but good luck getting it at the moment as naturally there’s quite a demand on the download servers.

Sweden Saturday August 7th 2010 at Stora Skuggan Park in Stockholm.

Other confirmed acts so far Heaven & Hell, Motley Crue, Iggy & The Stooges, Slayer, Anthrax and Alice Cooper. Tickets on sale from 10.00am CET (9am GMT) on 14th December 2009. 880 SEK + booking fee. Available from: www.livenation.se and Eventim sales points.  Eventims call centre: +46 771 651 000

Finland Two Day Festival Saturday August 7th & Sunday August 8th 2010 at Pori’s Kirjurinluoto.

Other confirmed acts so far for this two day Festival are HIM, Heaven & Hell, The Cult, Alice Cooper, Motley Crue, Iggy & The Stooges, Slayer, and Anthrax Tickets on sale from 9am EET (7am GMT) on 15th December 2009 Two-day ticket: 125 euro + possible service fee On sale starts on Tuesday 15.12.2009 9am at Lippupalvelu ticket outlets, call center 0600-10-800 (1,83 euroa/min + pvm) ja 0600-10-020 (5,99 euroa/puhelu + pvm) ja online athttp://www.lippupalvelu.fi NB!! Ticket limit is 10 tickets per customer. Age limit 14yrs. Under 14-year-olds must be accompanied by an adult. Camping ticket: 20 euro + possible service fee from Lippupalvelu starting from Tue 15.12.2009 at 9am EET.

The Official Maiden site has a new banner, telling people to come back on Dec 9 at 6PM (GMT). WATCH THIS SPACE, it proclaims:

What could it be?

My guess is an announcement for shows next year, particularly summer festival dates. Classic Rock magazine is hosting a festival next  year, and Maiden would be a natural fit, however they may also be too big for the show.

Another Donnington appearance? Or special one-off Clive Burr charity show?

We’ll know tomorrow night!

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson, broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald and actress Helen Baxendale urged companies to sponsor one of the phone lines run by a missing people’s charity, at an event last night.

Missing People, which works to find and safeguard missing people and support their loved ones, wants firms to show their support by sponsoring a phone for £10,000. It has 12 lines available for sponsorship.

In 2010 the festival will be in the UK on July 31 and August 1. Metallica headlined the second night of this year’s UK festival.

It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.

Speaking in the Iron Maiden Fan Club magazine, the manager says: “It took a long time to set up the last tour because of the plane. It had never been done before and we didn’t know what we were letting ourselves in for. The idea came a couple of years before that and we got into it a year ahead of the game. “I’m starting to get my head round what we’re going to do next summer. It hasn’t been decided yet but we’ll do something, so I’ve got to speak to promoters and agents. “Now we know the plane works, by Christmas we’ll have the pattern set. We’ll probably be going for the plane and getting that held for us. “But at the moment, the album’s the key thing on the agenda. The guys will be getting together shortly and they’re probably starting to get their heads round new ideas for songs individually. Some of them may meet up before we formally get together. “We’ll spend a period writing, we’ll take Christmas off and then we’ll get into recording. We’ll finish the album in time for it to be out next year and I’m just getting my head round what we want to do touring-wise. “We’ll be doing some new places on the next tour. I won’t tell you where they are – they’re not finalised yet, but some work has been done. One place we can’t play that we’d like to is Bolivia – the altitude is just too high for the type of physical performance the guys do. It’s a shame.”

Fear not, though, as the official Maiden site IronMaiden.com announced this week:

There’s been various rumours going round about Eddie’s Bar in Portugal closing for good at the end of September. This information is incorrect. The bar is only closing for the Winter and will re-open again May 2010 for the Summer months May – September. Hope this puts everyone’s mind at rest.