Bruce Dickinson’s BBC 6 Music rock show is to be axed and Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie’s Radio 2 show cut to three nights a week in the latest changes to the two stations.

Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden, has presented a rock show on the digital station since it launched in 2002. It is the first 6 Music show to be axed since the BBC announced proposals to close the station at the end of next year.

If it is their last studio release, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Iron Maiden as a touring entity would cease to be; they still draw in a large crowd, and could hypothetically keep touring every other year, doing the best-of shows they’ve been doing on alternate tours recently. However, would this continue to be a challenge for the band, or would they find it mundane?

In my opinion, some members of the band still appreciate the musical challenge of creating new tunes, and the process of actually writing; while some are perhaps happy to simply go through the motions, as they just love being in Iron Maiden and are happy to play, regardless of what they play.

So, it will indeed be very interesting to see what happens in a year’s time when the tour has ended (or close to ending), and whether they will make a formal announcement or not. No doubt, the band will have the question of the future raised numerous times in press interviews leading up the release of Final Frontier.

What do you think?

As the image says, Dream Theater – FUCKING DREAM THEATER!! – will be supporting Maiden on their North American sojourn. Hells yes! Now that is a kick-arse pairing.

The tour hits many of their usual areas, although it will be interesting to see the points plotted out on a map to see how they cover the country.

Iron Maiden Fan Club members, of course, get access to a pre-sale for the tickets – so if you’re not a member, get onto it! As far as I’m aware, online members are able to access the pre-sale, but do check to make sure.

FAN CLUB PRE-SALES – NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

CANADA pre-sale starts Wednesday 10th March

USA pre-sale starts Wednesday 17th March

This will be supported by a 22-date North American tour starting in June:

See IronMaiden.com for full details.

Right now, Maiden’s site is down due to ‘too many connections’, but I have a feeling this is more a CMS issue rather than one of database stability, so I doubt they will have problems handling extra traffic tomorrow.

Interestingly, traffic here at Maiden Central has surged in the days following the announcement of the announcement (erm…), so it looks like 2010 is heating up for the Irons!

As I said on Twitter:

Promoted by Live Nation and Bergen Live by arrangement with K2ours
www.livenation.no // www.bergenlive.no

They are also hitting Wacken next year:

After their triumphant show in 2008, this will mark the second show of the British Metal legends at the Wacken:Open:Air. Their gig on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 will also be their only German show next year.

Comments Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris: “We had a fantastic time playing at Wacken last year so when we decided to play a few festivals in Europe next Summer it seemed a great idea to return. What could be better in Germany than to play again to the 75,000 true Metalheads who go to Wacken!”