heavy metal

On This Day 15/05/1983 Iron Maiden

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On this day, 15 May 1983, heavy metal rock band Iron Maiden played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on their World Piece tour in support of their fourth album, A Piece Of Mind.

The band were supported by Grand Prix.

In 1983, they released their fourth studio album, Piece of Mind, which reached the No. 3 spot in the UK, and No. 14 on the Billboard 200.

Piece of Mind features the successful singles "The Trooper" and "Flight of Icarus", the latter being notable as one of the band's few songs to gain substantial airplay in the US.

The other notable songs of the album are "Where Eagles Dare" (based on so same entitled movie with Clint Eastwood starring), "Revelations", "Die with Your Boots On" and an epic "To Tame a Land" based on Frank Herbert's novel titled "Dune".

Iron Maiden played 151 concerts in Europe and North America as a part of World Piece Tour. For the very the first time they booked a massive North America tour as headliners.

Nearly 90 shows took place in 10,000 + capacity arenas, and the band sold out Madison Square Garden with a crowd of 20,000.

In London, they played four consecutive nights at the Hammersmith Odeon, then toured many large venues across Western Europe, including an extensive German leg.

The World Piece Tour was summed up by two headlining performances at the Rock & Pop Festival at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund. The show was broadcast live to 300 million people with the exception of the song "Iron Maiden" due to the band's "violent behaviour on stage".

The final night of the tour in Dortmund saw the band "kill" their mascot Eddie after the song "Iron Maiden". Bruce Dickinson took the brain out of Eddie's head while the rest of the band kicked and pummelled the mascot, while guitarist Dave Murray smashed his Fender Stratocaster on Eddie's neck and a nearby amplifier.





Setlist

1 Intro – theme from Where Eagles Dare

2 "Where Eagles Dare" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

3 "Wrathchild" (from Killers, 1981)

4 "The Trooper" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

5 "Revelations" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

6 "Flight of Icarus" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

7 "Die with Your Boots On" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

8 "22 Acacia Avenue" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

9 "The Number of the Beast" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

10 "Still Life" (from Piece of Mind, 1983) (Dropped after 12 June 1983)

11 "To Tame a Land" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

12 "Phantom of the Opera" (from Iron Maiden, 1980) (Dropped after 12 June 1983)

13 "Hallowed Be Thy Name" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

14 "Iron Maiden" (from Iron Maiden, 1980)

15 "Run to the Hills" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

16 "Sanctuary" (from Iron Maiden, 1980)

17 "Drifter" (from Killers, 1981)

18 "Prowler" (from Iron Maiden, 1980)