(vh1) On February 8, 2008, British heavy rock legends Iron Maiden embarked on the most ambitious and adventurous tour in rock history. For the first time ever the band gave full access to a film crew to document their journey and this resulted in the critically acclaimed, full-length documentary film, "Iron Maiden: Flight 666." Winner of the SXSW Festival Award for Best Music Documentary, the movie takes you along as part of the Maiden team on the first leg of the band's historic Somewhere Back In Time World Tour, with Access All Area passes guaranteed!Shot in spectacular High Definition with thunderous 5.1 surround sound, the film will be touching down exclusively on Saturday, June 6, (6-6) on VH1 Classic and PalladiaMTV Networks' high-definition music channel at 9 p.m. and VH1 at 12 midnight.
Circumnavigating around the globe and five Continents in just 45 days, the band flew in a specially customized Boeing 757 airliner, piloted by lead singer Bruce Dickinson. With the entire touring crew and 12 tons of music and stage equipment on board, Astraeus Airline Captain Dickinson and his air crew flew 50,000 miles, taking in 23 sold-out stadium and arena shows across Asia, Australia and North, Central and South America, performing to almost half a million fans in the process.
Comments Dickinson; " Having what is basically a flying "splitter bus" with all our gear and crew on board allowed us to undertake a touring schedule the likes of which has never been attempted before. By being independent of flight and freight connections and schedules we could literally go where we wanted when we wanted. And so we did. It was quite a journey, exhausting at times with jet lag taking its toll, but our fans everywhere were magnificent which made all the effort and planning and time well worthwhile. It really was a unique experience until, that is, we did it again earlier this year!!"
The plane was christened "ED FORCE ONE" by their fans, after Iron Maiden mascot Eddie, a perennial fixture in the band's album cover art as well as in their live shows.
"Iron Maiden: Flight 666" is an inspirational account of the chaotic and often humorous world of a band touring the four corners of the world, giving a behind-the-scenes look at what happens on and off stage. Delivering some of the most spectacular live footage ever seen of the band, "Iron Maiden: Flight 666" takes viewers from Mumbai to Santiago, L.A. to Sydney, Tokyo to Sγo Paolo and many major cities between. Through drama, excitement and fan pandemonium, the film is an honest and revealing portrait of one of the world's most successful rock bands.
"Iron Maiden: Flight 666" is the newest film in the Emmy Award-winning VH1 Rock Doc franchise. VH1 Rock Docs are feature-length documentaries that tell unique stories of artists and music from a wide range of genres, styles, and musical perspectives.
"Iron Maiden: Flight 666" was produced and directed by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn for Banger Productions (who also made the award winning "Metal: A Headbangers Journey" and "Global Metal"). Victoria Hirst acted as co-producer with Rod Smallwood, Stefan Demetriou and Andy Taylor serving as executive producers.
