On January 12, 2016 Iron Maiden officially announced their first gig in China. They will make a highly anticipated first ever visit to China in April on The Book Of Souls World Tour, playing at Beijing LeSports Center on April 24th and Shanghai Mercedes-Benz Arena on April 26th.
Due to very strict regulations, one may wonder if the band will suffer from censorship by Chinese authorities. Maiden songs have political themes, as well as others that would be easily considered controversial.
For those that don’t know, China has very strict censorship laws when it comes to bands performing in China. These laws even forced Megadeth to perform instrumental versions of Skin Of My Teeth and even prohibited Metallica from playing “Creeping Death” and “One.”
According to http://www.nandosblog.net, the proposed Iron Maiden setlist is seen below. I can’t say just how official or accurate this is but it does pique my interest and draw some interesting questions. Just take a look:
Thoughts? Ok, first off, Blood Brothers as an opener? WTF? If this is for real, someone needs to be slapped. In all honesty, I find this setlist to be completely underwhelming. Closing with “Tears of a Clown”? And what about those songs that Bruce said they’d be doing that hadn’t been played in a while? I would guess that would be what? “Hallowed Be Thy Name” and “Children of the Damned”? I don’t know. Hopefully, if this does carry any weight, this will be a “China Only” setlist where they’re playing it safe but if not, this will mark the first “album” tour where Maiden didn’t open up with the opening track off of the album. It will be VERY interesting to see how this all plays out on opening night, February 24th in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl.
So what do YOU think of this setlist if this is indeed it? Share your thoughts here!
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