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BRUCE DICKINSON TO JOIN ‘HEAVY METAL TRUANTS’ DOWNLOAD CHARITY BIKE RIDE raising money for Teenage Cancer Trust, Childline and Nordoff Robbins ‘MAIDEN ENGLAND’ 2013 WORLD TOUR PLAYING TO 1.2 MILLION FANS Following the recently announced news of the ‘Heavy Metal Truants’ charity bike ride to Download Festival at Castle Donington, organised by Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood and Metal Hammer editor Alexander Milas, it has now been announced that Maiden’s lead singer Bruce Dickinson will be flying in specially from Germany – following two sold-out Maiden shows in Frankfurt on the Tuesday and Wednesday – so he can join the HM Truants in cycling the final 25 mile leg of the bike ride into the Download Festival. The riders arrive on Friday June 14 th , the day before Iron Maiden’s headline appearance there in front of an expected 100,000 fans. This ride by the Metal fraternity is to raise funds for Teenage Cancer Trust, Childline and Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy. Asked how he felt about this most unconventional way to arrive at a major UK Festival where Maiden will be headlining on the Saturday night, June 15th, Bruce commented : “Yes, maybe it’s the first time the headliner has shown up on a bike, but I do use my bike to get around in London when l get the chance and have turned up at the BBC on a bike before, although the Commissioners were a bit surprised as they are too used to seeing limos! These are great causes, I am only sorry that due to our tour schedule l can’t do more of the ride, and hope our fans will support our efforts. I look forward to a day off after the ride seeing some great bands before we go into full Maiden action on the Saturday, with every intention of giving the fans a memorable show. Download and Metal fans are the best there are, so everyone expects something very special.” Starting on Wednesday, June 12th, over 40 riders will set off from Alexandra Palace, London, cycling 165 miles up to Donington Park, arriving as the first bands take to the Download stage on the afternoon of Friday 14th. The sponsored riders will also include band members from British Lion, Paradise Lost, Pendulum, Tesseract, Thunder, Trivium and Young Guns alongside music journalists (Hammer, Classic Rock, Prog), radio presenters (Planet Rock) and music industry participants including Parlophone, Sony Music, Universal/EMI, BMG Rights, 5B Artist Management, Raw Power Management, Phantom Management and The Agency plus even an MP, Mike Weatherley. Joining them will be a variety of heavy metal fans who have all signed up for three days of hard cycling to raise funds for these deserving Children’s Charities. The band’s Download Festival appearance marks a record FIFTH time that Iron Maiden have headlined at the legendary Donington Park, with their two Monsters Of Rock and three Download performances, and will be the 25 th Anniversary of the band’s first appearance there in 1988 to a (still) record audience of 107,000. The massive crowd who will be attending the band’s performance at Download Festival this summer is just one notable highlight of another huge year for Iron Maiden, who, over the summer, will play 44 shows to more than 1.2 million fans in 25 countries across Europe, the United States and Latin America (full tour dates at the end of this press release). While Download Festival marks Iron Maiden’s sole UK date this year, the band kick off their world tour next Monday in Spain and finish four and a half months later in Chile. Their European dates include the brand new 55,000 capacity Friends Arena in Stockholm where Iron Maiden became the first International band to be announced to play in the venue and sold out within minutes of going on sale; Istanbul’s 45,000 capacity BJK Inonu football stadium; Romania’s Constitution Plaza in Bucharest, playing in front of the Palace of the Parliament, Europe’s heaviest building!; Moscow’s Olympic Stadium and a further 26 shows in 15 countries across East and West Europe. The ‘Maiden England’ tour then rolls back into the United States, where it started last year with a mammoth run of North American concerts, and continues down to Latin America, where Iron Maiden headline the final night of Rock In Rio, having sold out all 70,000 tickets for their performance in just a few hours. The other headliners for the seven day festival are Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Muse, Metallica, Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi. Further Latin American dates include the enormous Foro Sol Stadium in Mexico City, the legendary River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, a return to the 55,000 capacity National Stadium in Chile and Iron Maiden’s first-ever visit to Paraguay. There may be spaces available for a few more riders, so if you have the heart and the liver, check it out at www.heavymetaltruants.com - or go there to aid the cause with a donation!!! For more details/tickets for Download go to www.downloadfestival.co.uk Ends. .

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