Iron Maiden are confirmed to headline Sonisphere Greece 2011. The Festival will be held at TerraVibe Park, Athens on Friday 17 June. Other bands confirmed are Slipknot, Mastodon, Gojira and Virus.

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Maiden are confirmed to play at the 30th International Motorcycle Convention - Faro 2011. This gathering, which is the biggest Motorcycle Convention in Europe and is hosted by The Moto Clube De Faro takes place between 14 - 17 July and Iron Maiden will headline on the first night, July 14, 2011.

Maiden's presence in Faro honors a great mutual friendship of many years of both of the band and the Moto Clube de Faro - the late Manu da Silva. Manu was Steve's personal friend and the manager of "Eddie's Bar", in Santa Barbara de Nexe-Faro. Steve comments "We have been trying to schedule to play at this incredible event for many years and it's fantastic that we have finally got the opportunity. l first met and became friends with the guys from Moto Clube De Faro  a long time ago through mutual friend and Eddie's Bar manager Manu DaSilva, who tragically died five years ago. Manu was for many years a very good friend of myself and the band so you could say that our playing there is a tribute to his memory. We are all very much looking forward to this".

Live Nation is pleased to announce that the special guests for Iron Maiden's The Final Frontier World Tour UK dates have now been confirmed, and they are some stellar names from the world of rock and metal.

Aussie Rockers Airbourne will be joining Maiden for all regional shows except Belfast; Power Metal heroes Dragonforce will support at the Belfast* show on Wednesday August 3rd [ *this show is promoted by MCD] and also the London O2 show on Friday 5th August; Metalcore behemoths Trivium will support in London at the O2 on Saturday 6th August.

The UK shows will be the culmination of Iron Maiden's The Final Frontier World Tour. The first leg of the 2011 tour started last week in Moscow and sees the band travelling "Around The World In 66 Days", a 50 thousand mile odyssey aboard Ed Force One, their specially customized Boeing 757, piloted by airline captain and lead singer Bruce Dickinson. The plane will carry band, crew and many tons of equipment across 5 continents to thirteen countries, visiting 26 cities for 29 shows. After the Round The World dates, the tour continues into Europe before returning to the UK in July for an extensive 10 city arena tour covering  the  length and breadth of the UK. By the time The Final Frontier World Tour finishes in London at the O2 in early August, Maiden will have played 101 shows, in 40 countries, to over 2 million fans since the Tour began in June 2010.

Some bits and bobs you might enjoy... the first reviews (that we understand!) from the Singapore show...

I would like to thank all of you who donated to my justgiving site in aid of our two Charities, Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy and Childline. I would also particularly like to thank Scott, Phil, Chris and Michiel for their incredibly generous support of the FC Exclusive Auction which raised £10,978. The Charities and myself greatly appreciate your support and the money will help a lot of children in difficult times for many Charities.

All 24 riders succeeded in completing the challenge with no casualties and just a few falls!!. We cycled over 100 miles with much of it over some very pock-marked and rough country roads requiring eagle eyes to miss the many holes along the way, plus a few magnificent hills especially the one leading to the finish, a real monster! The pic below is the whole team just after finishing but before the celebrations began in earnest!!

I will be posting here on our website, in a few weeks' time once fundraising is complete, tales of the ride and plenty of pics for your amusement, along with final numbers of how much we were able to raise. We are hoping to get to a profit of £150,000 to be split equally between the two charities. Most riders, including myself, have paid their own costs so donations go direct to the Charities and, with a lot of generosity from friends and thanks to the auction and many of you guys, I have been able to pass my personal fundraising target of £66,600.