Iron Maiden must be loving Indian crowds. The February 1 gig marks the second Indian concert in less than a year — and it’s also your Somewhere Back In Time World Tour opener. Any specific reasons to kick off the tour with a Mumbai concert?

We really wanted to come back as soon as we could. To play in one of India’s biggest cities is a perfect start to this rather unusual tour, as this is quite a retrospective; we’re playing songs that we haven’t played for a long time. We always really enjoy playing new places. We loved the reaction and warmth the crowd gave us in Bangalore last year. To see fans packed into Palace Grounds, with thousands more outside there just to be able to listen, let alone see the stage, was amazing. We knew we had to come back.

After three decades, is touring still a thrill?

Doing this tour is going to be a great buzz. All of us in what is basically a large flying bus, with all the gear and crew on board from country to country — it is going to be incredible! Once again, we’re visiting countries we’ve never visited before in South America and coming back to India. We’re visiting Australia after 15 years now. So yes – it’s going to be a very big thrill.

It’s amazing how you put up a show — at your age — on a daily basis. What does it entail?

We’re a fairly fit and healthy bunch and have never really gone overboard on the so called excesses of rock ’’ roll and I think we’re much the better for it. All of us are non-smokers as well, and we are into sports like tennis and football. We have to keep ourselves in good shape, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to perform the shows.

Iron Maiden has sold over 70 million albums worldwide with virtually zero air-play. What do you attribute your success to?

We’ve never really featured highly at home on radio stations and even in America and other places, which has never really made sense to anyone. So when we turn up in a country and sell out stadiums, the press always seem a little confused about how people have heard the music. It really comes down to the strength of devotion the fans have for the music and continue to do so, from generation to generation now. We still have young kids in the front rows as well as guys who’ve followed us for years, so it’s always a great mix.

Reviewers called the new album, A Matter Of Life and Death, a “return to the classic Maiden sound”. Do you agree?

I think the songs will always have ‘classic Maiden sound’, since the nature of the way we play gives them that very individual feel. The last album was certainly a little darker. Although a lot of the subjects covered on A Matter Of Life And Death were about Armageddon and rather serious matters, it seemed to have a little more attack to it. Saying that, there were also some really interesting tracks on there, like The Longest Day and The Legacy which certainly were not standard Maiden songs.

How has the Maiden sound evolved over the past 30 years?

We have all evolved slightly differently as individual musicians and artistes but the formula which makes up the band’s sound is still the same. It still has our ‘sound’, if you like.

Iron Maiden is one of the first bands to concentrate on presenting the rock concert as an audio-visual extravaganza. Your thoughts on the subject…

It’s actually a delicate balance, as it has to be all about the music after all and not just a bunch of fireworks. We do put on a spectacle and I suppose it kind of comes from the old theatre mentality of sending people home happy and kind of awestruck. One thing we can’t stand is seeing artistes playing high energy music and just staring at their shoes.

Which are your current favourite bands/musicians?

Often, the bands we really get to see live are one’s that we tour with. Within Temptation is a band I try and make time to see. I enjoyed watching Funeral For A Friend in the past.