Eagle-eyed and ultra curious YouTuber Metal Pilgrim has seemingly cracked the case on the significance of a series of letters and numbers that appear in a portion of the stage for Iron Maiden‘s new The Future Past tour. It’s a cryptic, nerdy reference that is a real reward for the superfans out there.
The metal legends kicked off the run, which places extra setlist emphasis on Maiden’s latest album, Senjutsu, and their 1986 classic Somewhere in Time, on May 28 in Slovenia. Featuring an all new production and stage design to coincide with the first new trek since the conclusion of the exhaustive and venerated The Legacy of the Beast tour, there’s a handful of discreet references peppered into the stage.
Part of the stage, during performances of “Days of Future Past” and “The Time Machine,” plays off the artwork for the “Wasted Years” single (seen below), reconfiguring some of the timeline to reflect the current tour.
As Metal Pilgrim points out in the video seen further down this page, the dates reflect Iron Maiden’s formation (Christmas Day, 1975), the date Senjutsu was released, as well as the date Somewhere In Time came out.
Elsewhere, there’s a Back to the Future movie reference in the 1.21 gigawatts reflected under the “Flux Rate” part of the stage, but that’s not the cryptic, nerdy reference we’re here to talk about.
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Under a header that reads “Magnachrome Intensity,” the following is displayed: “7A263A RISING.”
Metal Pilgrim reveals that this is a hex code for the shade of red dubbed “claret.” Digging deeper, he uncovered that claret is one of the two official colors of the West Ham United, which is bassist Steve Harris‘ favorite soccer (known as football, outside the U.S.) team.
Harris famously has the team’s logo emblazoned on his bass and has been a longtime fan. Even Iron Maiden’s own soccer/football jerseys carry West Hame United’s signature colors.
It’s not clear what the “RISING” component of this reference is. Perhaps it’s simply to cheer the team on, hopeful that they will ascend to championship status.
Dive deeper into the detail and nuance of The Future Past Tour stage in the video below.
The Details of Iron Maiden’s The Future Past Tour Stage
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There’s less than a third of Iron Maiden’s total catalog that has never been played live.
