Blaze Bayley, who fronted Iron Maiden from 1994 to 1999, has revisited the infamous 1996 concert in Chile at which the band were spat on by members of the crowd. Speaking in the new issue of Metal Hammer, the singer recalled the show at the Teatro Monumental in Santiago on 29 August 1996 — the band's first ever performance in the country — during which he angrily confronted a fan who had spat on the group while they played The Trooper. The recollection is timely, coming as Iron Maiden prepare to headline their own Eddfest festival at Knebworth House this weekend.

Bayley said six people spat on the band during the show, and revealed that the gig was filmed without the members' consent by the Chilean equivalent of the BBC, with an armed police presence making it feel too risky to object. Maiden had previously been unable to play in Chile because the Catholic Church had pressured the government to stop them. Bayley's tenure, covering the albums The X Factor (1996) and Virtual XI (1998), is widely seen as a commercial and critical low point — Virtual XI remains the band's lowest-charting album — though the lead single Man On The Edge reached number 10 in the UK. Maiden headline Eddfest on Saturday 11 July, with The Darkness, The Hu, The Almighty and Airbourne among the supporting acts.