You have a good point, and I'm thinking this may also be the reason they're holding back a new album release, recorded or not.
Yea, if there’s an album they’re waiting for a tour to go with it.
I still have mixed feelings on whether this tour goes ahead. Large scale tours next year feels optimistic. Most predictions I’ve seen within the US is that the general population will be vaccinated around April at the earliest, followed by a period of achieving herd immunity. That’s just one country, but probably a good model of what an accelerated vaccination period looks like. It also assumes everything runs smoothly: no shortages, a public information campaign that leads to a majority of people taking the vaccine, etc. It is going to take months upon widespread distribution for the vaccine to actually take effect and for mass gatherings to be safe. Concerts are among the last things that will come back because of that.
Additionally, Ticketmaster is talking about putting in place vaccine verification systems for venues’ discretion. If that sort of mechanism is in place, nobody is going to be holding concerts if it seems like enough of the potential audience hasn’t been vaccinated yet. In Europe and America at least, promoters probably don’t want to put on concerts while it’s still a potential liability. All these things make me believe that concerts of Maiden’s magnitude won’t be a thing until at least late 2021, which is when there is less activity anyway.
As Perun noted, the Brazilian government might be quicker to ease restrictions than Europe or even the US, so I don’t have trouble believing that Maiden could play a concert there. The question is whether they want to risk attending a super spreader event. I hope not and I hope a judgment is made on whether the event feels safe when the time comes.
I’ve mentioned this before but these bands are in a tough position where they have to announce these tour dates now so that they can start the promotion process in the event that the tour does happen. But I think we should continue to act under the assumption that it’s not likely.