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Paul Bruce Dickinson (born August 7, 1958 in Worksop, Nottinghamshire,
England) is the lead singer in the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Before this,
he was singer in similar band called Samson from 1980, until he joined Iron
Maiden the following year. He made his recording debut with Iron Maiden on
their Number of the Beast album in 1982. During previous years, he was in
Styx (1976) (not the American band of the same name; Styx), then went on to
sing for Speed (1977 - 1978) and when this band split, he joined Shots until
the summer of 1979.
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Other talents include literature, writing, fencing, train technology and
flying Boeing 757 charter jets for the UK charter airline Astraeus (which
Iceland Express leases planes from) where he is employed as First Officer.
He was taught how to fly by British Airways commercial pilot Captain Dales.
He is sometimes called "Conan the Librarian" after a character in the "Weird
Al" Yankovic movie UHF, and has been nicknamed, 'The Air Raid Siren'.
Dickinson went by the stagename "Bruce Bruce" prior to joining Iron Maiden.
He is also an above average guitarist. He studied history at Queen Mary and
Westfield College, University of London, and was active in student politics
as a member of the Conservative Party. He is not to be confused with the
rock producer (in reality a sound engineer) (played by Christopher Walken)
for Blue Öyster Cult in the famous Saturday Night Live "More Cowbell" skit.
Dickinson currently presents the Saturday evening "rock show" on BBC
alternative rock radio station 6 Music. He has recently taken the helm of
BBC Radio 2 Serial, Masters of Rock. He also presented the 5-part historical
TV series about aviation; Flying Heavy Metal was shown on the Discovery
Channel in the UK.
School days
Bruce (centre) at Oundle, 1974Bruce's formative years were spent as a member
of Sidney House, one of the dozen boarding houses at Oundle School.
Nicknamed both Bwooth and Gunge, he was frequently teased during his five
years there. Peer pressure -- and not the fact that his Aunt (Edith Chandler)
was the chief cook -- probably contributed to the catering fiasco which led
to expulsion a few months before his A-levels in 1976. At Oundle, he was not
a musician, though he possessed a small collection of rock albums such as 'Fireball'
by Deep Purple and Wild Turkey's 'Battle Hymn'. Bruce's interests were more
military in nature: in the school's Combined Cadet Force, he was promoted as
far as his delight in devising pranks allowed him; and he was also the co-founder
of the school's Wargames society.
Solo career
His career outside Iron Maiden started with the recording of "Bring Your
Daughter to the Slaughter" which appears on the A Nightmare on Elm Street 5:
The Dream Child soundtrack and Disc Two of The Best of Bruce Dickinson album.
A different version of the song was recorded by Iron Maiden for the No
Prayer for the Dying album. The original version got him a studio deal for a
full album. Along with friend and soon-to-be Iron Maiden guitarist Janick
Gers, Dickinson wrote the Tattooed Millionaire album within two weeks. The
result was a rather poppy rock album with surprisingly fun, solid
songwriting. It was, however, far away from Iron Maiden's heavy metal sound
and fantasy lyricism - the baudy sexual innuendoes of "Dive, Dive, Dive!"
would never find themselves on one of Iron Maiden's releases. It is possible
that some of the songs are leftover ideas from the Somewhere in Time
sessions, in which Dickinson presented more experimental ideas to Steve
Harris who was not convinced, thus leading to a complete absence of
Dickinson songwriting credits on that album.
Before the release of his second effort, Balls to Picasso, Dickinson left
Iron Maiden and went through two different efforts with two sets of
different collaborators. The first was with Myke Gray of the band Skin, and
the second with the producer Keith Olsen. Of the second, a few songs
surfaced as B-sides and one, "No Way Out... Continued" appears on the 2-disc
The Best of Bruce Dickinson collection. Dickinson was not happy with the
majority of the material on these efforts. Salvation came at last in the
form of Tribes of Gypsies guitarist Roy Z. He agreed to work with Dickinson
to improve the Keith Olsen album and ended replacing all of it except "Tears
of the Dragon". Balls to Picasso was recorded with the Tribe of Gypsies and
was a far more mature record than Tattooed Millionaire, with some very well-crafted
songs, spurred along with the melodic and shredding leads of Roy Z.
The Tribe departed to tour and record under their own steam, leaving
Dickinson to track down another band. Dickinson's new writing partner was
Alex Dickson, and after touring his current song catalogue (documented on
Alive in Studio A) with him and the rest of the new band, sat down to write
Skunkworks. The idea was that the band would be called that, but the record
company insisted Dickinson's name be on the release. Dickinson likened that
to David Bowie attempting to do the same with Tin Machine and how it did not
work for him either. The album is often described as grunge, which while not
wholly accurate does convey the idea that the songs are rather short, with
relatively brief guitar solos and overall less of a metal edge.
The Skunkworks entity ceased to be after the touring due to musical
differences (Dickinson wanted the next album to be more metal), and after a
period of inactivity Dickinson once again teamed up with Roy Z to record
Accident Of Birth. Adrian Smith was asked to guest but played on the whole
album and tour. The album marked a return to heavy metal for Dickinson; in
fact the album could be considered to be heavier than Iron Maiden. It was a
big success and for the first time, a follow up was inevitable. The Chemical
Wedding, a semi-concept album on the writings of William Blake followed.
This record proved to be even more successful, with engaging lyrics and
powerful songs. Scream for Me Brazil was a live album that documented a show
of the Chemical Wedding tour, and featured songs from the last two albums
and two from Balls to Picasso.
The Best of Bruce Dickinson album with two new Roy Z songs and a limited
edition disc of rarities was released upon his announcement of a return to
Iron Maiden. Dickinson is said to have wanted to record another album with
Roy Z, but he was busy with Judas Priest vocalist, Rob Halford, and the
window of opportunity was missed. Tyranny of Souls, was finally released in
May 2005. This time the songwriting was all split between Roy Z and
Dickinson, with Roy playing all guitars and even basses in some songs. Much
of the writing was done by Roy sending recordings of riffs to Dickinson
which he wrote lyrics and melodies for while on tour. With the release of
Tyranny of Souls, Dickinson's back catalogue was reissued with a bonus disc
of extra tracks for each album except The Chemical Wedding and the two live
albums, the latter of which were packaged together in a three-disc set.
A compilation DVD was expected for the first half of 2005 but was pushed
back to Fall 2005 to avoid clashing with the Iron Maiden schedule. It is now
expected to finally recieve a release as a double DVD in May 2006. |
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BRUCE DICKINSON PICTURES |
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