Bruce Dickinson
Bruce DickinsonPaul 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.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.
Biography
School days
Bruce (centre) at Oundle, 1974
Bruce'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.