Weird and Trivial Facts

The page below contains an assortment of weird, useless, but nonetheless interesting facts on Bruce Dickinson
The slogan is: Trivia is the essence!
This very sign (right) can be found at the front door of Bruce's home:
"It is forbidden for vagrants, beggars, itinerant musicians and females of doubtful reputation to enter these premises.

-May 1901 -By Order"


When Bruce was in Samson the band made a never released song/improvisation called "The Pig in Lipstick". The song was about one of their groupies who apparently had a weight problem. Or at least Bruce had a problem with her weight... Bruce later used the lyrics for Iron Maidens "Nodding Donkey Blues" that was the b-side on the single "Be quick or be dead" from 92.
In the horror B-movie "Incubus" Bruce's first real band, Samson, appears with a clip of the song "Vice versa" taken from their film "Biceps of steel"

Screenshots from the "Incubus" movie
If you spot a Skunkworks CD with the cat# sircd062 you have stumbled upon a very rare misspress which, when played, will present you with six songs of Turklish folk music! The packaging is exactly as the proper CD with face print on the disc.

Talking of movies, in "A nightmare on Elm street 5" Bruce contributed to the soundtrack with the song "Bring your daughter to the slaughter". This was before it was recorded and released with Iron Maiden.

The low voices in the beginning of "Machine Men" on The chemical Wedding is Bruce reading extracts from the yellow pages!!!
Skunkworks bassist Chris Dale was sometimes seen with a leek sticking out of his trouser pockets. This was just because he's a Walesman and the leek accompanied with a dafodil is in the Wales national emblem. "It's a comfort to have leek in the pocket in cases of homesickness", Chris explains.

In the All the young dudes video, when Bruce jumps up from the table in the café, he actually spilled a whole cup of tea on bassist Andy Carr. Andy was not so amused.

Guy Thomas' story of how he ended up in a Bruce Dickinson video

Back in the summer of 1994 I had just left school and I got myself a summer job with an IT-company working in Lloyds' of London (the insurance market - and the buildings mad - all aluminium pipes on the outside and very high-tech looking). One day I was asked to go a brokers office just round the corner from the Lloyds' building as they were having a problem with one of their data bases... So off I merrily strolled looking forward for a nice walk in the sun. As I leave the Lloyds' building I see a scene of total organised chaos before me... A man in flight suit (complete with biggles hat, goggles and scarf) is trying to be balanced by two people on the back of a rather pissed off looking donkey (which is again being help by another two people). First of all I thought I was finally cracking up but no... "Hmm I think that looks like that chap Bruce-whats-his-name from Iron Maiden... Sod work I'm gonna watch this..." Well they get to a stage where Bruce is perched on this pissed off donkey and pass him a giant golden carrot hanging off the end of this stick - it was getting more bizarre by the second and naturally by now quite a crowd of

onlookers had gathered to watch the spectacle. The camera guys were ready but no.. Every time it looked like the two people holding the donkey try to let go the psycho donkey from hell goes bonkers trying to chuck off Bruce... (who was by now melting in his biggles suit in the baking summer sun)... This went on for good 10 minutes until someone in the crew thought sod this we'll bring on the stunt donkey... So on comes donkey number two much I think to Bruce's relief. Hmm, the fun was over. This beast was far to gentle to provide more fun entertainment, so off I went to work, thinking no more of the matter. Later that afternoon I was wandering through Lloyds' back to the office, and in the entrance they have a load of guys in dark suites and ear pieces sitting in the lobby... Hmm gotta be to do with that video I thought... I go up to "the room" (the main trading/market floor) and low and behold there was Bruce Dickinson strolling around looking at the notice boards, the Luetine Bell, and the slip and claim for the Titanic and the photo of her and the iceberg that struck her. Anyway, no one was with him

explaining what all this stuff was to him, so I wandered over introduced myself and explained a few things about the place to him which was quite cool. Once done I gave my farewells and left for my office. A few months later I'm at home on a Saturday lunch time watching the Chartshow and the rockchart comes on... Cool I think! Yeah first they play Soundgardens Jesus Christ Pose. Then comes on the "Shoot all the Clowns" video... I immediately recognise the video! I'm like oh my god! I remember seeing this being filmed! Then part way through the video there is this shoot of a guy in a pin stripe suite coming down in a glass lift on the outside of the Lloyds' building... And as I camera moves in and the lift comes down... oh my god it was me!! I'd ended being cast as one of the clowns!! LOL I don't think Bruce could have chosen a more uncity like clone if he tried! But that's my claim to fame of how I got in a Bruce Dickinson video... and I still think it would have been cooler if they'd kept the psycho donkey from hell. :o)

Guy Thomas, 2001

Early 1996 there was a word out that Bruce had started this airline-buisness, "Mile high airlines" where amourous couples could pay money for the opportunity to have a shag at high altitude. In various newpapers around Europe there were articles with pictures of Bruce in a cockpit and him giving an insight in the story. On MTV they even had a phone number that could be dialled to book a highflying shag with Bruce's company.

What they didn't know was that it was all intended as an April false joke on April False Day. Bruce even decided that he shouldn't do the joke but some people obviously got hold of it and the word was out. I wonder where that phone number that MTV presented led...

The number was 0181 995 5124

Around 1992, Bruce bought a dalek from the BBC. If you're familliar with the British TV-series "Dr Who" from the seventies you'll know what I'm talking about. The dalek is this robot which was invented by this evil scientist called Davros. A really bizarre thing to have in possession, really.
"By the pricking of my thumbs / Something wicked this way comes" from the second chorus of Book of Thel is actually a quote from William Shakespeare's Macbeth.
On the B-side to the "All the young dudes" single there is an acoustic track called "Darkness be my friend". Now, that's all common knowledge, but what many people don't know is that the flutelike sound in the "solo" is played by none other than Don Airey on keyboards, former member of Rainbow and other classic rock groups.
One of The Bruce Dickinson Wellbeing Network's most precious pieces of trivia is that when Bruce and the lads were rehearsing for the "Airraid over Europe 2002"-tour Bruce had to re-learn the lyrics for "Broken", "Silver wings" and "Inner space" and Chris (Dale, bassist) printed the lyrics from THIS WEBSITE for Bruce use at rehearsals!
The film "The planet of the apes" (The original 1968 version, not Tim Burton's) inspired Bruce and director Howard Greenhall to find a special place to shoot the video for "Tears of the dragon" in. Bruce wanted the same feel as in "Planet of the apes" where, in the very last shot, you see half the Statue of Liberty sticking out of the ground, and they ended up at shooting the video at the "Durdle door" in Wales.
The song "Solar Confinement" on the Skunkworks album was originally called "Astral parlour confinement" and "Headswitch" off the same album had the working title "Fastgarden", since it was a fast song in the Soundgarden vein.

There actually was a "Slowgarden" as well but this song was never finished and since the Skunkworks has split-up it isn't very likely to believe that the song ever will be finished.

While on the subject of working titles it is also worth mentioning that the track "Armchair Hero" (Back from the edge CD-single) was originally called "Share it or lose it" and was played on the 1995 part of the Balls to Picasso tour.

Bruce's all time hero Arthur Brown is reading pieces of poetry in between some songs on "The chemical wedding"-album. These are in fact excerpts from the poem "The Book Of Thel" by 18th century poet William Blake.

Click here to find out more about William Blake.
Click here to find out more about The Book Of Thel.

The intro and outro tapes that was used on the Skunkworks-tour was lifted from the obscure "Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters" album by Robert Calvert. The intro was the track "Catch a falling starfighter" and the outro was "The Gremlin II", which, by the way, has Arthur Brown on guest vocals.
Balls to Picasso underwent a couple of title changes before it was released. At one point it was going to be called "Laughing in the hiding bush" after the track on the album and there even was a short lived idea that the album was going to be called "A thousand points of light" but Bruce thought it sounded too pretentious.
Bruce is actually moonlighting as pilot-instructor for a commercial air-traffic company and he may even take the necessary certificates to fly some of the commercial flights(!) So watch out, on your next flight you may hear an Ian Gillan banshee wail through the speakers followed by "This is your pilot Bruce Dickinson speaking"...
Radio ZID logo Dickinson's ensemble of guitarist Alex Dickson, bassplayer Chris Dale, and drummer Alessandro Elena made history as the first band to play a live rock show in Sarajevo since civil war erupted at the end of 1991. The band was invited to Bosnia by the British UN Forces.

During their stay in Sarajevo they became a much closer unit as a band and the whole thing inspired Bruce to write the song "Inertia". He had seen this image (up left), on a placard for Radio ZID, which saw woman trying to push a wall with her head. Bruce got the idea for the song because he felt that the picture showed what really was inertia.

Bruce was inspired to write the song "Dive dive dive" based on characters from the BBC series "Captain Pugwash". The names mentioned in the lyrics are all in that series. He also planned to use some samples from it as intro to the song but didn't get the permission so he had to do the talking himself.

The Iron Maiden track "Run silent, run deep", off the "No prayer for the dying" album, was also based on the series, and this song, though released half a year later, was the first of the two.

"The Chemical Wedding" was the working-title for a movie-script which Bruce was involved in writing back in 1992/93. It was based on the life of alchemist and black magician Alisteir Crowley.

It's also worth to note that "Man of sorrows" from the "Accident of birth" album was written during that period of time and intended for the soundtrack of the movie, hence the Crowley references in the lyrics.

Vacant space!

Do you have some weird info on Bruce & Co? Please share it with us. E-mail: henkej@hotmail.com

www.haircut.comb -
The Official Bruce Dickinson Haircut Information Site

Yes, all of what you've heard is true! Bruce Dickinson has cut his hair! We reveal all the facts on this site "www.haircut.comb", so check this space for details...
He cut his hair in early 1995 in London and his first TV apperarance with the new look was on MTV's Headbanger's ball where they had a report from the second Kerrang awards. All the world stopped at that moment. Had he actually cut his hair??? It wasn't a fake???

He later revealed in confidence to yours truly that it was "Errol the 'airdresser" in London that had relieved him from the most important part of his personality. Bruce found it best to choose a skilled barberer and Errol matched his criteria. He had won a couple of prizes for his excellent work. Now, he got the unenviable task of cutting the hair of a longhaired guy who who wanted his barnet redone.

So now Bruce's promoters got something to tell the world... The sensational news: "BRUCE DICKINSON HAS CUT HIS HAIR!!!! ... and he's got a new album out called "Skunkworks"

Is it the end of the world as we know it? Can we still breathe the atmosphere after this?

Or does it really matter...

[The piece of text above, at the end of this page, was put together as a protest from "The Bruce Dickinson Well Being Network" against the fact that Bruce's new haircut got more coverage in the media that his then newly released album, "Skunkworks". It is not to be considered as a fact, although the actual hairdresser's name was Errol(!).]