BRUCE DICKINSON at Sentrum Scene (Oslo, Norway)
January 12, 2023
by Jorge Patacas
Iron Maiden’s frontman Bruce Dickinson started 2023 taking his celebrated Spoken Word performance “An Evening with Bruce Dickinson” out on the road for a few dates in Europe starting on January 12th in Oslo, Norway. We’re used to see him from a distance when he plays big arenas with the heavy metal legends, but this format is something completely different. He’s standing alone in a much smaller venue and the only things that can be seen on stage besides him are a carpet, a table and a screen where some pictures are displayed while he tells stories about his career and his life in general from childhood to the current days and all of that in a very comical way. Those who were not familiar with his talent as a storyteller and orator may have been surprised after this 3-hour event.
He started talking about his childhood while showing a picture of himself as a kid and another one of his uncle who worked for the Royal Air Force during World War II. Hence, his interest in becoming a pilot. His early years were covered with lots of humor, specially when talking about the small hometown where he was born, Worksop, attending school and getting kicked out for pissing in the headmaster’s dinner. The audience burst into laughter when hearing this. Then of course came the music and how he originally wanted to be a drummer, but ended up playing the bongos in his school band before becoming the vocalist. Another funny story was when he was playing gigs with his band Shots in small pubs and the way he got to know the guys from Samson for whom he would end up singing later.
He then told us the mistakes Samson made and how it was when he joined Iron Maiden, which led to many hilarious moments when it comes to the outfits they wore back then and a pair of shoes he bought in Los Angeles which he later found out where a replica of Michael Jackson’s Thriller shoes and that’s why the MJ initials were printed on them.
We also got to hear his experiences as an aviator, being an airline pilot in the 2000’s and how his life changed when he was diagnosed with cancer. He even managed to tell something funny on such a serious topic when he mentioned how his beard fell off his face as a result of chemotherapy while drinking in a pub with his friends.
There was an intermission of 25 minutes where the video for Iron Maiden’s single “Writing on the Wall” was played on the screen, but unfortunately, it was cut after a couple of minutes due to technical issues. Also the fans were able to write questions for Bruce, some of which he was going to answer when coming back on stage.
Funniest part of the second half of the evening was the number of questions regarding the song “Alexander the Great” not being played live. Then there were other questions about his solo career and his plans to release a new solo album which, before any rumors start, he clarified is not going to lead him to leave Iron Maiden or anything like that. He also discussed his concert as a solo artist in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war in 1994. There’s a very good documentary about this event called “Scream for me Sarajevo” in case you haven’t watched it.
The story about the Maiden’s b-side “Mission From ‘Arry” was also told by Bruce who then closed the performance with a story about how the drummer Nicko McBrain was the first band member to become a pilot. This one was hilarious and even more with Dickinson’s impressions of McBrain.
It was a very entertaining evening where the fans were able to see one of the biggest icons in metal music in an intimate environment.
