Thanks to Amazon, I became aware of the imminent release of Bruce Dickinson’s autobiography “What’s Does This Button Do”. My immediate response was “I am going to pre-order a copy right now”. I duly clicked the “buy” button, it will be delivered on the 19th October (its official release date).
Bruce Dickinson is one of my heroes and he’s had plenty of mentions on this site over the years (a selection of older article links below). I have been a fan of Iron Maiden for three decades, seen the band perform live many times, own every album produced and also possess everything that Bruce released during his solo career. I have some of his Samson stuff too and I even own copies of both his Lord Iffy Boatrace books from the early nineties.
In my pantheon of heavy metal heroes, Bruce is on the top tier along with Ozzy and Lemmy. Arguably Bruce sets the standard for all because he is also amazingly accomplished outside of the world of music and brighter than both the others put together (even when Lem was still alive). King of the heavy metal deities then.
To go all in, Dickinson is a UK treasure and it bugs me every year when he doesn’t end up on the New Year’s Honours List. He still lives in the UK, I haven’t heard that he doesn’t pay his taxes and if it was down to me, Bruce would have a knighthood for services to the music industry. Sycophantic I know, but there you have it.
I hope that his autobiography will be as interesting as Ozzie Osbourne’s “I am Ozzy”, and Lemmy’s “White Line Fever”. Ozzy’s autobiography (though technically assisted by Chris Ayres) is one of the funniest, most entertaining things of the genre that I have ever read. Hopefully though Bruce’s effort is nothing like Steven Tyler’s “Does the Noise in My head Bother You?” because that book is truly dreadful.
I thought about book launches in general and wondered if Bruce was going to sign any copies of his autobiography anywhere. It was good enough for Michael Palin in 2012, maybe Bruce would turn up the Milton Keynes branch of WH Smiths too. I took to Google to find out. And it turned out that he would be promoting his book, but in a more income generative manner.
A visit to Teamrock.com revealed an article that details the three dates on Bruce’s “personal appearance tour”. So not a book signing, more like “an audience with” - obviously less inclusive and certainly more expensive.
The dates/venues:
Oct 17: London Troxy – 7.30pm
Oct 20: Edinburgh Assembly Rooms – 7pm
Oct 22: Manchester Lowry – 2pm
The cost of attending an event … £30 (plus £3 booking fee). But the ticket price includes a signed hardback copy of the book and a bottle of Maiden’s Trooper beer (or a soft drink).
This is the caveat re the signing “Please note all books will be pre-signed”. No personalisation then.
Now the Troxy in London would be the only event I’d have a chance to get to and I spent a while debating whether or not to go. But I couldn’t bring myself to buy a ticket because it just felt like a depersonalised, slightly exploitative, money making exercise. The Troxy gig isn’t sold out yet either, so I might not be alone in my thinking.
My copy of the book has cost me £9.99 from Amazon. Admittedly the list price is £20 but these days, whoever pays RRP? A bottle of Trooper ale (very good beer by the way) in Tesco right now is £1.80. So £33 (plus travel costs) to listen to Bruce talking about his book as opposed to a £11.79 outlay otherwise.
Admittedly a signed copy of Bruce’s book will be worth more in resale terms than a non-signed one, so you could view the extra cost as an investment. But that would presuppose that a fan might sell his/her copy. I certainly wouldn’t (unless Dickinson proves himself to be a Tyler-like-space-cadet, then I’d charity shop it).
Then I got to thinking about the venue. The Troxy has a seating capacity of nearly 900. So the chance of getting close to Bruce, or being able to engage with him personally, must be extremely low. Depending upon where one’s seat was in the venue, one might need binoculars to see him at all. No hand-shakes, no selfies, no personalised comments in the book.
In Bruce’s defence, he is a private chap, hates interviews and is remarkably busy. He probably had to commit to some promotional events as part of the publishing deal. Making some money out of them and limiting exposure would make sense if he was dreading the fan/media circus.
I sense checked my thinking with a close friend of mine, also a lifelong fan. He wasn’t interested in going at all. No internal processing for him.
So I am not going to the Troxy next week but once I get my copy of “What Does This Button Do”, I’ll read it and write up a review when I am done.
I have heard it said and seen it written (in fact I am sure I have written it myself before) that you should never meet your heroes but … Bruce, if you ever read this post (highly unlikely I admit, but I can dream can’t I?), though I won’t be at the Troxy, I’d still love you to sign my copy of your autobiography. And, if we could meet over a pint of Trooper (or a soft drink), I’d thank you for all the value/joy you (and your band mates) have added to my life. My wife and kids have no idea who you are so if you happen to meet them too, I apologise in advance.
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Previous Posts
July 2012 http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/heavy-metal-ndash-a-constant-companion.html
14/08/2012 http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/-behind-the-beast-ironing-maiden
27/04/2016 http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/musicology
External Links
http://teamrock.com/news/2017-09-01/iron-maiden-bruce-dickinson-announces-uk-book-tour
https://troxy.co.uk/event/button-conversation-bruce-dickinson/
Bruce Dickinson is one of my heroes and he’s had plenty of mentions on this site over the years (a selection of older article links below). I have been a fan of Iron Maiden for three decades, seen the band perform live many times, own every album produced and also possess everything that Bruce released during his solo career. I have some of his Samson stuff too and I even own copies of both his Lord Iffy Boatrace books from the early nineties.
In my pantheon of heavy metal heroes, Bruce is on the top tier along with Ozzy and Lemmy. Arguably Bruce sets the standard for all because he is also amazingly accomplished outside of the world of music and brighter than both the others put together (even when Lem was still alive). King of the heavy metal deities then.
To go all in, Dickinson is a UK treasure and it bugs me every year when he doesn’t end up on the New Year’s Honours List. He still lives in the UK, I haven’t heard that he doesn’t pay his taxes and if it was down to me, Bruce would have a knighthood for services to the music industry. Sycophantic I know, but there you have it.
I hope that his autobiography will be as interesting as Ozzie Osbourne’s “I am Ozzy”, and Lemmy’s “White Line Fever”. Ozzy’s autobiography (though technically assisted by Chris Ayres) is one of the funniest, most entertaining things of the genre that I have ever read. Hopefully though Bruce’s effort is nothing like Steven Tyler’s “Does the Noise in My head Bother You?” because that book is truly dreadful.
I thought about book launches in general and wondered if Bruce was going to sign any copies of his autobiography anywhere. It was good enough for Michael Palin in 2012, maybe Bruce would turn up the Milton Keynes branch of WH Smiths too. I took to Google to find out. And it turned out that he would be promoting his book, but in a more income generative manner.
A visit to Teamrock.com revealed an article that details the three dates on Bruce’s “personal appearance tour”. So not a book signing, more like “an audience with” - obviously less inclusive and certainly more expensive.
The dates/venues:
Oct 17: London Troxy – 7.30pm
Oct 20: Edinburgh Assembly Rooms – 7pm
Oct 22: Manchester Lowry – 2pm
The cost of attending an event … £30 (plus £3 booking fee). But the ticket price includes a signed hardback copy of the book and a bottle of Maiden’s Trooper beer (or a soft drink).
This is the caveat re the signing “Please note all books will be pre-signed”. No personalisation then.
Now the Troxy in London would be the only event I’d have a chance to get to and I spent a while debating whether or not to go. But I couldn’t bring myself to buy a ticket because it just felt like a depersonalised, slightly exploitative, money making exercise. The Troxy gig isn’t sold out yet either, so I might not be alone in my thinking.
My copy of the book has cost me £9.99 from Amazon. Admittedly the list price is £20 but these days, whoever pays RRP? A bottle of Trooper ale (very good beer by the way) in Tesco right now is £1.80. So £33 (plus travel costs) to listen to Bruce talking about his book as opposed to a £11.79 outlay otherwise.
Admittedly a signed copy of Bruce’s book will be worth more in resale terms than a non-signed one, so you could view the extra cost as an investment. But that would presuppose that a fan might sell his/her copy. I certainly wouldn’t (unless Dickinson proves himself to be a Tyler-like-space-cadet, then I’d charity shop it).
Then I got to thinking about the venue. The Troxy has a seating capacity of nearly 900. So the chance of getting close to Bruce, or being able to engage with him personally, must be extremely low. Depending upon where one’s seat was in the venue, one might need binoculars to see him at all. No hand-shakes, no selfies, no personalised comments in the book.
In Bruce’s defence, he is a private chap, hates interviews and is remarkably busy. He probably had to commit to some promotional events as part of the publishing deal. Making some money out of them and limiting exposure would make sense if he was dreading the fan/media circus.
I sense checked my thinking with a close friend of mine, also a lifelong fan. He wasn’t interested in going at all. No internal processing for him.
So I am not going to the Troxy next week but once I get my copy of “What Does This Button Do”, I’ll read it and write up a review when I am done.
I have heard it said and seen it written (in fact I am sure I have written it myself before) that you should never meet your heroes but … Bruce, if you ever read this post (highly unlikely I admit, but I can dream can’t I?), though I won’t be at the Troxy, I’d still love you to sign my copy of your autobiography. And, if we could meet over a pint of Trooper (or a soft drink), I’d thank you for all the value/joy you (and your band mates) have added to my life. My wife and kids have no idea who you are so if you happen to meet them too, I apologise in advance.
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
Previous Posts
July 2012 http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/heavy-metal-ndash-a-constant-companion.html
14/08/2012 http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/-behind-the-beast-ironing-maiden
27/04/2016 http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/musicology
External Links
http://teamrock.com/news/2017-09-01/iron-maiden-bruce-dickinson-announces-uk-book-tour
https://troxy.co.uk/event/button-conversation-bruce-dickinson/
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