Page 12 - Oundle Life October 2022

MAIDEN
OUNDLE
Unorthodox alumni!
With its classical porticos, pillars, balustrades, and quadrangle, Oundle School isn’t the most obvious educational establishment for
future rocks stars, but Bruce Dickinson
came of age while he was a pupil there.
Iron Maiden are one of the biggest
heavy rock bands on the planet, having
sold 200 million albums since forming
in 1975 (Dickinson joined in 1981).
But there’s more to Dickinson’s talents
than his air raid siren voice. He is also
a fully qualified commercial airline
pilot and flew his own band on a world
tour in a Boeing 747 in 2016. He now
owns an aircraft maintenance and pilot training company, so his time at Oundle School was clearly not all wasted!
As if that wasn’t enough, Dickinson is also
a seriously good fencer and is ranked number six in the world. He has won two silver medals
Bruce Dickinson first discovered he wanted to be a rock star while at Oundle School
in the world championships, two bronze medals in the European championships, and was ranked
fifth in the Olympics in 2000. It
was a metalwork teacher at Oundle School, John Worsley, who introduced Dickinson to fencing.
But it’s as a singer that Dickinson is known worldwide, and it was while at school in Oundle that he first became interested in heavy rock – and it was a spark that would ignite a worldwide
flame. Dickinson’s house was Sidney, on Milton Road, where he lodged with 50 or 60 other boys, and it was while staying there that he saw his first ever live band – Wild Turkey – and became
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