IRON MAIDEN's Bruce Dickinson

IRON MAIDEN's Bruce Dickinson Urges Entrepreneurs To Turn Themselves Into "The Ultimate Virus"




According to Rhodri Evans from WalesOnline, Bruce Dickinson today urged entrepreneurs to turn themselves into "the ultimate virus".


Speaking at the Entrepreneurs Wales 2012 conference at Cardiff’s
City Hall, the IRON MAIDEN star and founder of Cardiff Aviation urged
delegates to make their businesses something their customers could not
live without.


"The key thing is to figure out how to make yourself invaluable – to
be the ultimate virus – to get into the system, a corporate, or
somebody’s head and become indispensable," he said. "They can’t do it
without you because you have invented some widget or some software or
because you are who you are."





He warned that businesses also had to adapt to survive, drawing on his experiences from the music business.


"You have to make music because that gives you the moral authority
to play live, but everybody is going to steal it or get it for a
fraction of what it was worth," he said. "It makes it a little more
tedious – the music is free, but the T-shirt now costs you 100 bucks."


His own band, Iron Maiden, recently sold 50,000 tickets for a concert in Stockholm in 49 minutes, such was the demand from fans.


"Everything about being an entrepreneur is about the customer," said
Mr Dickinson. "If I turn the word ‘fan’ into ‘customer’ that’s not a
bad customer satisfaction rating, is it.


"Are all your customers fans of what you do? Apple have got fans –
people who believe their little devices are a pathway to a better
tomorrow. To turn your customers into fans you really have to target
them and know exactly who they are and what you are going to deliver for
them that is different to everybody else."


Read more at WalesOnline.

BRUCE DICKINSON To Address Belfast Dinner


The lead singer of IRON MAIDEN is to address a meeting of Northern Ireland businessmen next month.





BRUCE DICKINSON has been the lead vocalist for the heavy metal group
since 1981.They are the headline act for this year's Download Festival
and are to return to Donnington, the UK's largest heavy metal festival,
this year marking 25 years since their first headline appearance at the
concert.


Then they played to 107,000, the Insitute of Director's gig in
Belfast next month for Bruce Dickinson will be slightly smaller and
probably wearing less denim. The rocker is a relative newcomer to the
speaker circuit, but runs a successful business outside of his music
interests.


Read more at BBC News.


Iron Maiden will play at Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium, Finland on
Saturday, July 20th. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, January 30th at 8.00
(CET). An exclusive first ticket pre-sale for Iron Maiden Fan Club
members will run on Monday, January 28th. Fan club members will also be
eligible in the draw to be First To The Barrier.


For more details and Iron Maiden's tour schedule visit Ironmaiden.com.

IRON MAIDEN - Bruce Dickinson's Cardiff Aviation In Discussions To Set Up Airline




Legendary IRON MAIDEN vocalist Bruce Dickinson spoke with James Quinn from Yahoo! Finance UK on how to juggle rock music and aviation and a new beer.


For a man whose fortune is estimated to be in excess of $100
million, Dickinson does not need to work, let alone juggle the creation
of a new airline and aircraft maintenance business with the demands of a
36-date world tour during which he will play to a combined audience of
some 1.5 million in 30 different countries.





“The reason I do all the things I do now is because I love them.
Life is too short to do the things you don’t love doing,” says
Dickinson. “If your only arbiter of anything is money, really you
should… go and rob banks.”


His Cardiff Aviation is also in discussions with the Civil Aviation Authority about setting up an airline.


“Subject to approvals, we’ll be in the air within the next 50 days,”
he beams. “Clearly that fits with the maintenance both operations need
each other.”


The plan is to start with three private jets, before sourcing some
regional jets, and then working towards some larger, full passenger
jets.


“The next stage is rebuilding Astraeus, but with proper governance.
The market is ripe for an outsourcing airline that provides extra
capacity. We want to provide British jobs, British pilots and
British-operated aircraft.”





Dickinson is gearing for select dates with Maiden around the world,
which he will use to promote the band’s new Trooper beer, which
Dickinson himself spent six weeks tasting and sampling at Robinsons
Brewery in Stockport until he was happy with the flavour.


“It’s going to be in 10,000 pubs next week,” he says, citing JD
Wetherspoon, Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns as pub companies who have
signed up to take deliveries. “I had no interest in a limited edition,
slap-a-label-on-it beer,” says Dickinson, who estimates that in a
fortnight, some 1m pints of the beer called Trooper after one of the
band’s songs will have been sold. “It’s the fastest beer they’ve ever
produced,” he says of Robinsons. “I’m going the blow the doors off the
brewery.”


Read the entire article at Yahoo! Finance UK.

IRON MAIDEN's Bruce Dickinson Buys Bournemouth Flight Centre


According to Insidermedia.com, European Aviation Group's European Skybus flight training centre in Bournemouth has been acquired by Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson's Cardiff Aviation Ltd.



The centre is to remain in Bournemouth for the time being but is expected to be incorporated into the aircraft maintenance and flight training organisation's base in South Wales.

The sum paid for the centre, a Civil Aviation Authority approved training organisation, is undisclosed.

The 13-acre site has helicopter simulators used by airlines and aircraft operations worldwide for initial flight crew training. It also has airside access to a private apron and a team of full-time engineers maintain the simulators.

Cardiff Aviation was established by Dickinson, a Boeing 757 pilot, and Fulgoni, a former airline captain, in July 2012.