Samson Crew Member On Maiden/Samson Relationship
(Until Recently) The Only Samson Site On The Net, a fansite ran by the creators of the Bruce Dickinson Well-Being Network, has posted an interview with Bruce's former band Samson's founder Paul Samson's guitar technician Rob Grain, who speaks about Bruce's leaving the band and Maiden's relationship to Samson. The complete interview can be found hereA few excerpts from the interview:
In Iron Maiden's Early Days DVD Rod Smallwood mentions something about Samson "fucking" with Maiden and that he therefore had something against them. Is this anything you know of or would want tell us about?
In the early days, there was obviously a bit of rivalry between all of the bands, who were all trying to get the same gigs, record deals, management etc. I wasn’t directly involved in those days, so I can't really say much. There are certainly some things in Paul’s book that may give you a better answer.
How did Paul feel about that the band in some ways ended up in the background of Bruce and his career with Maiden? In a way it seems like Samson never got the credit for being one of the first important acts of the whole NWOBHM thing? Or did it feel like Samson didn't really belong under the NWOBHM-banner? Was Paul ever frustrated or even bitter about the trouble that seemed to be following the band? What are your thoughts on this? Do you think they have got the recognition they deserve?
I certainly don’t think that the band got anywhere near the recognition, or success that they deserved. Unfortunately there always seemed to be Management and Legal hassles, although these never affected the music. I never saw the band put on a bad show, and they certainly gave Uriah Heep, Robin Trower, Blackfoot, Gary Moore, Whitesnake and Rainbow a run for their money on tour.
Look at the two Reading festivals. In 1980 they were probably overshadowed by the stunning Pat Travers set that followed them, but in 1981 they were the strongest band of the day. Have you heard the recording of the 1999 Tokyo show? Samson were the only one-guitar line up of the day, yet had the biggest sound. I have just watched the video of the Wacken gig from 2000, and although the Nicky/Sticky line up didn’t really work, the power is still there. Paul really played his heart out on that one.
I don’t really think that they were ever “In the shadow of Maiden”, as the two bands were doing totally different things once Bruce had joined Maiden. As I said before, I feel that the 2 albums that Samson did for Polydor, plus Shock Tactics and Live at Reading, were 4 of the strongest albums to have come from the NWOBHM period.
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Maidenzone.com added some excerpts:
(...) I was not particularly surprised when the Band parted company with Barry, or Bruce for that matter. Barry wanted to take the stage show and theatrics further, whereby Paul and Chris felt that it was all distracting from the music. The direction that the new material written after Shock Tactics was taking wasn't really what Bruce wanted to do, and I thought that his ideas for this material were rather lacklustre, especially if you listen to Nicky Moores later interpretations of the same songs. Funnily enough, one of the last things that they did with Bruce was a song called The Biggest Lay in Town, which was about a bunch of groupies that used to hang around, with names like Spaniel Tits, The Elephant Seal, and Nutcracker. Bruce later used the same lyrics with Maiden on a song called Nodding Donkey Blues (...)
(...) "Not gilcup" (which is supposed to be written on the run-off groove of one Samson album) is a Monty Python Reference. Given Bruce's often quoted story on how he got the nick name Bruce Bruce in Samson there seems to have been a lot of pythonisms in the band. Would this be something typical of the jargon in the band? How come a certain member would be called "Hurst"? Were there a lot of nick names?
Ha ha, Splendid. Yes, the Python humour was most certainly prevalent, but then again so were things like Spike Milligan, and the Marx Bros. Every band has its own humour and develop its own sayings and expressions. A friend of mine used to comment that if he came round and I was on the phone to Paul, it was like another language.
Most members got nicknames. I was christened ”Hives” because Hives was the butler from a Laurel and Hardy sketch, and I was the bands Butler. Most people had more than one name, depending if they were in favour or not. I'm sure that nobody would thank me if I was to quote them here, but they are all in Paul’s Book.
Bruce’s version of how he got the name actually differs from Paul’s. According to Paul’s, the singer was known as Bruce, although unbeknown to the others at the time, this was his middle name, and his real name was Paul. When Paul asked him what was his middle name, he truthfully replied ”Bruce”, so Paul thought that his name was Bruce Bruce Dickinson.
Of course, every new member was referred to as ”New Bruce” from the Python sketch, so maybe this is where Bruce’s version came from. Hurst was one of Pete Jupp’s nicknames. After his first gig, someone said ”I thought Hurst played well” (another Python quote) and it stuck.
In Iron Maiden's Early Days DVD Rod Smallwood mentions something about Samson "fucking" with Maiden and that he therefore had something against them. Is this anything you know of or would want tell us about?
In the early days, there was obviously a bit of rivalry between all of the bands, who were all trying to get the same gigs, record deals, management etc. I wasn’t directly involved in those days, so I can't really say much. There are certainly some things in Paul’s book that may give you a better answer.
How did Paul feel about that the band in some ways ended up in the background of Bruce and his career with Maiden? In a way it seems like Samson never got the credit for being one of the first important acts of the whole NWOBHM thing? Or did it feel like Samson didn't really belong under the NWOBHM-banner? Was Paul ever frustrated or even bitter about the trouble that seemed to be following the band? What are your thoughts on this? Do you think they have got the recognition they deserve?
I certainly don’t think that the band got anywhere near the recognition, or success that they deserved. Unfortunately there always seemed to be Management and Legal hassles, although these never affected the music. (...)
(...) I don’t really think that they were ever “In the shadow of Maiden”, as the two bands were doing totally different things once Bruce had joined Maiden. As I said before, I feel that the 2 albums that Samson did for Polydor, plus Shock Tactics and Live at Reading, were 4 of the strongest albums to have come from the NWOBHM period. (...)
(...) Paul believed in himself, and always gave his best. He also always surrounded himself with excellent musicians. He probably could have joined someone else’s band and become a household name, but he always wanted to do it on his terms. My advice to people would be to ignore all of the Bullshit that you read on the web, and listen to the music, then maybe then you will appreciate how good a musician and songwriter he was. Regarding the comment I saw on the web that said Paul would have been nothing without Bruce, I think that the facts show that it is more likely the other way around.
I find it particularly irritating that all over the web, and in books, you find articles that insinuate that Samson was Bruce’s band before he joined Maiden, and that Paul Samson would have been nothing without Bruce, that Samson were nothing more than one of Iron Maidens support bands, and that Samson were not serious musicians. I am sure that Bruce must have found it equally irritating. To get the record straight, Samson were one of, if not the, first NWOBHM bands to get a record deal. They had had 2 singles released with Clive Burr on drums prior to Thunderstick joining, a third single with Thunderstick on drums, and the Survivors album recorded, all prior to Bruce joining. Bruce was given a credit on the album, purely because he joined the band just prior to the tour to support it. The only times that Samson appeared together with Maiden was on the Heavy Metal Crusade tour, and a couple of festivals. (Reading, and Stafford Bingley Hall.) Maiden were above Samson on the festival billings, but you can’t really call that a support. The Heavy Metal Crusade was actually bankrolled by Samson’s management, and consequently they were the headline act. There was a bit of situation (possibly fuelled by Neal Kaye) at one point, which may be the thing that gets mentioned in the new Maiden dvd, and the two bands agreed that they would not do any London shows on the same billing. (...)
Cheers