Fencing

Final of the Challenge Réseau Ferré de France–Trophée Monal 2012, épée world cup tournament in Paris.
Focus	Weaponry
Olympic sport	Present since inaugural 1896 Olympics
Official website	www.fie.chwww.fie.org

Fencing, which is also known as olympic fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing,^[1] is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons. It is usually practised with the help of a sword or mini-blade

Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games. The sport of fencing is divided into three weapons:

• Foil—a light thrusting weapon that targets the torso, including the back, but not the arms. Touches are scored only with the tip; hits with the side of the blade do not count, and do not halt the action. Touches that land outside of the target area (off-target) stop the action, and are not scored. Only a single hit can be scored by either fencer at one time. If both fencers hit at the same time, the referee uses the rules of right of way to determine which fencer gets the point.
• Sabre—a light cutting and thrusting weapon that targets the entire body above the waist, excluding the hands. Hits with the edges of the blade as well as the tip are valid. As in foil, touches which land outside of the target area are not scored. However, unlike foil, these off-target touches do not stop the action, and the fencing continues. In the case of both fencers landing a scoring touch, the referee determines which fencer receives the point for the action, again through the use of "right of way".
• Épée—a heavier thrusting weapon that targets the entire body. All hits must be with the tip and not the sides of the blade. Touches hit by the side of the blade do not halt the action. Unlike foil and sabre, Épée does not use right of way, and allows simultaneous hits by both fencers. However, if the score is tied at the last point and a double touch is scored, nobody is awarded the point.

History[link]

The rules of modern fencing originated in Spain, where the first known book on fencing, Treatise on Arms, was written by Diego de Valera between 1458 and 1471, shortly before dueling came under official ban by the Catholic Monarchs. When Spain became the leading power of Europe, the Spanish armies carried fencing abroad and particularly into the south of Italy, one of the main battlefields between both nations.^[2][3]

Modern fencing originated in the 18th century, in the Italian school of fencing of the Renaissance, and, under their influence, was improved by the French school of fencing.^[1][4] The Spanish school of fencing didn't became prominent until the 19th century. Nowadays, these three schools are the most influential around the world.

Dueling went into sharp decline after World War I. After World War II, dueling went out of use in Europe except for very rare exceptions. Training for duels, once fashionable for males of aristocratic backgrounds (although fencing masters such as Hope suggest that many people considered themselves trained from taking only one or two lessons), all but disappeared, along with the classes themselves. Fencing continued as a sport, with tournaments and championships. However, the need to actually prepare for a duel with "sharps" vanished, changing both training and technique.

Starting with épée in 1936, side-judges were replaced by an electrical scoring apparatus,^[5] with an audible tone and a red or green light indicating when a touch landed. Foil was automated in 1956, sabre in 1988. The scoring box reduced the bias in judging, and permitted more accurate scoring of faster actions, lighter touches, and more touches to the back and flank than before.^{[citation needed]}

Forms of fencing[link]

Olympic fencing[link]

Olympic fencing refers to the fencing seen in most current competitions, including the Olympic Games and the World Cup. Competitions are conducted according to rules laid down by the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE), the international governing body. These rules evolved from a set of conventions developed in Europe between mid-17th and early 20th century. The three Olympic weapons are foil, épée, and sabre. In competition, the validity of touches is determined by the electronic scoring apparatus and a set of rules called right of way or priority to eliminate referee error and bias.

In the United States[link]

In the United States, athletes compete at local and national levels, for the most part sanctioned by the United States Fencing Association (USFA). Locally, athletes register for tournaments in their division via a website called "Askfred.net."^[6] Nationally, athletes compete in tournaments called North American Cups, or NACs for short,^[7] as well as championship events including the Junior Olympics and Summer National Championships. At these tournaments, competitors are divided by gender, weapon, age group, and division (skill level). Age groups include Y10 (Youth 10, or 10 and younger) Y12 (12 and younger), Y14 (14 and younger), Cadet (under 17), Junior (under 20), as well as a variety of Veterans' categories for fencers over 40, 50, 60, or 70.

National ratings are awarded by the USFA and range from A through E (A being the highest and E the lowest), with U for all unrated fencers. Ratings are awarded based on number of competitors in a tournament and the strength of the tournament. Some competitions require competitors to meet the rating criteria. Division I fencing requires ratings of C or higher; Division II requires ratings of C or lower; Division III requires D or lower. A national points system for the age groups as well as Division 1 is based on results at national events and determines qualification for World Championships, World Cups, and the Olympics.

In the most common tournament format, fencers first fence 4 to 7 others (a round-robin "pool") in 5-touch bouts. The fencers are then seeded against all other competing fencers based on their pool results. A certain percentage of the lowest-seeded fencers (typically 20–25%) is sometimes cut from the competition prior to the direct elimination bracket. Fencers are then placed into a bracket based on the seeding and fence single-elimination bouts, usually to 15 touches. The winners advance in the bracket, and the losers are eliminated from the tournament.

Wheelchair fencing[link]

Wheelchair fencing, an original Paralympic sport, was developed in post-World War II England. Minor modifications to the FIE rules allow disabled fencers to fence all three weapons. The most apparent change is that each fencer sits in a wheelchair fastened to a frame. Footwork is replaced by torso or arm movement, depending on the fencer's disability. The proximity of the two fencers tends to increase the pace of bouts. The fencers use standard Olympic weapons.

Other variants[link]

Other variants include chair fencing, one-hit épée (one of the five events which constitute modern pentathlon) and the various types of non-Olympic competitive fencing. Chair fencing is similar to wheelchair fencing but for the able bodied. The opponents set up opposing chairs and fence while seated, all the usual rules of fencing are applied. An example of the latter is the American Fencing League (distinct from the United States Fencing Association): the format of competitions is different and the right of way rules are interpreted in a different way. In a number of countries, school and university matches deviate slightly from the FIE format.

Weapons[link]

Three weapons survive in modern competitive fencing: foil, épée, and sabre. The spadroon and the heavy cavalry-style sabre, both popular in the 19th century, fell into disfavour in the early 20th century, replaced by lighter and faster weapons. The singlestick was featured in the 1904 Olympic Games, but it was already declining in popularity. Bayonet fencing experienced a somewhat slower decline, with competitions organized by some armed forces as late as the 1940s and 1950s.

While the weapons differ in shape and use, their basic construction is similar across the disciplines. Every weapon has a blade and a hilt. The tip of the blade is generally referred to as the point, the top third of the blade as the flexible foible (weak in French), while the base of the blade is referred to as the forté (or strong part). The hilt consists of a guard and a grip. The guard (also known as the coquille, the bell, or the bellguard) is a metal shell designed to protect the fingers. The grip is the weapon's handle. In foil and épée the more traditional French grip is approximately straight and usually terminates with a pommel (a heavy nut intended to act as a counterweight for the blade and to hold the handle on the weapon). Some modern French grip designs do not use a heavy pommel nut, in an effort to reduce weight.

The Italian grip, dating from a similar period, has fallen out of general favor. It features a straight handle and a crossbar beneath the guard that the fencer can use to manipulate the blade. The crossbar is known for causing injury, as the fencer's fingers can become stuck if the blade is turned unexpectedly. It is the only ambidextrous fencing grip, and many fencers with arm trouble use it so they can freely switch without having to carry twice as many blades. The Italian is banned in some regions, and is mistakenly believed to be banned in others, necessitating that users often carry explicit rulings to show judges to prove it is allowed.

French grips have been entirely replaced in higher level foil fencing, and partially replaced in épée fencing, by ergonomic designs, called pistol grips or orthopaedic grips. Among the many designs, the most popular are the Visconti, Belgian, and Russian grips. Grips produced by Zivkovic fencing are also popular, and are the most commonly seen 'non-standard' grips.

Modern competitive weapons have electrical wiring which allows them to register a touch on the opponent via an electrical scoring system.

Foil[link]

Short clip of foil fencing

International valid foil target — the torso, and the portion of the bib 1.5–2cm below chin level. Note that the USFA does not use the bib target in the United States.

The foil is light and flexible, originally developed in the mid-17th century as a training weapon for the Pariser small sword, a light one-handed sword designed almost exclusively for thrusting.

Electric foils have a push-button on the point of the blade, which allows hits to be registered by an electronic scoring apparatus. In order to register, the button must be depressed with a force of at least 4.90 newtons (500 grams-force) for at least 15 milliseconds. Foil and Sabre fencers wear conductive jackets (lamé) covering their target area, which allow the scoring apparatus to differentiate between on- and off-target hits.

The target area is restricted to the torso, including the front and back. A modification in FIE rules from 1 January 2009 includes as valid target area the part of the mask's bib below a straight line drawn between the shoulders; prior to this, the bib of the fencer's mask was not a valid target. International events such as Junior or Senior World Cup Events require the bib target. However, this rule has not been implemented uniformly in all National fencing organizations. European fencing organizations generally decided on September 1, 2009 as the date for all competitions to use the new rule.^{[citation needed]}

Foil fencing is conducted using rules of right of way. The basic principle is that, if both fencers score a touch on the other, the fencer who began their offensive action first prevails, unless that offensive action fails. A fencer's action fails if it misses his/her opponent, or it is parried. If priority cannot be determined when both fencers have hit each other, no point is awarded.

The original idea behind the rules of foil fencing was to encourage fencers to defend and attack vital areas, and to fight in a methodical way with initiative passing back and forth between the combatants, thus minimizing the risk of a double death.

The target must be hit with the tip of the foil; a touch with any other part of the foil has no effect whatsoever and fencing continues uninterrupted. A touch on an off-target area halts the action, but does not score a point.

When an exchange ends in a hit, the referee will call "halt," and fencing will cease. The referee will then analyze the exchange and phrase it in official terminology. An example of this terminology would be "Attack from the left, no. Parry-Riposte from the right is good. Touch to the right."

The first offensive action is called the attack. All defensive actions successfully deflecting an opponent's blade are called parries. An offensive action of a parrying fencer directly following the parry is called a riposte. An offensive action of a fencer, who attacks a second time without first withdrawing the arm after an unsuccessful first attack, is called a remise. An offensive action of a fencer from the on-guard position, after being parried and then returning to the on-guard position, is called a reprise. An offensive action of a fencer after his/her opponent has lost the right to riposte via inaction is called a redouble. An offensive action begun by a fencer who is being attacked by his/her opponent is called a counter-attack.

Épée[link]

Short clip of épée fencing

Valid target area at épée (the entire body)

The modern sporting Épée was invented in the second half of the 19th century by a group of French students, who felt that the conventions of foil were too restrictive, and the weapon itself too light; they wanted an experience closer to that of an actual duel. The concept was to create an exact copy of a small sword but without the needle-sharp point. Instead, the blade terminated in a point d'arrêt, a three-pronged tip which would snag on the clothing without penetrating the flesh.

The épée is a thrusting weapon: to score a valid hit, the fencer must fix the point of his weapon on his opponent's target. The épée target area is the entire body. No rules control the timing of hits. When fencing electronically, fencers do not wear conductive lamé jackets as they do when fencing foil and sabre. In the event of both fencers making a touch within 40 milliseconds of each other, both are awarded a point (a double hit). When the score is equal and the point would mean the win for both, such as in modern pentathlon's one-hit épée, neither receives a point. Otherwise, the first to hit always receives the point, regardless of what happened earlier in the phase. The épée is the typically heaviest of the sporting weapons, although some épée blades weigh only 150 grams (5.3 oz). An épée is composed of a blade, a point, a bell guard, and a handle or grip (French or pistol grip).

The electric épée, used in modern competitive fencing, terminates in a push-button. A hit must arrive with a force of at least 7.35 newtons (1.65 lb_f) and the push-button must remain fully depressed for 1 millisecond. All hits register as valid, unless they land on a grounded metal surface, such as a part of the opponent's weapon, in which case they do not register. At large events, grounded conductive pistes cover the floor to prevent the registration of hits against it. At smaller events and in club fencing, the referee is responsible for noticing floor hits. These often happen by accident, when an épéeist aims at the opponent's foot and misses. Deliberate floor hits are treated as "dishonest fencing," and penalized accordingly.

Épée has less restrictive rules for footwork and physical contact than the other two weapons. In épée, a corps-à-corps (collision between fencers) is not penalized unless initialiated with intent to harm or avoid a touch or is excessively violent. There are no restrictions on crossing of the feet or use of the flèche attack in épée; if the fencers pass each other, the attacking fencer may score until he passes his opponent. The defending fencer has the right to one continuous riposte, and may still score after the attacker has passed.

The counterattack is very important in épée; direct, unprepared attacks are vulnerable to counterattacks to the hand or arm, or to the body of a taller opponent. High level épée is often a game of provocation, with each player trying to lure the other into an attack. Maintaining the appropriate distance is more important than in the other two genres.

Sabre[link]

Valid target at sabre (everything above the waist, excepting the hands and the back of the head).

Sabre is the 'cutting' weapon: points may be scored with edges and sides of the blade. Although the modern design with a light and flexible blade (marginally stiffer than a foil blade which bends easily up and down while a sabre blade bends easier side to side) appeared around the turn of the 19th and 20th century, similar sporting weapons with more substantial blades had been used throughout the Victorian era.

There is some debate as to whether the modern fencing sabre is descended from the cavalry sabres of Turkic origin, which became popular in Central and Western Europe around the time of Napoleonic Wars, or one of Europe's indigenous edged dueling weapons, such as the cutting rapier. In practice, it is likely to be a hybrid of the two. Most of the conventions and vocabulary of modern sabre fencing were developed by late 19th and early 20th centuries masters from Italy and Hungary, perhaps most notable among them being Italo Santelli (1866–1945).

The sabre target covers everything above the waist, except the hands (wrists are included) and the back of the head. Any contact between any part of the blade and any part of the target counts as a valid touch. Earlier conventions stipulated that a valid touch must be made with the point or either the front or back cutting edge, and that a point attack must not merely graze the target and slip along (pass) the opponent's body. These requirements had to be abandoned, because of technical difficulties, shortly after electronic scoring was introduced into sabre fencing in late 1980s.

Sabre is subject to similar right of way rules as foil, with slightly different definitions of a correctly executed attack and parry. These differences, together with a much greater scoring surface (the whole of the blade, rather than the point alone), make sabre parries difficult to execute effectively. As a result, sabre tactics rely much more heavily on footwork with blade contact kept to a minimum. Play is not halted by an off-target (hands/below the waist) hit in sabre. To prevent both fencers from immediately charging each other at the beginning of fencing action, crossing of the feet while moving forwards is not allowed, which also prohibits use of the flèche. Violations result in a penalty against the offending fencer (a warning, followed by a penalty touch if the offense is repeated). A 'flunge' is sometimes used as a replacement for the outlawed flèche: the fencer leaps at the opponent, being sure to keep his rear foot behind his front as long as possible. Safely landing following this move requires crossing the feet, thus the hit must be scored while airborne. Sabre matches are often decided more quickly than the other weapons.

Protective clothing[link]

Chest protector (women's)

Jacket

Glove

Plastron

Breeches/Knickers

Mask

Fencing outfits are made of tough cotton or nylon. Kevlar was added to top level uniform pieces (jacket, breeches, underarm protector, lamé, and the bib of the mask) following the Smirnov incident at the 1982 World Championships in Rome. However, kevlar breaks down in chlorine and UV light, complicating the cleaning process.

In recent years other ballistic fabrics such as Dyneema have been developed that resist puncture and which do not have kevlar's issues. FIE rules state that the tournament outfits must be made of fabric that resists a force of 800 newtons (180 lb_f) and that the mask bib must resist double that amount.

The complete fencing kit includes:

• Form-fitting jacket covering groin with strap (croissard) which goes between the legs. In sabre fencing, jackets that are cut along the waist and exclude the groin padding are sometimes used. A small gorget of folded fabric is sewn in around the collar to prevent an opponent's blade from slipping under the mask and along the jacket upwards towards the neck.
• Plastron, an underarm protector, which goes underneath the jacket and provides double protection on the sword arm side and upper arm. The armpit cannot have a seam, which would line up with the jacket seam and provide a weak spot.
• One glove for the weapon arm with a gauntlet that prevents blades from going up the sleeve and causing injury, as well as protecting the hand and providing a good grip
• Breeches or knickers which are a pair of short trousers that end just below the knee. The breeches are required to have 10 cm of overlap with the jacket. Most are equipped with suspenders.
• Knee-length or thigh high socks which cover knee and thighs
• Shoes with flat soles and reinforcement on the inside of the back foot and heel of front foot, to prevent wear from lunging
• Mask, including a bib which protects the neck. The mask can usually support 12 kilograms (26 lb) on the metal mesh 350 newtons (79 lb_f) of penetration resistance on the bib. FIE regulations dictate that masks must withstand 25 kilograms (55 lb) on the mesh and 1,600 newtons (360 lb_f) on the bib. Some modern masks have a see-through visor in the front of the mask. These have been used at high level competitions (World Championships etc.), however, they are currently banned by the FIE, following a 2009 incident in which a visor was pierced during the European Junior Championship competition.
• Plastic chest protector, mandatory for females. While male versions of the chest protector are also available, they were, until recently, primarily worn by instructors, who are hit far more often during training than their students. These are increasingly popular in foil, as the hard surface increases the likelihood that a hit fails to register, as well as with youth competitors.
• Lamé is a layer of electrically conductive material worn over the fencing jacket that entirely covers the valid target area. It is worn only in foil and sabre, and serves to distinguish hits on target from those that are off-target. In epee, the entire body is target, so it is not necessary to have a lamé. In foil the lamé is sleeveless, while in sabre the lamé has sleeves and ends in a straight line across the waist. A body cord is necessary to register scoring: it attaches to the weapon and runs inside the jacket sleeve, then down the back and out to the scoring box. In sabre and foil the body cord connects to the lamé in order to create a circuit to the scoring box.
• Fencing Masters often choose a heavier protective jacket, usually reinforced by plastic foam to cushion the numerous hits an instructor has to endure. Sometimes in practice, masters wear a protective sleeve or a leg leather to protect their fencing arm or leg.

Traditionally, the fencers' uniform is white (black for instructors). This may be due to the occasional pre-electric practice of covering the point of the weapon in dye, soot, or colored chalk in order to make it easier for the referee to determine the placing of the touches. As this is no longer a factor in electric, the FIE rules have been relaxed to allow colored uniforms (save black). The guidelines also limit the permitted size and positioning of sponsorship logos.

Competitions and rules[link]

Competition formats[link]

Fencing Tournament. (Note the grounded conductive strips on the floor.)

There are both individual and team tournaments. In high-level tournaments men and women compete separately and the different weapons are contested as separate events. The three most popular competition formats are the formats currently used in Olympic games and World Championship events, namely

• For individual events – one or two seeding rounds (poules) followed by direct elimination rounds, sometimes with repechage;
• For team events – team relay;
• For modern pentathlon and Épée Challenge events – one-hit round-robin (poule unique).

That said, many other formats are common at lower levels. These include mixed-gender tournaments, tournaments where the winner is decided by an aggregate score across all three weapons, where a different number of hits is required to win a fight (often lower for fencers under 14), and so on. Older Olympic/Championship formats, such as team poules or individual events based around a system of progressively narrowing poules (and no direct elimination), also occasionally crop up. These formats were discarded in favour of the current at least in part because of widespread allegations of cheating: it was possible for competitors to "trade" bouts, i.e. to lose to a particular opponent on purpose in return for him/her returning the favour at a later stage of the tournament.

In the seeding rounds of an individual event, each competitor is assigned to a small group (a poule) of 5–10 fencers in total. Each group fights a round-robin of bouts to five hits. There is a time limit of three minutes per fight (not counting the referee's interruptions). If neither fencer has reached five points by the end of the three minutes, the one who is ahead is declared the winner. However, if the fencers are drawn, the bout goes to "sudden death" for an extra minute (first to score wins). At the beginning of this minute, "priority" is decided by a coin toss (not to be confused with the more common meaning of 'priority' as the right of way applied to simultaneous hits in foil and sabre). If no points are scored during the extra minute, victory is awarded to the fencer with "priority" (although no extra points are added to the score). After a poule round is complete, the fencers are ranked on the basis of each competitor's total losses, victories and total hits scored and received.

In larger individual tournaments, after the seeding rounds a number of fencers (seeded lowest) are eliminated from the tournament. (Typically, they make up 10–20% of all entrants.) The remaining competitors are entered into a direct elimination table. Direct elimination bouts go to fifteen hits and have a time limit of nine minutes in total, broken into three minute periods with one minute breaks in between. As with poules, if the competitors are drawn at the end of the third period, they fight an extra minute with "priority" decided by a coin toss. A lost fight results in immediate elimination from the tournament. The system is designed to allow the strongest fencers filter through to the final stages of the competition. The table is generally organised so as to pair of the strongest against the weakest (e.g. seed 1 agains seed 64, seed 2 against seed 63, seed 3 against seed 62, etc.). If the table is incomplete (i.e. the total number of fencers is not a power of two) one or more fencers near the top of the table receive a bye into the next round.

Team events typically follow the aggregate score relay formula. Each team is composed of three fencers plus an optional substitute. Every fencer on one team fights every fencer on the other (nine bouts in total). Each fight has a time limit of three minutes. Scores are added up. The first fight finishes when the score reaches 5, the second when it reaches 10, the third, 15, and so on until 45. Consequently, when a fencer fails to reach the required score in one bout, his team-mate needs to score more points in order to finish the next one. If the teams are drawn when the time for the final fight runs out, as with individual events, the fight goes to "sudden death" for another minute with "priority" decided at the outset by a coin toss. Only one substitution is allowed per match, and the opposing team must be given notice one bout in advance.

Rules[link]

History[link]

The rules of mainstream competitive fencing are set by the sport's international governing body, Fédération Internationale d'Escrime.^[8] They were first codified in 1914, but since then have undergone frequent amendments and revisions. The earlies known set of rules which unambiguously forms part of the same tradition was written down in late 17th century by the French fencing master Labat. It consisted of the nineteen rules used for a foil competition held in Toulouse during his lifetime.^[9] Labat's rules are immediately recognisable as the core rules of modern foil and sabre. Most significantly,

• The weapon must be held one-handed;
• Use of the unarmed hand is forbidden;
• Target area is restricted to the upper body minus head;
• Double hits are subject to #Right of way rules.

The restricted target area and priority rules reflect the original aim of the game: to practice a sensible way of fighting with a sharp weapon (attack and defend vital areas, avoid simultaneous hits). These rules were never applied to épée, which was developed as a predominantly recreational sport in the 19th century.

Right of way[link]

This is a common source of confusion for spectators and novice fencers.

Foil and sabre (but not épée) are subject to a special set of rules concerning what happens when both fencers land a hit at the same time. The referee may award the point to one of the fencers or neither, but never both. In broad terms, the referee's job is to decide which fencer had tactical initiative; if he cannot decide, no point is given. An action which is deemed as having the necessary initiative is said to have priority or right of way.

The details of these rules are notoriously convoluted, but, in essence, there are four ways to establish right of way:

1. Be the first to launch a continuous and successful attack (i.e. the first to begin extending the arm while threatening the opponent with his weapon and closing distance).
2. Be the last to defend successfully (i.e. to block or divert an opponent's offensive action).
3. Upset the opponents control of the blade (for example, by beating it aside).
4. Establish a point in line before the opponent begins his attack (i.e. extend the arm and point the sword forwards, so that the opponent impales himself when closing distance).

And, conversely, there are also four common ways to lose right of way:

1. Miss.
2. Have your offensive action parried.
3. Allow your opponent to upset your control of the weapon.
4. Break the flow of an offensive action by retracting the arm mid way through (this is seen as a removal of threat and, therefore, a loss of initiative).

These rules have existed, in some form, since 17th century. They were originally developed in order to discourage foolhardy tactics which neglect defence and are likely to result in simultaneous hits (an undesirable result in a duel). Instead they encourage a "conversation of the blades" with initiative passing back and forth between the fencers, until one of them manages to find a hole in the other's defence. Last-ditch renewals and counter-attacks in situations where you cannot prevent yourself from being hit are not counted, because the main goal of the game was, originally, to practice keeping yourself alive.

Needless to say, right of way rules are only relevant when both fencers hit. In practice, there are many viable tactical uses for counter-attacks and renewals, which rely on making your opponent miss through clever management of timing and distance.

In foil, right of way rules apply regardless of whether either of the hits is on or off-target. If the action which had priority is off-target, no point is given (even if the opponent's action is on-target). In sabre, off-target hits do not register, so no equivalent provisions are necessary.

In épée, there are no right of way rules. When both fencers hit, both are given a point, unless they are drawn and fighting for the last point in the bout, in which case they have to keep fighting, until somebody manages to get a clean hit.

Penalties[link]

In fencing, as in many other sports, breaching the rules of the game is punished chiefly through a system of penalty cards. There are three of them:

1. Yellow card – warning (only one yellow card may be issued per bout);
2. Red card – point awarded to the opponent (no limit to how many can be issued);
3. Black card – exclusion from tournament.

The most serious offences (deliberate brutality, manifest cheating, doping etc.) are punished by an immediate black card. The least serious offences (turning one's back towards the opponent, hits made while or after falling, refusal to obey the referee etc.) are punished first by a yellow card and then by a red card for all subsequent offences in the same category. There are a number of categories in between, where a red card is given automatically (with no requirement for a preceding warning), and where repeat offences are punished by a black card (rather than another red). In many cases, yellow and red cards are accompanied by an annulment of the hit made by the fencer at fault.

There are also specific penalties for accidentally coming outside the field of play (doing so deliberately is punished through the normal system of cards).

1. Crossing the lateral boundary with one or both foot results in the loss of 1 meter distance.
2. Crossing one's own end of the strip with both feet results in a point being awarded to the opponent.

Universities and schools[link]

Fencing has a long history with universities and schools. At least one style of fencing, Mensur in Germany is practiced only within universities. University students compete internationally at the World University Games. The United States holds two national level university tournaments including the NCAA championship and the USACFC National Championships^[10] tournaments in the USA and the BUCS fencing championships in the United Kingdom.

Equipment costs and the relatively small scale of the sport limits university fencing to a small number of schools. National fencing organizations have set up programs to encourage more students to fence. Examples include the Regional Youth Circuit program^[11] in the USA and the Leon Paul Youth Development series in the UK.

In recent years, attempts have been made to introduce fencing to a wider and younger audience, by using foam and plastic swords, which require much less protective equipment. This makes it much less expensive to provide classes, and makes it easier to take fencing to a wider range of schools than traditionally has been the case. There is even a competition series in Scotland – the Plastic-and-Foam Fencing FunLeague^[12] – specifically for Primary and early-Secondary school-age children using this equipment.

The UK hosts two national competitions in which schools compete against each other directly; the Public Schools Fencing Championship, a competition only open to Independent Schools,^[13] and the Scottish Secondary Schools Championships, open to all secondary schools in Scotland. It contains both teams and individual events and is highly anticipated. Schools organise matches directly against one another and school age pupils can compete individually in the British Youth Championships.

Many universities in Ontario, Canada have fencing teams that participate in an annual inter-university competition called the OUA Finals.

See also[link]

Fencing portal

• Glossary of fencing
• Outline of fencing

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Evangelista, Nick (1996). The Art and Science of Fencing. Indianapolis: Masters Press. ISBN 1-57028-075-4.
• Evangelista, Nick (2000). The Inner Game of Fencing: Excellence in Form, Technique, Strategy, and Spirit. Chicago: Masters Press. ISBN 1-57028-230-7.
• United States Fencing Association (September 2010). United States Fencing Association Rules for Competition. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
• Amberger, Johann Christoph (1999). The Secret History of the Sword. Burbank: Multi-Media. ISBN 1-892515-04-0
• British Fencing (September 2008). FIE Competition Rules (English) . Official document. Retrieved 16 December 2008.

External links[link]

Look up fencing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: fencing

• Fencing at the Open Directory Project
• Fencing FAQ from rec.sport.fencing
• Links to videos of basic fencing moves from MIT OpenCourseWare as taught in Spring 2007

Bruce Dickinson
Bruce Dickinson performing live in Costa Rica on the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour, 26 February 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Paul Bruce Dickinson
Also known as	"Bruce Bruce" Dickinson (in Samson years)
Born	(1958-08-07) 7 August 1958 (age 53) Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England
Genres	Heavy metal, hard rock
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, author, pilot, marketing director, screenwriter, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1976–present
Labels	EMI, Sanctuary
Associated acts	Iron Maiden, Samson, Tribe of Gypsies, Ayreon, Godspeed
Website	www.screamforme.com

Paul Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, airline pilot, fencer, broadcaster, author, screenwriter, actor and former marketing director, best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

Dickinson began his career in music fronting small pub bands at school and University, including Styx (not the American band of the same name) in 1976, Speed, (1977–1978), and Shots in early 1979. He then joined the band Samson later in 1979, where he gained some popularity under the stage name, "Bruce Bruce." He left Samson in 1981 to join Iron Maiden as their new vocalist, replacing Paul Di'Anno, and debuting on their 1982 album The Number of the Beast.^[1] During his first tenure in the band, they issued a series of high impact releases,^[2] resulting in Dickinson gaining worldwide fame, and becoming one of the most acclaimed heavy metal vocalists of all time.

Dickinson quit Iron Maiden in 1993 in order to pursue his solo career, being replaced by Blaze Bayley, which saw him experiment with a wide variety of heavy metal and rock styles. Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999 along with guitarist Adrian Smith, with whom he released four subsequent studio albums. Since his return to Iron Maiden, Dickinson issued one further solo record in 2005, Tyranny of Souls. He is the older cousin of Rob Dickinson, former lead singer of British alternative rock band Catherine Wheel.^[3] His son, Austin, is the lead singer in metalcore band Rise to Remain.^[4] On 19 July 2011, Dickinson was presented with an honorary music doctorate from Queen Mary College, in honour of his contribution to the music industry.^[5]

Childhood[link]

Paul Bruce Dickinson was born in the small mining town of Worksop, Nottinghamshire.^[6] His mother Sonia worked part-time in a shoe shop and his father Bruce was a mechanic in the army.^[6] Dickinson's birth hurried the young couple, then just teenagers, into marriage.^[6] Initially, he was brought up by his grandparents; his grandfather was a coal-face worker at the local colliery and his grandmother was a housewife.^[6] This is referred to in his song "Born In '58" from the album Tattooed Millionaire.^[7]

Dickinson started school at Manton Primary in Worksop while his parents moved away to Sheffield.^[6] Soon afterwards, when he was six, he was also despatched to Sheffield,^[8] where he attended "a notoriously tough local primary school" called Manor Top.^[9] After six months, his parents decided to move him to a small private school called Sharrow Vale Junior.^[9] Of this period he recalls, "I'm sort of quite grateful for the fact that I didn't have what you would think of as a conventionally sort of happy, uncomplicated childhood. It made me very self-reliant. I grew up in an environment where it struck me that the world was never gonna do you any favours ... And I had very few close friends, because ... I never really met anybody for that long. I was always moving."^[10] Dickinson has a younger sister named Helena who was born in 1963.^[11][12] He tried to isolate himself from her as much as he could when he was young, supposedly out of spite because she, unlike him, was a planned pregnancy and birth.^[13]

Dickinson's first musical experience was dancing in his grandparents' front room to Chubby Checker's "The Twist," back when he still lived with them in Worksop.^[14] The first record Dickinson recalls owning was The Beatles single "She Loves You," which he managed to persuade his grandfather to buy him.^[14] From then on, he became more interested in music, saying "I remember thinking I liked the B-side better than the A-side, and that's when I started listening to music and deciding what I liked and what I didn't like."^[14] He tried to play an acoustic guitar belonging to his father, but it blistered his fingers.^[9]

By the time he moved to Sheffield, Dickinson's parents were earning a good living from buying property, refurbishing it and then selling it for a profit.^[11] As a result, a lot of Dickinson's childhood was spent living on a building site, until his parents bought a boarding house and a bankrupt garage where his father began selling second-hand cars.^[9] The income from their business success gave them the opportunity to give Dickinson—then 13 years old—a boarding school education and they chose Oundle, a public school in Northamptonshire.^[9] Dickinson was not opposed to moving away from home, as "I didn't particularly enjoy being with my parents, so I saw it as an escape ... I think it was because I hadn't built any real attachment to them when I was very, very young."^[9]

At Oundle, however, Dickinson was picked on and routinely bullied by the older boys of Sidney House, the boarding house that he belonged to,^[15] which he described as "like systematic torture" and meant that he became "aware that I was this outsider."^[13] His interests at Oundle were often military; he co-founded the school wargames society with Mike Jordan, and he rose to a position of some power in the school's cadet force,^[15] with which he was allowed to handle live ammunition, which he used to create explosions as booby-traps.^[16]

Oundle was where Dickinson became attracted to heavy rock, after hearing Deep Purple's "Child In Time" being played in another student's room.^[16] As a result, the first album he ever bought was Deep Purple's In Rock, "all scratched to fuck but I thought it was great, and that's what started me off on buying albums and getting into rock music."^[17] After In Rock, he went on to buy Black Sabbath's debut, Jethro Tull's Aqualung and Tarkus by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.^[17] Every term, a band would play at the school, the first of whom Dickinson would see was called Wild Turkey, featuring former Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick.^[17] After that, he saw Van der Graaf Generator and Arthur Brown.^[17]

Dickinson initially wanted to play the drums,^[17] later obtaining a pair of bongo drums from the music room and practised.^[18] He remembers playing "Let It Be" with his friend Mike Jordan, during which Dickinson discovered his singing voice while encouraging Jordan to sing the high-notes.^[18] Shortly afterwards, however, Dickinson was expelled from Oundle for urinating in the headmaster's dinner.^[18]

Returning home to Sheffield in 1976, Dickinson enrolled at a local comprehensive school, at which he joined his first band.^[19] He had overheard two other pupils talking about their band and that they needed a singer and so volunteered immediately.^[19] They rehearsed in the drummer's father's garage and the band were impressed by Dickinson's singing, encouraging him to buy his first microphone.^[19] Their first gig took place at the Broadfield Tavern in Sheffield.^[19] Originally called "Paradox," the band changed their name upon Dickinson's suggestion to "Styx", unaware of the American act with the same name.^[20] They made local newspaper headlines when a steel worker was awoken by their performance and tried to smash the band's drumkit.^[21] Soon after, the band split up.^[20]

University[link]

After leaving school with A-levels in English, History and Economics, Dickinson confesses "I didn't really know what I wanted to do."^[20] The first thing he did was join the Territorial Army for six months.^[20] Although he enjoyed his time in the TA, Dickinson realised that "this is not really a career choice" and so he applied for a place to read history at Queen Mary College, in London's East End.^[20] His parents wanted him in the army, but he told them that he wanted to get a degree first; "that was what they wanted to hear, so that was my cover story. Then, when I got down there, I started immediately finding and playing in bands."^[20]

In college, Dickinson got involved in the Entertainments Committee; "one day you'd be a roadie for The Jam, the next you'd be putting up the Stonehenge backdrop for Hawkwind or whatever."^[22] In 1977, Dickinson met Paul "Noddy" White, a multi-instrumentalist who owned a PA and other equipment, with whom Dickinson, along with drummer Steve Jones, would form a band together called "Speed."^[22] Dickinson explains, "It had nothing to do with taking speed, we were a completely drug-free band. We just used to play everything ridiculously fast!"^[22] In Speed, Dickinson began writing his own material; "I got Noddy to give me a few guitar lessons and I just started writing stuff straight away. He showed me three chords and I'd write stuff just from those three chords."^[22]

Although Speed would play several gigs at the Green Man pub in Plumstead, the band did not last long, but it encouraged Dickinson to continue to work to be a musician.^[22] Dickinson spotted an advertisement in Melody Maker with the caption "Singer wanted for recording project" and replied immediately.^[22] He "wailed and wolfed and hollered and just made noises" onto a tape and sent it with a note which read; "By the way, if you think the singing's crap, there's some John Cleese stuff recorded on the other side you might find amusing."^[22] They liked what they heard and invited Dickinson down to the studio to make "Dracula," the first song he would ever record, with a band called "Shots,"^[22] formed by two brothers, Phil and Doug Siviter.^[23] The song would later appear on the second disc of The Best of Bruce Dickinson compilation. The brothers were impressed with Dickinson's vocal abilities and asked him what music he liked; "I started saying 'Ian Gillan, Ian Anderson, Arthur Brown,' and Doug goes, 'That's it! Fucking Arthur Brown, man! Sometimes your voice is a dead ringer for Arthur!' He said, 'We've got to form a band.' I was, like, 'Bloody hell,' you know? 'This guy's got a studio and he wants to form a band with me.' I was like 'Yes!'"^[24]

Dickinson played pubs with Shots on a regular basis "to about five people."^[24] One particular night, Dickinson suddenly stopped in the middle of a song and started interviewing a man in the audience, heckling for not paying enough attention.^[24] He got such a good response he started doing it every night until it became a regular routine; "suddenly everybody was paying attention, 'cause they might be next! The first time I did it, afterwards the landlord of the pub was, like, 'Fucking great show, lads! See you next week!' So we started sort of building this bit into the show. And that was when I first started to get the hang of not just being a singer but being a frontman, too."^[24]

The next step in Dickinson's career was taken in a pub called the Prince of Wales in Gravesend, Kent, where Shots were playing regularly, when Barry Graham ("Thunderstick") and Paul Samson paid a visit.^[25] Impressed with his stage-act, they talked with Dickinson afterwards, about which he recalls, "Paul Samson gave me his number and basically said, 'Listen, we've got an album out, we've got a record deal, but we need a new singer and we'd like you to be it.'"^[26] Dickinson agreed to join their band, Samson, but only once he'd finished taking his History finals two weeks later.^[26] Until that point, he had been neglecting his University education, having "done absolutely fuck all work, got pissed, got laid and just generally had a pretty good time."^[26] As a result, the University had tried to kick him out for failing his Second Year exams and not paying his accommodation fees, but was saved because of his role as Entertainments Officer.^[26] After writing 6 months worth of essays in the space of two weeks and some last minute cramming for his exams, Dickinson achieved a 2:2, "which is what everybody else got anyway."^[26]

Samson: 1979—1981[link]

"In my naïvety, I thought people who were in rock 'n' roll bands were great artists, and it was a huge shock to the system to realise that they weren't, that they didn't even aspire to be, really. Some of them did, maybe, but some of them, like Samson, were very frightened of the idea."

—Bruce Dickinson.^[27]

After meeting Paul Samson and Barry Purkis at the Prince of Wales, and while still undertaking his final university exams, Dickinson joined Samson onstage at Bishop's Stortford to perform one of their songs, "Rock Me Baby", cementing his role as their new lead vocalist.^[28][29]

The band had already released their debut album, Survivors, in 1979 on an independent label, two months before Dickinson joined.^[26] Immediately following the completion of his University work, he met up with the band at Greenwich's Wood Wharf studios to learn the Survivors album.^[30] Although the tracks did not suit Bruce's vocal style,^[31] the band soon wrote the majority of the following Head On album in their earliest rehearsal sessions,^[32] some of which were immediately incorporated into their live set.^[31]

It was during these early rehearsals that the nickname "Bruce Bruce" came about, derived from Monty Python's Bruces sketch.^[32] The name became very tiresome as the band's management continually wrote dud cheques, made payable to "Bruce Bruce", as a joke.^[33] Dickinson later commented "it just stuck. I mean, I wasn't entirely happy with it, but it was, like, 'Oh well, OK. It's a sort of stage name, isn't it?'"^[33]

Dickinson was shocked after finding out that not all rock performers were "great artists," as some, such as Samson, only wanted "to have a good drink, a good shag, and take some drugs," which he found "really, really difficult to relate to."^[27] Although he had smoked joints before,^[27] Dickinson discovered that it was impossible to communicate with other band members if he was sober.^[33] He deemed it, "the price that had to be paid", believing it to be "just another step towards my goal of just wanting to be a singer in a rock n' roll band."^[33]

While fronting the band, Dickinson also came across Iron Maiden for the first time, who were supporting Samson at the Music Machine in 1980.^[34] As Dickinson recalls; "I was watching them, and they were good, really fucking good, and at that moment, I remember thinking, 'I wanna fucking sing for that band. In fact, I'm going to sing for that band! I know I'm going to sing for that band!' ... I just thought, 'This is really me. Not Samson.'"^[34]

Dickinson remained in the band for another year, recording two studio albums with them - Head On and Shock Tactics.^[33] However, Samson soon ran into difficulties with their record label, Gem, who went out of business and failed to finance their European tour in support of Iron Maiden.^[35] The band was turned over to RCA, "who did not give a shit about this unknown band from England," Dickinson explains, and so the band promptly fired their management team and the resulting injunction meant that their equipment was reclaimed and they could not be paid for their concert performances.^[35] The band's last gig was at Reading Festival, after which Bruce was approached by Iron Maiden's manager, Rod Smallwood, who asked him to audition to be their new lead vocalist, about which Dickinson recounts; "It wasn't like, 'We want you to do the job.' It was more like, 'We'd like to offer you the chance of an audition.' ... I remember being very self-confident at the time, though, and saying, 'But when I do it, I'll get the job, so let's talk about what's gonna happen when I get the job.'"^[36]

Iron Maiden[link]

Beginnings and success: 1981—1985[link]

"Maiden worked to a time table. A table that wasn't absolute but it had to be stuck to. "Now you'll write for six weeks, now you'll make a record for three months, now you're rehearsing for two weeks, now you'll tour for eight months." It was organised like that and that seemed to suit the style of writing of the band."

— Bruce Dickinson at Gino, Stockholm.^[37]

Bruce Dickinson, left, performing on his first world tour with Iron Maiden in 1982

Dickinson went to audition for Iron Maiden at a rehearsal room in Hackney in September 1981, about which he describes, "As soon as I walked in, I knew this was something entirely different from anything I'd known up till then ... They had proper, professional roadies; they had a proper monitor system; they had cars laid on. They had everything! I thought, 'Right, there'll be no smoking dope in the back of the tour bus any more, then.'"^[38] In the practice rooms, the band played through "Prowler", "Sanctuary", "Running Free" and "Remember Tomorrow", before asking Dickinson to sing the same songs again in a recording studio, and "that was it. We all went out and got roaring pissed and I was in Iron Maiden."^[38]

Iron Maiden had a strict and organised routine that suited the band's writing style, which Dickinson described as a "time table".^[37] After a few gigs, they began writing new material for their third album, The Number of the Beast, released in 1982. In the wake of Samson's contractual problems, Dickinson could not legally be credited on any of the record's songs,^[39] having to make, what he called, a "moral contribution", later revealing that he had contributed limited creative input to "The Prisoner", "Children of the Damned" and "Run to the Hills."^[40] The album was a major success, topping the UK charts,^[41] and the band embarked on a supporting tour around the globe.

On the following albums, 1983's Piece of Mind and 1984's Powerslave, Steve Harris's song-writing monopoly was pushed aside in favour of other members' ideas, with Dickinson contributing to a number of tracks, including the singles "Flight of Icarus" and "2 Minutes to Midnight".^[42] Throughout the World Slavery Tour, as part of the new theatrical elements incorporated into the band's stage-show, Dickinson wore a feathered mask during "Powerslave".^[43] This was the band's longest tour to date, during which Harris and Dickinson considered going home mid-tour, due to the high number of shows.^[44] Iron Maiden's management were continually adding dates, until Dickinson demanded that they stop "or I was gonna jack it in. I guess it was the first time I really thought about leaving. I don't just mean Iron Maiden, I mean quitting music altogether. I really felt like I was pretty much basket-case material by the end of that tour, and I did not want to feel that way. I just thought, 'Nothing is worth feeling like this for.' I began to feel like I was a piece of machinery, like I was part of the lighting rig."^[45]

Growing tensions and departure: 1986—1993[link]

After a six-month break, which Dickinson mostly spent practising fencing,^[46] Iron Maiden began writing their next album, Somewhere in Time, but Dickinson was unhappy with its synthesised bass and guitars and the progressive rock-influenced style.^[47] He has no writing credits on the release, as his material, based on his own suggestion that they should "make a more acoustic based album," was rejected by the rest of the band.^[48] As Dickinson explains; "If I'd had my way, the album would have sounded very different. Powerslave, for me, felt like the sort of natural rounding off of Piece of Mind and Number of the Beast ... I felt we had to come up with our Physical Graffiti or our Led Zeppelin IV ... It wasn't so much that it had to be acoustic; I just felt that we should be leading and not following ... the time was right for us to do something audacious, something vast and daring, and I didn't feel that we did that with Somewhere in Time. We just made another Iron Maiden album."^[48] Steve Harris, on the other hand, stated, "I just thought he'd lost the plot completely. Bruce just wasn't himself at the time. We didn't realise it at first, but he was probably more burnt out than anyone at the end of the last tour ... he just couldn't seem to get himself together with any of the writing or anything ... It wasn't 'cause it was acoustic, necessarily, or even that it was very different sort of stuff; it was just that we didn't think it was good enough, really. And I could see he would feel bad that his songs were rejected, but he seemed to accept it quite readily at the time."^[49]

After a subsequent tour, Iron Maiden started working on their next studio effort, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, which became their second release to top the UK charts.^[41] Unlike Somewhere in Time, Dickinson was much more enthusiastic about this album and has several song-writing credits; "I remember Steve rang me to tell me about this idea he'd had for the next album, all about this seventh son of a seventh son stuff, and I thought, 'What a great idea! Brilliant!' And of course I was really chuffed, too, because he'd actually rung me to talk about it and ask me if I had any songs that might fit that sort of theme. I was like, 'Well, no, but give me a minute and I'll see what I can do.'"^[50] After the following tour in 1988, the band decided to take a year off.^[51]

During the next album's writing stage, Adrian Smith left Iron Maiden, and was replaced by Janick Gers. Iron Maiden's eighth studio release, 1990's No Prayer for the Dying, had a raw sound that did not "hold up well" compared to past efforts,^[52] as it was recorded in a barn which Steve Harris owned, with a mobile studio owned by the Rolling Stones.^[53] The record featured Dickinson's "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", originally composed for a film soundtrack, which despite receiving a Golden Raspberry Award for worst original song in 1989, became the band's first and only single to top the UK singles chart.^[41] By 1992, Harris had converted his barn into a proper studio, and the new album, Fear of the Dark, was recorded there,^[54] resulting in a better overall sound than No Prayer for the Dying,^[55] although Dickinson still claims it had "big limitations" due to its size.^[53]

After the Fear of the Dark Tour, Dickinson decided to leave Iron Maiden to concentrate on his solo career; "I think I realised that I had reached a creative fork in the road, you know? I thought, 'If you want to, you can stay with Maiden, but things are sure not gonna change.' Or I could take a chance and go somewhere else."^[56] At that point the band had already booked a following tour in 1993, which Dickinson did not enjoy; "I thought it wouldn't be a problem to go out and do the shows at all ... but it wasn't a good vibe ... we walked out onstage and it was like a morgue. The Maiden fans knew I'd quit, they knew these were the last gigs, and I suddenly realised that, as the frontman, you're in an almost impossible situation. If you're like, 'Wow, this is really fucking cool tonight, man,' they're all gonna sit there going, 'What a wanker. He's leaving. How can it be cool?' Or do you go on and say, 'Look, I'm really sorry I'm leaving - not to put a damper on the evening, but I am quitting'? I mean, what do you do?"^[57]

Throughout the tour, Dickinson drew a lot of criticism from his band mates, with Steve Harris in particular saying, "I really wanted to kill him."^[57] Harris explains that "When all the press was there, ... he had no problem turning on a professional performance ... but I swear, some nights all he did was mumble through the songs."^[58] "It was so calculated, you know? ... we played in Paris, for example, where there's loads of press ... Then he'd perform, you know, pretty well. But if he played somewhere like Nice or Montpelier or somewhere like that, where it doesn't really matter, he was terrible ... One night, I went to the monitor man and said, 'What the fuck's going on? I can't hear him!' And he pushed the fader up to full and said, 'Look, there's nothing there. He's just mumbling into the mic.'"^[57] Dickinson responded to the accusations by saying, "That's crap. That's absolute crap. The singing was always really, really good. What I did do at the shows was decide that I was not going to make like Mr Happy Face if the vibe wasn't right. ... I was trying as hard as I could, every single night, but as hard as I could some nights it was impossible. A rock concert is supposed to be a celebration. It's not supposed to be a wake."^[58]

His last performance with the band was filmed by the BBC at Pinewood Studios and released as a live video, entitled Raising Hell.^[59] "I don't recall saying goodbye," states Dickinson, "It was a very strange way of parting. After the show, I had a couple of beers and went home to bed."^[59]

Return: 1999—present[link]

Along with Adrian Smith, Dickinson rejoined Iron Maiden in 1999 with Janick Gers remaining in the band, about which Dickinson recalls, "It was Rod who took me aside and said, 'How do you feel about putting it back together?' I said, 'Well, you know, there's a couple of things that concern me, but 90 per cent of things that I think are massive opportunities."^[60] Initially Steve Harris had reservations about Bruce's return, but soon came round to the idea; "When Rod first mentioned it, I wasn't really into it," Harris stated, "I thought, 'Well why would he wanna come back? ... But then I thought, 'Well if the change happens, who would we get?' The thing is, we know Bruce and we know what he's capable of, and you think, 'Well, better the devil you know.'"^[60]

Performing on 6 July 2010 during The Final Frontier World Tour. The 2010 leg consisted primarily of material released since Dickinson's return to Iron Maiden in 1999.^[61]

Harris and Dickinson met up at Rod Smallwood's home in Brighton in January 1999 for the first conversation they would have with each other since 1993.^[62] "It was strange," Dickinson remembers, "I think we were both a bit nervous. But as soon as we walked in the room, we gave each other a big hug and it evaporated. Literally, like, boof! Gone. And we both just chatted away ... And then, of course, we all ended up going down the pub. One thing led to another and we all woke up with thick heads the next day."^[62] Steve Harris confesses, "I thought we'd have the meeting and that it wouldn't work ... then we actually had the meeting and it really changed everything. His enthusiasm was 100 per cent, so I thought, 'Well, maybe it is the right thing to do.'"^[62]

After embarking on a small tour, the band set about recording Brave New World, their first studio album with Dickinson since 1992. Dickinson insisted that they find a replacement for the now retired Martin Birch, the band's regular producer, and record in a different studio than the one in which they made No Prayer for the Dying and Fear of the Dark; "When we had our first get-together, my main concern was how did I know we were gonna make this great record ... And Steve immediately said, 'Well I think we need a producer. And I don't think we can do it in the same studio. We've got to get the best studio we can possibly get.' By which point, you could have picked me up off the floor!"^[63] The album was recorded at Guillaume Tell Studios, Paris with producer Kevin Shirley,^[64] after which Iron Maiden undertook a supporting tour culminating with a performance at the Rock in Rio festival before a crowd of 250,000.^[65]

In 2003 they recorded and released Dance of Death at London's SARM Studios with Kevin Shirley, now the band's new regular producer.^[66] After two further stints on the road (Dance of Death World Tour and Eddie Rips Up the World Tour) Iron Maiden returned to SARM in 2006 to record their next studio album, A Matter of Life and Death,^[67] and embarked on a supporting tour. In 2008 and 2009, the band set out on the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour,^[68] which has since been described as "groundbreaking"^[69] for its use of Ed Force One, the band's customised Boeing 757, flown by Dickinson himself,^[68] and led to the documentary film Iron Maiden: Flight 666, which had a limited cinema release in April 2009.^[70] Iron Maiden held another world tour in 2010 and 2011 in support of The Final Frontier,^[71] their first album recorded at Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas since 1986's Somewhere in Time,^[72] and which peaked at No. 1 in 28 countries.^[73]

Solo career[link]

In early 1989, Zomba asked Dickinson to produce a track for the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child,^[74] providing a budget, a studio, and a producer, Chris Tsangarides. Dickinson took up the opportunity and called an old friend of his, former Gillan guitarist, Janick Gers, and, shortly after meeting up, they had "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" ready for the studio,^[75] then recorded with the assistance of bassist Andy Carr, and drummer Fabio del Rio.^[76] "I wrote it in about three minutes", states Dickinson, "I don't know where the title 'Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter' came from, but it just popped into my head. I thought, 'Bloody hell, straight out of AC/DC!' And I thought, 'Nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah, that'll do.'^[77] Impressed with the results, Zomba asked Dickinson if he was willing to record a whole album as well.^[77] With the same line-up and producer, Dickinson's solo debut, Tattooed Millionaire, was written and recorded within two weeks, and released in May 1990,^[77] followed by a supporting tour.^[78]

Later that year, Dickinson participated on a re-recording of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water", as part of the humanitarian effort Rock Aid Armenia.^[79] Backed by the band Skin, he produced a cover version of Alice Cooper's "Elected", along with Rowan Atkinson (in character as Mr. Bean), which was used in 1992 for Comic Relief,^[80] and five years later, on Bean Soundtrack.^[81]

Dickinson performing with Tribuzy in São Paulo, 11 November 2005. The performance was recorded for a live album, entitled Execution – Live Reunion.

For his second solo effort, Dickinson received the collaboration of American producer, Keith Olsen, and, while working on the record in LA, decided to leave Iron Maiden.^[56] Unhappy with the direction he was taking with Olsen, Dickinson began working with Tribe of Gypsies guitarist Roy Z and started the album again from scratch.^[37] Balls to Picasso was recorded with Tribe of Gypsies as the backing band,^[37] and was released in 1994. That same year, Dickinson recorded a cover version of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" with the band Godspeed for Black Sabbath's tribute album Nativity in Black.^[82] Tribe of Gypsies departed to work on their own material and Dickinson tracked down another band, including his new writing partner and guitarist, Alex Dickson.^[37] After the Balls to Picasso supporting tour finished, he started working on a new studio record, Skunkworks. Dickinson decided that Skunkworks would be the title of the band as well, but the record company refused to release the album without his name on the cover.^[83]

Due to musical differences, the "Skunkworks" entity ceased to be when the tour ended. "I was devastated by the Skunkworks thing", stated Dickinson, "Skunkworks was a record which I tore myself apart to make and nobody seemed to give a shit."^[84] After a short period of inactivity, Dickinson once again teamed up with Roy Z and Tribe of Gypsies to record his next album, Accident of Birth; "It was actually Roy that dragged me back into some assemblance, because he called up and he said, 'Listen, I've got some stuff and it's like a metal record.' And I wasn't thrilled, I wasn't really sure that I had anything to offer... Then he played me some backing-tracks he'd done for what was to become Accident of Birth down the phone and I thought 'There is something there.'"^[84] Former Iron Maiden guitarist, Adrian Smith, was asked to guest on the record, but remained as a full-time member of Dickinson's solo outfit.^[85] The album marked a return to heavy metal for Dickinson, with Sputnikmusic remarking, "The album's heavy feel is very satisfying, and definitely fills that void left by Maiden during the 90's."^[85] The follow-up, The Chemical Wedding, was a semi-concept album on alchemy, which drew inspiration from William Blake's writings; with some songs, such as "Book of Thel", having the same title as some of his poems, and the cover artwork featuring one of his paintings.^[84] The record was even more successful than its predecessor, with Sputnikmusic commenting, "Bruce had shattered all expectations to create an album that might even be better than the previous one."^[86] During The Chemical Wedding's supporting tour, the live album, Scream for Me Brazil was recorded in São Paulo, after which Dickinson and Smith returned to Iron Maiden in February 1999.

In 2000, Dickinson performed vocals on the song, "Into the Black Hole", for Ayreon's Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator.^[87] Later that year, he collaborated with Judas Priest's front-man, Rob Halford, recording, "The One You Love to Hate", for Halford's debut, Resurrection.^[88] A compilation, entitled The Best of Bruce Dickinson, was released in late 2001, including two new songs and a bonus disc of rarities.^[89] His latest solo album, Tyranny of Souls was released in May 2005. This time the song-writing was all split between Roy Z and Dickinson and many songs were composed by Z sending recordings of riffs to Dickinson while he was on tour with Iron Maiden.^[90] On 21 June 2005, Dickinson's complete solo discography was re-released, featuring bonus discs with rare and remastered tracks. That same year, Dickinson contributed to the song, "Beast in the Light", from Tribuzy's album, Execution, and their subsequent live album.^[91] A three-DVD box set, entitled Anthology, was released on 19 June 2006, containing concerts and promo videos from throughout his solo career, as well as an old Samson video, entitled "Biceps of Steel."^[92]

Other work[link]

Dickinson's interests include literature, writing, fencing (at which he has competed internationally, placing 7th in Great Britain,^[93] and has founded a fencing equipment company under the brand name "Duellist"^[94]), railway technology and aviation. Due to the wide variety of Dickinson's pursuits, the Winter 2009 edition of Intelligent Life named him as a living example of a polymath.^[95]

Aviation[link]

Bruce Dickinson in a flight suit while filming Flying Heavy Metal.

Dickinson learned to fly recreationally in Florida in the 1990s^[96] and now holds an airline transport pilot's licence. He regularly flew Boeing 757s in his role as captain for the now-defunct UK charter airline Astraeus,^[97][98] which, from 16 September 2010, employed him as Marketing Director.^[99][100] One of his key roles in said position was to promote Astraeus' services by increasing their number of videos,^[100] leading to the UK CAA releasing a video featuring Dickinson on aircraft loading safety in June 2011.^[101] Following Astraeus' closure on 21 November 2011, Dickinson launched Cardiff Aviation Ltd on 1 May 2012, an aircraft maintenance business based at the Twin Peaks Hangar in St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.^[102]

In mid-2006, Dickinson flew about 200 UK citizens home from Lebanon during the Israel/Hezbollah conflict.^[103] On 12 February 2007, Dickinson was given permission to fly Rangers F.C. to Israel for their UEFA Cup game against Hapoel Tel Aviv.^[104] After the collapse of XL Airways UK in September 2008, he piloted an Iceland Express aeroplane and flew home 180 stranded holiday makers from Egypt,^[105] as well as a Boeing 757 with a group of British RAF pilots from Afghanistan.^[106] "A lot of them recognised him because they are Maiden fans, but he was there in his professional capacity as a pilot," says an RAF spokesman.^[106] Dickinson flew Liverpool F.C. from Liverpool John Lennon Airport to an away European tie with S.S.C. Napoli in Italy on 19 October 2010.^[107] Following Hurricane Irene in August 2011, Dickinson was one of the first pilots to be ready to fly out of New York.^[108]

For the 2008-2009 "Somewhere Back in Time World Tour," he piloted Iron Maiden's chartered Boeing 757, dubbed "Ed Force One", specially converted to carry the band's equipment between continents.^[68] Dickinson flew "Ed Force One" again for "The Final Frontier World Tour" in 2011.^[109]

Radio and TV[link]

Dickinson presented Bruce Dickinson's Friday Rock Show on BBC radio station 6 Music from 2002-2010. Jean-Jacques Burnel, bassist with The Stranglers, took over the presenting duties while Dickinson toured the US with Iron Maiden. In March 2010, the BBC announced that, after over eight years, Dickinson's show was to be axed.^[110] His final broadcast was on 28 May 2010, with the regular format abandoned in favour of a personal and musical tribute to the recently deceased Ronnie James Dio. Dickinson scorned the BBC executives for the cancellation, playing the Johnny Paycheck version of "Take This Job and Shove It".^[111]

He has recently taken the helm of BBC Radio 2 serial Masters of Rock and presented the 5-part historical TV series about aviation, Flying Heavy Metal, which was shown on the Discovery Channel, and later on Discovery Turbo in the UK.^[112] He was a guest on an episode of the Military Channel's The Greatest Ever, where he drove a Russian T-34 tank. In 2006, Dickinson presented a documentary for Sky One entitled Inside Spontaneous Human Combustion with Bruce Dickinson, in which he investigated the phenomenon by enlisting the help of several experts and performing various experiments to determine its possible cause.^[113] Other television appearances include guesting on quiz shows such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks and the short lived Space Cadets, as well as the chat show Clarkson, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson.^[114] Dickinson has also appeared in a BBC series called The Paradise Club, undertaking the role of a musician named Jake Skinner.^[78]

Writing[link]

Plotting it out was the doddle. It came from a series of mad conversations, actually, that all gestated together along with some Sherlock Holmes, some Biggles and Penthouse, and out it came.

— Bruce Dickinson commenting on Lord Iffy.^[115]

During a 1986-1987 Iron Maiden tour, and in the wake of a divorce, Dickinson started writing his first book. He spent sleepless nights trying to give birth to the main character, Lord Iffy Boatrace, an English landlord, whose problems were always related to a lack of money, questing a wealthy life.^[115]

The novel, entitled The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace (ISBN 0-283-06043-3), was released in 1990 and sold more than 30,000 copies almost immediately. Due to the high demand, the publisher, Sidgwick & Jackson, asked Dickinson to produce a sequel, which became 1992's The Missionary Position (ISBN 0-283-06092-1).^[115]

Dickinson has turned his hand to scriptwriting, co-authoring Chemical Wedding with director Julian Doyle. The film, in which Dickinson played a few small cameo roles and composed the soundtrack, was released in 2008 and starred Simon Callow.^[116]

Ozzfest incident[link]

At the 2005 Ozzfest, Ozzy Osbourne's wife, Sharon, encouraged family friends and members of other bands to sabotage Iron Maiden's last performance at Hyundai Pavilion in San Bernardino on 20 August.^[117][118] The attack was in response to Dickinson's comments on reality television, to which Osbourne took offence,^[119] ordering interference with the band's PA and delaying the entrance of Eddie,^[117] as well as encouraging members of the Osbourne camp to throw eggs, lighters and bottle tops from the front of the audience.^[119]

Performing "The Trooper" with Iron Maiden in Paris, France, 1 July 2008. Dickinson has always waved a Union Flag during live renditions of the song.^[120]

On top of Dickinson's attack on reality TV, it was also claimed that he made several anti-American comments, of which Classic Rock magazine claimed that "nobody can present any cast-iron evidence."^[120] Classic Rock also argued that there had been "bad blood" between the band and the Osbournes since the start of the tour, with the allegations that Iron Maiden refused to pay "a substantial fee" to appear on the tour T-shirt and had complained about Ozzfest's seating arrangements, with Steve Harris commenting that "it's awkward because we feed off the front audience. A lot of 'em look like they want to get out a remote and change the channel."^[120] Sharon Osbourne would later claim that the flag-waving during "The Trooper" was disrespectful to American troops,^[121] at the time fighting alongside the British in Iraq, even though Dickinson had always held a Union Flag during the song, being based on the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War.^[120] Classic Rock pointed out the hypocrisy in Osbourne's statement as her husband had, in the past, been incarcerated for urinating on the Alamo, causing upset in the U.S.^[120] Sharon Osbourne also accused Dickinson of "making other comments about the other artists," believing "he was at a battle of the bands," while other performers "don't even look at Ozzfest as touring, but as its heavy metal summer camp."^[121] Dickinson went on to criticise this comment, stating that "the whole way it's being portrayed as being some kind of altruistic holiday for all the bands is absolute nonsense, it's complete bullshit. Most of the bands are there because they paid to be there."^[122] It was also reported that Steve Harris had spoken to Ozzy Osbourne in San Bernardino, apologising for Dickinson's comments,^[120][121] which Harris denies, stating, "No I didn't [apologise]. What I actually said was that, if there was anything to apologise for, then I'd do it. But that was twisted around to seem like I'd said sorry — that never happened!"^[123]

In response to the incident, Iron Maiden's manager, Rod Smallwood, published a statement criticising the attack as "vile, dangerous, criminal and cowardly" as well as disrespectful to fans who had paid to see the band perform "a full unhindered performance."^[124] Speaking some years later to the Daily Mail, Dickinson commented that "Our revenge was to simply carry on regardless and play the best show of the day," and that "I haven't changed my views about reality TV either. I think it's a complete disgrace – freak-show television, the lowest of the low."^[119] Speaking to Metal Hammer in 2006, Dickinson stated, "so much has been written about what I did, or didn't say onstage. Did I have a go at Ozzy and Black Sabbath? No. Why would I? But I do find The Osbournes TV series loathsome, and the whole cult of reality TV celebrities disgusting."^[123] An eyewitness report, published on Blabbermouth.net, praised Iron Maiden for being "the consummate professionals," continuing to play in spite of "the amount of terrorizing and intimidation that [they] had to deal with."^[118]

Iron Maiden's 2006 album, A Matter of Life and Death, contained a song entitled "These Colours Don't Run", a phrase which Dickinson also used onstage on 20 August 2005.^[123] When asked if the song was inspired by the Ozzfest incident, Dickinson replied, "I suppose it's inevitable that people will think the song's about Sharon Osbourne, she thinks everything is about her anyway! But it isn't. It's about men going off to war, and the fears and hopes they leave behind ... The phrase 'These Colours Don't Run' fitted the mood of the song perfectly. That's all."^[123]

Singing style[link]

	"Run to the Hills" noicon Dickinson's debut Iron Maiden release. "Brave New World" noicon The title track from Brave New World (2000) demonstrates how Dickinson's voice has lowered with age.
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Although Dickinson never received formal training, he still possessed a wide vocal range which was trademarked by his quasi-operatic tenor. Along with Ronnie James Dio and Rob Halford, Dickinson is one of the pioneers of the operatic vocal style later to be adopted by power metal vocalists and regularly appears near the top in lists of the greatest rock vocalists/front-men of all time.^{[125][126][127][128]} Dickinson says that his style was influenced primarily by Arthur Brown, Peter Hammill (Van der Graaf Generator), Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) and Ian Gillan (Deep Purple).^[89]

Dickinson's singing varied notably in the 1990s in the recording of albums such as No Prayer for the Dying, Fear of the Dark and his first solo work Tattooed Millionaire, making use of a much more raspy and unpolished sound,^[129] befitting their stripped down style.^[130] Since returning to Iron Maiden in 1999, his singing style has returned to much like it was in the 1980s,^[131] though soft and reflective passages have been incorporated with the familiar operatic wail to suit the more progressive direction of Iron Maiden since the reunion. His voice has lowered with age, making him a dramatic tenor in opera terms.

Discography[link]

Iron Maiden Main article: Iron Maiden discography 1982: The Number of the Beast 1983: Piece of Mind 1984: Powerslave 1986: Somewhere in Time 1988: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son 1990: No Prayer for the Dying 1992: Fear of the Dark 1999: Ed Hunter ("Wrathchild" hidden track) 2000: Brave New World 2003: Dance of Death 2006: A Matter of Life and Death 2010: The Final Frontier

Bruce Dickinson Iron Maiden portal Main article: Bruce Dickinson discography 1990: Tattooed Millionaire 1994: Balls to Picasso 1996: Skunkworks 1997: Accident of Birth 1998: The Chemical Wedding 2001: The Best of Bruce Dickinson (two new songs; "Broken" and "Silver Wings") 2005: Tyranny of Souls Samson 1979: Survivors * 1980: Head On 1981: Shock Tactics 1990: Live at Reading 1981

^ * Dickinson appeared on the album's re-issue only, as it had been originally completed before he joined the band.

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bruce Dickinson

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bruce Dickinson

• Bruce Dickinson at the Internet Movie Database
• Bruce Dickinson's official website
• Bruce Dickinson on Myspace