Interview: Bruce, November 1988 Material from a feature in Metal Hammer,
November
21st 1988.
organised
sort of person?
Bruce:
"Up to a point. I can be when I have to be, and I like everything to
happen in
the right place at the right time. That needs a lot of organisation
but I'm not
particularly good at sitting down and doing the nitty gritty. I do
keep a pad,
a reporter's notebook and at night I scribble down what I have to do
the next
day, even down to the extent of like, laundry, I put down things like
'Don't
forget you left two socks in the bedroom'. Having got my list, I get up
in the
morning...and promptly forget it! I try and do something each day. I was
sitting in
the house yesterday and flopped down and found there were three
hundred tee
shirts and bin liners in the spare bedroom, and stuff that needed
tidying and
the laundry needed doing, and there was shopping to be done and
mountains
of washing up...and I thought 'Right. I'll do that NOW'. So I went up
stairs,
cleaned out the spare bedroom, arranged the wardrobe, cleaned the house,
de da de
da. Once you actually
start doing something, you get renewed energy.
The
achievement of doing one thing leads onto another and before you know it,
you've
saved the planet! If you feel bored, it's not really boredom, you are
just
feeling sorry for yourself. Get out and do something! There is always
something
that needs to be done and can be done if you tackle it."
Bruce
now lives in a small three bedroomed mews house since he split with his
wife.
Bruce: "She's
in what the Daily Mirror called 'The Mansion' and I'm in the three
bedroomed
house, which is alright. I'm quite happy living there. The other place
was too
big. It was a HUGE house. You needed a loud hailer to call from one end
to the
other! I always felt a bit divorced from reality there. When I got the
big house
it was part of the overall master plan. Everybody in the band got set
up with
their partner or went off to have a baby or not. Then at the end of the
tour, with
your money you buy outright your house and build a lifestyle. Plug
into that,
go off and tour and set up the pension fund. This gives you security
so you
don't have to worry about your loved ones and you can get on with the
music. All
well and good except if your loved one ceases to be your loved one it
gets a bit
complicated. It's the folly of advanced planning. Suddenly someone
runs over
you with a bus! Just when life seemed secure I'm back to where I was
eight years
ago with a little house and I'm quite happy y'know. It's very
manageable
and I know how to operate the central heating now. I never knew how
to work it!
I was useless around the house. Still am. A fuse box is a complete
mystery to
me. Eventually I found the central heating controls fairly logically
next door
to the boiler. I press a button, the red light came on and I thought
'This is
it.' But it gurgles and knocks and makes really frightening noises,
hammering
like poltergeists. The first day I switched it on, I woke up at seven
in the
morning and there was a hideous sound: 'Bang, bang, bang, glug, glug,
glug' and
lots of hissing. I thought 'Shit, it's gonna blow up!' I really
thought it
was going to explode and I was going to be covered in bits of copper
shrapnel.
So I ran downstairs and my eyes were full of sleep. I thought the
house was
full of steam and it had already blown up. I had visions of water
cascading
through the ceiling. I ran round the house turning on every single hot
tap trying
to relieve the pressure. 'Hang on, there is no steam...what's going
on?' Of
course there was nothing wrong with it...
"I
treat everything like Play School anyway. I don't mind doing my own
housework.
I'm a fiend for washing up. If there is one thing I can't stand it's
having
mucky dishes. I'm pretty scrupulous about that, but I'm not too hot on
Hoovering.
When it's Black and it should be white, then you have to Hoover it."
Bruce
normally gets up around 9 am and admits he has never been an early riser.
Equally
he doesn't like rotting abed until midday. One of his first chores,
apart
from hosing down his teeth, is to check the Answer Phone.
Bruce:
"Yeah, I didn't know how that worked at first, either. I finally got a
message on
there, The Phone Ranger:
'You called
but I'm not home. Please leave a message on the telephone'
"People
call up just to listen to it, but I don't care."
Bruce has
got a TV set, a very old one, and rarely watches it.
Bruce:
"I was very proud of myself. I diagnosed a fault in it the other day. The
battery in
the controller was flat! I'm a fully qualified TV repair man now."
Bruce
carries around with him a case with a file containing details of all his
projects.
One of them concerns the committee for the Under Twenties English
Fencing
and another is devoted to PAGANINI a rock opera Bruce is planning based
on the
life of the Italian violin virtuoso, who many consider was the first
super
star.
Bruce:
"The rock opera is under consideration by a major film company and who
knows if it
will happen. I just wish they would make a bloody phone call and let
me know one
way or the other. I have copyrighted a synopsis and some song
titles.
It's all there. I've got a load of scenes and ideas, but I don't want to
seriously
commit them to paper until the company comes up with the money. One of
the biggie
American companies are interested. But they get things under
consideration
all the time.
"Paganini
was an ugly bastard. Bony, beaky nosed, hunched back, weird looking
guy going
bald. He hated his father all his life who pushed him into music.
Adored his
mother. Had illegitimate children, had affairs with royalty, was
reviled by
the church but loved by the people. In the middle of a concerto he
would start
making bird noises just like rock guitarists mess around now. After
he died his
body was dug up and moved seven times because people thought his
fingers
were possessed by the Devil. He's a fascinating character and I've
written a
synopsis that will result in a film that's a cross between 'Tommy' and
'Amadeus'.
The problems of artists are universal and everlasting. The conflicts
he had to
resolve, the temptations he had to fight, are all relevant today. I
want to
produce a rock opera that would tell the story of his life. His live
performances
were legendary but of course no one will ever know what they were
like
because it was before the age of recording. Apparently he had enormously
large hands
like Jimi Hendix, which is why he could do so much on violin and he
was a keen
guitarist as well. He used his own unique system of fingering and
improvised
all the time. He broke strings during a performance once and
improvised
a violin concerto for one string. On stage he dressed all in black, a
bit like
Ritchie Blackmore. He was an explosive Italian and would never play one
note when
fifty million would do!"
Would
Bruce play Paganini himself?
Bruce:
"Oh no, you need to be thin, gaunt, bony, going bald with a great conk. I
would like
to play a character part in the movie. I am really interested in
acting and
would like to do some, purely independently from music. I did a lot
of acting
at school and was in two plays a year. I would very much like to find
a bunch of
people into reading plays aloud. We used to do a lot of that at
school, and
really enjoyed it. Now I'm back in London I am going to start
visiting
the theatre. I used to go a lot, ten years ago. But when you get into
rock and
roll somehow the attention span gets shortened and you end up going to
the pub
instead.
"I'm
thinking about buying a computer. I'm very suspicious of them and feel they
define your
creativity rather than enhance it. You can only write what a
computer is
capable of writing."
Bruce
would rather write with a quill pen than a word processor, but he is
intrigued
by the idea of using a Farfisa midi voice controller to put down
melody
lines for song writing.
Bruce:
"It would be easier for me than putting down songs using a guitar. You
sing into
the machine and it comes out however you want, like an organ or a
piano or
whatever. Farfisa make it and it only costs two hundred pounds."
Although
Bruce is not an avid telly watcher, when he does have a few spare
moments
he quite likes watching snooker.
Bruce:
"I enjoy the tension during a game and can relate to that. It's what I go
through on
stage and is like the sport I do - fencing. Although snooker is a
protracted
game, nevertheless each time the ball is struck, it happens in a
split
second, when you win or lose. It's interesting to watch people dealing
with
that."
During
his day, was he ever called on to attend his management company business
meetings?
Bruce:
"No, they give me a call if there's anything needs sorting out. After
this
British tour is over we'll be putting everything on ice for a year. I've
got several
projects all lined up on the basis that any one of them may happen.
Which ever
happens first, I'll abandon the others. I've got several irons in the
fire.
There's the rock movie and another long shot, a part in a movie which was
offered by
the author of the book who sold the rights to the movie. It takes a
while for
those things to materialise. There's also my book about 'Lord Iffy
Boatrace'
which I want to get published this year. Now I'm home I can do it.
Steve
Harris is getting sick of people asking him what it's like and I'm getting
sick of him
phoning me up asking when I'm gonna publish the bloody thing."
Another
plan dear to Bruce is a centre for young people to introduce them to
fencing.
Bruce:
"I want to start it next year. I have to find the premises. It won't be
in London
because there is so much going on there. It would get lost as just
another
minor sport. I would set it up somewhere north of London. I'd like an
old
warehouse and try to attract a sponsorship deal. I won't throw money at it.
The West
German government spend twenty five million marks a year on fencing.
They take
school kids who live in fencing centres for six years and all they do
is fence
and go to school with their own tutors. They have all their equipment
and board
paid for by the State. You can't compete with that. The Sports Council
- ha - does
zilch in comparison with that sort of investment."
Bruce
spends at least four days a week training.
Bruce:
"At weekends I try to go in for a competition and I might train five
times for
that. I spend two or three hours a session on those days. So I spend
around 12
to 15 hours a week training. That's activity time and doesn't include
getting
undressed and showering. So that would take up my evenings from 6pm to
10pm."
Between
all this did he ever get time to eat?
Bruce:
"I just go out to Marks & Spencer and fill the fridge up with stuff.
Don't cook
much. I tend to eat things cold. By the time it gets in your belly
it's gonna
warm up anyway. I'm just about capable of boiling water and making a
cuppa tea.
I buy salads, rice, and ready cooked breast of chicken. I go out for
a curry
once a week. It depends how I feel the next morning if I'll go twice a
week. I
have stopped eating the vindaloos. I can manage it going down, but the
next
morning is too much to contemplate. You can't go out of the house for five
hours in
case you have an accident."
Did
Bruce go to many clubs at night?
Bruce:
"No, not at all, I don't enjoy them. I hate the scene. I did it a couple
of times
and felt very out of place. I don't mind going if there's somebody I
want to see
or if I'm there with a bunch of friends having a great time. But to
go on your
own, and sit there propping up the bar... I could do that in my local
pub and
play a game of pool and actually have a lot more fun. I hate
Stringfellows,
the Limelight and the Hippodrome. I'm not short of the price of a
pint but I
think it's obscene the prices they charge. But then you don't go
there to
drink beer, you go to be seen!"
Bruce doesn't
burn the midnight oil, slaving away over his desk with the quill
pen into
the early hours then?
Bruce:
"I write whenever I've got a chunk of time and I don't have to do
anything
else. I like to clear the decks and concentrate for a while. I always
have a
guitar downstairs to doodle on and maybe write a few tunes with it. At
the moment
I'm just playing exercises on it. I've always wanted to put a three
piece band
together with the musicians playing different instruments. Like with
me trying
to play guitar and a drummer trying to sing, and a guitarist playing
drums. We'd
have old heads on inexperienced bodies. We'd loon around, have a
bedroom
band and learn how to play again. I've always fancied that idea. Anyway
that's how
I usually spend my day. I nip in and out. One thing that takes up my
time is
starting a small company to import fencing equipment from China and
selling it
here. I've bought a calculator - my first one! It's always better to
have too
much to do. And there's still loads of things I wanna do."
"I
have stopped eating vindaloos. I can manage it going down, but the next
morning is
too much to contemplate. You can't go out of the house for five hours
in case you
have an accident."
Interview:
Bruce, November 1988 Material from a
feature in Metal Hammer,
November 21st 1988.