Folly at work

I am not too sure but I think that Rick Robinson is about to do a back flip....


There is some thing missing.Some thing goes in the crack here...

Benjamin Breeg

One theory is that Eddie is or was Benjamin Breeg. The clues for this are that he was born in London (where Iron Maiden was formed) and was born on the date of Britain and France's declaration of war on Germany in WWII. This hints at a reference to the overall war thematic of "A Matter Of Life And Death". Breeg is said to have painted a picture of what he sees in his head (a picture of an Eddie-like figure emerging).



The single's promotional image shows Eddie (the band's mascot above) digging out the grave of Benjamin Breeg, whose tombstone states "Aici zace un om despre care nu se ştie prea mult". This is a sentence in Romanian, which roughly translates into "here lies a man about whom not much is known." The identity of the character is being held secret by band members. Steve Harris, in an interview given to Kerrang was quoted as saying: "Who is Benjamin Breeg? Ha ha. I'm not telling you."
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Benjamin Breeg was born in London on September 3rd, 1939.
After the deaths of his parents in a house fire in September, 1947, Breeg was sent to an orphanage in the East End. The cause of the fatal fire, to this day, remains unexplained. Breeg himself was present in the house at the time but escaped unharmed.

He was a bright child but very solitary, prompting one of his carers at the orphanage to state: "He has the demeanour of a child who seems to bear more weight upon his shoulders than any person should. What goes on behind his eyes makes one wonder what's troubling him." As well as his academic interests, Breeg also became interested in The Bible and expressed a desire to join the clergy.

Breeg was fostered by three families between 1947 and 1950 but each time, he was returned to the orphanage, unable to settle in any of the new homes that had offered to raise him.It was on his tenth birthday in 1949, that he began to experience nightmares that he himself later described as "the most vile and tortuous I have ever endured." Despite this, he went on to develop incredible talent as an artist and produced a large number of drawings, sketches and paintings. However, none of these survive and are believed to have been destroyed by Breeg himself. To this day, no one knows why. The subjects of these paintings, however, supposedly caused great consternation and distress among those who Breeg allowed to view them.

The verdict of one close friend who saw some of Breeg's work is as follows: "He says he paints what he sees. If this is true, I can only thank God I have no window into his mind."

Breeg's first job on leaving the orphanage, in 1954, was at a local Undertakers, where he was given the task of engraving headstones. His interest in the Bible had by now turned into what a colleague deemed to be "obsessive". He lived alone and little is known about his life between 1955 and 1959 other than that his interest in joining the clergy diminished. His obsession with the Bible, however, did not.

Breeg travelled widely between 1960 and 1970, visiting many different countries. Living for two years in Haiti before travelling to Eastern Europe where he lived between 1966 and 1969. He was forced to flee from Romania in 1969 following local Police investigations. He returned to England in March 1971. Upon his return, he was offered a position with the International Institute of Paranormal Investigation which he accepted.

Breeg wrote four books between 1971 and 1977. None of these, as far as can be ascertained, remain in print. All, however, concern the sights and cultures Breeg experienced while travelling. The emphasis in all four volumes is on the Occult practices of the countries visited.

Benjamin Breeg disappeared from his home on June 18th, 1978. All efforts to locate him proved unsuccessful.

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Ever since Iron Maiden announced the track listing of their new album, A Matter of Life and Death, everyone's eyes have been on track 7, and the first single from the album, 'The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg'.

An odd name for a Maiden track, a fantastic song, but everyone's been wondering - who is Benjamin Breeg?

I've been trying not to get dragged into it, as I have just been appreciating the song for what it is, and it is fast becoming a favourite of mine, but I must admit I cannot contain my curiosity.

There have been all kinds of rumours as people have tried to work it out using clues from a website which I'll bring up in a moment. Some ideas thrown in have included:

- Former Maiden frontman Paul Di'Anno

- Winston Churchill

- A metaphor for war in general

- A metaphor for Maiden's fans

- Maiden mascot 'Eddie'

Out of all of those, the 'clues' the band have given us probably point towards the last on that list, but I don't think it's any of them.

Who is Benjamin Breeg? I think he's Benjamin Breeg, which brings me onto my next point, from the same question.

Who is Benjamin Breeg? I think he's a fictional character with a very tortured mind and soul. It's just someone they made up and gave a weird, random name to, to get fans talking and more importantly, buying the single, which probably wouldn't have done all that well otherwise.

The site BenjaminBreeg.co.uk, (quoted above) in my opinion, exists only to provide a bit of background to the song, making it more meaningful; it is not a way for the band to sneakily hint at who he is. The supposed clues tell us nothing, and even stopped being updated ages ago if you have a look.

I am thankful to the site, because it has given me more of a sense of who Benjamin Breeg is, but not in the way that everyone believes it is supposed to. It just makes him more real if we know his supposed life story, it gives you a different look at the lyrics, making them sadder and scarier.

Well done to the band for this original idea, but to all the fans out there talking about it constantly - give up. It's not going to be this amazingly clever thing that you think it is. At most, it will be about Eddie, but even then, it's pure fiction all the same.

I wouldn't worry about it, just nod your head and rock out to this fine piece of music, which really is up there with Maiden's best, both musically and lyrically - and would have been anyway even without the marketing ploy.

SOURCE

The building is coming along well, things are always in motion and we continue to make progress. Getting the last details done for the coping.

Scroogle and Clusty search

With Google and other search engines recently being in the news over prvacy concerns. I think people who are concerned about their privacy ehen searching should take a look at http://www.scroogle.org/.
This service is free and scrubs all the adverts from your Google search, More importantly it is not possible for Google to identify you.
There is also a link on the site to Clusty which does provide ads bud does not track you. They claim it provides better results than Google too!