HEART BREAKING NEWS: Paul Bruce Dickinson Officially Announce To Leave Iron Maiden Again Due To…

Dickinson is responsible for the airlines global sales, marketing, e-commerce, contact centres and customer relations.

He is leaving the airline to join Christies auction house. He joined Virgin in 2001 as sales and distribution director before being promoted his current role in 2006, replacing marketing director Alison Copus.

A spokesperson at Virgin Atlantic said a review of his sales and marketing director position is currently underway.

Dickinson was behind Virgin Atlantic’s £10m global advertising campaign, which launched last year with a series of bullish ads created by RKCR/Y&R, playing off the strapline, “Your airline’s either got it or it hasn’t”.

Previously, Dickinson worked for the RAC as director of sales and marketing and Granada PLC as director of sales and marketing for Air Travel Group.

He also worked at Air Miles as travel products director and Visa International as marketing manager for Travel and Entertainment.

A spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic said: “Paul has been instrumental in driving revenues, improving customer service and building the brand reputation and has made a fantastic contribution to the airline.

When Iron Maiden reunited with singer Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith in 1999, it marked the beginning of what would become the most successful chapter in their already illustrious career.

With 2006’s A Matter Of Life And Death album, the rejuvenated band delivered a bona fida 21st century metal masterpiece.

In this classic interview from around the album’s release, singer Bruce Dickinson and bassist Steve Harris look at the enduring appeal of these metal icons.

It’s December, 1979. In a pub lurking to trap the unwary in London’s East End, a young bassist metaphorically slams down his fist – and the butterfly effect is about to take flight.

“This band will never compromise, never. We could have had a record deal a couple of years ago. All we needed to do was cut our hair, and play punk.

My answer to everyone who suggested it was always the same: No. We won’t betray our beliefs just to get a deal. In the end, it will work for us. I just know it.”

The band in question: Iron Maiden. The bassist: Steve Harris. And, in that one statement of intent, he lay down a immutable truth that has resonated throughout the metal world for nearly three decades.

No other band has ever had such a single-minded passion – some might call it pig-headedness – as do Maiden, in particular Harris, who’s come to be regarded as the leader of the pack.

The man who had a vision in the late 1970s to emulate his heroes, and thanks to an unswerving self-belief and faith in the fans, has outstripped almost all of those whose inspiration drove the young bassist to fulfil his dreams, while many others fell at various hurdles.

Along the way, Maiden have experienced choppy waters. The sacking of Paul Di’Anno in 1981 had many wondering if Maiden could possibly survive losing their seemingly charismatic frontman.

Only for Bruce Dickinson to come in, and help take the band to a new level. In 1993, Dickinson left, and Maiden – with former Wolfsbane singer Blaze Bayley in his place – seemed ill equipped to deal with the grunge assault.

But again, Harris and his steeds rode through the bad times, and with Dickinson’s return in 1999, have become, if anything, even more celebrated.

The fact is that, in the 21st Century, Maiden are arguably the most influential metal band of all. Notwithstanding the claims of Sabbath, Metallica and Slayer, they are the ones who seem to have provided the blueprint for the Euro power metal surge, and for the New Wave Of American Metal.

It’s been a remarkable transformation, from the perception of being anachronistic old crones 10 years ago, to formidable heroes of such state-of-the-art festivals as Download. Almost everything metal that you love in ’06 owes its roots to Maiden. Now, that is a charm, an honour, and a responsibility.

In their lifetime, they’ve risen to the challenge of Judas Priest, seen off Metallica, brushed aside Korn, and now stand firm against the headrush of a new generation of wannabes…

“So, where are we?”

A shrill voice cuts through the above thoughts, on Maiden’s place in history. And where are we, exactly? Geographically, at Hook End Manor, which was once owned by legendary Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, and is now a residential recording studio, set somewhere between Reading, Henley, Maidenhead and other such points on the Thames compass. It’s so tranquil down here that it’s more horticulture than whore-ticulture, if you get the drift.

Maiden have hired this location for several days, ferrying the global media in and out, to hear their outrageously strong new album, A Matter Of Life And Death.

Today, it’s the turn of Metal Hammer, and in the usual tradition of a band who are never less than the perfect hosts, they’ve laid on everything.

Not just booze and a buffet, but also all manner of entertainments, from a pinball machine to a full size snooker table.

Later on that evening, they screen England’s World Cup game against Sweden, even ensuring a clutch of Swedish journalists are on hand to lend just the right frisson to the occasion.