Customer Reviews

The Beast

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was a bit sceptical upon reading this book. Was Paul gonna thrash the all time greatest metal band Iron Maiden? Was Paul gonna let his true feelings about his replacement the great Bruce Dickinson spew forth? Well the answers to these questions were no and yes. If your looking for dirt on Steve Harris and the boys your not gonna find it here. And Paul's thoughts on Bruce? He is an excellent singer.
What you will find in this book is a story of a troubled man. It makes ya laugh and it pisses you off and even a little sympathy for the guy. But I am sure Paul would be the first to tell you he don't need your sympathy. This is Pauls way of excercising demons.
Fighting,boozing,drugs,women,smacking wives(Paul had 5 wives in his time)kicking band members in the face,diffrent musical projects,blowing all your doe,it goes on and on and on. It made for a very good read.
I was surprised to see Paul was so violent. I actually thought he was just making good fictional stories until the end were we get confirmation from friends,bandmates,and managers. These little quips are hilarious in them self.
So if your looking for dirt on Maiden. Forget it! There is none. Iron Maiden are a band that is always about the music.That is a major factor in there success. Paul didnt go into to much detail about his ousting/quitting of the band. For the bottom line was look we/I dont like want your doing and it's time to move on. That is both sides thinking,Paul and Maiden. But life after Maiden was some good reading. Good job Paul.

As a fan of Iron Maiden for decades, since I was a teen in the 80's, my room is practically a shrine to Maiden still. I love both the Di'Anno period as well as the Dickinson period (though admittedly I'm more of a fan of the Dickinson time period). However, I've been on a huge metal biography kick recently reading all sorts of bio's, so I was very excited about reading this book. I've read the Maiden bio's a ways back and was hoping that this book would be a fairly good balance of the insightful as well as the wild stories, etc. And to top things off, I just saw Paul Di'Anno live at the Galaxy Theatre on Feb 20th, 2010. It was a great show! So, be clear about this, I'm more than just a casual fan reviewing this.

The book started out fairly well, recounting Paul Di'Anno's early days with Iron Maiden, and his youth growing up. Admittedly, Di'Anno comes from a fairly rough childhood and was brawling and drinking and having sex at a fairly young age. It is no wonder he did some of the things he did in this book. It is no wonder that he split with Iron Maiden. He has lived life pretty much the way he wanted to and was never really interested in taking things to soaring heights of success or in putting in the kind of work and dedication that Maiden has. That's certainly his right. He loves to tour and keep things at a certain level, and he loves to party. Though there are some interesting stories here and there in this book, overall the book is quite repetitive and rather boring after a while.

There is no real vision here, not much insight or interest in the times he is in or the bands he has toured with. There are a few points of interesest, and it comes off fairly personal, but mainly it is just one mans repetitive story of sexual conquest after conquest, upon more sex, with drug fueled drunken benders, violent brawls at the drop of a hat over the smallest things, sex parties, group sex, so much sex that he himself get's fairly bored of it all (and we do too) and he makes it admittedly clear that he got to a point where he had pretty much no respect for the women he was with. He seems to have little respect for his own self as well. Life on the road is pretty maddening for this guy, and he seems to have just let the madness take him. The drug and drink intake is beyond excessive, its like reading a book by the local wallowing drug addict, except this guy is fueled with money and has no desire to get beyond the squalor he has chosen for himself. And the stories of squalor and such simply come off repetitively as someone who has found a source of pride in how close to death he can come for himself and others. Story after story appears here of Di'Anno flying into a rage (mostly drunken ones) beating or kicking someone near to death. Granted, a lot of these people may have deserved a good thrashing, but Di'Anno pretty much constantly describes himself with boastful pride as someone who sees red and boastfully losses all control and nearly kills some of these people. He constantly gives boring boasts and threats throughout the book like a high school thug "and if they mess with me I'll .... blah blah blah.. " He has a few deep regrets here and there but he seems terribly proud of fighting over anything and everything, down to the smallest insult, at the drop of a hat. "Look at me the wrong way and ...blah blah blah.." He never chooses his battles wisely and hardly ever learns from his mistakes. And like the rock star he is, he's sheltered from most of the consequences. Is he funny? Yes very much so sometimes, and even charming. Its like setting down with someone over a few bears when reading this book. But after a while, its like the person you set down with for a few bears and some fun just becomes a boastful mess wallowing in his tales. After a while, the Di'Anno book is like spending time with your drunk uncle as he descends into boring you with tale after tale of the same stuff. "Then I brought her back to my place, and we screwed, I stuck this or that into her, made her snuff coke off my member, then I beat the guy and her and I screwed, then I drank a bottle or two of whatever and beat that guy, then I screwed her, and you know when I get that way I'll beat the ....blah blah blah...".

I've read Motley Crue's The Dirt, and thought that was a good book on the highs and lows of success, excess, and lives lived on the edge. Di'Anno's book is really nothing like that. I've read books on Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Kiss, you name it. All of them manage to be fairly balanced about the musical influences, the personal, the histories, etc., Di'Anno's book is not really that much like that. It is just an account of marauding. I've read books by hardcore bikers that come off more insightful and more interesting.

And one should note, that the hardback version of Di'Anno's book came out in 2002. Now we have the paperback in 2010. There are a few things in here as having been described as recently happening a few years ago, but its all from the perspective of 2002. The Paul Di'Anno I saw get up on stage on Feb 20th 2010 does not seem much like the Paul talked about here. Though he sang great, he was terribly overweight, walked on with a limp, and one could tell that it was hard to get warmed up. Once he did, he cruised along just fine, but the life of excess and abuse has certainly taken its toll and it really shows. I wonder how long he will live? If he really is till trying to live this sort of life still, he will probably leave this earth soon, just like some of the other drunken rock star deaths he mentions sadly in this book but never seems to learn from.

We love ya Paul, really and truly love you man. And we've enjoyed your music, but your life is one I certainly don't envy. This is a great book about what not to do with your life if you make it to the so-called "top". I wish the book could have been more balanced, more insightful. I'm sure you have a lot of interesting stories you could tell, if you were sober enough and not drugged up enough that you could remember some of them. I hope you will write another book someday, if you make it up and out of all this. You have a lot to offer the world. You were an important force in metal in the 80's. I truly hope all the best for you.

So you probably know that Paul Di' Anno was the singer for Iron Maiden, that's why you're looking at this book. What you didn't probably know is this guy has a temperment that explodes into fury in an instant and everything he seems to touch is smashed and destroyed one way or another. Alcoholic, drug addict, womanizer, brawler, inmate.... rock and roll almost takes a back seat to all of this. Brutally honest and at times hilarious, Di' Anno has had a mess of a bloody good time and is more than happy to share the good, the bad and the ugly. This IS NOT a book about Iron Maiden. Let's get that straight people. This guy has more in common with GG Allin than any incarnation of Maiden after he left. Di' Anno brought danger back into rock and roll, with absolutely no preconceived thoughts or intent. He was just being Paul. Love him or hate him, you have to be amazed at his perserverence and the fact he's still alive. This is a warts and all autobiography from the seemingly innocent and fresh faced teen who ended up fronting the mighty Maiden to the battered, scarred and tattooed "Beast" of today who's been around the world with the aptly named Battlezone and Killers bands. And he's loved almost every bloody, debauched minute of it.... except for a couple of things and he'll tell you all about them.... Very eye opening.

What a load of crap. This bloke should have been a pro boxer he is such a great fighter. Maybe his problem is that half of the people he has bashed are women. Even the people he gets to write some good words about him say that he is full of crap. He should get over the fact that he wasn't good enough to be in Iron Maiden and move on. He has lived on his past glories for way too long. As a long time metal fan, I have heard lots of stories about lots of metal stars. Yet I don't think I have heard of any of his self proclaimed famous and infamous stories that he writes about in this book.

Only read if you are extremely bored. I only continued reading it because I could not believe how much of a goose this bloke really was and thought it would maybe get better. It didn't.

For most metal fans (in the UK, at least) Paul Di'anno fell of the radar that fateful day in 1981 when Rod Smallwood fired him; not because of any vocal deficiencies but because his wayward behaviour was fast becomming a threat to the burgeoning Maiden franchise. Maiden went on to become multi-millionaire legends and I'm sure I'm not the only Maiden fan to ask the question 'whatever happened to Paul Di'anno?'

This book more than answers that question. Paul formed new bands; rather a lot of them, in fact: Battlezone, Killers et al who, it transpires, made a decent enough (though erratic) living on the European and South American metal circuits.

However, this is not primarily a book about music; it is a book about mayhem. Most rock biographies offer titilation: you might secretly want to be Lemmy or Slash or Vince Neil but you wouldn't want Paul Di'anno's life. No siree! Not for all the lager in Chingford! This is excess to the point of lunacy.

Paul is a brutally honest man devoid of cant or humbug. I was surprised to learn, for all his womanising, that Paul clearly despises groupies and he takes great pleasure in humiliating them. Lemmy, on the other hand, clearly likes groupies and is capable of speaking well of them. Paul's not that sort of guy.

Funnily enough it wasn't the endless tales of excess that held my interest in this book: it was the other things that Paul revealed about himself. Like the fact that he signed over all his Maiden royalties (for a one off fee) years ago or that his conversion to Islam was a sincere statement of faith.

This is not a great book but I think every Maiden fan should give it a go.

Excellent life story from the Beast himself, Paul Di'Anno. From his early days, to his Maiden days, to where he is today. Many ups and downs, fights, drugs, prison, etc. You name it, he's done it. I saw him on the Killers tour (Iron Maiden) and also with Battlezone, and now that he's banned from America, I'm praying he can sneak in some day for some tour dates!!

Paul definitely lived the rock and roll life and he lived it to the max. You won't hear the typical whining you get from most other rock stars about the hard life they've lived. He's still the same blue-collar kid from the mean streets who won't take ... from anyone. BUT, he's lucky to still be alive and kicking! A good part of the book is devoted to his four main preoccupations: "shagging", drugs, fighting, and the live shows. Paul writes as he talks -- cockney accent and east-end lingo. The book is full of hilarious anecdotes and colorful language and you'll find yourself laughing out loud. There's not much here about writing music or Iron Maiden. But rest assured; there's plenty of interesting and hilarious stories to make this a worthwhile read.

I laughed, I cried, I laughed so hard my sides started to hurt. Like the note on the front says: if you are offened easliy, of a soft nature, don't buy this book. If you want to hear some funny stuff then buy this. I won't spoil it for you, but you will laugh so hard you will not want to put it down.

Paul was the first Maiden singer (on vinyl anyway), he does not slag Maiden or Bruce, he actually says that Bruce has a good voice. He stories about sex in bathrooms, doing so much drugs, ending up in a US prison are all here in their glory for you to read. Oh and his music is killer as well. THE BEAST LIVES!!!

This guy is an idiot for walking out on the greatest Heavy Metal Band ever. The book (Of Course) does not answer the question of whether or not he quit or got fired. It embellishes on all of his disgusting sexual flings that are usually group related. Just qan idiot that missed his chance.

Very dissapointed in this book. I was hoping to find out more about the recording of the 1st two Iron Maiden albums. Now I know that the old saying goes "If you don't have something nice to say don't say anything at all" but Mr. Di'anno takes this to a new level. Aside from meeting Steve Harris about joining the band and drinking with Dave Murray nothing is said about the recording sessions or any shows.

Mr. Di'anno mostly tells story after story of drunken sexual escapades. It gets quite boring after awhile.