5,324

30

Oct 3, 2008

22 hours ago

26

Saudi Arabia

Benjamin Breeg - mystery surrounds the origin and whereabouts of the man who appears in the title of a new song from a metal band Iron Maiden. The band has been creating songs of real life historical figures from the early eighties, so the obvious question for the fans is - how the hell is Benjamin Breeg? Nobody seems to know anything about him. What a curious choice for a song then? Google search for the name doesn't help much as there's already couple hundred thousand pages that mention the name, mostly referring to first upcoming single from their upcoming album A Matter of Life and Death, due out at the end of September. There are some websites, such as www.benjaminbreeg.co.uk which claim to be run by friends or relatives of Benjamin. The owner of this particular site says he has spent the last two years searching for information on his long lost cousin, Benjamin Breeg. He also claims of no contact with Iron Maiden and is wondering why they made a song about his cousin... There are three ways to think of this: - Perhaps it indeed is real, perhaps Steve Harris was browsing the internet and ended up on his website, got interested in it, and decided to make a song about B. Breeg... Somehow doesn't seem all that likely. - Maybe the site is operated by a marketing agency who is trying to build a mystery around B. Breeg to do the type of grass-roots word-of-mouth marketing that the movie A.I. did a while back. Seems not likely either, given how little information the site has. At least I wasn't intrigued to any further investigation (other than writing about it here, of course... so perhaps it works?) - More likely... it's probably setup by someone smart enough who immediatelly registered the domain after reading of the list of songs in the new album. It's pretty much guaranteed to draw a lot of traffic once the album is released, so put in a couple of ads and let the cash flow in... This idea is supported by the fact that the site has blog-style updates with dates, which start only couple weeks ago, when the details of the album were released. Whatever the case, the question remains - who is Benjamin? It might be one of those names that really doesn't exist - a combination of uncommon first and last names, just to be sure it's pretty unique. Or it could be someone who really existed, or perhaps he's just a myth. To conclude this, I'm putting in a quote from the above mentioned B.Breeg site: My Grandmother died two years ago and I was left with the task of emptying her house of her belongings. As well as the usual furniture, ornaments and personal belongings I came across several boxes of old photos and letters that she'd kept. In one of these was a photo of a family member who I didn't recognise. I asked all my relatives who the man was but none of them seemed to know either which I thought was strange. However, a cousin of mine, who emigrated to Australia, told me that the photo was of Benjamin Breeg. It had been taken in 1977, the year before he disappeared. I was intrigued by him and began researching his background. It took over a year of visiting places and people before I managed to piece together enough information to create this website. I spoke and corresponded with anyone who had ever met him or known him. Unfortunately, no one, including the police, could help me discover how or why he disappeared. I'm still trying to find answers but I created this site in the hope that it will keep his memory alive and also, that it might eventually help me to discover what happened to him. If there is anyone out there who might be able to help me find him, I would be eternally grateful. If you have any genuine information, please email me. -A.Breeg