Blaze Bayley

The next two are must have studio albums as well. Later on, you could keep your expectations a bit lower, just see how you like them.

@TheTalisman and anyone else:

There's also a 2nd edition of that biography, an updated issue. Expanded by Paterson and brought out after he left the band. Did you read this (I haven't). I vaguely remember that this version was more critical at the end. Never bothered to buy it, but I would like to know how other readers experienced it.
 
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So...do you people separate the three different incarnations, BLAZE, Blaze Bayley band and solo or do you keep it all together in a big Blaza Bayley pile? I always rip my music so I can have it on my phone etc and just can't make up my mind about this.
 
On Itunes and Spotify etc everything is labelled under the "Blaze Bayley" name these days, since he re-released everything on his own label. He kept the original BLAZE namn on the artwork although.
 
So...do you people separate the three different incarnations, BLAZE, Blaze Bayley band and solo or do you keep it all together in a big Blaza Bayley pile? I always rip my music so I can have it on my phone etc and just can't make up my mind about this.
I prefer just Blaze Bayley :) it was a band, but for me it was always Blaze Bayley
 
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Yeah, all these silly updates. Funny you say "hacked". Until now, I thought someone is desperately trying to be funny. :)
 
Funny ... as to the music. Not really a big fan of most of his solo stuff .. and it seems to have gotten progressively worse. I'll give it a listen on Spotify (or something) first and decide if I want to buy it or not.

Artwork is cool though
 
The next two are must have studio albums as well. Later on, you could keep your expectations a bit lower, just see how you like them.

@TheTalisman and anyone else:

There's also a 2nd edition of that biography, an updated issue. Expanded by Paterson and brought out after he left the band. Did you read this (I haven't). I vaguely remember that this version was more critical at the end. Never bothered to buy it, but I would like to know how other readers experienced it.


Got it for Xmas, and I'm about halfway through it (up to pre-The Man Who Would Not Die era). One chapter dedicated to early life and Wolfsbane, and two chapters dedicated to the Maiden years. The rest is all solo, and looks to be mostly during the era the author/drummer was in the band (pre-TMWWND). It's a good read, but certainly could have used a couple more passes through for editing (or a solid professional edit), but it isn't that much of distraction. As for the Maiden stuff, it's a lot more candid than any official statement, interview or band biography that Maiden have put out there. He doesn't rip the band, is exceedingly appreciative of the chance to be a part of Maiden, but there were some definite questionable choices made that hampered him during his time in the band as well as after.
 
Things that affected his music career in different ways presented in the book:
1. Wolfsbane being lucky enough to get the support slot with Maiden during the No Prayer UK tour.
2. Bruce Dickinson deciding to "throw himself into the sea" (Like he sang in his song Tears of the Dragon) - Steve Harris, impressed by Blaze on the tour, gave him the job.
3. The grunge wave and heavy metal becoming out of date in the 90's as a result.
4. Steve Harris refusal to work with a producer for The X Factor and Virtual XI - Rod Smallwood didn't agree at first.
5. Steve Harris decision to release "The Angel and the Gambler" as the first single from Virtual XI - Rod Smallwood suggested "Futureal".
6. The band's refusal to tune down the instruments to match his lower vocal range during the two tours.
7. Staying with Sanctuary after the split and having Dave Thorne managing the BLAZE band - a misstake.

The thing that interests me the most is what happened at the end of his tenure with Maiden - the official reason for firing Blaze was because he had problems with his voice.
"Bayley's tenure in Iron Maiden ended in January 1999 when he was asked to leave during a band meeting.[104] The dismissal took place due to issues Bayley had experienced with his voice during the Virtual XI World Tour" (Wikipedia - citing Run to the Hills biography".
Kind of ironic really, as it was the band forcing him to push his voice on a nightly basis, because they would not transpose the songs lower.

Then Gers in 2010 stated that it was the band's fault: "although Janick Gers has since stated that this was partly the band's fault for forcing him to perform songs which were beyond his natural register.[106]" (Wikipedia).

Also kind of strange that Harris would rather fire his singer than tune down a few instruments for him!

The reason for his firing likely goes deeper than the official reasons, but we will most likely never get to know them. It seems like they would have worked with another singer even if Bruce hadn't rejoined, so something was clearly going on inside the band at the end of the Virtual XI tour, following into January 1999.

"E - How were you approached about the reunion? What was your involvement?
A - Since I joined up with Bruce to do his project there has been a lot of people saying when are you guys going to get back with Maiden. I kind of felt bad because the had Blaze and they were doing there own thing and going in their own direction. I said, well I can't see it at the moment. But I guess Blaze was going to leave and before they asked any other singer they asked Bruce. Inevitably, I suppose, they got around to me and said why don't we try to get Adrian back, as well, to do this new three guitar thing, cause then it gives it an extra little twist, which is quite interesting. -Adrian Smith. http://maidenfans.com/index.php?ACT=module&name=rwarticles&show=43

"Naaah, even if Blaze had stayed in the band we’d still have been touring this summer and making the next album abroad - even looking for a producer because Nigel Green [who worked alongside Steve on both ‘The X Factor’ and ‘Virtual XI’] isn’t available to do it.”
With such talk we are, of course, entering a decidedly grey area. For Maiden still insist upon keeping the reasons for Blaze Bayley’s departure close to their chests. Aside from a few criticisms about the consistency of his performances over a nine-month tour and his behaviour after a few beers, nobody seems to have a bad word to say about the bloke. Indeed, Steve continues to defend Blaze’s corner most robustly than he has to, claiming that the British press never have him a fair crack of the whip. He expresses his opinion that Bayley was a great singer, sighing deeply when I express my own viewpoint that he simply wasn’t up to such a Herculean task. So can the removal of Blaze in favour of Dickinson only be attributed to external pressure? Again, beyond a vehement denial that he was railroaded into making the change, Steve’s not saying anything. “If Blaze hasn’t spoken about it yet then neither will I,” he states defiantly. “That’s what we agreed.”" - Steve Harris. (http://www.daveling.co.uk/doc-ironmaiden.htm)

17 years on and counting and Harris has not really spoken yet...
 
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Let's not forget that monitor man hindering Blaze in every possible way, just when his voice did so well during the VXI tour.

That's one of the issues that just boggles my mind. Why not go to Steve (um...the BOSS) and say "my vocal tech guy isn't working out for what I need to perform at my best." And if he did, why did Steve do nothing? Again, he's the BOSS. The way Blaze explains the whole monitor issue in the book does make a lot of sense though, as to why he was singing in pretty much one spot onstage for the entire X Factour, as well as why he was a lot more mobile and more consistently on key during the VXI Tour when he had his ear monitor setup.

Also, there was the three weeks' rehearsal time for the X Factour that abruptly got shrunk down to a week. Not terribly surprising that Blaze was forgetting lyrics left and right at the start of the tour. Anyone who has "The Eternal Flame" bootleg has that great version of "Fortunes of War" where Blaze ends up humming a couple verses of it because he forgot the words.

Similarly mind-boggling is the band's refusal to tune down to accommodate his lower range. The only thing I can think of is a group of stubborn old musicians (or just one--probably all it would take to overrule the new guy) who don't want to play the songs differently. Anyway, it's a lot of evidence which, if true (at the very least the no down-tuning thing is, according to Janick), kind of shows that Blaze was set up to fail right from the start. I don't think any of it was intentional, but he certainly didn't seem to have a lot of help as far as making the tour and his performances a success from the band. Sort of like being told to climb Mount Everest (stepping into a band with monstrous expectations from fans, largely due to Bruce's rather big boots to fill) with one good leg (as much as I really do like Blaze, his vocal range was a handicap when it came to singing for Maiden, obviously).
 
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I think the reason Steve didn't let Maiden tune down is because Steve Harris refuses to compromise his sound for anyone, even when Steve Harris hires a guy that physically cannot sing the songs he wrote previously.

It's Steve's fault.
 
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