Was Blaze Bayley announced as the new lead singer in 1993?

fekso

fekso

Ancient Mariner
Anyone that can confirm this? Many sources state that Blaze was officially with the band from 1994 until 1999. We know that Blaze himself knew around Christmas 1993. He had little official involvement with the band in 1999. The inofficial meeting when he was fired was held in early 1999. His official involvents with the band in 1999 include the announcement of his departure on February 10th 1999 (and one interview that was printed in January 1999) which sets his official departure year as 1999. The only time accurate source I can find on him being announced as a new member is from one of the larger Swedish news papers, DN. The magazine printed the news on December 30th 1993, which should make Bayley's official stint from that date until February 10th 1999 when Bruce and Adrian was announced to be back.

December 30th 1993 DN announcement:
Without mentioning the name of the singer legend of the British hard rock group Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, it is announced in a press release from the band that Blaze Bayley got the job as a new singer. Bayley is a former singer of Wolfsbane, a group that acted in connection with Iron Maiden during a trip three years ago. The members of Iron Maiden were already impressed by countryman Bayley. Nevertheless, it was assured that his name was not given at all when the group began to sell among all aspirants. 2,000 cassettes where hugged singers gave throats in the hope that a place in the veteran band was intercepted - a neat task, one must say.


Blaze Bayley 1993 announcement:
http://www.dn.se/arkiv/teater/blaze-bailey-efter-bruce-dickinson/

Blaze Bayley 1999 interview:
http://www.metal-rules.com/metalnews/2005/08/23/blaze-bayley-of-iron-maiden/

Reunion announcement:
http://www.hardradio.com/concerts/maidenru.html
 
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I remember there used to be a metal TV show called "Raw Power" it used to be on at about 3 in the morning. The presenter was Krusher, http://krusher.co.uk/biography.php .

My memory is that in the pre christmas episode of it there had been an interview with wolfesbane where Blaze denied that he'd got the Maiden job, and in the post christmas episode Krusher jokingly accused him of being a "little liar" when it was revealed he was the new Maiden singer. I'm not sure if that's 100% accurate timeline wise but for some reason the fact it was around Christmas time has stuck in my head.
 
Black Wizard said:
Aw poor guy. He was so optimistic about the future.
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I suspect the interview was done during the 1998 tour, but the fact is that media reported on him as the singer of the band in early 1999, until the reunion announcement was made.
 
Yeah, reading through that... damn, would've liked to have had maybe one more album with him at least. I'd be curious to see what could have happened there. But oh well...
 
Maiden4Ever said:
That was a tough read. Really feel for the guy. Didn't have the right monitors. Seems like he was getting the support he should have been from the band or iron maiden Ltd?
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In his biography he said the band cut The Factour rehearsals short, to a week or two. Try to get all the lyrics, your stage act and the technology down in that amount of time...
 
Of course I meant he wasn't getting the support he should have in my post. 1-2 week rehearsals eh. Perhaps that's why band never delve into their very deep and amazing back catalogue. They can't be arsed to rehearse? Lads shall we have a go at flight of icarus? Nah that'll take a day to nail. The fans won't mind wrathchild again!
 
So my point was along the lines of: anywhere you go online people will refer to Blaze as a member from 1994 to 1999. But my sources points to him being the new singer just before 1994.
 
Maiden4Ever said:
Of course I meant he wasn't getting the support he should have in my post. 1-2 week rehearsals eh. Perhaps that's why band never delve into their very deep and amazing back catalogue. They can't be arsed to rehearse? Lads shall we have a go at flight of icarus? Nah that'll take a day to nail. The fans won't mind wrathchild again!
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That reads kind of harsh but I wouldn't be surprised if that's pretty much the reality. But at the same time there probably aren't many deep cuts that would get a large reaction from the audience to make rehearsing extra worth it for them.
 
I think it's more complex. There may be compromises with personal wishes, but I doubt they'd rehearse something that half a band doesn't like. Then if they agree, they could drop if it sounds like shit (60 yo people playing CSiT and LOTLDR), or if it takes too much to nail down (Infinite Dreams). Also they might get bored if they rehearse a piece too much, who knows. They did come out ill prepared for Paschendale in 2010 and it went out of the setlist after 2 gigs. Timing issues - you can't tell me you can count in studio but not live, Smith has in-ears, McBrain has custom monitors, they screwed it. Twice. Surgical precision guitarist and a human metronome. Twice, in a row. FFS, they probable played that song once or twice in rehearsals only.
 
Zare said:
I think it's more complex. There may be compromises with personal wishes, but I doubt they'd rehearse something that half a band doesn't like. Then if they agree, they could drop if it sounds like shit (60 yo people playing CSiT and LOTLDR), or if it takes too much to nail down (Infinite Dreams). Also they might get bored if they rehearse a piece too much, who knows. They did come out ill prepared for Paschendale in 2010 and it went out of the setlist after 2 gigs. Timing issues - you can't tell me you can count in studio but not live, Smith has in-ears, McBrain has custom monitors, they screwed it. Twice. Surgical precision guitarist and a human metronome. Twice, in a row. FFS, they probable played that song once or twice in rehearsals only.
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To be fair they played Paschendale for like 6 gigs and it was more like they were trying to decide if to play it or DOD.
 
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