Blaze Bayley

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
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I genuinely feel bad for Blaze... I mean, he played to gigantic crowds with Maiden and now he's playing in bars and clubs for some semi-drunk people. And he really seems to be a nice guy, which makes it that harder for me to see something like this.

Does he seem to be having fun with crowd? Sure. But at the same time... :( I think playing clubs is cool by option, not by being forced to...
 
He didn't play to gigantic crowds when Maiden toured here in the USA. They were playing clubs. They were probably sold out though. It is sad though that he no longer has much of a following and it seems it's that way everywhere he goes. He does put on a super amazing and very energetic performance though and gives those who paid to see them more than their money's worth.
 
They were still playing large venues outside of the USA though.

Edit: Side note, I saw a concert recently at the same venue Maiden played at on one of the Blaze tours. It was definitely smaller than what they usually do but actually not too bad. Still way bigger than what Blaze does now solo. Would've been pretty cool to see Maiden in that sort of setting actually.
 
Yeah, to me the bottom line is that, without a doubt, Blaze IS playing super small places, and i feel bad for him. I do not think he has or ever had an amazing voice, but he really seems to be a nice guy. And a nice guy who got the biggest of lucks in the world, probably thought for a while that he really had a career in Maiden and them BAM, he was out and is now playing for (hyperbole) 20 people a night, you know? :(
 
Travis The Dragon said:
He didn't play to gigantic crowds when Maiden toured here in the USA. They were playing clubs. They were probably sold out though. It is sad though that he no longer has much of a following and it seems it's that way everywhere he goes. He does put on a super amazing and very energetic performance though and gives those who paid to see them more than their money's worth.
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When you write clubs, do you mean very tiny places ? Do you have any idea of the capacity ?

nuno_c said:
Yeah, to me the bottom line is that, without a doubt, Blaze IS playing super small places, and i feel bad for him. I do not think he has or ever had an amazing voice, but he really seems to be a nice guy. And a nice guy who got the biggest of lucks in the world, probably thought for a while that he really had a career in Maiden and them BAM, he was out and is now playing for (hyperbole) 20 people a night, you know? :(
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He ran out of luck quickly. I think his wife's disease and death were a real blow and had an influence on the course of his career.
 
harrisdevot said:
He ran out of luck quickly. I think his wife's disease and death were a real blow and had an influence on the course of his career.
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The other thing that hurt him was Sanctuary intentionally burying Silicon Messiah. If they wanted to do right by Blaze they could have.
 
LooseCannon said:
The other thing that hurt him was Sanctuary intentionally burying Silicon Messiah. If they wanted to do right by Blaze they could have.
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I had forgotten this. I have read (on this forum, I hink) some comments about the arsh treatment the album received from his management, and could not believe Smallwood could have been such a b... This guy is just great, and didn't deserve this. Harry has recently tried to sort things out with some of his former Maiden partners, and I wish he'd do the same with Blaze.
 
She suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was hospitalised, one day before the release of The Man Who Would Not Die (7 July, 2008), and died two and half months later. Even though not as strong as previous efforts, still a decent album. And at the time he played for more people than these days (I have no stats, but I have that impression when looking at footage). For less people compared to some years earlier, but it really went downhill afterwards. Every album became worse. And in the last three years he really started to "sell" himself more than ever to make an extra buck. Many guest appearances from 2012 and onwards.

In 2011 he announced that he had parted ways with his previous musicians due to financial and medical reasons. If she had anything to do with it, I do not know, but his career went way better in the time she was alive.
 
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The time between Blood and Belief and The Man Who Would Not Die - five years, mind you - was a dramatic lull. Let's not forget the disastrous management issues around 2007 that led to the complete ditching of an already largely written studio album with the Blood and Belief lineup which got sacked entirely. The same management that made Blaze be a spokesman for a hair restorer. The only released output of the time was the Alive in Poland DVD. The entire content of The Man Who Would Not Die is an outburst of frustration of this period, which did more harm to his career than anything else ever did.
 
Good points, I am just not sure if it really was so much in the drain back then, compared to some years later. And did the album itself do so much harm, or you mean the period?
 
Forostar said:
Good points, I am just not sure if it really was so much in the drain back then, compared to some years later.
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It depends on how you define it, of course. I was speaking mostly commercially, and while from that perspective, his solo career was stillborn, but at least he had a large label for the first three studio albums and got booked for major festivals. Even during that time, things were difficult. The whole band abandoned him after Tenth Dimension, he had his alcohol problems and divorce. When it came out, Blood and Belief was advertised to be a closure to this episode, but as we all know now, that's only when it really started.

Artistically, I think it was the crisis that ensued around 2008 that had the worst impact. The Man Who Would Not Die was still good - not perfect, not even excellent, but it had great moments. But that was mostly because it was still a band composition. Blaze has been largely in control ever since, and I'm afraid he doesn't have what it takes for that. The only real highlight since 2008 was on the Russian Holiday EP, when he was working with competent, professional musicians who challenged his talent.

I still blame his 2007 management for most of what went wrong, though. They gave a great band the shaft that was producing something that may not have been a commercial, but definitely an artistic success. A live rendition of Sin by Sin can still be found on YouTube, but they had played another song on that gig called Death of a Singer that was truly stunning - and has never resurfaced after Blazefans.com was destroyed by that same management.

Forostar said:
And did the album itself do so much harm, or you mean the period?
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The period. Sorry, my phrasing was ambiguous.
 
The management was an important factor indeed. Around that time of The Man he indeed still had that band, which gave me a more confident feeling. The cameraderie felt good.
 
Although i really appreciate Blaze as a person (once again, he really seems to be a nice guy, humble and all), i have to say that one of the main reasons he does not have more success on his own is the fact that he was so much hated while he was in Maiden (we have to remember that this period was when he became REALLY more well known). So nowadays, he's typically seen as "that guy who butchered Maiden". He's got that image tattoed permenantly.

Also, let's be honest... Although he seems to be a nice guy, he does not have a great voice. He's average. Better than many people but not even comparable to the all-time greats. He also does not have a good image (and let's face it, that's one reason why not-so-good singers usually become more well known/accepted), so that also does not help...

And this is not me criticizing Blaze at all, 'cause i do love BOTH his albums with Maiden and really appreciate the guy... I'm just trying to be objective.
 
Today I finally heard Silicon Messiah (or any Blaze solo album, for that matter) for the first time. And I'm blown away. I mean, I expected it to be good, everyone has told me so at least, but this is just amazing.

Hearing this and considering what I know of the guy - that is, he gives every crowd his best, even when there are, like, three people in it, he had a boatload of bad luck in his life and he usually plays for an audience of ten people nowadays - makes me want to get out and buy out all his albums. And again, repeatedly.
 
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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