Blaze Bayley

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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.
 
Bombusbombus said:
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.
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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
 
Forostar said:
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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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.
 
Forostar said:
Let's not forget that monitor man hindering Blaze in every possible way, just when his voice did so well during the VXI tour.
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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.
 
He sounded really amazing on Afraid to Shoot Strangers, even adding a higher vocal line than in Bruce's version, at the end of the song.
(The sound is taken from the same concert as the Eternal Flame bootleg - Sweden 1995).

I don't get why the band couldn't do "Hallowed Be Thy Name" in this style for example? The guitars playing lower notes sound great!
 
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