Blaze Bayley

I wonder if anyone associated with BLAZE back in the day still have the Silicon Messiah demos saved? I think they did like 3 tracks to present to labels, if i remember correctly - Ghost in the Machine, Born as A Stranger and a third track, I think it was The Day I Fell to Earth.

They have never been released though and I don't think any outside the band ever got ahold of them. If Blaze ever does a reprint of Silicon Messiah again (he did put it out on vinyl and CD in 2015), I think they deserve to be included as bonus tracks, if they can be found.
 
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I disagree. They needed each other equally. Bruce had just produced a classic album that no one was interested in. If he hadn't joined Maiden in 99 he'd have continued in a downward trajectory, as would Maiden, until the reunion happened inevitably.

Maybe metal itself would have continued into the depth of Nu-Metal and would now be a dead genre if the reunion didn't happen.

You make some very valid points but Bruce was not in a downward trajectory. He had hit rock bottom commercially with Skunkworks, but after that each solo album sold more units than the previous one and he started to play bigger venues.
 
I wonder if anyone associated with BLAZE back in the day still have the Silicon Messiah demos saved? I think they did like 3 tracks to present to labels, if i remember correctly - Ghost in the Machine, Born as A Stranger and a third track, I think it was The Day I Fell to Earth.

They have never been released though and I don't think any outside the band ever got ahold of them. If Blaze ever does a reprint of Silicon Messiah again (he did put it out on vinyl and CD in 2015), I think they deserve to be included as bonus tracks, if they can be found.
Those would be cool to hear, though doubtful he''ll re-release the album again anytime soon.

The Day I Fell to Earth is such a cool song, hoping they'd bring it back to the setlist - saw them play it a few times in 2015/16.
 
I read somewhere that Janick found out about a potential reunion in Japan in 1998. Have someone got a timeline for the Blaze dismissal and the Bruce Reunion?
 
I read somewhere that Janick found out about a potential reunion in Japan in 1998. Have someone got a timeline for the Blaze dismissal and the Bruce Reunion?
There's no exact timeline, but I think that Rod and Sanctuary (who were also managing Bruce Dickinson) had been working on it for a good while at that time. Discussing with both sides, and setting up a potential agreement to be signed. There were also legal things to take care of with Blaze, like a non disclosure agreement and a golden handshake, so it wasn't exactly decided over a few pints at the pub, like some people want to believe...Both the legal side and convincing Steve to meet with Bruce was likely demanding.

They went out on the bowie bond market at the same time, and ensuring investors that the classic lineup was back together propably made them receive a much better deal, so there was that aspect in pushing for a reunion as well, rather than starting to search for a new singer. Blaze wasn't informed until January 1999 though, and at first he was told that nothing had been sorted out legally with Bruce. About a week later he learned for sure that Bruce was returning, according to The Run To the Hills biography.

Edit: If you check these dates: https://www.ironmaiden.com/tours/virtual-xi-world-tour-1998 you can see that the band went to Japan in the middle of November 1998, so by then you can definitely tell that it had been decided informally that Blaze was going to leave the band and that Bruce and Adrian were returning, but that no contracts had been signed yet.
 
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I’ve finally got round to listening to my copy of Blood and Belief on vinyl. On the whole it is a very good pressing. Not many pops.

The bass sounds really good on my home speakers. Wayne Banks’ Stingray has a great tone and punches through the mix.

The drumming on the whole album is just so good. Life and Death is outrageous.
 
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I’ve finally got round to listening to my copy of Blood and Belief on vinyl. On the whole it is a very good pressing. Not many pops.

The bass sounds really good on my home speakers. Wayne Banks’ Stingray has a great time and punches through the mix.

The drumming on the whole album is just so good. Life and Death is outrageous.

I keep putting off getting this due to tight budgets but I’m going to have to take the plunge at some point. Such a great album, one that I enjoy more now than on its release. Glad it’s sounding good
 
There's no exact timeline, but I think that Rod and Sanctuary (who were also managing Bruce Dickinson) had been working on it for a good while at that time. Discussing with both sides, and setting up a potential agreement to be signed. There were also legal things to take care of with Blaze, like a non disclosure agreement and a golden handshake, so it wasn't exactly decided over a few pints at the pub, like some people want to believe...Both the legal side and convincing Steve to meet with Bruce was likely demanding.

They went out on the bowie bond market at the same time, and ensuring investors that the classic lineup was back together propably made them receive a much better deal, so there was that aspect in pushing for a reunion as well, rather than starting to search for a new singer. Blaze wasn't informed until January 1999 though, and at first he was told that nothing had been sorted out legally with Bruce. About a week later he learned for sure that Bruce was returning, according to The Run To the Hills biography.

Edit: If you check these dates: https://www.ironmaiden.com/tours/virtual-xi-world-tour-1998 you can see that the band went to Japan in the middle of November 1998, so by then you can definitely tell that it had been decided informally that Blaze was going to leave the band and that Bruce and Adrian were returning, but that no contracts had been signed yet.

Found this:


"At some point in November 1998, after the European leg of the tour and before Maiden’s shows in Japan that month, Harris would decide that it couldn’t hurt to meet with Dickinson. McBrain recalls being in a sake bar in Roppongi, Tokyo when Smallwood told him that there would be a band meeting with Bruce when they came back home."

"it seems to have happened sometime in late November, possibly Sunday 29 November, the day before Dickinson started his UK solo tour."

" it seems likely that everyone else in the band new that Bayley would be going when they played their final Virtual XI shows in South America in December 1998."

"It was an early afternoon in Brighton in the south of England, sometime in the fall of 1998. Iron Maiden, minus their current singer Blaze Bayley, convened at the home of manager Rod Smallwood. They were waiting for Bruce Dickinson, their estranged former vocalist, to arrive for a tentative discussion with Steve Harris."
 
I find this goodbye a little bit forced. I have the impression that he did this video for the respect of the fans, but that he doesn't care himself about the crowned granny that bowed out two days ago...
He seems to be reciting something pre-prepared and rehearsed but so what? All his speeches are a bit like this. It's not everyone can just go out there and improvise.

I'm sorry you feel this to be a sign of insincerity.
 
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He seems to be reciting something pre-prepared and rehearsed but so what? All his speeches are a bit like this. It's not everyone can just go out there and improvise.

I'm sorry you feel this to be a sign of insincerity.
I really don't care about this, you know. I'm not English or British, so that's not important for me. I just noticed that and that was my feeling on the moment but now I've watched this video again, I must admit I was wrong and my feeling was false. ;)
 
Have fun, I hope he will play alot of his first 3 albums.
He will normally play songs from his last albums (he's doing his War Within Me tour), maybe two/three from Silicon Messiah and Tenth Dimension but also 3/4 songs from Iron Maiden.

 
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