GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
Blaze sold condoms at gigs & on the webshop at time of the release of that album - As Hard As it Gets!
If anyone saved a package of those, that's a true collectible today.
Wouldn't keeping a packet of condoms equal to admitting defeat? I mean, they are meant to be used, not collected!
TheMercenary
Ancient Mariner
Blaze turns 59 today. 
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
^ Not only the Phantom, but ''Still Life'' too.
''Bayley has recently stated that he lobbied for Maiden to include the relatively singer-friendly Still Life in the set''.
It's a new info or I simply missed it in the first place. Anyway, I think Blaze would do well with this great song from 1983 and with more Paul era songs. In the end, the biggest surprise in the setlist for the VXI tour was ''Murders In The Rue Morgue''.
Randalf
Ancient Mariner
At this point it looks that I'm unable to attend the Iron Maiden show in Gothenburg, but I might be able to see Blaze later this week! At least his War Within Me show in Helsinki on Friday and possibly the Maiden-only set in Mikkeli on the next day.
Hopefully I can make it. I mean, with the outstanding LOTB show I witnessed in Riga and a possible, sweaty and intense Blaze show later on, this might actually be quite decent Maiden summer for me, after all.
I recently listened War Within Me again... I still think it's a solid album with bunch of very well-written basic heavy metal songs. If not a lot more, definitely not any less either. A couple of tunes lean towards the typical Blaze-clichés (stand up! fight! TOUGH!) and such, but altogether, it's a good ride even with all the cheese. It's hardly surprising at this point, since we got a sci-fi concept album trilogy before this one. And granted, he pulled it off... actually quite well, as most of the songs were very strong and while the eh... story itself wasn't too great, it didn't really bother too much either, I guess.
Rock on!
Hopefully I can make it. I mean, with the outstanding LOTB show I witnessed in Riga and a possible, sweaty and intense Blaze show later on, this might actually be quite decent Maiden summer for me, after all.
I recently listened War Within Me again... I still think it's a solid album with bunch of very well-written basic heavy metal songs. If not a lot more, definitely not any less either. A couple of tunes lean towards the typical Blaze-clichés (stand up! fight! TOUGH!) and such, but altogether, it's a good ride even with all the cheese. It's hardly surprising at this point, since we got a sci-fi concept album trilogy before this one. And granted, he pulled it off... actually quite well, as most of the songs were very strong and while the eh... story itself wasn't too great, it didn't really bother too much either, I guess.
Rock on!
CA Bryers
Ancient Mariner
Speaking of the story, it makes me wonder whatever happened to the Infinite Entanglement novel he'd been writing. He was having a virtual signing of sorts at a record store and I popped onto it and asked him about it, and at that point he said he was expecting to release it in 2019. That's the last I've heard him talk about it.
TheMercenary
Ancient Mariner
He's very busy with a lot of music projects coming up. He's doing a lot of featurings for fans or friends bands. He's recorded vocals for the new Wolfsbane album (released in June) and he's planned lot of concerts until december. After that, he'll do some composing and writing for his next solo record. So, he does not have much time to complete his novel currently.
TheMercenary
Ancient Mariner
Happy 14th birthday to the fantastic 'The Man Who Would Not Die' !! 
CA Bryers
Ancient Mariner
I get that he's busy now and was busy in the last year, but this was four years ago, pre-pandemic when he predicted it would be out in 2019. He, like every other band, was sidelined at home with not a ton to do for well over a year before live shows started happening again. Yes, he did War Within Me in that timeframe...and then waited a long time until he could tour it.
I'm just wondering if the project disappearing off the radar completely is indicative of something other than, "eh, I just never got around to finishing it," or if he lost faith in the project.
TheMercenary
Ancient Mariner
BLAZE BAYLEY Didn't Think BRUCE DICKINSON Would Ever Come Back To IRON MAIDEN
British heavy metal vocalist Blaze Bayley, who fronted IRON MAIDEN more than 20 years ago, was asked in a new interview with Rolling Stone if he was always thinking in the back of his head during his tenure with MAIDEN that at some point they would bring back Bruce Dickinson and that would be...
blabbermouth.net
GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
BLAZE BAYLEY Didn't Think BRUCE DICKINSON Would Ever Come Back To IRON MAIDEN
British heavy metal vocalist Blaze Bayley, who fronted IRON MAIDEN more than 20 years ago, was asked in a new interview with Rolling Stone if he was always thinking in the back of his head during his tenure with MAIDEN that at some point they would bring back Bruce Dickinson and that would be...
You have to love Blaze’s delusions. A Judas Priest reunion? That happened years after Bruce came back to Maiden! A Deep Purple reunion? Does he mean the 1984 one or Gillan coming back to the band in late 1992 after a short hiatus?
Yax
Ancient Mariner
I think he is mixing it up rather than fantasising. Priest had been on hiatus for 6 years when they released Jugulator in 1997 and started touring again.You have to love Blaze’s delusions. A Judas Priest reunion? That happened years after Bruce came back to Maiden! A Deep Purple reunion? Does he mean the 1984 one or Gillan coming back to the band in late 1992 after a short hiatus?
GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
TheTalisman
Ancient Mariner
Here is the full article:
www.rollingstone.com
It's very informative about his struggles on tour:
Even about feeling some pressure from their support bands, Dio and Slayer:
And to be fair to him, Blaze was really honest about his exit from the band in '"At the end of the Day" though - the vocal struggles, the songs always being in the wrong key for his voice, being informed that the band would not downtune - and that Rod (and propably some band members) wasn't happy with how the band was selling in 1998. A little bit was even included about Nicko taking some soundboard tapes to Steve, to show him how Blaze struggled. Blaze also says something about his state in the band in 1998 like: "This is the last tour he will do and then something has to change. That's what Rod would have said".
He seem to have made a choice to not speak about such things with journalists though, and just say that other bands were doing reunions as well and that it was just a part of a wider trend. I can understand that.
Blaze Bayley on Fronting Iron Maiden: 'It Was Like Playing Soccer for England in the World Cup'
Blaze Bayley sang for Iron Maiden on 1995's 'The X Factor' and 1998's 'Virtual VI,' but left when they brought back Bruce Dickinson.
www.rollingstone.com
It's very informative about his struggles on tour:
Even about feeling some pressure from their support bands, Dio and Slayer:
And to be fair to him, Blaze was really honest about his exit from the band in '"At the end of the Day" though - the vocal struggles, the songs always being in the wrong key for his voice, being informed that the band would not downtune - and that Rod (and propably some band members) wasn't happy with how the band was selling in 1998. A little bit was even included about Nicko taking some soundboard tapes to Steve, to show him how Blaze struggled. Blaze also says something about his state in the band in 1998 like: "This is the last tour he will do and then something has to change. That's what Rod would have said".
He seem to have made a choice to not speak about such things with journalists though, and just say that other bands were doing reunions as well and that it was just a part of a wider trend. I can understand that.
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Ruflux
Ancient Mariner
Unless something's changed, Nicko and Janick were at the forefront of pushing for a change, primarily Nicko since he's the one who apparently said he'd leave the band if Blaze doesn't get sacked. It's somewhat understandable Blaze would prefer to tell a different tale but I do think it's a bit ridiculous, over 20 years on, to keep pretending it had anything to do with fucking EMI or whoever rather than half the band wanting him gone since he simply was the wrong pick from the start. He just doesn't have the range to do most of the band's material and at the time he was an incredibly underdeveloped singer with pitch issues even in material in a key he was capable of doing.
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
Thanks for sharing. Here are some more curious things:Here is the full article:
Blaze Bayley on Fronting Iron Maiden: 'It Was Like Playing Soccer for England in the World Cup'
Blaze Bayley sang for Iron Maiden on 1995's 'The X Factor' and 1998's 'Virtual VI,' but left when they brought back Bruce Dickinson.
At that time, what separated Iron Maiden from other bands?
I think it’s the energy. And it’s Bruce. There were some magical things. It was like two suns joining together in the galaxy to become this huge new thing. I was already a fan of the band. To hear Bruce singing after the Di’Anno years…I wasn’t a big fan of Paul. He’s a wonderful performer, wonderful voice, but not completely my cup of tea. To hear Bruce bring that kind of vocal to that music, it’s another level.
How did it feel to put the phone down and realize you were now the frontman of one of the biggest metal bands on the planet?
It was unreal. It did not compute. It didn’t go in at all. I think it only really made sense when I started writing with the band.
The first thing you did with the was record The X Factor. Tell me about that.
Steve Harris said to me, “Nothing is written for the next album. I don’t care who writes the songs as long as they are great songs.
I went down to [Iron Maiden guitarist] Janick Gers’s house with a couple of ideas. I think we came up with “Man on the Edge” on the first day. That felt pretty good, and we came up with a couple of other things. Then we’d go over and have a writing sessions at Steve’s house. “Got this, got that, what do you got?”
Some of my ideas weren’t very good, but other were good enough to be considered as an album track. That’s when it started to feel very, very real. Forget about big shows. Forget about all of that. But writing and knowing that your ideas are good enough to be on an Iron Maiden album, that was when it really started.
That was a fantastic time. And I think that is what made it possible for me to continue and do all of the albums I have done after Maiden. It’s that confidence that I got from Steve Harris and the guys when he’s trying ideas and he goes, “Try it like this. This is how it should go. Don’t put that there. Put that here! Have that here. You can’t have that at all. It’s your favorite bit? No. It doesn’t fit. You can’t have it!”
I found other parts of my voice. [sings a bit of “Fortunes of War”] These were things I’d never done before. I found these extra parts of my voice. I also found that songwriting is not luck. No. This is experience, skill, and work. That’s how you get it from your mind to the CD. That was a revelation! Those years for me, a short time, just five years, were golden. I was able to put those lessons into my music afterwards.
They credit you on “Blood on the World’s Hands.” That’s a great song.
It is. There’s a lot of great music there, a lot of stuff I’m proud of.
The tour started in Jerusalem on September 28. 1995. What was it like to walk onstage that first time and sing that first song?
The most important thing to me was doing well for the fans of Iron Maiden. I wanted to take a lot of the older songs and take them a little bit closer to the recorded version.
So with the greatest respect to Bruce, I love him to bits, he’s been a huge supporter over the years, but I think for any musician, you’re in a band for a long time, unless you really check in with yourself, sometimes things wander off a little bit. And what I thought I could bring to Maiden was, “I can tighten these things up a little bit.” So that’s what I did.
The biggest fear for me was just letting fans down if I did not do well or if I made a big fluff of something. But I was so lucky. People really welcomed me. Nobody said, “We don’t want you.” People said, “OK, let’s see what you can do.
Tell me about making Virtual XI.
That was different. We’re still in Barnyard Studios. I’ve written a couple of things. I’ve got something called “Como Estais Amigos,” which was from a visit to Argentina. There was a war over the Falkland Islands, and it’s a song of reconciliation, and to remember the fallen.
That was one where I’d started with Janick, and then we took it to rehearsals. They were like, “It’s good, but it doesn’t go like that. It goes like this.” Of course, I was resistant to that at the start. But afterwards, it is my biggest song with Iron Maiden. Of all the ones I’m famous for, like “Man on the Edge,” Top 10 around the world on the rock charts, and in some countries, Number One on the regular charts. I’d written it. Incredible.
But the biggest song is “Como Estais Amigos.” When we did that in rehearsal, Steve Harris goes, “It goes like this.” Then I start hearing Dave on that guitar and that snap of the snare of Nicko…wow! The song just came to life. It’s been in and out of my set over the years. It’s an incredibly special thing for me.
What do you remember about making “The Clansman?”
That was another magical moment. It came when Steve was using an acoustic bass to write and he’d be messing about with it. He came and went, “I’ve got this idea.” He’s got a piece of paper with a pencil. And he’s whistling the melody and everything. He goes, “What do you think, Blaze?” I go, “Steve, it’s fantastic.”
That song is in their live set right now. It’s in my anniversary setlist as well. People would think that’s my biggest song, and it is a huge song for me, but that was an incredible moment to be there at the embryonic stage of, “What do you think of this?” That’s a moment. Those are the moments that make me feel so privileged to have had my time in Iron Maiden.
During your time in Maiden, were you always thinking in the back of your head that at some point they’d bring back Bruce and that would be the end for you?
Never. I never had that fear because I thought there were eras of that band. Clive and Paul were one era. Then there’s Bruce and Nicko. That was another era. And I really thought that the third record with Maiden with me would be the charm. I thought, “We’ve done these two records. And now with the ideas I’ve got, the writing experience and everything. I have things on my dictaphone and lyric ideas…”
I thought, “When this third album comes out, that is going to change the hardcore fans and put them back with us. We’re going to get going, and this is going to be rolling, and we’re going to be getting somewhere.” I absolutely believed in my heart that would happen.
It’s been a real band. Your real credibility is your legacy. You have those albums. If you see The X Factor in the whole scene of things, you see the direction going to where things are now. You can directly see the connection between the new Iron Maiden album and The X Factor. They are connected.
I’m part of this journey of Iron Maiden. And did people not try as hard when I was there? Did they not mean it when I was in the band? I can tell you the opposite is true. Steve and the rest of those guys are warriors. They tried harder.
It was like, “Bruce isn’t here. We’ve got a guy who loves this band and is full of enthusiasm. Let’s have a go. Come on!” And that’s how we did it. Those albums are important.
It must have been a dream for Maiden fans to see a show with two of the actual singers where you hear songs you usually don’t get to hear at the band’s regular shows.
It’s fantastic. This would never happen, but the dream, the ultimate dream is to have Paul Di’Anno, Blaze Bailey, and Bruce Dickinson together on one night. It would be insane! It would be so good for the fans. I don’t think it would happen, but it would be so much fun.
The overall thing in the end is that I’m still in contact with Maiden. I can phone Steve. We message each other and all that. I’m always very respectful. I get in touch with the manager. “I’d like to do this artwork based on this. Can I do this?
The only thing I think, and I’m not bitter about it, but I do think about the monitor system. I should have experimented with the [monitor] wedges. That’s all I can say about it. I tried in-ears. It worked out great for me when I used it. But that’s the only thing really. It’s just the equipment.
Maybe the wedges didn’t suit my voice as much as they suited Bruce, but that’s the only thing I could say. And it’s my own fault for not moaning about it. I was just so happy to be in Iron Maiden singing these great songs. I’m not interested in being huge. I’ve already been huge. This is big enough for me.
I think it’s the energy. And it’s Bruce. There were some magical things. It was like two suns joining together in the galaxy to become this huge new thing. I was already a fan of the band. To hear Bruce singing after the Di’Anno years…I wasn’t a big fan of Paul. He’s a wonderful performer, wonderful voice, but not completely my cup of tea. To hear Bruce bring that kind of vocal to that music, it’s another level.
How did it feel to put the phone down and realize you were now the frontman of one of the biggest metal bands on the planet?
It was unreal. It did not compute. It didn’t go in at all. I think it only really made sense when I started writing with the band.
The first thing you did with the was record The X Factor. Tell me about that.
Steve Harris said to me, “Nothing is written for the next album. I don’t care who writes the songs as long as they are great songs.
I went down to [Iron Maiden guitarist] Janick Gers’s house with a couple of ideas. I think we came up with “Man on the Edge” on the first day. That felt pretty good, and we came up with a couple of other things. Then we’d go over and have a writing sessions at Steve’s house. “Got this, got that, what do you got?”
Some of my ideas weren’t very good, but other were good enough to be considered as an album track. That’s when it started to feel very, very real. Forget about big shows. Forget about all of that. But writing and knowing that your ideas are good enough to be on an Iron Maiden album, that was when it really started.
That was a fantastic time. And I think that is what made it possible for me to continue and do all of the albums I have done after Maiden. It’s that confidence that I got from Steve Harris and the guys when he’s trying ideas and he goes, “Try it like this. This is how it should go. Don’t put that there. Put that here! Have that here. You can’t have that at all. It’s your favorite bit? No. It doesn’t fit. You can’t have it!”
I found other parts of my voice. [sings a bit of “Fortunes of War”] These were things I’d never done before. I found these extra parts of my voice. I also found that songwriting is not luck. No. This is experience, skill, and work. That’s how you get it from your mind to the CD. That was a revelation! Those years for me, a short time, just five years, were golden. I was able to put those lessons into my music afterwards.
They credit you on “Blood on the World’s Hands.” That’s a great song.
It is. There’s a lot of great music there, a lot of stuff I’m proud of.
The tour started in Jerusalem on September 28. 1995. What was it like to walk onstage that first time and sing that first song?
The most important thing to me was doing well for the fans of Iron Maiden. I wanted to take a lot of the older songs and take them a little bit closer to the recorded version.
So with the greatest respect to Bruce, I love him to bits, he’s been a huge supporter over the years, but I think for any musician, you’re in a band for a long time, unless you really check in with yourself, sometimes things wander off a little bit. And what I thought I could bring to Maiden was, “I can tighten these things up a little bit.” So that’s what I did.
The biggest fear for me was just letting fans down if I did not do well or if I made a big fluff of something. But I was so lucky. People really welcomed me. Nobody said, “We don’t want you.” People said, “OK, let’s see what you can do.
Tell me about making Virtual XI.
That was different. We’re still in Barnyard Studios. I’ve written a couple of things. I’ve got something called “Como Estais Amigos,” which was from a visit to Argentina. There was a war over the Falkland Islands, and it’s a song of reconciliation, and to remember the fallen.
That was one where I’d started with Janick, and then we took it to rehearsals. They were like, “It’s good, but it doesn’t go like that. It goes like this.” Of course, I was resistant to that at the start. But afterwards, it is my biggest song with Iron Maiden. Of all the ones I’m famous for, like “Man on the Edge,” Top 10 around the world on the rock charts, and in some countries, Number One on the regular charts. I’d written it. Incredible.
But the biggest song is “Como Estais Amigos.” When we did that in rehearsal, Steve Harris goes, “It goes like this.” Then I start hearing Dave on that guitar and that snap of the snare of Nicko…wow! The song just came to life. It’s been in and out of my set over the years. It’s an incredibly special thing for me.
What do you remember about making “The Clansman?”
That was another magical moment. It came when Steve was using an acoustic bass to write and he’d be messing about with it. He came and went, “I’ve got this idea.” He’s got a piece of paper with a pencil. And he’s whistling the melody and everything. He goes, “What do you think, Blaze?” I go, “Steve, it’s fantastic.”
That song is in their live set right now. It’s in my anniversary setlist as well. People would think that’s my biggest song, and it is a huge song for me, but that was an incredible moment to be there at the embryonic stage of, “What do you think of this?” That’s a moment. Those are the moments that make me feel so privileged to have had my time in Iron Maiden.
During your time in Maiden, were you always thinking in the back of your head that at some point they’d bring back Bruce and that would be the end for you?
Never. I never had that fear because I thought there were eras of that band. Clive and Paul were one era. Then there’s Bruce and Nicko. That was another era. And I really thought that the third record with Maiden with me would be the charm. I thought, “We’ve done these two records. And now with the ideas I’ve got, the writing experience and everything. I have things on my dictaphone and lyric ideas…”
I thought, “When this third album comes out, that is going to change the hardcore fans and put them back with us. We’re going to get going, and this is going to be rolling, and we’re going to be getting somewhere.” I absolutely believed in my heart that would happen.
It’s been a real band. Your real credibility is your legacy. You have those albums. If you see The X Factor in the whole scene of things, you see the direction going to where things are now. You can directly see the connection between the new Iron Maiden album and The X Factor. They are connected.
I’m part of this journey of Iron Maiden. And did people not try as hard when I was there? Did they not mean it when I was in the band? I can tell you the opposite is true. Steve and the rest of those guys are warriors. They tried harder.
It was like, “Bruce isn’t here. We’ve got a guy who loves this band and is full of enthusiasm. Let’s have a go. Come on!” And that’s how we did it. Those albums are important.
It must have been a dream for Maiden fans to see a show with two of the actual singers where you hear songs you usually don’t get to hear at the band’s regular shows.
It’s fantastic. This would never happen, but the dream, the ultimate dream is to have Paul Di’Anno, Blaze Bailey, and Bruce Dickinson together on one night. It would be insane! It would be so good for the fans. I don’t think it would happen, but it would be so much fun.
The overall thing in the end is that I’m still in contact with Maiden. I can phone Steve. We message each other and all that. I’m always very respectful. I get in touch with the manager. “I’d like to do this artwork based on this. Can I do this?
The only thing I think, and I’m not bitter about it, but I do think about the monitor system. I should have experimented with the [monitor] wedges. That’s all I can say about it. I tried in-ears. It worked out great for me when I used it. But that’s the only thing really. It’s just the equipment.
Maybe the wedges didn’t suit my voice as much as they suited Bruce, but that’s the only thing I could say. And it’s my own fault for not moaning about it. I was just so happy to be in Iron Maiden singing these great songs. I’m not interested in being huge. I’ve already been huge. This is big enough for me.
It seems he's not a big fan of the albums with Paul. Maybe ''Man On The Edge'' was the first song written for TXF album, while ''Como Estais Amigos'' is for sure the first song written for VXI album - he think it's his biggest song with Maiden! He also thinks that ''Blood On The World's Hands'' is a great song. ''The Clansman'' is a huge song for him.