A theory regarding Maiden History part 4

Spot on Mosh, but I reckon such a career spanning retrospective will only appear when the band are either finished or just about to finish. And also spot on in that old school fans like us will probably be underwhelmed by any product since there's very little that could possibly be new to us.

Sadly, I also think that with most people expecting this sort of stuff for free there's very little incentive for Maiden to produce something like that. Maybe they could get a deal with netflix or something.
 
Either we get a career-spanning doc. But there's still a chance of a documentary 1989 - 1999.

Either way, they also better hurry up - Blaze is hardly getting better looking with each passing year!!!

On an unrelated note, I watched the Hobbit yesterday. The Dwarf character Kili is a dead ringer for a young Blaze Bayley
 
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Helmuth Von Moltke said:
Either way, they also better hurry up - Blaze is hardly getting better looking with each passing year!!!

On an unrelated note, I watched the Hobbit yesterday. The Dwarf character Kili is a dead ringer for a young Blaze Bayley
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First...how dare you, sir! :D

Second, this guy was always my go-to VXI-era Blaze doppelganger--even had a wee bit of the mutton chops:

kevin-j-o-connor-as-joey-tooch-pantucci-in.jpg
 
Mosh said:
If I I want to know about the albums and tours, the Blaze years and what went down to get Bruce back in the band.
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Blaze's exit in detail & Bruce coming back is something they don't want to present on screen now.

They didn't even want to speak fully about it in the Run to the Hills biography 20 years ago, Steve said this though:

Two years later, and with the original honesty-at-all-costs intention of this book in mind, Steve says this: "Letting Blaze go was one of the hardest things I've had to do since I started this band." Would they have definitely replaced Blaze, though, even if Bruce hadn't come back? "Difficult question," sighs Steve. "In my mind, I'd like to say no, but there was talk and worry about Blaze because of the inconsistencies onstage, and it was getting to the point where something had to be done. But I actually enjoy working with the guy, and I don't make albums to try and be Number One; I just try and make the best albums I can. Maybe things had not been going as well as they were in the '80s, but metal was down, anyway, during the period Blaze was in the band.
"The fact is, I still stand by the albums we made together, particularly The X Factor, which is still one of my favourite Maiden albums. It's just a pity it didn't work out better on the road." Bruce coming back, Steve insists, was "completely unplanned for. I thought we'd get a completely new singer, if anything."
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And in his bio, Blaze stated that when he was let go, he asked if Bruce was coming back and the band confirmed.
 
TheTalisman said:
Blaze's exit in detail & Bruce coming back is something they don't want to present on screen now.

They didn't even want to speak fully about it in the Run to the Hills biography 20 years ago, Steve said this though:
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It really seems that Steve has a soft spot for Blaze and likes him alot...
 
Boroking said:
There’s footage of Steve and I think Janick backstage at one of Blazes early solo gigs which I’ve always found kind of sweet.
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Steve also performed Man on the Edge with Blaze at Camden Underworld in London, in december of 2000.
I don't think he has done such a performance with anyone else!
 
I really like Steve's comment of "not being number one, just making great albums." It's probably one of the core tenets of the band and why they not only consistently deliver the goods, but do so without compromising their ideals. I would one day like to visit a parallel universe where there was a third Blaze album with Maiden, including Blaze version of the tracks that were done for BNW.
 
chaosapiant said:
I really like Steve's comment of "not being number one, just making great albums." It's probably one of the core tenets of the band and why they not only consistently deliver the goods, but do so without compromising their ideals. I would one day like to visit a parallel universe where there was a third Blaze album with Maiden, including Blaze version of the tracks that were done for BNW.
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I've taken that philosophy with self-publishing my fantasy/dark fantasy series of books. I have no interest in writing to market so I can sell more, but writing exactly what I want, which is why I'm hesitant to try out some small publishing houses.

And I want in on that trip to the parallel universe, too. I really think a third Blaze album would've likely been the best of the three. We know he contributed to some good songs on BNW, but also had a handful of partially-written songs in hand for the third Maiden album, and those songs ended up on Silicon Messiah.
 
chaosapiant said:
I would one day like to visit a parallel universe where there was a third Blaze album with Maiden, including Blaze version of the tracks that were done for BNW.
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Would be great, indeed. Blaze has always said that there are some songs on 'Silicon Messiah' which he had written for a 3rd Maiden album with him as a singer. These songs are easily identifiable : "Stare At The Sun", "Ghost In The Machine", "Born As A Stranger", "The Launch". If these song would have been recorded on a Maiden album with the Maiden sound, the third record would have been a great commercial success, IMHO. And would have reconciled the fans with the band. Of course, 'Silicon Messiah' didn't have the success it deserved, and that's a shame, as it's a very solid record, with a great production by Andy Sneap and a Blaze Bayley without false notes when he sings. But that's because it wasn't stamped Maiden...
 
Wishful thinking...without 'reunion' there's no new producer and no modern approach of producing an album and no 3 guitar lineup. So when people speak about 3rd Blaze record they most likely speak of another barnyard release. Take those songs and give them dubious arrangement / production treatment that plagued VXI and you'll get VXII and I don't think it would land as good as Brave New World did. Not by a longshot.
 
Zare said:
Wishful thinking...without 'reunion' there's no new producer and no modern approach of producing an album and no 3 guitar lineup. So when people speak about 3rd Blaze record they most likely speak of another barnyard release. Take those songs and give them dubious arrangement / production treatment that plagued VXI and you'll get VXII and I don't think it would land as good as Brave New World did. Not by a longshot.
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If Bruce doesn't return you propably get a Barnyard production album with a completely new singer as well, Steve said it here with the statement i posted earlier:
Bruce coming back, Steve insists, was "completely unplanned for. I thought we'd get a completely new singer, if anything." - Run to the Hills biography.
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as well as with this:
"'Well, if the change happens, who should we get?' The thing is, we know Bruce and we know what he's capable of, and you think, 'Well, better the devil you know.' I mean, we got on well professionally for, like, eleven years, and so ... after I thought about it, I didn't really have a problem with it."[208]
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And at the end of the Virtual XI tour there were some not too pleasant things going on, like the rest of the band just leaving and going to the dressing room without Blaze and not playing an encore at the Rio show etc. Also Blaze said in his biography that, everyone had a "downer on him" at the end of the tour.

This was not an amicable split.
 
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srfc said:
I never heard of Blaze writing anything other than lyrics or melodies, so if that's true then there's no point looking at Silicon Messiah and thinking what if Maiden recorded these songs as with different music they would be nothing alike.
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His band made that music, it never sounded well live without those guys after all...

TheTalisman said:
And at the end of the Virtual XI tour there were some not too pleasant things going on, like the rest of the band just leaving and going to the dressing room without Blaze and not playing an encore at the Rio show etc. Also Blaze said in his biography that, everyone had a "downer on him" at the end of the tour.

This was not an amicable split.
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This is top comment from Rio 1998 YT (google translate) :

I remember exactly that show, helloween put Maiden to shame... I remember a lot of boos and screams from Bruce, Bruce! I think Rio de Janeiro plays a big part in Bruce Dickinson's return... Nicko and Janick said they were leaving the band and there was almost bullshit backstage. That's why there wasn't an encore... If I'm not mistaken it was the last show with Blaze, who I found him later to my surprise, by chance at a 24-hour gas station with his Brazilian wife filling a jug with beer! I went to talk to him and his wife said it wasn't him... hahaha... Great night
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Take into account that Nicko said Gers, Harris, Smallwood and he were in Tokyo (nov. 1998, possibly 22nd which is one gig before Rio) when he got the news about plans to get both Dickinson and Smith back.

Btw : 53:30, educated fool instrumental, Gers does not look very into it. He cues Murray to cut their little act and move to the monitors. This kind of moment I've rarely seen.
 
Very unpleasant things have been said above. Poor Blaze. Never knew that Harris was considering to fire Blaze regardless Bruce's comeback or not, thanks for that @TheTalisman.

But why, why they hired him in the first place, didn't they hear him singing? All 4 of them? Couldn't they +Rob see that he didn't have the personality & gravitas Bruce had?
Doogie White*, the other (known) singer that we know did the auditions had better voice and presence than Blaze already.

Zare said:
Take into account that Nicko said Gers, Harris, Smallwood and he were in Tokyo (nov. 1998, possibly 22nd which is one gig before Rio) when he got the news about plans to get both Dickinson and Smith back.
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Who got the news Blaze? You mean he knew the rumors when he did the show in Rio? That must be a heartbreaking period for him.

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____no5 said:
But why, why they hired him in the first place, didn't they hear him singing?
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He did really well with Wolfsbane on stage, great frontman and likeable on a personal level. I think those were the reasons, + he could propably pull of a decent audition.

Maybe his vocal range was a little bit higher in 1993 as well, and that he could push himself a little bit more in order to sound better on the classic Maiden tracks, and maybe that ability faded later, I don't know.
 
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