James Allman of Baconmusic reports that former IRON MAIDEN vocalist Blaze Bayley performed acoustically Thursday night (September 13) in the backstreets of Newcastle Under-Lyme, in Bayley's home county of Staffordshire. The gig consisted of Blaze Bayley on vocals and new guitarist Rich Newport on electro-acoustic guitar. The setlist was made up of five WOLFSBANE songs, five BLAZE songs, and five IRON MAIDEN songs — three of which were from Blaze's time with the band, and two from the Dickinson era.
01. Temple of Rock
02. Totally Nude
03. Hey Babe
04. Lord of The Flies(!)
05. Sign of the Cross(!)
06. Regret
07. Tenth Dimension
08. Meant to Be
09. Wasted Years(!)
10. The Trooper(!)
11. I Like It Hot
12. Paint The Town Red
13. Man On The Edge(!)
14. Soundtrack of My Life
15. Blood and Belief
Review
(and photos --> http://www.baconmusic.co.uk/content/liv ... 13-09-2007 ):
BLAZE BAYLEY's first ever acoustic show took place in a small pub in the backstreets of Newcastle Under-Lyme, in Bayley's home county of Staffordshire - this was as intimate as it gets. As Bayley explained during his set, the 'My Life in Acoustic' tour is a medium for promoting his band's new live DVD 'Alive in Poland', and just a chance to get out and relieve his state of being (in his own words) "bored shitless".
The gig consists of Blaze Bayley on vocals and new guitarist Rich Newport on electro acoustic guitar. It all has the feel of 'an evening' with Blaze as between each song he tells a story and cracks a few jokes with the audience. The overwhelming thing about this gig was just how much Blaze enjoyed himself tonight, and a decent turn out lapped up every minute, giving the ex-IRON MAIDEN star a terrific response.
The setlist was made up of 5 WOLFSBANE songs, 5 BLAZE songs, and 5 IRON MAIDEN songs - 3 of which were from Blaze's time with the band, and 2 from the Dickinson era. The Maiden fanatics will have loved 'Wasted Years' which worked brilliantly in acoustic and is a song that Blaze never performed with Maiden. 'Sign of the Cross' was ambitious, but despite a few 'first gig' timing errors, it was surprisingly rather good.
The WOLFSBANE material was really fun to hear and helped instigate the great light-hearted atmosphere that surrounded the night. The crowd sing-a-longs to 'I Like it Hot' and 'Paint The Town Red' were quite humorous, as was Rich Newport's tendency to drift off into the Batman theme now and again. Newport's acoustic play was magnificent and he very much played his part in making this night a special one.
Amazingly, no songs were played from BLAZE's first and best solo album 'Silicon Messiah' (surely the title track and 'Stare at the Sun' would have worked well). 'Tenth Dimension' was just about the only song that didn't sound right with some frenetic acoustic guitaring - but the likes of 'Meant to Be' and 'Regret' sounded fantastic.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable night of no frills acoustic music. If you get the chance to catch a show on this tour - make sure you don't miss it.
BLAZE BAYLEY Setlist: Temple of Rock / Totally Nude / Hey Babe / Lord of The Flies / Sign of the Cross / Regret / Tenth Dimension / Meant to Be / Wasted Years / The Trooper / I Like It Hot / Paint The Town Red / Man On The Edge / Soundtrack of My Life / Blood and Belief
Rating 4.7/5.0
James Allman