Blaze Bayley

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TheMercenary said:
blabbermouth.net

Ex-IRON MAIDEN Singer BLAZE BAYLEY: 'Some Of The People That Hate Me Have Actually Never Listened To What I Do'

British heavy metal vocalist Blaze Bayley, who fronted IRON MAIDEN more than 20 years ago, has confirmed to Stavros Vlahos, editor of the Soundcheck Network music magazine, that he has begun compiling ideas for the follow-up to his latest solo studio album, 2021's "War Within Me". "I'm always...
blabbermouth.net blabbermouth.net
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I honestly think Blaze overstates the 'hate' that he gets nowadays. It was certainly the case in the past but i see a lot of appreciation for both his Maiden work and his solo work online now. There's still a few haters but he isn't a joke like Vince Neil is.

Anyway very pleased he's working on a new record, his solo catalogue are all winners (except for The King of Metal)
 
Boroking said:
I honestly think Blaze overstates the 'hate' that he gets nowadays. It was certainly the case in the past but i see a lot of appreciation for both his Maiden work and his solo work online now. There's still a few haters but he isn't a joke like Vince Neil is.

Anyway very pleased he's working on a new record, his solo catalogue are all winners (except for The King of Metal)
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The reworked version of Rainbow Fades to Black (of Soundtracks of my Life) was actually great!
 
TheTalisman said:
That song was his tribute to Dio, he mentioned him as one of his greatest influences.
Therefore it must have been kind of cool to have him supporting Maiden on the North American leg of the Virtual XI tour.
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Dio would have blown them off the stage on that tour.
 
Spaldy said:
Dio would have blown them off the stage on that tour.
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I'm not sure about that. Dio was kind of at an ultimate low mark at that point and couldn't tour the U.S on his own anymore. I can't imagine that his band had any excess energy on stage or anything like that during that difficult time.

And if you look at his sale stats from the second half of the 90's, Blaze-era Maiden, released on independent label CMC, outsold him considerably in the U.S - Dio's Angry Machines from 1996 has sold just 36 000 copies, according to Wikipedia...

en.wikipedia.org

Dio discography - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

At the same time The X Factor had sold 113 000 copies in the U.S in 2005, while Virtual XI had done 65 000: https://blabbermouth.net/news/iron-maiden-u-s-album-sales-revealed ).

It actually wasn't just Maiden that diminished during this period...there's a reason why Dio was the support act.
 
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TheTalisman said:
I'm not sure about that. Dio was kind of at an ultimate low mark at that point and couldn't tour the U.S on his own anymore. I can't imagine that his band had any excess energy on stage or anything like that during that difficult time.

And if you look at his sale stats from the second half of the 90's, Blaze-era Maiden, released on independent label CMC, outsold him considerably in the U.S - Dio's Angry Machines from 1996 has sold just 36 000 copies, according to Wikipedia...

en.wikipedia.org

Dio discography - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

At the same time The X Factor had sold 113 000 copies in the U.S in 2005, while Virtual XI had done 65 000: https://blabbermouth.net/news/iron-maiden-u-s-album-sales-revealed ).

It actually wasn't just Maiden that diminished during this period...there's a reason why Dio was the support act.
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I wasn't meaning in terms of popularity or record sales. More in stage show and talent.

Having Blaze Bayley follow arguably the greatest metal vocalist of all time would be like snacking on a McDonald's after having a gourmet steak.
 
TheTalisman said:
Well, each to his own. I have never really cared for Dio anyway. People listen to like 4-5 of his songs and call him a rock god, while most of his catalogue is totally forgotten.
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His run of albums from Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, through Heaven and Hell up to Last in Line is a run of classic after classic that maybe only Maiden can match in terms of the number of consecutive classics.

Never thought he was a particularly great live singer though, comes out with a lot of guff like "you are all rainbows in the dark" etc. and ad libs a load of nonsense in the outro of songs.
 
Dio also fired Jake E. Lee in 1982, because he wanted someone that agreed to just write straight riffs that he could sing over, which Jake didn't want to do. (Ozzy then picked Jake for Bark at the Moon). I think Dio would have been a lot more successful if he had stuck with Jake as his guitarist.
And Dio in 1998?

- Not sure if this show is better than Maiden's set that year, a part from Blaze struggling with the classics? It wasn't exactly Dio at his peak.
 
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srfc said:
His run of albums from Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, through Heaven and Hell up to Last in Line is a run of classic after classic that maybe only Maiden can match in terms of the number of consecutive classics.

Never thought he was a particularly great live singer though, comes out with a lot of guff like "you are all rainbows in the dark" etc. and ad libs a load of nonsense in the outro of songs.
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Agree with the first part. Disagree about his live abilities.

Listen to some of the Rainbow live stuff or both of his Donington live albums. He's pretty phenomenal.
 
TheTalisman said:
Dio also fired Jake E. Lee in 1982, because he wanted someone that agreed to just write straight riffs that he could sing over, which Jake didn't want to do. (Ozzy then picked Jake for Bark at the Moon). I think Dio would have been a lot more successful if he had stuck with Jake as his guitarist. And Dio in 1998?
- Not sure if this show is better than Maiden's set that year, a part from Blaze struggling with the classics? It wasn't exactly Dio at his peak.
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Even Dio on his worst day could still outperform 99% of other singers in any genre. And he knew how to hold a pitch perfect note.
 
Spaldy said:
Agree with the first part. Disagree about his live abilities.

Listen to some of the Rainbow live stuff or both of his Donington live albums. He's pretty phenomenal.
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Sorry it didn't come across clearly in the post, I don't have any issue with him hitting notes etc. how could anyone have an issue with that! Just his live personna kind of rubs me up the wrong way a bit, the ad libbed front man stuff kind of doesn't work for me and comes off corny, and makes albums that should be some of my favourites like On Stage, Live Evil or Live from Radio City Music Hall not quite hit the mark.

Shouldn't have really dragged Blaze's thread off track just felt like getting some metal blasphemy off my chest!
 
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TheTalisman said:
Well, each to his own. I have never really cared for Dio anyway. People listen to like 4-5 of his songs and call him a rock god, while most of his catalogue is entirely forgotten and bland.
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- his Rainbow albums are absolute classics.
- his first two Black Sabbath records are two of the greatest examples of classic metal
- his first two solo records are phenomenal, personality-driven metal

You finding his later albums bland is meaningless. Dio has eclipsed all opinions. Such opinions are not even drops in a bucket. They evaporate before they reach the bucket.

/please continue talking about Blaze now
 
Spaldy said:
Dio would have blown them off the stage on that tour.
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The live album recorded the year before (Inferno: Last in Live) was great! The best bootleg from that year (from Maiden) in my opinion was the Stockholm one. Blaze sounded a little bit more in control there. Fear of the Dark, Evil that Men Do and 2M2M sounded good that night! I'm sure both did great.

Samantas5855 said:
Bought tickets for Blaze, gonna see him in Athens on Saturday
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He is doing the Iron Maiden set. Make sure you see him play solo material too! Enjoy!

TheTalisman said:
That song was his tribute to Dio, he mentioned him as one of his greatest influences.
Therefore it must have been kind of cool to have him supporting Maiden on the North American leg of the Virtual XI tour.
Click to expand...

I think there is a Dio story in Bayleys book from that tour?
 
Spaldy said:
Dio would have blown them off the stage on that tour.
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Ehhh...I was at a show in Chicago in '98, way up front. Rewind a year or two and I worked security at a signing Dio did and he was an incredibly nice guy, incredible pipes, but his music overall I could take or leave.

He put on a good show, crowd was appreciative, and...that was about it.

Maiden comes on with Futureal, and swear to god, most batshit concert I've been to as far as crowds went (and Maiden is FAR from the heaviest band I've seen in concert). As I said, I was up front, but not quite against the barricade. I was fighting to hold my spot with my then-girlfriend for damn near the whole show (usually pretty easy, since I'm 6'3" and was probably 230lbs at the time), a couple big guys ahead of me passed out and had to be carried off by security, my then-GF left with bruised ribs 'cause some guy thought he was punching me and ended up repeatedly punching her, I chokeslammed a crowd surfer who was up there kicking as many people in the head he could--it was a shitshow.

So...performance-wise, sure you could argue Dio out-sang Blaze handily. I don't think even Blaze would question that. But the crowd went ballistic for Maiden FAAAAR more than Dio. Of course they were there to see the headliner, but still.
 
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