Blaze Bayley

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Steve Harris Explains Why Iron Maiden Didn't Downtune for Blaze Bayley, Recalls a 'Weird Thing' About His Performance

'In retrospect, you can do all kinds of things.'
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The Iron Maiden founder was asked if the band ever considered downtuning to accommodate Bayley's voice.
Harris stated that the members never really thought about it and that they didn't notice any issues with his singing until they were on stage (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):
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"Not really, no. Maybe on some things in retrospect, we could have done, but no we didn't really think about it. It wasn't really till we got out and played live that we realized it was a couple of things."
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"The weird thing is that he was really confident when we were rehearsing, and then a couple of times on a couple of songs, we got out live, and there was maybe an issue or two here and there. But in general, he just handled it really well."
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I don't think Steve has listened to any soundboard tapes for many years...
I can imagine that Blaze was able to push him himself to sound very good through the auditions though. I think he rehearsed 5 songs with the band and then recorded vocals over backing tracks in the studio. Maybe Steve got the impression that no downtuning was needed from those.
 
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re: "Maybe Steve got the impression that no downtuning was needed from those."

I don't think downtuning would have been on Maiden's agenda in 1995, it was starting to becoming flavour of the month at the time alright but it was nowhere near as ubiquitous as it is now.

It's a key thing that Steve mentions confidence there, Maiden were attributing any poor performance to a lack of confidence in stepping out on to stages in front of the crowds Maiden played to (which were still way better than Wolfsbane) and in having to fill Bruce's shoes, not to any issues with the key of songs.

I think it's fair enough comments from Steve, as usual were Blaze is concerned.
 
Vaenyr said:
Maybe Steve is trying to be polite. I love Blaze, but the constant high Bs in songs like The Trooper or HBTN are incredibly tough to sing and something he's always struggled with.
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Blaze's voice always started to crack whenever he passed the high G. They could have down-tuned or he could have changed some of the high notes himself but foolishly, nothing was done (well, except from removing certain tracks like RTTH which would have been impossible for him).
 
Here's a long shot:

Sometime between 2019-2021, Blaze Bayley appeared in a Brazil TV news show to promote a tour where he sang a couple of songs unplugged. He sang A Thousand Years and Futureal.

It was on YouTube for a while, but has since disappeared. Is there someone who might have a copy of it? I really liked that rendition of A Thousand Years in particular and would love to go back to it.
 
I do think it's a little weird to see Steve kind of dance around the topic, when he's also publicly stated he regrets not recording Cross-Eyed Mary in a lower key since it was (obviously) too high for Bruce's range and sounds rather poor for a cover as a result. It's not like it's some taboo to alter the key of a song to make it suit the singer better, hell they did it to Lord of the Flies in '03 so Bruce could sing the chorus an octave higher.
 
Spaldy said:
Blaze's voice always started to crack whenever he passed the high G. They could have down-tuned or he could have changed some of the high notes himself but foolishly, nothing was done (well, except from removing certain tracks like RTTH which would have been impossible for him).
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Just look at the end of Blaze's performance of Wolfsbane song "(Tough As) Steel" on the Alive In Poland CD/DVD and you'll see that Blaze can/could sing high notes. ;)
 
TheMercenary said:
Just look at the end of Blaze's performance of Wolfsbane song "(Tough As) Steel" on the Alive In Poland CD/DVD and you'll see that Blaze can/could sing high notes. ;)
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Blaze can (and could) but some of the Maiden songs require the singer to be at the same range for an extended period of time which is incredibly exhausting and fatiguing. Singing The Trooper is difficult on a good day. Singing it live when it's just one of 12 to 18 other songs (depending on the setlist's length)? Madness for singers with deeper voices.

I can and hit B4s for some of my songs, but I wouldn't be able to sing a single verse of The Trooper without sounding like a dying alley cat lol
 
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Ruflux said:
I do think it's a little weird to see Steve kind of dance around the topic, when he's also publicly stated he regrets not recording Cross-Eyed Mary in a lower key since it was (obviously) too high for Bruce's range and sounds rather poor for a cover as a result. It's not like it's some taboo to alter the key of a song to make it suit the singer better, hell they did it to Lord of the Flies in '03 so Bruce could sing the chorus an octave higher.
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I think Steve is just being polite. Blaze was a team player who followed Steve’s vision and, therefore, he is thanked for his loyalty to the cause.

No disrespect to Blaze (he is a nice guy and I wanted him to succeed in Maiden), but he was not the right man for the job. Had Youtube been a bigger thing back in the mid 90s, he might not have lasted more than one tour as Maiden’s singer.
 
GhostofCain said:
I think Steve is just being polite. Blaze was a team player who followed Steve’s vision and, therefore, he is thanked for his loyalty to the cause.

No disrespect to Blaze (he is a nice guy and I wanted him to succeed in Maiden), but he was not the right man for the job. Had Youtube been a bigger thing back in the mid 90s, he might not have lasted more than one tour as Maiden’s singer.
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I have to disagree with you. Blaze was the right man for this job. Without him, Bruce wouldn't have returned to the band and we wouldn't have these great albums we had since the reunion. That's a fact. If some guys like Graham Bonnet, Michael Kiske and Edu Falaschi have got the job, Bruce wouldn't be here on The Future Past tour. So, Blaze was the right guy at the right time, doing his job perfectly (being a temporary replacement). OK, he's not Bruce, but his solo albums are great and he's singing very well his own covers of his own Maiden songs he wrote or co-wrote with other guys when in Maiden.
 
TheMercenary said:
I have to disagree with you. Blaze was the right man for this job. Without him, Bruce wouldn't have returned to the band and we wouldn't have these great albums we had since the reunion. That's a fact. If some guys like Graham Bonnet, Michael Kiske and Edu Falaschi have got the job, Bruce wouldn't be here on The Future Past tour. So, Blaze was the right guy at the right time, doing his job perfectly (being a temporary replacement). OK, he's not Bruce, but his solo albums are great and he's singing very well his own covers of his own Maiden songs he wrote or co-wrote with other guys when in Maiden.
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Eh, while I get your overall point, that's not a fact. That's purely conjecture. No one knows how things would've worked out with another singer. Chances are a singer with a larger range would still have caused issues and Maiden's popularity could still have declined. In a sense, all roads lead to Bruce :P
 
Vaenyr said:
Eh, while I get your overall point, that's not a fact. That's purely conjecture. No one knows how things would've worked out with another singer. Chances are a singer with a larger range would still have caused issues and Maiden's popularity could still have declined. In a sense, all roads lead to Bruce :P
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Not all roads lead to Rome. ;) IMHO, only Blaze road could lead to Bruce's return. :p
 
srfc said:
I don't think any washed up 80s guy would have been much help to Maiden in the 90s. Bruce himself probably wouldn't have done much better, they still would have declined given the musical climate at that time.
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Indeed. One thing never mentioned in regards to the Blaze era is that Maiden were already on the decline before he came on board.

Their American tours weren't selling out and worldwide album sales were slowing. Thrash metal was becoming more popular. Then the double whammy of Metallica and Grunge (chuck in Britpop if you want). 80s heavy metal was knackered.

Perhaps the decline would have been slower had Bruce stayed on but it still would have happened.
 
TheMercenary said:
I have to disagree with you. Blaze was the right man for this job. Without him, Bruce wouldn't have returned to the band and we wouldn't have these great albums we had since the reunion. That's a fact. If some guys like Graham Bonnet, Michael Kiske and Edu Falaschi have got the job, Bruce wouldn't be here on The Future Past tour. So, Blaze was the right guy at the right time, doing his job perfectly (being a temporary replacement).
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No, the Bowie Bond deal would still have happened and Bruce would have gone back for financial reasons:

Note that the date of the article is just before the announcement for the reunion was made.

Money rules.
 
Spaldy said:
Poor old Blaze never saw a penny of that presumably. Unless his cut was included in whatever payout he got when he was sacked?
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Not sure, because according to the article the securities worth $30m were backed by the flow of royalties. I would imagine that means that everyone with a song-writing credit would have benefitted from the deal.
 
Spaldy said:
Poor old Blaze never saw a penny of that presumably. Unless his cut was included in whatever payout he got when he was sacked?
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He mentioned a few years ago that he received a "golden handshake" from the band when he was dismissed:
It was not all bad. When he was let go, Bayley received a golden handshake. “Maiden took very good care of me,” he says. “I can’t complain about that.”
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www.loudersound.com

The story of Iron Maiden’s forgotten man

As the man who replaced Bruce Dickinson in Iron Maiden, Blaze Bayley went from obscurity to stardom and back again. But these days he’s anything but bitter
www.loudersound.com www.loudersound.com

This exit deal propably also included that they bought the rights to Dream of Mirrors (co-written with Janick and Steve) from him. Perhaps a non- disclosure agreement as well.
 
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