Blaze Bayley

I wasn't too impressed with Promise and Terror first, especially as it was the third in a series of three new albums (all within a month or so) from bands that I really like, and they all somewhat disappointed me.  Since then, Blaze's one has really grown on me, the other two not so much.  Even the ones I didn't like much at first are now enjoyable.  City of Bones is easily the best song on the album, terrific live, and one of, if not the, best Blaze songs. 
 
I think it's a solid album. At first I was slightly dissapointed, but in time i've realized i just had too high expectations, it's really a great album, not as big for me as the last one, but still pretty solid. And the slower songs in the end are just awesome, I always thought the darker and slower tnhings were blaze's real strenth =)
 
Just returned from the gig in Berlin. I think it was the smallest audience I've ever seen (around 50 people), and the venue was tiny as well (a heavy metal pub some of you guys are no doubt going to see when you come to Berlin this summer), but blimey, did Blaze ever rock it. It was incredible, and perhaps the most intense gig I have ever witnessed. I stood right up front, at times only centimetres away from Blaze himself (even having to save a beer bottle from him knocking it over at one point), and I, like all others, went absolutely wild. Even if it had only been three people in the audience, the atmosphere was incredible.

I also got to meet Blaze after the gig, he signed by X Factor and Silicon Messiah booklets (as cheesy as it may sound, I had been wanting this for literally years), and had a photo taken with him.:

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Blaze was in top shape and the band was on fire. They played three songs that made me very, very, very happy:

Voices from the Past, The Brave and Stare at the Sun, which is still the best song ever!

They also played a real encore, as in, wanting to go offstage, getting overwhelming demands for another song, going to ask the landlord if they can extend the set, and do it- the song wasn't even on the setlist printout. I was fortunate enough to grab one of those, btw, so the entire setlist was:

Blackmailer
Smile back at Death
Faceless
City of Bones
Voices from the Past
The Launch
Futureal
Blood and Belief
Surrounded by Sadness
The Trace of Things that have no Words
Letting go of the World
Comfortable in Darkness
Madness and Sorrow
The Clansman
The Brave
STARE AT THE SUN
Samurai
The Man Who Would Not Die
Man on the Edge
---
Robot

That's all I can say for now.
 
Kind of a bummer that he only drew 50 people... still must have been great in an intimate setting like that. Small venues are my personal preference over arenas and stadiums...
 
He did a real encore last time I saw him too, very cool and I've never seen anyone else do this.  Two songs that time.  It's also not something he does regularly, so we both got lucky. :) 
 
He should come here, I think he can bring more than 50 people.
I think that every self respecting metal head in Israel knows about him so there may be an audiance of about 200 people in the usual metal bar, I don't know how many people fit in there but it will be full.
 
At first I thought that this 50-60 people attendance happened only here(Greece).But after spending some time on his forum I noticed that most crowds aren't much larger than that.Even so, it's hard to believe that in a country full of maiden fans and in a city of 1.5 million people only 50-60 came to see Blaze.
I tried to attract people to the gig and the reaction I got was like ''who's Blaze???'' from guys who were into metal or ''Who???The one singing Man On the Edge?Naahhh..'' from guys that were into Maiden.The Athens gig wasn't much better - not more than 80-100 fans.

The great thing is that Blaze didn't seem to be bothered at all and gave a great show full of energy as if he was playing to a huge crowd.That's what happens EVERY time and it's a truly positive thing about him.


I would go see him at least once even if he hadn't done anything after leaving Maiden.
Next time he pays us a visit I''ll go see him even if he won't play a single Maiden song which would mean more time for him to play more of his own stuff which I like a lot.
It's been a year since I saw him and I hope he is coming back soon.
 
Travis_AKA_fonzbear2000 said:
I can see why he won't tour the USA. If he can't draw more than 50 people in other countries, it would probably be worse here.

He did several gigs (IIRC four) in Finland, and at least my gig had probably 100-200 people.  I think it's just more expensive to tour the US since the distances are greater, and he really doesn't get paid much for those small club gigs.
 
I was later told btw that the landlord of the club is giving himself the blame for the small audience. The only advertising he did was a poster outside the place and on the loo. He's still new to hosting bigger gigs, and will no doubt be more actively advertising in the future.
 
I've never seen any advertising for a club gig, or for a gig in any venue smaller than the Helsinki Ice Hall.  The internet and word-of-mouth is how it spreads.
 
Advertising in this sense is mostly reduced to handing out leaflets at other metal bars and venues. It's not exactly a big-budget advertising campaign, but it gets the word out.
 
Just noticed this:

"28 January 2011

Blaze engaged

Blaze Bayley got engaged on Xmasday to his girlfriend Eline (Lena on the forum). No date is set yet. We wish them all the happiness they deserve!"

Source: http://blazebayley.net/main.htm

Good for Blaze. :)
 
That was quite a few years ago I think. I heard she was in a coma. I didn't even know she had died.
 
It happened during Summer 2008.
One day they went to see Maiden during SBIT tour and the next one she had to enter the hospital.I remember reading about it back then.


I just checked the dates and it fits.
July 5th, Maiden in Twickenham.July 6th, she ''suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was hospitalised. She died on 27 September 2008, after having suffered a stroke two days before.''.
 
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