Blaze Bayley

I saw Blaze Bayley at the Rockpile in Toronto last night. Another great show (he did the meet & greet before the set). Great energy and crowd interaction. My only complaint was the set list was very similar to the show he did here two years ago (if I counted correctly, 11 of the 15 songs he played last time were repeated - mostly great songs, but I was hoping for a bit more variety). Still a great night out - looking forward to the next show in Toronto.
 
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I wonder if Blaze has ever gone to see a Maiden show since 1999.
I know that he went to Earls Court in 2000, which he mentioned in a magazine around that time, and Twickenham in 2008.
He propably saw them at Donington in 2016 as well, he made a guest performance with Disturbed the same day.

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Backstage at Twickenham 2008.
 
Blabbermouth has picked that same interview:


It seems that to Blaze it was a shock to leave Iron Maiden. Not surprising, considering that he says that at the time Deep Purple had a reunion! :lol:

I appreciate the effort Blaze put in Maiden, but if you are going to follow the self-pity route, at least get your facts right!
 
Blabbermouth has picked that same interview:


It seems that to Blaze it was a shock to leave Iron Maiden. Not surprising, considering that he says that at the time Deep Purple had a reunion! :lol:

I appreciate the effort Blaze put in Maiden, but if you are going to follow the self-pity route, at least get your facts right!


I think he's overstating the decline in "cd sales" as well. Didn't Maiden remaster all their albums while he was in the band? Sales can't have been that bad or they wouldn't have done that before the reunion.
 
I think he's overstating the decline in "cd sales" as well. Didn't Maiden remaster all their albums while he was in the band? Sales can't have been that bad or they wouldn't have done that before the reunion.

Don’t let the truth spoil his narrative!
 
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I think he confused the Black Sabbath reunion with Deep Purple, lol.

But Virtual XI didn't do well in the charts, it propably propably still sold around 750 000 copies though, enough to keep the band going. Considering they didn't hire an expensive producer or recorded in a good studio, you can make still make money with those sales numbers.

According to Dave Murray, The X Factor sold one million copies while "Virtual XI is pretty much there too"

Not having a major label deal in the U.S propably hurt sales a bit too. Bruce was in the same situation during this time.
His return propably helped a lot of with securing a deal with Columbia for Brave New World.
 
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8:07 Ghost in the Machine
22:36 Silicon Messiah
34:06 The Hunger
52:04 Born as a Stranger

Good recording and I don't think The Hunger was played again after this tour.

I was fortunate enough to see the Silicon Messiah anniversary set in Tallinn, he played the Hunger there, one of my favourite songs of his...dropped it the next day in Mäntyharju though. Think they played Silicon Messiah in its entirety at one festival in 2015.

EDIT: Holy shit the songs sound good here...thanks for sharing!

Funny story about the show in Tallinn.
Me and my gf came from Helsinki to see the show, awesome as expected...chatted a bit with Blaze and the guys at the venue. Blaze actually invited us to an afterparty downtown Tallinn after the show. But the show was held far away from the centre, couldnt get a taxi, so we had to walk and in the end were too drunk and/or tired to go to the afterparty place...

Next day we were on the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki, on a budget and sleeping our hangovers off on some benches on the ferry. The next thing I know someone is poking me. I open my eyes and it's Blaze! The guys were taking the same ferry to Finland since they had a show in Mäntyharju as well…He said they missed us at the afterparty, chatted a bit and went off.

The same day as we got to the venue in Mäntyharju, Blaze was at the bar talking to some guy, then noticed us, came over and thanked us for making it there despite our hangovers. He then went on to the merch stand, and gave us free key lanyards.
Small gesture, but goes on to show how much he cares about his fans.
 
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Small gesture, but goes on to show how much he cares about his fans.
Blaze Bayley really is just an all-around great guy.

You can say what you want about him as a singer, but I've literally never heard or read any accounts of anyone having any sort of negative interactions with him in person whatsoever.

It really speaks to the quality of person that he really is.
 
He definitely wins the "Nicest Iron Maiden Frontman" award.
I haven’t met Blaze or Paul, but I have to say that every interaction I’ve had with Bruce has been very positive, with him being consistently open, generous, and funny. He even shared his personal email address with me about 20 years ago. He’s been nothing but nice to me, for whatever that’s worth.
 
I think all of the Maiden frontmen are some form of nice, but the difference is that Bruce shoots his mouth off a lot and doesn't think before he speaks, Paul can get too caught up in the moment and become a bit aggressive, while Blaze doesn't really do either. He's more in it for the fans and love of making music than the other two.
 
Paul is a dumb guy who shoots his mouth off because of an inferiority complex.
Bruce is a smart guy who shoots his mouth off because of a superiority complex.
Blaze is just your average joe who likes doing stuff and talking about it.

It is what it is, ya know.
 
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