Blaze Bayley

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BLAZE - where are they now (16 years after the last record)?

Producer Andy Sneap - guitarist in Judas Priest and also still produces records.

Blaze - obviously still touring and recording.

Steve Wray - 1 E.P and 2 albums with Rise to Addiction from 2005 to 2009, then 1 E.P and 1 album with a band called Soldierfield between 2012 and 2014. Produces and does mixing on a small scale for other bands (I wish that Blaze would hire him as mixer, would surely benefit the sound).

John Slater - 1 E.P and and 1 album with Rise to Addiction from 2005 to 2007.

Rob Naylor - Played on the first Rise to Addiction E.P in 2005 after leaving BLAZE in 2003, then left to become a pilot.

Jeff Singer - Currently with My Dying Bride, also played with Paradise Lost from 2004 to 2008.

Jason Bowld (drummer on Blood and Belief) - currently in Bullet for my Valentine.
 
You once stated in an interview that you consider Blaze Bayley's first album your personal favorite.
Yeah Blaze is such a lovely guy and I always got along really well with him. He really was the underdog in Maiden and really wasn't given a fair chance because Steve Harris was writing all the stuff in the same keys as if he was writing for Dickinson. With Blaze, what we did was stand back and listened to the strengths in his voice. We'd start with the choruses and work our way down rather than starting in a key he's just starting to manage to hit, and working up to a chorus that he was not going to hit. So it was common sense really to do it that way. No one was kind of giving him the time of day back then so it was nice to be involved, and be part of that. I think he was the scapegoat for Maiden as it was never going to work because whoever was going to replace Dickinson, was in for a rough ride. It was a bit of a shame really.
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- Andy Sneap.
www.ultimate-guitar.com

Andy Sneap: 'Dave Mustaine's Not The Nightmare People Expect Him To Be'

Taking some time out from his busy schedule, Sneap spoke to Joe Matera to discuss his illustrious career and work.
www.ultimate-guitar.com www.ultimate-guitar.com

And One of the best texts describing what BLAZE was about and what made the band special:
www.angrymetalguy.com

AMG waxes nostalgic about BLAZE - Tenth Dimension

Some records are just so special that they deserve their own retrospective reviews. Blaze's (2002) "Tenth Dimension" is one such record.
www.angrymetalguy.com

The band, which played what one unnamed roadie for Porcupine Tree was called “good, honest heavy metal,” was made up of ‘locally grown’ British musicians. Guitarists Steve Wray (now in Soldierfield) and John Slater both seem to have been influenced by a healthy dose of thrash and heavier alternative rock. Their love of Metallica and Soundgarden shows through in the writing, which is groovy, chug heavy, and laced with wicked hooks. Bassist Rob Naylor—the first to leave—and drummer Jeff Singer (who would go on to play in Paradise Lost), were an excellent rhythm section. Singer is a truly gifted drummer whose technical skill and feel adds a much-needed backbone to this music, while Naylor’s songwriting, playing and tone were first rate. These guys were an extremely tight unit and I think you can reasonably say that Blaze got lucky to fall into this incredible mix of musicians after getting out of Maiden.
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Great comment: " I think the ear sort of gets used to hearing something that is looped. I hear it a lot when I listen to stuff on American radio that is all auto tuned and all cut and pasted and everything is done with Beat Detective, I mean it is boring. You get tired listening to it." You can add metal albums where one guitar player plays all the guitar parts to that list as well.
 
Blaze wanted to do ''Phantom Of The Opera'' live during the VXI tour (and if I'm not mistaken, he had said that he wanted to do ''Wasted Years'' live too.... it was one of his absolute favorites from Maiden or something like that). | He would have done well more Paul era songs imo.

Steve: ''I think we can do anything we like now. I mean, Blaze wants us to do Phantom Of The Opera. He loves that, and we may well do that on the next tour''.

Maiden also wanted to return to the stage sets from the 80's with huge production and pyro for this VXI tour and even called back Dave Lights for the stage design (I think we discussed this somewhere in the forum), but it never happened.

*this stage Dave Lights was working on was for TEH tour, because the idea was to take the classic set back on the road.

Edit: I think it was almost certain that the stage set for TEH tour made by Dave Lights would have been better than the one we got.

All the info is from here: https://maidenrevelations.com/2020/10/05/maiden-history-the-blaze-era-part-2-1997-1998/
 
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Kalata said:
Blaze wanted to do ''Phantom Of The Opera'' live during the VXI tour (and if I'm not mistaken, he had said that he wanted to do ''Wasted Years'' live too.... it was his favorite (or one of his favorites) song or something like that).

Steve: ''I think we can do anything we like now. I mean, Blaze wants us to do Phantom Of The Opera. He loves that, and we may well do that on the next tour''.

Maiden also wanted to return to the stage sets from the 80's with huge production and pyro for this VXI tour and even called back Dave Lights for the stage design (I think we discussed this somewhere in the forum), but it never happened.

*this stage Dave Lights was working on was for TEH tour, because the idea was to take the classic set back on the road.

All the info is from here: https://maidenrevelations.com/2020/10/05/maiden-history-the-blaze-era-part-2-1997-1998/
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He sang Wasted Years a few years ago live.
 
I think Steve may have been being truthful there when talking about Phantom being on the next tour, I believe Ed Hunter was being planned when Blaze was still in the band
 
srfc said:
I believe Ed Hunter was being planned when Blaze was still in the band
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I think this is true. TEH tour with classics would have happened even if Bruce had not returned.

If I'm not mistaken, the Ed Hunter game was also idea from Blaze's time and the tour in 1999 (as we know) was for it and for classics and reunion.
 
srfc said:
I think Steve may have been being truthful there when talking about Phantom being on the next tour, I believe Ed Hunter was being planned when Blaze was still in the band
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Might have been one of the few songs in that setlist he could have sung comfortably...
 
srfc said:
I believe Ed Hunter was being planned when Blaze was still in the band
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Being rude not intended, but I don't think Blaze would be in the band regardless of Bruce's comeback.

There's no chance in hell they thought all-classic setlist with Blaze would work. Take a look at the setlists of his both tours. There's a single Bruce era song in the first 8 to 9 songs and that's Heaven Can Wait - the easy one. The show is on for at least 40 minutes until demanding Bruce songs start, his voice is warmed up, and then he usually butchers them live. Imagine opening with Aces High...
 
If you wanted to change singers, which seems to be the general consensus after the VXI tour that the band was not pleased with Blaze and was ready to move on, a "greatest hits" tour is a good way to do it. Based on Bruce's book, they came to him and asked if he was ready to come back, but I am sure there were more people on that list to ask. Who? Fucked if I know.
 
Also I believe Nicko was the one who originally begun to push for Blaze's sacking after the constant troubles they had in 1998 and I think the story from him was always that he wanted Bruce back, not another singer. I don't think they had any other singer even in consideration, that would've only happened if Bruce hadn't been convinced to give it a shot by Rod and his bandmates.
 
Just got the Tenth Dimension vinyl in the post. I’m a little bit disappointed with the packaging. It feels that the record and sleeves are too big for the packaging. It doesn’t close properly and feels cheap compared to records of similar pricing.
 

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Is that a new release?

The spine already looks worn on it as well. If I was you, I'd get a card sleeve, they should be easy to find and cheap on ebay, and keep the records in those seperate from the real sleeve. That way the real sleeve should last longer. If you are new to vinyl get some of these too
 
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