Blaze Bayley

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To each their own I guess- I like everything the man has done, even The King of Metal had its moments.

The first Blaze Bayley Band was to me quite special. The heavier sound and death/thrashier riffs suited Blaze's vocals and the live sound was quite different as well, the Night That Will Not Die is one of my most played live dvds.
Lawrence Paterson's book on Blaze and the band was a great read.

The first time I met Blaze was on the P&T tour, I was 17 at the time and Blaze was playing in Helsinki. Me and my friend went and knocked on the venue door in the afternoon and asked if Blaze was in:dancinggeek: He was, signed our stuff and chatted a bit, we even helped the guys carry some of their stuff...but in the end, being under aged we couldn't get in the venue for the show:rolleyes:
 
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____no5 said:
I saw someone else mentioning that, specifically Dream of Mirrors. Do we have evidence for that? And also, were there other songs that Blaze contributed in BNW? (Mercenary feels like one)
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It was attested to at least twice, once from Harris, and once from Smith, in the interviews.
Good guess on the Mercenary. Blood Brothers and Nomad are VXI leftovers too.

Blaze sings Blood Brothers better than Bruce, his deep voice fits the song better. Now I'm not sure whether it's in original key when Blaze performs it.

Funny when I heard about the VXI leftovers I started to hear details in these songs. Like the VXI drum arrangement that managed to survive. Or similarity of Mercenary's chorus to end section of Virus, vocal wise.

In many ways Brave New World is a VXII. All tracks where Dickinson or Smith weren't involved are straight out of 1998 with way better production and a different vocalist.
 
Thank you Zare! I’ll check Blood Brothers with Blaze I didn’t even know that.

Zare said:
In many ways Brave New World is a VXII. All tracks where Dickinson or Smith weren't involved are straight out of 1998 with way better production and a different vocalist.
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Interesting take. And with a way better guitarist too! ;)
 
After VXI, Steve said that there are 4 unused songs left off VXI sessions and that they will use them for the next album. Which ones are those 4 songs?

Adrian Smith: Yes, you are right. "Nomad" is one of them. The others are "Dream Of Mirrors", "Mercenary", I can't remember the 4th one.
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Adrian Smith Admits Virtual XI Leftovers Were Used

maidenfans.com

Steve Harris later said it was "Blood Brothers" according to Wikipedia, the original source is an article in Metal Hammer in 2010, If I remember correctly. He had the basic concept, but it wasn't a complete arrangement.

Then Blaze was asked about this in 2014. He said that he co-wrote Dream of Mirrors, which was credited to (Gers/Harris) and recorded vocals on a demo of Blood Brothers, this appears after 7:17 in this video:

The Blood Brothers demo could be just Steve's own recording, which he added some vocals on.
 
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Also the "rock mix" of Blood Brothers which appeared as a B-side on the Wildest Dreams single, makes it sound a lot more like something from Virtual XI in my opinion. This version is the song without any orchestration (which was added externally by Jeff Bova).

Steve already had the Clansman ready though and he came up with The Educated Fool as well, then Blaze and Janick had Como Estais Amigos - it's easy to see why he didn't finish the track in 1997.
 
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I guess the question that has to be asked is, if they had songs such as Blood Brothers and Dream of Mirrors as the leftover songs from VXI then why the hell did they not use those instead of crap like DLTTEOAS or TAATG?
 
I'm sure both Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger and The Angel and the Gambler could have been turned into strong tracks with different arrangements (including cutting and re-arranging some parts) and with a better production, which was done on Brave New World. They had both Kevin Shirley present, as well as some A&R people, who provided suggestions on arrangements and production choices.

And now on the other hand, imagine Blood Brothers for example on Virtual XI - without the melodic lead intersection by Janick, without any orchestration, and with Blaze's vocal performance on the album instead (which unfortunately was very rushed), and with the low quality drum sound and overall limited production quality. It would appear to many listeners as an alternate version of The Educated Fool more or less - definitely not a future classic. (And this comes from someone who have bought multiple copies of Virtual XI in different formats, don't get me wrong!)

The basic song idea, what Steve (or any other band member) brings in, to arrange and record with the band, isn't that different, regardless if it's 1997 or 1999 (or even 2019!) though. Many people don't get this.
 
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How do you think this leftover material sounded in it's basic form, when Steve (and Janick) presented it to the rest of the band during writing sessions for Brave New World in 1999?

Seriously. :D:D In the best case they had a demo, with Blaze's vocals recorded over some instrumentals by Steve (for Blood Brothers)- or he propably presented some notes on paper, then played and sang it by himself for the rest of the band and Kevin Shirley, for the whole band to learn to play and to arrange properly, for future recording.

If you still don't get what i'm try to say, then consider this:

This demo track:

Could be turned into this:

It's the same song!

The same goes for Blood Brothers, The Mercenary, Dream of Mirrors and The Nomad.

And regarding the band saving these song ideas or basic compositions, Steve (or anyone else) didn't plan to stop recording after Virtual XI!
 
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Spaldy said:
I guess the question that has to be asked is, if they had songs such as Blood Brothers and Dream of Mirrors as the leftover songs from VXI then why the hell did they not use those instead of crap like DLTTEOAS or TAATG?
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Because they knew the time is short?
Nobody seem to ever make the connection, but first you have Maiden going out on the bond market and shortly after the announcement that Bruce is back.
Only that these things need legal preparation before and some amount of thinking & talking before that. Thus it could be in Harris & Rod's heads from the time of VXI's recording sessions. Not necessarily for Bruce but bringing in some other singer.

Bruce was approached around end 1998 I think. By then, they should have already decided for the move and were waiting for Thelen Reid & Priest to finalize the draft. Yet the idea, the spark could be a year earlier, i.e., mid 1997.
 
____no5 said:
Because they knew the time is short?
Nobody seem to ever make the connection, but first you have Maiden going out on the bond market and shortly after the announcement that Bruce is back.
Only that these things need legal preparation before and some amount of thinking & talking before that. Thus it could be in Harris & Rod's heads from the time of VXI's recording sessions. Not necessarily for Bruce but bringing in some other singer.

Bruce was approached around end 1998 I think. By then, they should have already decided for the move and were waiting for Thelen Reid & Priest to finalize the draft. Yet the idea, the spark could be a year earlier, i.e., mid 1997.
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Iron Maiden dont have a song called Axe Attack only a compilation
 
I'd say they weren't even started with, as in proper recording. Maiden was on tight budget at VXI sessions. The X Factor took years, the band had inactive years 1994 and 1997 with the sales and audiences being less than they used to be. VXI had to be released pretty swiftly, maybe also due to the Q4 of 1998 being filled with big metal festivals in South America. They had no B-sides which points to shortened studio time. From that angle it's easy to see how 4 songs could've been left completely undeveloped.

However it's 1998 and Harris has a studio of his own where Maiden recorded 4 albums. So there might be studio demos of the stuff with Blaze. Not songs in preproduction or production just studio demos because Harris has access and knows how to use one.
 
Zare said:
That song name is what somebody that never heard anything Maiden would presume their songs are called.
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Or they saw this
Iron_Maiden_Killers.jpg
 
I don't know enough about finance or Maiden's business but it does seem like a bold move from Steve to invest in bands future. For me it seems like raising a mortgage on your house (a very expensive one but still your house) so you have enough liquidity to keep the firm up and running and capable of funding projects in the near future.

A small but maybe important detail was Dickinson was also involved. That's for sure because there's an interview from in between Ed Hunter and BNW where he says reunion is not about the money cause they already checked out the bank via the back catalogue deal. Of course he'd be involved and so was Smith because they have a hefty amount of royalties, especially Dickinson. Seems to me they were on the same page about Maiden's financial prospect even before they returned to the band. Maybe it was also factored in, cause Harris obviously is looking to the future and not stashing the golden parachutes in preparation for the fall.
 
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