Blaze Bayley

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I agree about that! I think a proper producer capable of providing some "vocal guidance" would have helped Blaze a lot to sort of "maximize" the power of his deliveyr, but I agree that he gives a good layer to those songs as it is. The acoustic version of SOTC he did with Thomas Zwijsen is quite cool, for that matter!
Andy Sneap pulled that off really well on Silicon Messiah. He also sounds really good on the album Endure and Survive and his collaborations with Thomas Zwijsen. Even though he's improved vastly in the past 4 years or so, he has a lot of work to do in order to sing well consistently. But as someone mentioned earlier, apparently Blaze doesn't really give a crap, which is not only a great disservice to his fans but also himself. A good vocal coach could turn him into a transcendent talent.
 
In fairness to the people who dislike Blaze, I like his performances on The X Factor through Tenth Dimension, because he lets himself just be himself and I love the unique passion and tones he brings. After that, though, I think he should have invested some time in taking singing lessons. Especially once you get to the Infinite Entanglement trilogy, where he still does a strong job, you can tell he’s warbling a lot and it would be great for him to iron himself out a bit. He’s a love him or hate him singer but I think with some practice more people could fall on the love him side.
 
The Evil That Men Do is another, if you consider that the recording that made it on the Futureal single is the best take they could get. The biggest mistake Maiden made with Blaze was the way the VXI tour was put together. It was too grueling a tour for a set so challenging for him.
That recording of The Evil Men Do was also overdubbed in the studio, which is particularly apparent if you own The Eternal Flame bootleg, since both versions are from that show in Gothenburg. In the bootleg, Blaze only goes for the high note of the chorus on the last chorus of the song, whereas he mysteriously does it on all the choruses in the Futureal single version. Also, there's a sloppy splice in the final seconds of the song.

Not knocking him for that, Blaze for the most part had no business trying those songs, and Bruce has had significant overdubs in his career too--if I recall, The Evil That Men Do from Donington '92, Bruce mangled one of the verses in the bootleg version, but was fixed for the official release. Happens all the time.

And for what it's worth, a few overdubs would've made the Milan '98 show as close to as an ideal show for official release as you could get out of the Blaze era (if going by what's available for soundboard recordings of his era). Excellent boot, and Blaze sounded strong throughout (aside from his habit of forgetting lyrics here and there).
 
That recording of The Evil Men Do was also overdubbed in the studio, which is particularly apparent if you own The Eternal Flame bootleg, since both versions are from that show in Gothenburg. In the bootleg, Blaze only goes for the high note of the chorus on the last chorus of the song, whereas he mysteriously does it on all the choruses in the Futureal single version.
I just listened to this recording, and came to realize that Blaze didn't overdub anything afterwards - instead they just practiced some copy and paste, and inserted the last chorus note also heard on the bootleg, into the other sections for this B-side. It sounds 100 % identical all the time.


Just some standard "Virtual XI production" in practice! :facepalm:
 
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I just listened to this recording, and came to realize that Blaze didn't overdub anything afterwards - instead they just practiced some copy and paste, and inserted the last chorus note also heard on the bootleg, into the other sections for this B-side. It's sounds 100 % identical all the time.


Just some standard "Virtual XI production" in practice! :facepalm:
Ah, good catch! :D
 
Morning all. I am supposed to be going to Peterborough today to see Blaze but I am in two minds. My daughter was born prematurely 3 weeks ago. She is home now (thank goodness!) My wife wants me to go but I am worried about Covid and bringing it back. I think I will give it a miss. It’s a shame but priorities have changed.
 
Morning all. I am supposed to be going to Peterborough today to see Blaze but I am in two minds. My daughter was born prematurely 3 weeks ago. She is home now (thank goodness!) My wife wants me to go but I am worried about Covid and bringing it back. I think I will give it a miss. It’s a shame but priorities have changed.
Giving it a miss would be sensible I think. Shame, but as you said priorities have changed. There will be other opportunities to see him in future! I hope your daughter is doing okay :)
 
Morning all. I am supposed to be going to Peterborough today to see Blaze but I am in two minds. My daughter was born prematurely 3 weeks ago. She is home now (thank goodness!) My wife wants me to go but I am worried about Covid and bringing it back. I think I will give it a miss. It’s a shame but priorities have changed.

Congratulations!! I hope your daughter and wife are well.

I would give the gig a miss. Blaze is not going to stop touring any time soon, so you will always have an opportunity to see him live.
 
Super Channel there's a blast from the past:lol:

Is that the gig Massive Noise Injection was recorded at?
 

Quite a decent frontman, Jason Edwards played some good solos as well.
Blaze was a fantastic frontman during the Wolfsbane days. After he was announced for Maiden, I deep-dived into the band, bought all the albums I could find, and was genuinely excited with what a sort of "wildman" vocalist and personality could do in Maiden, because that's sort of how he came across to me in his vocal style.

We all know how it played out. I'm still a fan of each stage of his career, but I think he just never found a comfortable role in Maiden. With Maiden onstage, there was sadly no sign of the crazy Wolfsbane Blaze. According to him in the At the End of the Day book, that was partly due to his tour-long fight with the crew's monitor guy, which kept him mostly stuck in the center of the stage so he could hear the monitors properly. This was fixed on VXI Tour with his in-ear monitors, so he moved way more and sang generally better, but the crazy Woflsbane Blaze was gone by that point...or Steve didn't want that Blaze onstage.

In most magazine interviews, Steve was most often there alongside Blaze now, whereas back in the day, Bruce was the guy handling the vast majority of interviews. From my (possibly wrong) viewpoint, it seemed like during that period, Steve got his band back, and Blaze kind of settled in as just another band member and not the true Frontman with a capital "F" like Bruce was and insisted that he be (as evidenced in the History interview bit where Bruce details his onstage scuffles with Steve about where his place on the stage is, etc.).
 
From my (possibly wrong) viewpoint, it seemed like during that period, Steve got his band back, and Blaze kind of settled in as just another band member and not the true Frontman with a capital "F" like Bruce was and insisted that he be (as evidenced in the History interview bit where Bruce details his onstage scuffles with Steve about where his place on the stage is, etc.).
Or like in Bruce's autobiography where he claims Steve tried to have him sacked as early as the NOTB tour for taking the centre of the stage away from Steve. :lol:
 
Blaze was a fantastic frontman during the Wolfsbane days. After he was announced for Maiden, I deep-dived into the band, bought all the albums I could find, and was genuinely excited with what a sort of "wildman" vocalist and personality could do in Maiden, because that's sort of how he came across to me in his vocal style.

We all know how it played out. I'm still a fan of each stage of his career, but I think he just never found a comfortable role in Maiden. With Maiden onstage, there was sadly no sign of the crazy Wolfsbane Blaze. According to him in the At the End of the Day book, that was partly due to his tour-long fight with the crew's monitor guy, which kept him mostly stuck in the center of the stage so he could hear the monitors properly. This was fixed on VXI Tour with his in-ear monitors, so he moved way more and sang generally better, but the crazy Woflsbane Blaze was gone by that point...or Steve didn't want that Blaze onstage.

In most magazine interviews, Steve was most often there alongside Blaze now, whereas back in the day, Bruce was the guy handling the vast majority of interviews. From my (possibly wrong) viewpoint, it seemed like during that period, Steve got his band back, and Blaze kind of settled in as just another band member and not the true Frontman with a capital "F" like Bruce was and insisted that he be (as evidenced in the History interview bit where Bruce details his onstage scuffles with Steve about where his place on the stage is, etc.).

Crazy Blaze was gone because he never could be that persona in Maiden, if he looked at the crowd and said "hey you in the glasses" most people would be thinking "who is this cunt? He's not Bruce Dickinson". You can't come into a place acting all Billy Big Bollocks when you're a replacement unless you have something to back it up, which Bruce had with The Number of the Beast, whereas Blaze confidence must have been smashed by the press, and a lot of the fans, reaction to the X Factor.
 
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