Blaze Bayley

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Crazypants said:
There was also a guy who brought his autistic 12 old kid for his birthday and Blaze did an impromptu metal version of Happy Birthday for him and the band gave him the set list, drum sticks and guitar pics after the show. Kid was so happy he cried.
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Having a brother with autism, that really means a lot to me to hear that. What a wonderful person Blaze truly is! Just a class act all the way!
 
Show last night was absolutely awesome! I met up with @Lampwick 43 for some beers, watched a really solid Maiden/Priest tribute act burn through a short set, and walked right into Blaze standing at his merch table. Got a picture with the man and had him sign a shirt before he went up on stage.

Blaze's show was really, really good. His band kicked ass, he was incredibly entertaining and humble, and overall seemed very happy to be doing what he's doing. Got to hear some Maiden classics (and one not so classic) that they'll never play, which was a huge treat! Just to be so close to a guy who was part of Maiden's history was truly special.

Cheers to Blaze!

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Awesome show. Blaze was on fire and his band was incredible. There's only one guitarist, but they're still able to make all the songs work quite well. The biggest highlights were
Stare at the Sun, The Clansman, and Man Hunt, the latter of which featured solos by every member of the band

Blaze really goes above and beyond for his fans. The fact that he makes himself available to any fan that wants an autograph, picture, or to chat both before and after the show really says it all. All for free of course.

There's really something special about seeing a show like this in such an intimate setting. I highly recommend seeing him if he comes to your area.

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Also, Blaze is a lot shorter than I imagined he would be.
 
As far as songs Maiden has never performed, I got Virus and Look For The Truth at my show back in November of 2011.

Oh, if anyone else meets Blaze on any of the remaining US shows, that would be awesome if they could ask him how getting paid works. Does he get a guaranteed amount at every show? Because again, I can't believe he'd keep coming back if he was losing money and if he only gets paid from ticket sales, there's no way he can be coming out ahead.
 
Yeah, he would never open up about that.

There are two basic ways to get paid by a music venue or bar with a stage: a flat rate negotiated ahead of time or a percentage of the ticket sales once production costs are covered. A lesser used (anymore) third option could also be a cut of the bar sales. With an international somewhat name act like Blaze, I'd be willing to bet he gets some sort of small flat rate + a portion of the ticket sales (let's say 70-80% after production costs are taken out). But like any touring act he probably makes his best money on selling merchandise.

No doubt he plays smaller, more suburban venues in order to get a flat rate that will at least cover his travel costs. I.E. he recently played Bolingbrook, IL (a suburb 45 minutes away from Chicago) instead of playing Chicago because they probably gave him a better deal.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Yeah, he would never open up about that.

There are two basic ways to get paid by a music venue or bar with a stage: a flat rate negotiated ahead of time or a percentage of the ticket sales once production costs are covered. A lesser used (anymore) third option could also be a cut of the bar sales. With an international somewhat name act like Blaze, I'd be willing to bet he gets some sort of small flat rate + a portion of the ticket sales (let's say 70-80% after production costs are taken out). But like any touring act he probably makes his best money on selling merchandise.

No doubt he plays smaller, more suburban venues in order to get a flat rate that will at least cover his travel costs. I.E. he recently played Bolingbrook, IL (a suburb 45 minutes away from Chicago) instead of playing Chicago because they probably gave him a better deal.
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I don't know how Blaze books things now, but I know the Dublin promoter lost a lot of money on a poorly attended gig on the blood and belief tour, which suggests he was being paid a flat rate.
 
srfc said:
I don't know how Blaze books things now, but I know the Dublin promoter lost a lot of money on a poorly attended gig on the blood and belief tour, which suggests he was being paid a flat rate.
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Blaze was definitely considered a "bigger" act back then, when he had his proper band and all. I suspect it's changed since, likely because that happened a lot during Blood & Belief.
 
LooseCannon said:
Blaze was definitely considered a "bigger" act back then, when he had his proper band and all. I suspect it's changed since, likely because that happened a lot during Blood & Belief.
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That's partially true, when he was signed with BLAZE to SPV he could get on festivals like Wacken, Gods of Metal and Bang Your Head and get the albums distributed to record stores. But to get people to turn up to the shows that the band was headlining and make a profit? Didn't work out. He burned a lot of money paying for equipment, recording, management, 4 band members, travel costs and had to stop. But it's true that at first sight he looked like a bigger artist back then.

And I actually think more people generally turn up to his shows these days than most of the Silicon Messiah or Tenth Dimension tours that they were headlining. I have seen a lot of pictures from that era when going through planetblaze.com on the internet archive and I can't say that things have gotten worse for him.

It isn't like this is something unique to Blaze either, as an example Jason Newsted faced the same reality a few years ago: https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/jason_newsted_why_i_ended_the_newsted_band.html
 
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It took some time for people to cool off and reflect, I think. Now that Blaze is far enough removed from the Maiden camp, fans are willing to say, "Yeah, he's alright," turn up at a gig and be pleasantly surprised. Newer fans are excited to see a part of Maiden history and hear songs that Maiden won't ever touch again, as well.
 
LooseCannon said:
Blaze was definitely considered a "bigger" act back then, when he had his proper band and all. I suspect it's changed since, likely because that happened a lot during Blood & Belief.
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The venue booked was definitely too big, it held about 600 and there was only about 60 at the gig. He was also playing Belfast the following night which meant there was no reason for anyone to travel down from Northern Ireland.

Dianno pulled a sell out crowd about a month or two later, albeit in a smaller venue (capacity about 300) and the Dianno gig was a farce, while the Blaze gig was excellent.
 
Not going to make it to the show tonight .. have a bunch of stuff to do and where he is playing is a pain in the ass for me to get to (much construction between me and there)

Maybe next time.

Edit: For obvious reasons, he cancelled the Houston show last night.
 
It will be a while before they answer, they are still digging though his 2010 financials .. only 6 more full years to go
 
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