Blaze touring issues?

Forostar said:
When you are intolerant of speed deviation from a studio version.
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There's a world of difference between speeding up your songs live (which practically every band does) and playing so fast you're barely keeping up and all the compositions start to lose their power. Maiden during the Blaze era was very much in the latter category. They played pointlessly fast and it was actively detrimental to the music, far more than tuning down to accommodate Blaze's lower range would have been.
 
I agree that songs can be played too fast. However I don't think Maiden with Blaze counts as TOO fast. Maiden was angry and had a lot to prove on stage, as did Blaze. Some details and finesse of the songs are lost, true, but instead it's replaced with raw attitude and energy. And at the end of the day, a rock show should never be "perfect." We have studio albums for that. Rock and Roll should be mean and ugly and in your face. It should always push the boundaries of what's comfortable. Maiden sounds great when they play faster because they capture that. Maiden also sounds great when they play slower because so much is happening in the music that you get more clarity.
 
Indeed. That speed problem is gravely exaggerated. Blaze mentioned many problems but speedy songs was not one of them.
 
Futureal bring played fast with Nicko tearing up the drums and Blaze giving all he's got is one of the best things I've heard from the band, so no complaints from me

I only think they took the tempo too far on Maiden Japan but even then it's still jaw droppingly awesome
 
chaosapiant said:
I agree that songs can be played too fast. However I don't think Maiden with Blaze counts as TOO fast. Maiden was angry and had a lot to prove on stage, as did Blaze.
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The only thing that Blaze proved on stage was his inability to do the classic songs justice, regardless of how hard he tried or him giving all he had.
 
GhostofCain said:
The only thing that Blaze proved on stage was his inability to do the classic songs justice, regardless of how hard he tried or him giving all he had.
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It's been said a million times, but i'll always "thank" Steve for that. Blaze did his best with what he was given. And he was given a set of songs that were not in his range and Steve wouldn't step the rest of the band down so he could sing them. So Blaze ends up tearing his voice apart every night singing songs that aren't comfortable, then gets blamed because he "can't sing the classics" and kicked out because "he's having throat/singing problems." Blaze is a great singer and even sings the Maiden songs fantastically when he's aloud to play a step down and sing in his comfort zone.

Edit:
He's not singing this song in Maiden's original key, and I think he brings a lot of emotion to it here. If Maiden let him sing all their songs like this, who knows? He might still be in the band.
 
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chaosapiant said:
It's been said a million times, but i'll always "thank" Steve for that. Blaze did his best with what he was given. And he was given a set of songs that were not in his range and Steve wouldn't step the rest of the band down so he could sing them. So Blaze ends up tearing his voice apart every night singing songs that aren't comfortable, then gets blamed because he "can't sing the classics" and kicked out because "he's having throat/singing problems." Blaze is a great singer and even sings the Maiden songs fantastically when he's aloud to play a step down and sing in his comfort zone.

Edit:
He's not singing this song in Maiden's original key, and I think he brings a lot of emotion to it here. If Maiden let him sing all their songs like this, who knows? He might still be in the band.
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Agree.

Blaze is a good singer and did a fine job with Maiden within his own limitations, but unfortunately his voice does not match Maiden's style. Personally I think Maiden would have been better off if they'd found a vocalist with a vocal range similar to Bruce's. It's kind of unfair to get someone like Blaze and expect him to sing like Bruce; it's obvious he's going to have a hard time doing that. Unless the band was deliberately changing their style to suit vocal ranges as of Blaze's, I think they should've found someone else.
 
Maybe it's been mentioned before, but I'd love to see Maiden take Blaze on tour with them. He'd be a great opening band, he could play some Maiden songs they might not play themselves like Futureal, then come out on stage and sing with them during Clansman or Lord of the Flies or something. How the fuck has this not happened yet?
 
chaosapiant said:
Maybe it's been mentioned before, but I'd love to see Maiden take Blaze on tour with them. He'd be a great opening band, he could play some Maiden songs they might not play themselves like Futureal, then come out on stage and sing with them during Clansman or Lord of the Flies or something. How the fuck has this not happened yet?
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No thanks.
 
chaosapiant said:
Maybe it's been mentioned before, but I'd love to see Maiden take Blaze on tour with them. He'd be a great opening band, he could play some Maiden songs they might not play themselves like Futureal, then come out on stage and sing with them during Clansman or Lord of the Flies or something. How the fuck has this not happened yet?
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Yes please.
 
To go on tour with Maiden because you are familiar with the band is reserved for the children of Bruce or Steve, or Tony Newton. Better to have a harmless Dirty Deeds open up the show than BLAZE with the Silicon Messiah album for example.
 
TheTalisman said:
To go on tour with Maiden because you are familiar with the band is reserved for the children of Bruce or Steve, or Tony Newton. Better to have a harmless Dirty Deeds open up the show than BLAZE with the Silicon Messiah album for example.
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Silicon Messiah came out in 2000, the support at the gigs I was at in 2000 was Slayer. If you are suggesting that Maiden are afraid of BLAZE blowing them off the stage then that would seem to suggest you think BLAZE are more likely to blow Maiden off the stage than Slayer.

The sad fact is Maiden probably didn't bring Blaze on tour at any stage because he would get a bad reaction from Maiden fans.
 
We all know that Iron Maiden would rather take a younger band on tour with them in the interests of giving them a helping hand. Blaze would be a pointless support act.
 
srfc said:
Silicon Messiah came out in 2000, the support at the gigs I was at in 2000 was Slayer. If you are suggesting that Maiden are afraid of BLAZE blowing them off the stage then that would seem to suggest you think BLAZE are more likely to blow Maiden off the stage than Slayer.
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They needed Slayer on the bill to sell enough tickets, the same with Megadeth in 1999. I'm sure both bands were able to put some pressure on Maiden.

There's a reason why they are not a touring with a more popular band as an opening act anymore.

Now there's just Steve's sons band, or the arranger adds a another band if tickets aren't doing well, as an example the swedish arranger put in Opeth when tickets for Ullevi weren't selling in 2016.
 
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How many tickets would you reckon Blaze would have brought in? I saw him on the Blood and Belief tour in a venue that held 600 people and there was only 60 people there, I could leave the front row and go for a piss and a pint and walk back to the very same spot.

They toured the states with Ghost, hottest band around at the moment. I doubt they are afraid of young guns blowing them off the stage, and certainly not today's version of Blaze.
 
I'm saying Maiden will put their kids as a support act or Tony Newton because they want to, but there's not any reason for them to have their former singer on the stage again, especially not when you have recently fired him for vocal issues, then he comes out with an album getting 5/5 reviews in Metal Hammer etc.

Bands like Slayer, Megadeth and Antrax are there to sell additional tickets on the other hand, not because of generosity.

Psycho Motel supported on some shows of the X Factour in 1996 (they were managed by Sanctuary just like BLAZE). Of course they could have had Blaze open up for them as well a few years later, if they had wanted to.
 
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In the eighties Maiden toured with popular bands. Did they need additional tickets at the height of their popularity?
 
Neither Blaze nor Maiden should want to support eachother honestly. I believe it's healthy for both bands to move on and do their own thing. Seeing so many past Maiden members trying to cash in on their two week stint in Maiden back in the late 70s is sad to me. Blaze and Maiden cut ties professionally, perhaps it didn't happen in the best of ways - but move on.
 
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