Ardius
Trooper
Blazefans.de said:by Tommy Schmelz
Beside the Swiss BigBash in Pratteln, Switzerland we hat the opportunity to ask Blaze some questions...
Blaze, a lot of things happened again this year in the Blaze Bayley camp. It started very promising for you with a new line-up and a new management. Everything seems to work fine for you. But now as we are here, the management has changed again and two people from the band have left too. As there wasn't much to read, especially about the split from your manager, can you tell us what happened?
Well, the manager I had before wasn’t good. Now I have a new manager, which is my wife. And the line-up I had before wasn’t a 100%. But now I have a good drummer and a full, strong line-up, so that’s good. It’s been a hard road and it’s been a lot of problems. But in the end we’ve come up with the strongest Blaze Bayley line-up and the strongest band I ever had. We are working on new material, and I think the next album will be the strongest album since "Silicon Messiah". The old record company stopped me doing a lot of things and they didn’t spend money on promotion. I’m out of that contract now and made my own record label. So all the Blaze Bayley albums will come out on 'Blaze Bayley Records'. We will make sure, that we do the best albums we can and that the fans get good value for money. Before there where too many people in between the band and the fans. Everybody is taking the money of the fans. And the fans think they are supporting the band, but we didn’t get the money. But you can’t go on tour as you don’t have money and you can’t make records. So now when the fans buy the ticket, buy the t-shirt, when they buy the album we get most of the money, not the record company. And that means we can spend the money on promoting the band, making more records, doing better tours. The old record company worries about a penny for this, a penny for that. And you only have 12 pages or 21 pages in the booklet. The next Blaze Bayley album will have a 40 pages booklet and will also have a limited edition vinyl! The next Blaze Bayley album will have a 1000 piece limited edition set that comes out numbered and signed by the band before the main album only available through the website! So everything that we do is, because we have a heart for fans and too many people where getting in the way. Now everything we do is a 100% just from us. So hopefully the fans will enjoy the difference, seeing improvements. And we will be able to do more shows than we ever did before.
Talking about the fans, there was a lack of information during the last few months. Blaze didn't happen in the press and the was almost no public relation. And the fans didn't know what was going on. So a lot of them have lost the faith in Blaze. How will you try to get them back and what will be better in the future?
I think the only way we can restore the faith of the fans is to bring out an album full of passion and energy. Something that’s heavy and reflects the torment of last two years. And then to tour every year and show the fans that we are serious. So I think the most important thing is the album. It’s four years since "Blood And Believe" and that’s a long time. A lot has happened to me in that time, but now I feel the point where we were drawing a line in the sand. That’s the past now and the future is with this line-up. For the next few years, for the next albums, this is the line-up that we’ll have, and we’ll be better than ever. And hopefully, when the fans see that I come back strong, they hopefully get back to support us again.
Rich Newport left the band surprisingly, as everything seemed to work pefect between you and him. And the only thing that is known is a blog on his MySpace site. There he writes something about an argument. Can you tell us from your point of view what happened?
Well, we had a big argument and I lost my temper, which I don’t often do. I was very angry. And the next day I said, come on let’s talk about it. We where booked to play Clive Aid in London which is a charity for Clive from Iron Maiden, and he said 'No I’m not coming to do it.' So he refused to play the gig, and the rest of the band said, that’s it, we don’t want him back. And that was the last time I spoke to him. Well, I said we can talk about things. And he said no I don’t think so, he said it’s a difference in personalities. Well since he has left the band is much stronger, and the people we have now, everybody is focussed 100% on the music and doing the best for the fans. Everybody is just about being the best musician they can, playing the best shows they can. And so I the think we have the best band we can possibly have. And really know, Rich did a lot of great things in the short time he was in the band. But that’s just an area. You know that’s the real start now.
With Jay Walsh you found a replacement for Rich Newport. I see on your MySpace Site that he seems to be already fix in the band?
I think we just left a little while after Rich Newport left. We just did some rehearsals and then everything seemed to come together. He’s not really a replacement. He’s a completely different style of player than Rich Newport was. So he’s not doing anything Rich Newport tried to do. Jay is a much more direct and heavier player than Rich Newport was. He is a much more serious player.
I have heard some old stuff of your new drummer Lawrence Patterson. He’s an animal on the drums and I think he’s the best man you could have found.
Yeah, the drum auditions where really tough. I had drummers from all over the world, very high standard. They had to learn a lot of songs and then they had to come to rehearsals, and they had to play ten of the songs that I selected, with no band, just on their own, and they had to get them right. And from all of those there where three drummers that made the grade. Finally from all of those the guy who had the best attitude was Lawrence. He plays the existing Blaze songs and Iron Maiden songs really well. And the new songs he adds a really great live attitude, it’s a new dimension. I think his drumming on the new album is really gonna make a difference to the overall sound of the band. So we are really pleased, that we got him.
Let's talk a bit about your first DVD “Alive In Poland”. Are you satisfied with it? I think it is a good DVD, but it could have been a lot better. A lot of people say that it’s not authentic, if you know what I mean?
Yeah, it could have been a lot better if I was doing it with the line-up I have now. If we’re doing it with this line-up that’s playing the concert tonight, the DVD would have been a lot better, there is no doubt about that. There were a lot of problems with the DVD, but those were caused by the old management. Well, for me personally it's one of my best ever live performances, so I´m happy with that. Well, there where problems with it, but I'm proud of it.
We had a few copies. and we sold them out at all our concerts. Most of the fans I spoke to really like it. I think it’s a good start for us. The next DVD that we’ll do will be a lot different to that one and I hope it will be this line-up that does it, it will be very strong.
You did some acoustic shows this year. I really hope you recorded some of them? I heard some bootlegs and everything sounds amazing. Is there planned to release some songs on CD?
Well, we didn’t do some serious recordings. I think we recorded a show in Belgrad. So I don’t know really if we will do some more acoustic. It was a good thing at that time. A thing that we might do is maybe record some unplugged songs for the limited edition to go with the new album. So you’ll have the new album, an unplugged set and a small dvd.
That sounds really great. You already talked about the new album, but can you tell us a little bit more. Does it have a theme or something like that?
There is a loose theme about revenge, because so many people fucked me in the last couple of years. A lot of it is about revenge and getting my own back, and having the satisfaction of not dying, when people wanted me to die. I’m not dying, I keep going, and then I'm coming back with the strongest band I’ve ever had. So I think that the theme of the album is revenge and refusing to die. Hopefully when the fans hear it, and I’m hoping we’ll make a lot of new fans, then it will feel good. The feeling now in the band is more like when I was working with Steve Harris in Iron Maiden. The standard of the musicianship is more like that. I’m really excited about the new album. And we will bring out a virtual single, as soon that we have mixed it. It should come out in the end of march or april. And the main album will come out in may.
Let’s talk about this Wolfsbane thing going on right now. Is this only a temporary thing or can we expect more?
It’s just for fun really. I was invited to play a charity-event in Tamworth and I hadn’t seen anybody from the band for a long time. And they all live around that area, so I said, you want to come to the gig and get up and play a song? And it ended up with six songs and it was a lot of fun. And that was gonna be that, but The Wildhearts said, would you like to come and support us and we pay you money. So we said "Yeah, ok". It’s just five shows at Christmas. And we’re doing it for some fun, because we are getting paid and to destroy The Wildhearts. Because in Wolfsbane we where the warrior support band, the worst support band you could have, because we always tried to steal the crowd. We tried to steal the Iron Maiden crowd when we supported Maiden. So The Wildhearts, we’ll be a big problem for them. And after that finishes, those five shows, there will be some more Blaze shows between Christmas and new year. Then in January, February, we start working fulltime on the next Blaze Bayley album. Furthermore there are Blaze Bayley shows booked for next year. We have one in march called 'Monsters Of Mosh' in Manchester. And we are going to Norway, we have booked something in October, as well a small festival. And hopefully we'll be doing some festivals all over Europe next year. And then going to South America in September.
When we look at your MySpace-site, there are also some changes in the layout and logo, and so on. Can you tell us something about that?
Well, for a long time the website didn’t change a lot. And the thing I always wanted from the website, that was most important from day one, that is was up-to-date, that you knew what the next show was, where was it, how could you get there and where could you buy tickets. That’s always been the most important thing for me. But the people who have been involved to it up till now, that didn’t seem to come across. And now we have people in the band who want that website look today as I do and who are capable to do it. So with the help of all webmasters, that worked with in the past, we’re making it so that the Blaze Bayley site is up-to-date, looks good and we have a shop open. So for the first time in a long time, you’ll be able to go online and order merchandise and get it. The main thing is it’s up-to-date and people see what we’re doing. You know, it wasn’t up-to-date for a long time and one of the reasons was, nothing was happening. But now lots of things are happening and there is lots to talk about.
Another thing, what’s with the Blaze Members Club?
Well, we’ll be talking to Dave about that in the future and we´ll see what happens. At the moment we are concentrating on the album and getting the website open, and making it so the fans can buy the albums direct from us.
So what can the fans really expect in the year 2008, not only the album?
Yeah, we want to tour as much as we can and we play everywhere as we possibly can. We are taking out a very small production and a very small show, so we can play more places. We are going out with the guitars and the basic things and playing more shows in more places. The most important thing to us is play shows. So we had to decide, we take a big production and don’t play many shows or we don’t have any production and go and play a lot of shows. We are a live band, that’s the first thing that we are and that´s what we decided to do. So we will play everywhere we can, but again don’t expect a big production. All our headlining shows will be about two hours and we will have old songs and new songs in it. We’ll be changing the set a lot, because we rehearse a lot . So if you could see us at one part of the tour and you come to see us on the next part, you should be seeing a couple of different songs. So if you saw us last week, since then we may added two songs to the set, and for the next show we got another song go in. And after Christmas we will have the new songs to come in and we’re going to play some of the old maiden ones. And some of the Maiden ones I never played before. So we try to keep it interesting for the fans. Tonight we have “The Launch” which we haven’t played for a long time. And before the next gig we got some rehearsals, we got “Judgement Of Heaven”. I never played that live before with Maiden and I never played it live before with the Blaze band. So what we are gonna try to do is, when the fans come and have seen us for two or three shows, they still get something different. So that’s important to us. You know the fans support us and we don’t want to abuse this. It’s important for us that we play well, but we will change the setlist as often as we can.
We are almost at the end of our interview! Can you give the fans a message and send some greetings?
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And I hope to see you all in 2008 with a new album. And thanks you so much for your support through some difficult years. We’ll be coming back and we'll come back stronger than ever.
Interesting. I hope Blaze gets it right this time. Might have to look up that "Monsters of Mosh" sometime.
People may say things about Blaze, but you've got to give him marks for determination and effort.
