Simon Dawson is the new drummer

srfc said:
I don't dispute that tuning down would have helped Blaze, or that the band playing songs that suited him better would have helped him. I dispute that any talk of this was on the agenda when he was in the band.
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Blaze has talked about it, and tuning down wasn't mentioned while he was in the band. He said he went in very confident with all the material they were doing, which I would interpret as even he wasn't thinking that the band should tune down for him. My guess is it was hugely down to his inexperience being forced to sing out of his comfort zone/normal range. He's not a trained singer, so even by the time he was in Maiden, there's a chance he might not have even known what tuning down was. Obviously, he does now for sure. He was able to pull it off somewhat in the short rehearsal time they had pre-X Factour, but found out on the road he couldn't maintain it throughout a full tour.

But as the video below shows, tuning down even a little bit makes a world of difference. Here he is comfortably singing Wasted Years (the crowd half-drowning him out, not so much), and doing that one little thing would've opened up the catalogue for him to be able to perform.


But, it also goes to show what experience teaches you. On the X Factour especially, Blaze seems to be just trying to get through all the Bruce material. Not much in the way of inflections or emotion, just power through it. These days, he's got a much better handle of adding nuance and emotion to his live work than he did in the Maiden days.
 
CA Bryers said:
But, it also goes to show what experience teaches you. On the X Factour especially, Blaze seems to be just trying to get through all the Bruce material. Not much in the way of inflections or emotion, just power through it. These days, he's got a much better handle of adding nuance and emotion to his live work than he did in the Maiden days.
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That's also the main difference in Bruce's singing pre mid 90's and post mid 90's.

I still can't fathom how shouty Bruce's voice kinda survived the 80s.
 
When a band member leaves, you obviously want someone who can handle the material effortlessly, but in practice it's rare that an exact copy is sought.
The new member should not just be a cheaper copy of the original. An example of a very well-known band would be Linkin Park: they even opted for a female voice.
I also think that Maiden would have had more interesting options, but I'm not so pessimistic. I'm curious to hear what they'll sound like with Simon.
 
I know it's not their style, but I'd really like a little teaser of Simon in rehearsals. Just a small YouTube Short shot on a phone of him battering out the main beat to Phantom or something, sans band.
 
Belshazzar said:
I know it's not their style, but I'd really like a little teaser of Simon in rehearsals. Just a small YouTube Short shot on a phone of him battering out the main beat to Phantom or something, sans band.
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Think bigger.

I want a 2 hour documentary, with footage spanning from the first time he held a drumstick, through his first awful AC/DC cover to him playing with British Lion and getting the call. I'd like the title of the documentary to be something outrageously silly, like "Not all Heroes wear capes - But Simon Dawson will wear the McBrain Flip-Flops in his honor".
 
↑ I don't understand this defensive position towards band at all. Long time band member retired and it is perfectly legitimate for fans to ask some footage where the band is playing with the new guy.
If that was a joke, it came at me from the wrong angle and slapped right in the face :cool:
 
Yax said:
Think bigger.

I want a 2 hour documentary, with footage spanning from the first time he held a drumstick, through his first awful AC/DC cover to him playing with British Lion and getting the call. I'd like the title of the documentary to be something outrageously silly, like "Not all Heroes wear capes - But Simon Dawson will wear the McBrain Flip-Flops in his honor".
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With Joe Lazarus' dad as the villain of the piece. Trying to sabotage Simon's career.
 
Vaenyr said:
I feel it goes both ways. He was not the right man for the job, but Steve refusing to accommodate Blaze's more limited range in any way certainly did him no favors.
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Frequently it sound's like he almost hits the notes, but is missing a quarter. In live performances it happens too often, specially in Bruce songs. He was technically underprepared.
 
Belshazzar said:
I know it's not their style, but I'd really like a little teaser of Simon in rehearsals. Just a small YouTube Short shot on a phone of him battering out the main beat to Phantom or something, sans band.
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Is this a common thing for new members these days?
Melony said:
When a band member leaves, you obviously want someone who can handle the material effortlessly, but in practice it's rare that an exact copy is sought.
The new member should not just be a cheaper copy of the original. I also think that Maiden would have had more interesting options, but I'm not so pessimistic. I'm curious to hear what they'll sound like with Simon.
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This.
 
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Kalata said:
Is this a common thing for new members these days?
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I don't think it's a common thing for anyone anywhere, I just thought it would be cool. Only a personal idea. Maiden do a lot of short video teasers for new tours, news and albums so thought this would be nice. Heck, my username and title are both taken from a teaser :D
 
Honestly, I think it's a good marketing opportunity, to try to grow some velocity with Simon in the band. But I expect Rod has some ideas. Or maybe he doesn't, because he's kind of lazy these days and a lot of the better marketing ideas come from Bruce, it seems.
 
LooseCannon said:
Honestly, I think it's a good marketing opportunity, to try to grow some velocity with Simon in the band. But I expect Rod has some ideas. Or maybe he doesn't, because he's kind of lazy these days and a lot of the better marketing ideas come from Bruce, it seems.
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I think Rod is just a figure today. The real management is based on Bruce, Steve and Shack, some of the best ideas Maiden made real were Bruce's in fact. Honestly, I just don't what is Smallwood in the Maiden Team for?! He's useless.
 
Nomadd said:
I think Rod is just a figure today. The real management is based on Bruce, Steve and Shack, some of the best ideas Maiden made real were Bruce's in fact. Honestly, I just don't what is Smallwood in the Maiden Team for?! He's useless.
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Ah, Nomadd thinks out loud again. Tell us more about your knowledge about the inner workings of Maiden.
 
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