Who was auditioned to replace Blaze?

matic22 said:
So, IMO, Bruce rejoined in January 1999 and no other singers were auditioned.
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How do you explain the Nicko interview? What is the most important there is the mention of Adrian Smith. That means Dickinson, Harris and Smallwood already talked and agreed on a three guitarist line up.
 
srfc said:
That's pretty much what Steve said in metal hammer at the time, I think the quote was "better the devil you know"
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At this point I think we're discussing did Maiden conclude that Blaze is done for at South America tour and cancelled shows/encores as a statement or they knew he's out prior to these gigs and didn't care for encores or cancellations.

Edit : and as far as original topic goes, the argument about the overlap clearly shows there was no downtime between vocalists and as such no audition was even considered.
 
Zare said:
How do you explain the Nicko interview? What is the most important there is the mention of Adrian Smith. That means Dickinson, Harris and Smallwood already talked and agreed on a three guitarist line up.
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I think they had vocalists lined up, if Steve and Bruce couldn't find common ground. Adrian rejoining was a genious power move by Bruce. He knew that H is a guy who cares a lot about production and isn't afraid to say to Steve if something sounds shit. Therefore, I think the first demand from Bruce, when they started the talks, was to take H back. And Steve just said yes.

Bruce said in the Adrian Smith as known by Bruce Dickinson article that he wouldn't have rejoined if H wasn't going to and that suggests that this was one of his first if not the first demand.
 
matic22 said:
And Steve just said yes.
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I reckon Steve would have been rather keen to have H back rather just acquiescing to a Bruce demand. Firstly, he's a pragmatist and would have been keen to have another great songwriter on board, as well as noticing what the prospect of a 3 guitar line up would offer in terms of selling the idea that it's something new from Maiden. Also, he said about the time H left, that he had more in common socially with H than the rest of the band members.
 
matic22 said:
I think they had vocalists lined up, if Steve and Bruce couldn't find common ground. Adrian rejoining was a genious power move by Bruce. He knew that H is a guy who cares a lot about production and isn't afraid to say to Steve if something sounds shit. Therefore, I think the first demand from Bruce, when they started the talks, was to take H back. And Steve just said yes.

Bruce said in the Adrian Smith as known by Bruce Dickinson article that he wouldn't have rejoined if H wasn't going to and that suggests that this was one of his first if not the first demand.
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If you go back to that Nicko interview, there's a paragraph outlining discussion between him, Rod and Janick where Rod confirms the three guitar lineup albeit Janick obviously had no clue they were going to the three guitar lineup. In case we put aside the third scenario, and that's the return of Adrian Smith and Maiden's three guitar thing regardless of Bruce, the push for Adrian that Bruce did must've happened in November 1998 or before that. So the January meeting where Bruce pushes Smith back in the fold is out of the question.
 
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srfc said:
I reckon Steve would have been rather keen to have H back rather just acquiescing to a Bruce demand. Firstly, he's a pragmatist and would have been keen to have another great songwriter on board, as well as noticing what the prospect of a 3 guitar line up would offer in terms of selling the idea that it's something new from Maiden. Also, he said about the time H left, that he had more in common socially with H than the rest of the band members.
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Yup. I've always understood that whatever hardships Bruce and Steve have had and whatever H and Steve have disagreed about this or that, they did get along very well and had usually pretty similar views of Maiden sound and direction. Smith/Harris is also one of the most prominent writing credits mentions thorough the catalogue, so at least from purely musical point of view I believe Steve would have wanted Adrian to re-join in any case - should H himself have ever been into it, anyway.
 
srfc said:
I reckon Steve would have been rather keen to have H back rather just acquiescing to a Bruce demand. Firstly, he's a pragmatist and would have been keen to have another great songwriter on board, as well as noticing what the prospect of a 3 guitar line up would offer in terms of selling the idea that it's something new from Maiden. Also, he said about the time H left, that he had more in common socially with H than the rest of the band members.
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Adrian also left with a vague reason and no big words. He had a silent exit. Dickinson didn't.
 
Randalf said:
Smith/Harris is also one of the most prominent writing credits
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He phoned Smith and them two wrote like 1/3 of AMOLAD right there. He also needed to stress out that he phoned Adrian first "for no particular reason", several times in a same sentence ;)
 
At the end of the day, Smith's story is simple, he was uncomfortable being called a guitar god, exited stage left and went completely low profile until that bored him out.
 
Randalf said:
Yup. I've always understood that whatever hardships Bruce and Steve have had and whatever H and Steve have disagreed about this or that, they did get along very well and had usually pretty similar views of Maiden sound and direction. Smith/Harris is also one of the most prominent writing credits mentions thorough the catalogue, so at least from purely musical point of view I believe Steve would have wanted Adrian to re-join in any case - should H himself have ever been into it, anyway.
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That's all true. I was just speaking from Bruce's point of view.

In Bruce's eyes, H's return would disable Steve having complete control over Maiden's musical direction, which is also coincidentally the reason, I think, why H left in the first place (that combined with having a son).
 
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Zare said:
If you go back to that Nicko interview, there's a paragraph outlining discussion between him, Rod and Janick where Rod confirms the three guitar lineup albeit Janick obviously had no clue they were going to the three guitar lineup. In case we put aside the third scenario, and that's the return of Adrian Smith and Maiden's three guitar thing regardless of Bruce, the push for Adrian that Bruce did must've happened in November 1998 or before that. So the January meeting where Bruce pushes Smith back in the fold is out of the question.
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I think Rod and/or Nicko indeed contacted the Bruce camp before that. It's also very possible that Rod was sure he can convince Steve to bring Bruce back and was preparing the territory for months. That's why he was comfortable speaking about this to Janick.

Janick's role in all of this is a bit strange. According to Bruce, they hang out and went bowling quite a lot when he wasn't in Maiden. It's also completely possible that Nicko fucked up the timeline (again).
 
Yeah, that's possible, but considering the detail and that Janick is also in the story...

What I don't think is possible is Smallwood working behind Harris' back.
 
matic22 said:
I think Rod and/or Nicko indeed contacted the Bruce camp before that. It's also very possible that Rod was sure he can convince Steve to bring Bruce back and was preparing the territory for months. That's why he was comfortable speaking about this to Janick.

Janick's role in all of this is a bit strange. According to Bruce, they hang out and went bowling quite a lot when he wasn't in Maiden. It's also completely possible that Nicko fucked up the timeline (again).
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Nicko's comment about Janick offering to step aside as a gentleman if it was a case of getting the classic line-up together is something that I have heard from other sources too.
 
GhostofCain said:
Nicko's comment about Janick offering to step aside as a gentleman if it was a case of getting the classic line-up together is something that I have heard from other sources too.
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I heard that too. And I doubt Bruce would fuck Jan over like this.

I was thinking about this matter in the "surely Jan must've said something to Bruce during that time" kind of way.
 
matic22 said:
I was thinking about this matter in the "surely Jan must've said something to Bruce during that time" kind of way.
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I see what you mean. If I am not mistaken, Janick had some reservations about Blaze being chosen as Bruce's replacement. He probably was in no position to disagree with Steve's choice though, being a relatively new member of the band.
 
The way I've always heard/read the "Janick steps aside" narrative" is that Bruce suggested Adrian, and Steve said "and get rid of Janick?" and Bruce said "No my sexy homeboy bass god, three guitarists at the same time!" And at some point around this time, separately, Janick got wind of Adrian potentially returning, but since he only heard the rumors, he was prepared to leave to honor Adrian's return.
 
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