Who was auditioned to replace Blaze?

srfc said:
He also wasn't able to transfer his mad frontman routine from Wolfsbane into commanding the stage of a top tier live act. Compare some of the rants on Massive Noise Injection to the wimpy "c'mons" that was about the best you got from him with Maiden.
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That personality was what I'd been looking forward to having in Maiden while we were waiting for the new album. After he was announced as singer, I dug around local record shops until I had everything I could find on Wolfsbane, and I loved his crazy stage persona. However, once in Maiden, that wild Blaze disappeared. I wonder if he was told prior to touring that he'd have to tone it down, that what he'd been in Wolfsbane didn't belong in Maiden, etc. Whatever the case was, it just seemed like even he didn't know what his role was in the band, and how he was supposed to act. Steve largely took over the interviews at the time (with Blaze usually involved), Blaze was stuck in the middle of the stage through most of The X Factour due to a stubborn monitor roadie who didn't want to change the placement that Bruce had (midstage is the only place he could clearly hear the guitars, according to the AtEotD biograpy), and you're right..."c'mon!" was most of what we got from him.

Who knows. It would be a good question for someone to ask him after one of his solo shows. I remember thinking of that question as I was driving home from seeing him in 2011, and he hasn't been back to the States since.

In retrospect, I feel bad for him being put in that spot while having so much working against him. No downtuning the Bruce material, the stage monitor thing, the state of metal at the time, having fans scream "bring back Bruce" at loads of shows, there was just no winning. As someone else mentioned above with Ripper being a younger, superior version of Halford yet still failing, the Blaze era was just plain doomed, and it wouldn't have mattered who had stepped in. I think all Maiden had to do was survive the '90s, they did, and we got two (yes, TWO) great albums in the process, along with four Bruce solo albums that ranged from good to mindblowing. Yes, it was a rocky period, but if you can appreciate all of that, we're fortunate to be in this particular fandom.
 
My first Maiden show was with Blaze (VXI) and, while he did display some of his wild frontman persona, his vocals were so low in the mix that I can't think that it wasn't intentional.

This was late October '98 and it's clear that Steve was aware of how inconsistent he was by this point and was already planning his exit from the band. You could barely hear him and for the most part, the crowd were singing louder.

Still, it was my first Maiden show and I had a blast. Even if they were performing in a venue that was too small to fit Eddie let alone a backdrop.
 
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