Blaze Bayley
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Blaze Bayley (born Bayley Alexander Cook[1], 29 May 1963, Birmingham, England) is the lead singer for the heavy metal band, Blaze Bayley. He was also the lead singer of Iron Maiden from 1994 to 1999.
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[edit] Career
Bayley was originally lead vocalist of Tamworth rock band, Wolfsbane. When Bruce Dickinson departed Iron Maiden in 1993, Bayley was chosen as his replacement in 1994. After a bad motorcycle accident, caused by losing control and clipping his knee on a catseye in the road, which put him out of action for a year, his first album with Maiden was The X Factor, released in 1995. Bayley went on to tour with the band in support of the album. In 1998 – still with Iron Maiden – he recorded the album Virtual XI.
The two Iron Maiden albums released during Bayley's time in the band did not chart as well as that to which the band were accustomed. The X Factor achieved 8th in the UK Albums Chart, and Virtual XI hit only 16th putting it as the lowest Iron Maiden studio album since Killers, which achieved 12th place. Some of this comparative commercial failure could be attributed to[citation needed] the tours being cut short due to Bayley's frequent sickness, and the more progressive, dark tone of the albums produced during his tenure.
In February 1999, when Iron Maiden announced that vocalist Bruce Dickinson was returning to the band, Bayley departed. The following year, Bayley released his first album with his new band, called Blaze Bayley. With this band he has so far created three studio albums, Silicon Messiah (2000), Tenth Dimension (2002), and Blood & Belief (2004), and one live album, As Live as It Gets (2003). During this time, and to fund his ongoing musical endeavours, Blaze held down a 'proper' job working at a well-known UK car accessories retailer.
Despite his absence from the band, Iron Maiden occasionally performed songs from Bayley's two Maiden albums until 2003, including Man on the Edge and Futureal, both of which he co-wrote. Likewise, Bayley has performed Iron Maiden songs originally recorded by the Dickinson and Di'Anno led line-ups at some concerts.
On the 14 February 2007, Bayley married Debbie, his long-time girlfriend, on the island of Gran Canaria.[2]
Also in 2007 Wolfsbane reformed, with Bayley again taking up vocal and frontman duties. They supported The Wildhearts on a short UK tour in December 2007.
[edit] Singing style
It has been claimed that one of the reasons for Bayley's lukewarm reception from Iron Maiden fans was that he possessed a vocal range lower than either of his predecessors. This made it difficult for Blaze to sing certain songs in the key in which they were originally written and Iron Maiden were used to playing them. Run to the Hills, one of Iron Maiden's more popular tracks was omitted from live shows as a result of this.
Some critics have said that Bayley's voice had melody and power which was ideal for the darker tone of his debut Maiden album.[citation needed]
On his albums with Blaze, Bayley's voice was noted for its improvement which could be due, in part, to having musicians who more closely fit his singing style, and the absence of Bayley's former respiratory allergy that caused him trouble during live performances.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ Newton, Todd (2007-04-02). BlastingZone.com: Interview with Blaze Bayley. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
- ^ Planetblaze.com
[edit] External links
[edit] Audio
- "Sign of the Cross" Listen – Blaze Bayley singing on the opening track from Iron Maiden's The X Factor album.
[edit] Video
| Blaze Bayley |
| Blaze Bayley | David Bermudez | Nick Bermudez | Lawrence Paterson
Rico Banderra | Rich Newport | Jeff Singer | Rob Naylor | Steve Wray | John Slater | Daniel Löble | Oliver Palotai | Luca Princiotta | Daniel Schild | Christian Ammann |
| Albums |
|---|
| Studio albums: Silicon Messiah | Tenth Dimension | Blood and Belief |
| Live albums: As Live As It Gets |
| DVD: Alive In Poland |
