| Blaze Bayley | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Bayley Alexander Cooke |
| Born | 29 May 1963 Birmingham, England |
| Genres | Heavy metal, hard rock |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Labels | Blaze Bayley Recordings |
| Associated acts | Blaze Bayley, Wolfsbane, Iron Maiden, Rise To Addiction, Sons of Seasons |
| Website | Official band website |
Blaze Bayley (born Bayley Alexander Cooke,[1] 29 May 1963, Birmingham, England) is an English singer and songwriter. He has been the lead singer of Wolfsbane from 1984 to 1994, and nowadays since their recent reunion. Blaze is however world-known for having been the lead singer of British metal band Iron Maiden from 1994 to 1999. After that experience he also built a solid solo career, recording studio albums first as Blaze and the following with a self-titled band.
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Blaze Bayley started his musical career as the lead vocalist of Tamworth heavy metal/hard rock band Wolfsbane, upon their formation in 1984. When Bruce Dickinson departed fellow English heavy metal band Iron Maiden in 1993, Bayley was chosen as his replacement in 1994 after hundreds of auditions. His departure from Wolfsbane led to their disbandment later on that year. 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. Another Iron Maiden album with Bayley on vocals, Virtual XI was released in 1998.
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 peaked at #8 on the UK Albums Chart and Virtual XI hit only #16, both being the lowest charting Maiden studio albums since Killers was released in 1981, which peaked at #12. Some of this comparative commercial failure could be attributed to fans disliking Blaze's singing style and tours being cut short due to Bayley's frequent sickness.
In February 1999, when Iron Maiden announced that vocalist Bruce Dickinson was returning to the band, Bayley departed by mutual consent, and he remains on good terms with his former bandmates. Iron Maiden occasionally performed songs from the two Maiden albums featuring Bayley, including "Man on the Edge" and "Futureal", which he co-wrote, though no Bayley era songs have been on the band's set list since 2004.[2] Likewise, Bayley has performed Iron Maiden songs originally recorded by the Dickinson and Paul Di'Anno led line-ups at some concerts.[3][4]
In 2007, Wolfsbane reformed for a one-off performance, with Bayley again taking up vocal and frontman duties. They supported The Wildhearts on a short UK tour in December 2007. Their next tour came in December 2009 supporting The Quireboys on their 'A Little Bit of What You Fancy 20th Anniversary Tour'.[5] Wolfsbane played a headline show at the Borderline in London on the 9th April 2011.[6] This was followed by a tour supporting Saxon in April 2011.[7] A new album (Wolfsbane Save the World) and UK tour has been announced for October / November 2011.[6]
For further updates on Wolfsbane please see the related Wolfsbane articles.
Following Blaze Bayley's departure from Iron Maiden in 1999, he formed his own band, BLAZE, in March that year. Bayley recruited guitarist Steve Wray, guitarist John Slater, bassist Rob Naylor, and drummer Jeff Singer, and signed a deal with German label SPV, releasing the band's debut studio album in 2000, Silicon Messiah. The album was followed up by Tenth Dimension in 2002 and the band's first live album in 2003, As Live As It Gets.
After recording the live album, Jeff Singer announced he was leaving the band. Three months later, Rob Naylor was also leaving. Session drummer Phil Greenhouse and bassist Wayne Banks were hired for the rest of the Tenth Dimension tour until permanent replacements could be found. Guitarist Jason Banks was drafted in for a few gigs at the end of 2003 to cover for John Slater.
At the end of 2003, Blaze began writing material for their third studio album, Blood & Belief. Phil Greenhouse was replaced on drums by Jason Bowld for recording and Dave Knight for touring. The band began to tour for the album shortly after it was released in 2004, but were set back again by the news that John Slater could not perform a large section of the tour. Despite rejoining the band later in the year, Slater eventually left the band in September with Steve Wray to form the band Rise To Addiction. Bassist Wayne Banks and drummer Dave Knight left the band to join the Robin Gibb band in September 2004.
Blaze performed a number of shows in 2004 and 2005 with the lineup of Bayley, guitarist Oliver Palotai, guitarist Luca Princiotta, bassist Nick Douglas, and drummer Daniel Löble. The two guitarists were eventually kept on as full members. The band's lineup shifted once again when Löble quit to join German power metal band Helloween early in 2005 and when Douglas returned to another German heavy metal band, Doro. The two were replaced by unknown German musicians Daniel Schild and Christian Ammann respectively. With the new line up, Blaze began to work on a fourth studio album for a release in 2007, but in January that year it was announced the entire line-up had to part ways with Bayley due to serious financial matters. Following the lineup change, Bayley opted to rename the band under his name, Blaze Bayley.
In February 2007, Blaze Bayley Band (also known as BBB) added guitarists Nick Bermudez and Rich Newport, bassist Dave Bermudez, and drummer Rico Banderra to the band and recorded the live DVD album Alive in Poland, released later on that year. Bayley announced that Rich Newport had left the band to pursue a career as a guitar teacher later on that year, and Jay Walsh would replace him onstage for the remainder of the tour. Jay was made a full member of the band in November 2007. Bayley also announced the addition of drummer Lawrence Paterson, formerly of British metal bands Chokehold and Shadowkeep at the same time.
In July 2008, Blaze Bayley Band (BBB) released their debut studio album, The Man Who Would Not Die. The album also contained the band's first single, "Robot", despite only being available digitally. It is sometimes regarded as a mini-compilation as it includes many bonus tracks. The band recorded another DVD live at Z7, The Night That Will Not Die, which was released in March 2009. Blaze Bayley announced that the band started recording for their new album on September 28, 2009. A contest was run on the band's forum.The two first people who guessed the title of the new album received a free signed copy. The title was revealed to be Promise and Terror a few days later.
The 2nd album Promise and Terror was released on the 1st Feb 2010. Professional reviews have generally been very positive about the album. The album was produced by Jason Edwards.
On Feb 6th 2010 BBB started their 2010 world tour in Dudley UK. They spent the next months playing the UK, France, Italy, Germany before leaving for the South American leg of the tour. They then returned to Europe later in the year.
In May 2010 Larry Paterson, the drummer for the band left due to personal and professional reasons, although none were specified. Their manager, Anna, announced her departure from the band. She claimed that the band's idea of where to go next and hers were not in the same direction.
Following the departure of Larry Paterson the Blaze Bayley Band engaged Claudio Tirincanti to continue the Promise and Terror tour.
On July 10, 2010 Blaze Blayley claimed live on stage that his current album was his best-selling as a solo-artist shedding some light on the recent changes in his line-up and management.
On December 18, 2010 they played a Big Bash at JB'S in Dudley Birmingham. Despite the snowy weather the band made it back from mainland Europe to play the show.
The BBB embarked on a short European tour in early 2011 and were supposed to follow that up in May 2011 with more dates in the UK, however on March 29 via his official channels, Blaze Bayley stated that he had to part ways with the band due to both health and financial reasons.
On 31 March 2011, Blaze announced that he would continue as a solo performer working with different musicians. The new official line-up for live gigs features the confirmed Claudio Tirincanti on the drums, old occasional touring member "Deputy Dave" Andrews on the guitar, and two Belgian musicians (Steve Deleu and Nick Meganck) respectively on the other guitar and the bass. Alongside the reunion and new recordings of Wolfsbane, Bayley has played a two-week acoustic solo tour in the UK in Sept 2011 with fellow Wolfsbane guitarist Jase Edwards plus a few unplugged gigs in Italy with Andrea Neri on the guitar.
Footage of the acoustic shows with Jase Edwards can be seen on the Official Blaze Bayley Youtube Page.[8]
Then the singer hit the stages of some summer festivals and after that has been travelling to the USA in October/November 2011 for his first full US Headline tour since his days with Iron Maiden, supported by North-American musicians. Blaze will finish the Promise and Terror world tour in December 2011 before beginning to write new material.
On the 19th August 2011 Blaze announced that recording of a live Dvd filmed at his show in Antwerp, Belgium on the 23rd September 2011, in which he presented also the first new song with the renewed line-up, called "Black Country". In february Bayley 2012 will tour Russia for a tournee with the other former Iron Maiden singer, Paul Di'Anno.
On the 18th December 2011 the last show of the Promise and Terror world tour took place at De Rots In Antwerp Belgium. High Definition footage from the penulitmate UK show on the 15th December is available on the Official Blaze Bayley Youtube channel.[9]
On the 26th December 2011 in a personal christmas message on his website Blaze announced that his new album King of Metal would be released on the 8th March 2012. On the Same day Blaze officially announced the first two legs of the King of Metal world tour on the official Blaze Bayley Facebook Page.[10]
-in Italy the singer has occasionally performed with the following lineup:
- for their Russian tour of 2012 Bayley and Paul Di'Anno shared the same musicians:
-in Istanbul, for the first gig played after the split of the BBB, the singer has been supported by Turkish band Apsent
Note: Promotional videos were released for the Blood and Belief song "Hollow Head" and the Silicon Messiah song "Ghost in the Machine", but these were originally only made available to fan club members. Later on, the video for "Silicon Messiah" was put on to the second disc of a limited edition of Tenth Dimension along with an EPK titled Inside the Tenth Dimension. The video of "Hollow Head" was only made available worldwide in 2007 and can be found on the Alive in Poland DVD under the "Extras" menu. The video of "Robot" was also released in February 2009.
Blaze singing Wasted Years with Clairvoyants a Tribute band [4] Blaze singing Trooper with Clairvoyants[11] Blaze singing Wrathchild with Maiden[12]
Blaze Bayley performing Blackmailer at the 12 Bar Swindonon the 11th Feb 2011.[13]
Blaze Bayley performing Voices from the Past live at the Marrs Bar Worcester England on the 6th Dec 2008 [14]
Blaze Singing Wasted Years and The Trooper Acoustic [15]
On 14 February 2007, Bayley married Debbie Hartland, his long-time girlfriend, on the island of Gran Canaria.[16] On 6 July 2008, Hartland suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was hospitalised.[17] She died on 27 September 2008, after having suffered a stroke two days before.[18]
Blaze Bayley got engaged on Christmas Day 2010 to his girlfriend Eline. [19]
Bayley in 2011 has announced that he has parted ways with his previous musicians due to financial and medical reasons.[20]
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