After finally getting his due for being a singer of Iron Maiden, by performing at this summer's Eddfest in Knebworth. The human dynamo that is Blaze Bayley took his Iron Maiden anniversary tour in the road with the Welsh date landing at 'The Home Of Rock' The Patriot in Crumlin.
While Bayley's tenure at the mic of Maiden is often much maligned, due to his voice not really fitting the Air Raid siren of Dickinson, there's some really good songwriting that came out of that period with a few experiments that would come to define Maiden's modern day output, it also meant that some of the Di'Anno cuts came back into circulation as Blaze can handle these really well.
Personally I've always had a soft spot for X Factor and Virtual XI, though I'm a huge fan of Blaze's solo work and Wolfsbane so perhaps my judgement is a little clouded. Though at the time Steve Harris was quoted as saying "musically we're the best we've ever been".
I have vivid memories of playing both the albums back to back while myself and my brother painted our mother's house, shouting along to the tracks as we did. So to be able to hear these songs live with him at this gig is something I'll hold on to as both of us don't get the time to hang out as much as we did.
But that's what a Blaze Bayley gig is like, the man bewitches you, his intensity and his passion, you can't not love him, the between song stories, the open invitations for comradship and his sheer love of doing this is infectious, backed by the always impressive Absolva, a 20+ song set list flew by in the shortest 2 and a half hours of my life.
Absolva; Chris, Luke, Martin & Aki, began with the instrumental of Doctor Doctor by UFO before crashing into life with Lord Of The Flies into Justice Of The Peace, Judgement Of Heaven, Blood On The Worlds Hands and Look For Truth, all taken from the X Factor album and for many in the crowd, never been heard played live.
From here Blaze explained that songs from his debut solo record Silicon Messiah had been written for Maiden so we got Born As A Stranger and The Brave from there before more Maiden in the form of Lighting Strikes Twice and Sign Of The Cross then another two Blaze tracks that were more recent but just as influenced by The Irons.
The band behind Bayley are brilliant, perfectly recreating the Maiden line up of that time as Martin McNee played with the playfulness of Nicko, Chris Appleton had Dave Murray's tone just right while Aki had Janick's and Luke laid down the foundation with the Steve Harris' nimble bass lines, returning with an acoustic for 2 A.M and Como Estais Amigos.
This acoustic section splitting the more well known tracks such as When Two Worlds Collide, The Clansman, Man On The Edge and Futureal, from Virtual XI while Virus came from Best Of The Beast and there was a rousing rendition of Wrathchild, belted out by Bayley and the Crumlin Choir.
As the apex of the evening came, the band let loose a few solo spots before a couple of instrumental movements that featured UFO, Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore and Budgie as Blaze returned for the finally of Angel And The Gambler.
Though I couldn't hear the terrible guitar synth/keys that make it so endearing, it was a fine way to close out this celebration of Blaze Bayley, Iron Maiden and resilience though doing something you love! Every Blaze show is brilliant, be it solo or with Wolfsbane, he's still got that bellowing vocal, that larger than life persona and just makes you feel welcome and more importantly thoroughly entertained.
Summed up, it was brilliant and I want to do it again! 10/10
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