I just officially finished reading this book via e-book version. At first, I was hesitant to read it; I didn't know if I would like it. I didn't want to be like those Iron Maiden fans that only read this to see what the days of Blaze were like in Maiden. I'm thankful that I am genuinely curious about his solo career. But so far, this book is great. It has funny moments and sad moments. It's written by the band's second drummer, Lawrence Paterson. The book is written in two styles-the first half of the book covers Blaze's early life, with bands Wolfsbane and Iron Maiden and the second half covers the first incarnations of the Blaze Bayley band and random thoughts by various band members who have passed through the various lineups. All in all, a good book
-Born Bayley Alexander Cooke on 5/29/1963 in Birmingham, England, Blaze went through what he would call "a family that is not complete". In other words, his parents divorced. Divorce is a word he doesn't like to use; most likely because he might find it odd or disrespectful or such. He went to live with his father, a burgeoning actor, when he was 16. Of course, being in the performing arts, it was only natural that, in some way, this would rub off on the young Bayley Cooke
-Young Blaze and his friends would create stupid nicknames for each other since it was the waning era of glam rock when he and his friends got into music. Someone suggested Blaze and it stuck. There were times in the band Wolfsbane when one of the band members would need a guardian, of a sort, to look after them and they ended up pointing to Blaze, most likely since he was probably the oldest. Which is strange because he was 5'5'' and the rest of the band members were over 6'. He joined Wolfsbane in 1984 and stayed with them until it seemed like they had reached their limits. In the 1990s, Iron Maiden was on the hunt for a new vocalist, as Bruce Dickinson had left to pursue a solo career. But, Bruce would have the last word over the split from Maiden. He had started mouthing off about Steve and the rest of Maiden in the media. When Blaze did leave Maiden, he promised that he would not do what the other guy did and that's mouth off about Maiden. He left on a good note and to this day, Blaze and the rest of Maiden are still the best of friends
-Some of the funny moments from the book include Blaze going to Steve Harris' house in Essex and being greeted by Steve's massive Great Danes. To get to the audition, he borrowed his girlfriend's Ford Fiesta. Upon reaching his house, he didn't realize that after he got out, Steve's dogs relieved themselves near Blaze's car. He stepped in their mess and unbeknownst to him, he tracked that mess through Steve's house. Blaze laughs at the thought and he thought "That's it; I'm bloody fired!" Steve and Blaze spent the first hour of their new writing session cleaning dog mess out of the carpets
-Another hysterical moment came when he had formed the Blaze Bayley band and they had gone to rural England to record one of their albums. The house, which was owned by one of the band members, had a roving army of chickens out front that could only be pacified with food. One of the band members, Dave Bermudez, who's from Columbia, forgot about pacifying the chickens with peanuts and was forced to flee the hungry poultry invaders. Another hysterical moment is when the band went to South America and they were offered a barbecue on the beach. They were starving and joking about which band member they would eat. All eyes went to Blaze because as one band member put it, "He had more rations and we would become more famous".
-More hysterical moments come from various band members describing the tales of a working metal band, travelling via the various airlines. Apparently, the thorn in the side of the Blaze Bayley Band as far as airlines goes is Ryan Air, out of Ireland. One band member called them Leprechaun Airways and described the stewardesses with descriptions that were crazy-person-laughing worthy. This band member described one stewardess as yelling everything as if in a crisis. He said "I would love to have seen her in a real emergency". He also describes the process of getting your luggage through customs, calling some of the airlines who charge for luggage Luggage Nazis.
-In addition to the woes of the various airlines and luggage-weighing patrols at the airport just waiting to tack on additional charges for luggage, various band members describe the venues they played. At one concert in Russia, the band's dressing room was a tent set up over waist high grass. They could catch frogs if they wanted to in their dressing room. Or how some places didn't have working toilets. This would backfire as an unnamed band member had a sudden gastrointestinal attack and needed the solace of white porcelain. Another moment describes the band going out for a curry somewhere in England and hitting up Burger King later. Apparently food poisoning was the order of the day; the King had his revenge and he chose Blaze as the primary recipient. Blaze was sick almost as soon as he left the stage
-Something I didn't know was that Blaze was married. He had married a woman named Debbie, who he known for a long time. Debbie had convinced Blaze to go back into music after leaving Iron Maiden. He was working a dead end job just to make ends meet and he was suffering from clinical depression. She did, however, laugh at the fact he was arrested for assaulting someone in a hardware store, where he was working at the time. He had encountered a customer who proceeded to call him fat, ugly, among other names. Blaze leaped over the counter to start assaulting the guy and, of course, the cops were called. He told the police "Don't let me see him. If I see him, I'm just going to go after him again". He said that she had helped him out of a dark time in his life and it sounds like she was not only his wife and manager, but best friend.
-Debbie ended up becoming manager of the now known Blaze Bayley Band. She would act as manager for them and one day, after a gig, she complained of a headache. She was taken to hospital and put in a medically induced coma. The cause was said to be a massive aneurysm. All of the band members were worried about her, Blaze more than anyone. Especially considering she was his wife. After a few weeks, she seemed to turn for the better, making progress and was even doing physiotherapy. Whenever Blaze could, he visited her in the hospital and played music for her on headphones. The Blaze Bayley song "When You Were Gone" is about her. It's said to be one of the more popular songs from this band. But then, she took a turn for the worse and ended up succumbing to her brain aneurysm, which caused subdural bleeding, which couldn't be stopped. When she died, everyone was stricken with grief. They had lost not only their manager, best friend who made them laugh until they cry and whipped them into shape as a band, but their own singer's wife. At the funeral, Steve Harris had flown in to pay his respects to Debbie and be there for Blaze. A lot of people, including Blaze's band members and even Blaze himself, thought that was incredibly sweet. But Steve is as nice a person as ever. He wanted to be there for his friend during his time of need.
-After Debbie passed, the band needed new management and was able to get a new manager. But this lady would last as long as she could without enduring the stress of managing a band. She said that it all became too much for her, even though all the guys were decent, down to earth people.
