Blaze Bayley

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raditionally Blaze Bayley's (born Bayley Alexander Cooke; 29 May 1963) career had been one of "should have, could have". His former act Wolfsbane should have been big, but it wasn't and his subsequent move to Iron Maiden could have been successful but it wasn't, so on his own and under his own moniker of Blaze, he hoped to finally achieve the musical holy grail and although he has far to go, potential is there.

The style here was undeniably British, with slight nods to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest but maintaining his independence from either forming a no-nonsense metal sound. Featuring the membership of Blaze Bayley ex-Wolfsbane/ex-Iron Maiden), Steve Wray (guitar), John Slater(guitar), Wayne Banks (bass; replacing original member Rob Naylor) and Jeff Singer (drums) he would release Silicon Messiah (2000), Tenth Dimension (2002) and his debut live set, As Live As It Gets (2003). Blood And Belief (2004) would see him returning to his studio for the last time under this name.

After the dissolution of Blaze in January 2007, Blaze Bayley formed a new band in the same style but now using his full name. The membership at the time included David Bermudez (bass), Lawrence "Larry" Paterson (drums), Rico Banderra (drums), Jay Walsh (guitars), Rick Newport (guitars) and Nicolas Bermudez (guitars) but after 2011 the project became a solo project when the band were fired after Paterson (who was also a published author) left; The Best of Blaze Bayley compilation (2008) celebrated this period that was followed by The Man Who Would Not Die (2008).