BLAZE (iron maiden)

BLAZE Frontman Checks In From Gran Canaria: "I'm In The Middle Of Writing The New Album"

BLAZE frontman Blaze Bayley has issued the following update from Gran Canaria, where he performed with the Hard Rock Cafe house band PURPLE HAZE in Playa de Engles on Saturday, November 4th:

"Yeah, I'm still in Gran Canaria working on the new stuff for next year, I'm in the middle of writing the new album. It's intense, so a night out with a bit of live singing is a great break for me. There will be some photos and a video next week.

The writing is going much better than I had hoped. I'm really starting to get a feel for the vibe of the whole thing, and I can't wait to start the rehearsals with the rest of the Blaze band in January."

BLAZE - Touring Line-Up Part Ways With Frontman BLAZE BAYLEY

The following statement from (now former) BLAZE members Oliver Palotai (guitar), Luca Princiotta (guitar), Daniel Schild (drums) and Christian Ammann (bass) appears at the Blazefans.com forum, signalling a parting of ways with frontman Blaze Bayley:

"We are in the sad situation to give out the news that the complete current lineup of BLAZE, therefore the authors of this letter, will leave the band. In the past years Blaze was in a difficult situation, regarding finances, management and organization. Finally, during summer 2006, things started to clear up a bit, after working together on all those aspects.

Most of the songs for the next album have been already written together. Still — in a tough music business today — we were prepared it would be not easy to launch the new era of Blaze. But we always had the feeling we had a great band, further being really good friends, and being capable of handling that. But, about four months ago Blaze Bayley got in contact with a new management. The ideas and working style of this management quickly showed to be very different what we, the musicians, considered to be right for this band.

Blaze Bayley himself decided to stay with the management. Thus a common basis for making music together is not longer existing. We thank you for all your support during the past years.

Have a happy and successful year 2007."

More details of the break-up will be revealed soon.