Blaze’s Departure and Reunion
By the end of 1998 it really seemed like Maiden and Bruce were on parallel paths. Bruce was not only making Metal again, but delivering modern classics. Maiden weren’t quite as acclaimed at the time, but Virtual XI had been arguably the most “classic” sounding Maiden album of the 90’s. To some fans it seemed like a reunion was a no brainer. Why continue with Blaze when Maiden could be the ones releasing The Chemical Wedding? Obviously things are never that simple, but it was (and still is) a common sentiment.
The circumstances around Blaze’s departure are still not entirely clear. There’s a lot of rumours and speculation but, in typical Maiden fashion, a detailed account has never really come from the band themselves. It is widely believed that Blaze was dismissed before the reunion was negotiated, which seems likely given his inability to handle Maiden’s rigorous touring schedule. There are also reports that Nicko didn’t like Blaze and convinced Steve to fire him by showing him the soundboard recordings of the previous tour. One thing that seems to be certain: Steve was the last one on board with both Blaze leaving and Bruce returning. As mentioned before, Steve has a lot of pride and bringing Bruce back would’ve been an admission of defeat. Eventually, Steve came around and asked Rod to find out if Bruce would be interested in a reunion. Blaze was let go but with no bad blood between him and Maiden. As mentioned earlier, Maiden’s management assisted Blaze with his early solo career.
From Bruce’s end, a reunion made commercial and artistic sense. Despite having released two great albums that were almost universally acclaimed, he was still performing to smaller audiences than he had with Maiden and the albums were far from big sellers. It was obvious that Bruce could put out the next Number of the Beast (many would say he did) and it still wouldn’t make much of a splash without the clout of the Iron Maiden name behind it. Still, it was a difficult decision. Bruce had a new band with fantastic musical chemistry and full creative control. He also came back with conditions for his return. The first was that when it’s time to make an album, a producer would be involved. To that end, it was also agreed that the goal of a reunion would not be to tour as a nostalgia act the way other reunion tours were often marketed, but to make new music.
The second condition for Bruce’s return was that Adrian would come with him. However, Adrian refused to rejoin if it meant Janick was to be forced out of the band. This led to an interesting prospect: a three guitar lineup. There was actually some uncertainty around this decision, and Steve has stated that Janick would remain in the band if it didn’t work out. Maiden were always a two guitar lineup (save for a brief period in the 70s). There was the possibility that the three guitarists would get in each other’s way or there would be a personality clash. As we all now know, this wasn’t a problem at all.
There was also the question of whether Bruce would be fully invested. As Nicko McBrain once put it, they had been burned by Bruce before. Not only had he left on his own accord, but he phoned in many performances by the end and had taken shots at them in the past. There was every possibility that he would jump ship again given the right opportunity.
Despite these concerns, the band was able to put aside their differences and a reunion was set in motion. As mentioned earlier, it was important for this new lineup to make new music together. This was not to be a nostalgia act. That being said, this reunion had the potential to be huge and passing up the opportunity to at least do a short tour to get people excited about the band again would have been a mistake. So, in the summer of 1999, Maiden hit the road for a short tour. But before we get there, let’s talk about the video game that the tour was in promotion of:
Ed Hunter (1999)
The development phase of Ed Hunter was almost as long as Blaze Bayley’s tenure in the band. The original idea was a game based around Maiden’s music and Eddie called Melt. It was also going to be released for the Sony Playstation, according to a promotional image. The project was announced with the release of Best Of the Beast in the form of a sticker on the CD’s packaging. Eventually, the Melt project was scrapped because, as Blaze put it, the game was “crap.” However, the band were still interested in the concept of releasing a computer game and teamed up with Synthetic Dimensions to begin what would become Ed Hunter. The game’s release was originally going to coincide with Virtual XI, although it faced several delays that ended up pushing the release back to 1999. In retrospect, the most memorable thing about Ed Hunter, other than the tour, was probably how hard the band pushed it in 1998. As mentioned during the album’s entry, Virtual XI was filled with promotional artwork for the new game. The CD booklet was made up of character models, the single artwork came from the game, and even the Eddie used on the tour was modeled after the game. The band also remastered their albums around this time with bonus enhanced CDs that, among other things, included advertisements for Ed Hunter.
Despite the hype, the game itself wasn’t anything particularly special. It’s an “on rails” shooter that takes the player through various Maiden landmarks and album artwork scenes. Like most 3D video games from that time, the game hasn’t aged well at all, although it wasn’t that impressive to begin with. The game didn’t make an impression outside the Maiden fanbase and even the fans didn’t seem too interested. The overabundance in marketing throughout 1998 also probably decreased a lot of interest before the game was even out.
Of course Ed Hunter also doubled as the band’s second compilation album. This time around, the fans were able to vote online for which songs to include on the CD (and by extension which songs would be played on the tour, as the band were only going to play songs from the compilation). This was an idea that was pretty ahead of its time, the internet was still new and bands at Maiden’s level of popularity hadn’t yet figured out how to use it for fan interaction. That being said, there’s always the question of how much say the fans actually had in the album’s final tracklisting. It mostly consisted of the usual setlist staples and didn’t differ all that much from Best Of the Beast. Although many fans also argue that the mass audience really do only want to hear the “hits” over and over again, so the song selection on Ed Hunter helps their point. There were a couple rare tunes though, namely Stranger In a Strange Land.
Today, the only thing that makes this compilation worth seeking out is the bonus track on the US version: Wrathchild ‘99. This version was later released as a b-side but isn’t available anywhere else. While it’s advertised as a new recording with Bruce on vocals, it’s actually just the original Killers recording with re-recorded vocals by Bruce. This is not the first time Maiden have done something like this, ironically the last time was when Bruce first joined the band and they released a “live” recording of Remember Tomorrow with Bruce on vocals. Of course Bruce’s vocals were recorded in the studio over a live recording from when Paul was in the band. In the case of Wrathchild, that song has been played live so many times that yet another recording of it is pretty pointless at this point. The fact that it’s the most interesting thing about this release should tell you how essential Ed Hunter is.
Ed Huntour (1999)
The tour for Ed Hunter actually began shortly before the release of the game, although it didn’t matter because the obvious focus of this tour was the return of Bruce and Adrian. The tour was very brief, lasting just over 2 months and only covering North America and some of Europe (no shows in the band’s home country). It was clearly just a way to introduce fans to the new lineup before the band came back full force with a new album and tour. Some of the venues were the same as on the Virtual XI tour, but the band were already beginning to win back their old audiences and play larger amphitheaters in the States. Unlike previous tours, however, almost all shows sold out or were close to selling out. In New York, the gig at the Hammerstein ballroom sold out in just hours prompting management to add a second night (which also sold out). There was definitely more buzz around the band compared to the last few years.
The staging was about the same size as the Virtual XI tour, since the band were still playing similar sized venues in a lot of markets. Being based around the Ed Hunter game, a lot of the drapes featured the 3D modeled Eddie. The intro tape for the show also consisted of footage from the game with Transylvania being played in the background. The walk on Eddie was the same as on the previous tour but without the soccer paraphernalia. A larger Eddie was also used but with the same Ed Hunter design.
As mentioned earlier, the setlist was selected entirely from the Ed Hunter compilation and supposedly picked by the fans. Just like the compilation, it mostly features the usual suspects but with some nice surprises, namely Stranger In a Strange Land and Powerslave (both songs that hadn’t been played since their original tours). The opener was Aces High, another song that hadn’t been played since 1985, which made sense since it’s probably the best known Maiden opener for being on Live After Death. Songs that were staples in the 80s but hadn’t been played in the 90s, such as Phantom Of the Opera, also made a comeback. The band also gave the Blaze years a fair amount of set time, which was a nice surprise. Most other reunited lineups tend to avoid material that the returning members weren’t part of. Three songs from the Blaze era were played: Man On the Edge, Futureal, and The Clansman. Unfortunately, the former two were played for the last time on this tour. Unsurprisingly, Bruce handled these songs very well, especially The Clansman.
Unfortunately, the tour didn’t exactly go off without a hitch. Just a few dates into the tour, Adrian Smith received news that his father passed away and had to leave the tour to attend the funeral. Since Maiden were used to being a two guitar band, they were able to continue without cancelling any gigs. The result was a brief return of the Dickinson/Gers/Murray/Harris/McBrain lineup of the early 90s. With Adrian temporarily out, Stranger In a Strange Land was dropped from the setlist and was never brought back. Bad luck hit the band again toward the end of the North American leg when Dave Murray broke a finger. This time shows had to be cancelled, marking the third tour in a row where a string of dates in the US were cancelled.
Despite these incidents, the tour was largely a success. The new lineup had a ton of energy and on stage chemistry. The three guitarists were able to coexist without getting in each other’s way. Janick got to continue performing some of Adrian’s old solos and Adrian was able to add new rhythm parts to songs he wasn’t part of. His experimentation with alternate tunings with Roy Z was put to use in songs where he used Drop D to cover the lower end of the guitar frequency range. Dave and Janick covered the mid and high parts of the guitar. The result was a wide guitar sound. There were also parts on the original recordings that featured three guitars and could now be recreated live for the first time. Bruce also settled into his old role immediately and worked the crowd just as fans remembered in the 80s. This time around, however, his singing was more consistent and arguably better than ever. Any doubts about this new lineup were immediately put to rest. Maiden were back and Ed Huntour marked the calm before the storm that was Brave New World. But more on that next week.
This tour is unfortunately pretty light on bootlegs, no soundboards or proshot footage that I’m aware of. The band did record some gigs as they released songs from the tour as b-sides to Brave New World singles, but no full gig has been officially released. It’s especially unfortunate because several songs have not been played since that tour, so it’s the only time this lineup has performed those songs. There is some decent youtube footage though, the best is probably the Gothenburg show (linked below). There’s also footage of the very first show which is pretty low quality, but it includes Stranger In a Strange Land and you can really feel the sense of excitement in the crowd.
Gothenburg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8ghJguBdK0
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