Becoming

From Here To Eternity

Dave and Tamar brought Tasha to Montreal in May, so they could celebrate her third birthday along with that of the Smith twins, Brittany and Natasha since they were all born just a few hours apart. The three little girls got along well during the visit, sometimes playing house with their dolls and other times playing on the swings and slide at the nearby playground with their watchful parents in attendance. Dave and Ade enjoyed their time together quite thoroughly, and Tamar enjoyed the chance to catch up with both Nathalie and Donna in person. Four-year-old Dylan Smith voiced the only complaint about the Murrays' visit, grumbling that he already had two sisters and didn't need a third girl staying with them. All the parents had a quiet chuckle about that – after the kids had fallen asleep.

Meanwhile, Dave, Steve, Nicko, and Janick kept in touch by phone as they started the process of finding a new singer for Maiden. As he promised, Steve made copies of the best of the hundreds of demo tapes sent to him, shipping the copies to Dave and Nicko to get their opinions of the various singers. By the end of July, they'd narrowed their choices down to four, and made plans to meet up in Essex for the men's auditions. Whilst Steve would have the final say in the end, he did want everyone's opinions about the four singers – their personalities as well as their vocal abilities.

At the end of a week, they asked Blaze Bayley, whom they already knew from when his former band Wolfsbane opened for Iron Maiden on the European leg of a previous tour, to become their new singer. Dave and Janick both had a few concerns due to Blaze being a baritone; whilst they wanted to find a singer who didn't sound as though he was trying to be Bruce, they'd both been thinking style as opposed to vocal range. Dave in particular had pictured finding another tenor, but one who perhaps sang more like Paul DiAnno had done.

However, despite his lower vocal range, Blaze had a good voice, plenty of experience as the frontman for a band, and most importantly, seemed quite easygoing and got along well with all of them. The five men remained in Essex for a month working on songs for the new album as well as relaxing and taking the time to get to know Blaze better.

Tamar and Becky remained in the US, not wanting to herd preschoolers on overseas flights, but Janick's wife Sandra came down for a couple of weeks with Sian and little Dylan, plus Steve's four kids came to stay for the month of August in the company of their nanny, a friendly woman named Emma. As had become habit going back to their first time at Steve's Essex estate, mornings were given over to playing footie, playing with the kids, and generally relaxing and having fun before setting to work in the studio after lunch.

Blaze proved to be a competent songwriter, pairing with Steve, Janick, or both, and eventually contributing to seven of the fourteen songs they decided were worth recording. Even if they didn't all make it onto the album, the extras would become B-sides for whatever singles they released.

At the start of September, they split up with plans to meet up back in Essex in December to start the actual recording process. Steve drove Dave and Nicko to the airport, as he was heading back to stay at the new place that he'd bought near his previous house, which Lorraine had gotten in the divorce, so that he could have the kids to stay on weekends.

At the drop-off point at the airport, Steve hopped out of the car to help Dave and Nicko unload their bags. "Be good to see you blokes back here in December. I know we all got our own lives and all, but I kinda miss the bad old days when we all lived in London and didn't have to plan rehearsals and stuff so far ahead."

Dave laughed. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I did originally think Tamar and I might split time between the States and here, but after her accident... the weather here is too hard on her, the chill and damp would have been bad enough for her to get used to after growing up in Hawaii, but with all the repairs done on her bones, she gets achy whenever she gets chilled since then."