|
As metal bands come and go,
Saxon are one of classic NWOBHM bands to have rode out more than their
share of storms over the years.
A band that became so
big they named it twice. To many Saxon fans this incarnation of the band
will always be the true Saxon,
with Biff Byford on vocals,
Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt on guitars,
Nibbs Carter on Bass,
and with Joerg Michael rejoining Stratovarius it was time for Nigel
Glockler to once again take up the vacant drum slot.
The band have toured Europe
extensively over the past couple of years and played some of the biggest
European metal festivals around.
They've always given
110%. But
with very little touring in the UK
until now it just goes to prove the old saying ...
all
good
things come to those who
wait.
With no support act for tonights'
show it's
Saxon all the way,
and with the crowd in tonight anything else would just seem insignificant,
simply because they
had come to see one band,
and one band only.
|
As the lights went down and
the first few chords of opener 'Motorcycle Man' I knew this was going to
be something special and the new capacity crowd just went wild.
The mainstay of Saxon's
popularity has to be the vocal talent of front man Biff Byford,
whose voice hasn’t lost any of its power and clarity.
With
the second song,
'Play it Loud',
Biff gives the crowd a choice of whether they play a 80's set,
or a Lionheart set. But
all the crowd want to here tonight
is classic Saxon so
that's what we got.
|
.
|
Next was 'Strongarm of the
Law' and 'Stallions of the Highway',
both getting a rapturous response from crowd.
I hadn’t seen this
much denim and leather flying since the late 80's.
With the crowd now at
boiling point it was time to step it up a notch further with 'The Power
And The Glory',
with Paul Quinn and
Doug Scarratt putting together some of the classic Saxon riffs and nearly
melting the frets off their guitars.
As Biff announces that they
will be coming back next year this just sets
the crowd further into raptures. Then
it was time for a
real classic. A
song the band haven’t played for sometime,
'Frozen Rainbow' off the bands debut album.
Quickly followed by
'Suzie Hold On',
something that they haven’t done live for twenty years,
and it went down a
storm. Much
like every track
they
played
here
tonight.
The set continues with
classics like 'Dogs of War',
the awesome 'The
Eagle Has Landed',
and 'Never Surrender'. The
classic's
just kept coming,
with each one sounding
as good tonight as they did when I first heard them all those many moons
ago.
When
the band left the stage
after playing nearly an hour and fifteen minutes,
you knew
that they were going to return to
the stage to play
more. But
what we didn’t know was
that they would play a
thirty minute encore,
and what and encore!
They started off with
'Lionheart' the title track of the new album,
then it was back to the classics '747 Strangers in the Night',
'Denim And Leather',
and of course no
Saxon
set would
be complete without 'Wheels
of Steel'. The
track that put the band on
the map and one that the nearly raised the roof of Rio's.
|
|
The band left the stage once
more only to return once again to
put that cherry on the top of the icing
with 'Heavy Metal Thunder'.
I have to put this down as
one of my top ten gigs of the year so far,
and believe me
I've seen some corkers.
This really is up
there with the best of them.
|
When they come back next
year I for one will be trying to see them more than once if possible,
but definitely I will be among the
first to get my tickets to
see them
again. I thoroughly
recommend that those of you
who didn’t see them on this tour make sure you do so next time,
because you'll really
regret it if you don’t. |
