Artist: Saxon 

Venue: Rios, Bradford

Date: 16 October 2005  

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.

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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.
 

Setlist:  Motorcycle Man, Play It Loud, Strongarm Of The Law, Stallions Of The Highway, The Power And The Glory,  Frozen Rainbow, Suzie Hold On, Dogs Of War, The Eagle Has Landed, Never Surrender, To Hell And Back Again, Red Line, Crusader, Princess Of The Night.  Encore: Lionheart, 747 Strangers In The Night, Denim And Leather, Wheels Of Steel, Heavy Metal Thunder

 

 

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