Simon RushworthSaxon have greased the Wheels Of Steel for a 45th anniversary tour that harks back to NWOBHM’s heyday. Simon Rushworth checked out a fit-again Biff Byford and co.
Saxon might look and sound like trad metal’s most infallible band but behind the Yorkshire steel, battle ready anthems and towering standard bearer Biff Byford lurks a rather more sobering reality.
Barnsley’s finest appear reassuringly bulletproof as they wrap a carefully curated Best Of set around iconic long player Wheels Of Steel.
And the energy and enthusiasm underpinning a 90 minute-plus set of bona fide genre classics suggests it’s very much business as usual for one of UK metal’s most enduring brands.
But it was only a matter of months ago that Byford — that giant of the NWOBHM scene — underwent surgery and received a course of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer.
On the occasion of the band’s Newcastle City Hall show it was also impossible to forget that long-serving drummer Nigel Glockler may well have played his last show were it not for the life-saving treatment he received at the city’s Royal Victoria Infirmary in 2014.
You see Saxon might look defiantly indestructible but this is a bunch of seasoned veterans who know better than most that time is incredibly precious… and no longer on their side.
And perhaps that’s why the hot ticket Hell, Fire And Steel Tour is the band’s most urgent, eye-catching and engaging in decades.
Wheels Of Steel — released 45 years ago and the critically acclaimed follow up to Saxon’s rough and ready self-titled debut — is bookended by lung-busting fan favourites including Power And The Glory, Dallas 1pm, Denim And Leather and Princess Of The Night.
A couple of choice picks from 2024’s Hell, Fire And Damnation, including the robust title track, serve as a timely reminder that Byford and co. remain committed to releasing new records even when fans would surely forgive the prolific songwriters a few fallow years.
But the decision to play Wheels Of Steel in its entirety also illustrates just why Saxon were talked about in the same breath as Maiden, Leppard and Priest at the outset of the 80s.
What an album. What a legacy.
Another band all too briefly in that conversation were Whitley Bay’s very own Tygers of Pan Tang. The original support on 1980’s Wheels Of Steel tour were special guests in front of a partisan Newcastle City Hall crowd but their late addition to the bill wasn’t based on mere sentiment.
Robb Weir has surrounded himself with a sensational band and props to the sound guy for bringing the very best out of Suzie Smiled, Slave To Freedom and Wild Catz.
If only poor Udo Dirkschneider had benefitted from the same pin-sharp mix.
The former Accept frontman sounded muffled, muddied and frustratingly mediocre as he battled manfully to make himself heard.
Balls To The Wall is a metal classic that deserves so much better and there’s very little point playing that landmark record in full when the voice behind Fight It Back, Love Child and Guardian Of The Night is virtually indistinguishable.
Losers And Winners? There were only the former during a desperately underwhelming Dirkschneider set.
Images by Adam Kennedy