Saxon – Astoria 2004

The first tour for new album Lionheart was turning out to be one of the bands most successful, with the album being one of their most popular for many years. After a couple of albums of somewhat outdated metal they turned a corner with Unleash The Beast, taking on a much darker approach. Metalhead and Killing Ground followed, taking further steps towards the perfect combination of modern production and classic metal, and the change was complete with Lionheart, an album they’ll have trouble bettering. This new sound was guaranteed to enrich their old songs live, meaning a set mixing new and old should be outstanding.

Support act Dream Evil were unknown by most of the Saxon fans, who spend their time hiding under piles of Saxon vinyls, nurturing their mullets, and only come out once every one-two years for the Saxon show in London. Named after the classic Dio song, Dream Evil are in fact one of the biggest new European bands in power metal (Saxon’s currently perceived genre) at the moment. I was half expecting them to be good, but I knew full well they wouldn’t convince me to buy any of their albums, because I already know I don’t like them on record. But very good on stage they were, throwing in the odd Euro-metal cliche (the luminescent blue face paint on a couple of them was a bit much), but songs such as The Book of Heavy Metal were superbly executed, very heavy and exhibited a stunning vocal performance that carried a bit more weight than it does on record. Very satisfying.

Frequent references to the “tight curfew” by Saxon vocalist Biff Byford indicated the band weren’t entirely happy with it, but at least starting that early meant the band could still get in a two-hour-plus set, the level of alcoholism in the venue was lower than normal at the end and everyone could get out with certainty that they wouldn’t miss the train home. All concerts should start and end this early.

The first thing to notice as Saxon launched (following the new Lionheart intro tape) into new album title track Lionheart was that 2 cameras, one on stage and one in front of it, were filming the band. I had forgotten at this point, but was soon reminded by Biff, that this year is Saxon’s 25th anniversary. Moving effortlessly and with more power than an out-of-control train, through classics Power And The Glory and Motorcycle Man, the band returned to new material Beyond The Grave and Flying On The Edge. For me, the new record is Saxon’s heaviest work to date, so the inclusion of no less than seven songs from it pleased me greatly. Nothing from the almost-as-good Killing Ground, however. But never mind.

Classic tracks Never Surrender and The Eagle Has Landed followed before another new one in the shape of the epic and brilliant Searching For Atlantis. It became apparent at this point that not many of the old Saxon fans were very familiar with the new material. But the older fans for a treat of their own with the next two songs (I personally didn’t care, but still). Here Biff spoke about the cameras and said they were also recording the entire show as well as filming it, pointed out his family in the VIP section, then introduced ex-drummer (who was forced to retire from the band five years ago through injury) Nigel Glockler. Nigel joined the rest of Saxon for the first time on home-soil since his retirement for the ever-green 747 (Strangers In The Night) and And The Bands Played On.

Three more new songs, Man And Machine, To Live By The Sword and the short, acoustic Jacktars, followed before the inevitable run into classic after classic as they powered towards the end, and the show is still only an hour old. Kicking off with 20, 000 Feet, we are then treated to Broken Heroes, by far the highlight of the older songs tonight. Rounding out with Strong Arm of The Law, Heavy Metal Thunder, Dogs of War, Dallas 1p.m., Crusader (with which Biff had been teasing the crowd and checking his watch and saying “it’s not time yet” throughout the whole show) and the band left the stage.

At this point the theater exploded. The cheers from the crowd for an encore (even though we all knew there would be one come what may) were monstrous. The band duly returned initially with a scorching guitar solo before finishing the night with Wheels of Steel and even slipping in Princess of The Night at the end with Biff again checking his watch and announcing “We’ve got 6 minutes left! We can do another one!”.

The possibility of a perfect mixture of old and new, with the old sounding fresher than ever before was fully realised with this show, and just went to show that despite the opinions of certain corners of the metal community Saxon are still a relevant voice in heavy metal.

“ epic and brilliant ”

Setlist: Lionheart / Power And The Glory / Motorcycle Man / Beyond The Grave / Flying On The Edge / Never Surrender / Eagle Has Landed / Searching For Atlantis / 747 (Strangers In The Night) / And The Bands Played On / Man And Machine / To Live By The Sword / Unleash The Beast / Jacktars / 20,000 Feet / Broken Heroes / Strong Arm of The Law / Heavy Metal Thunder / Dogs of War / Dallas 1pm / Crusaders // Guitar Solo / Wheels of Steel / Princess of The Night

Written by Andy Lye
More: Gigs, Heavy Metal, Dream Evil, Saxon