By David Stewart
My introduction to Saxon came at an early age (around ten years old) with ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ live album, which was recorded during their ‘Denim And Leather’ tour. So, as a long time Saxon fan, this was a concert that I was very much looking forward to. On top of that, it was held at the iconic Ulster Hall, a venue that front man Biff Byford would tell us later in the show that they were told not to play as they possibly wouldn’t get enough ticket sales for the location. Well, as fate may have it, whoever told them this, was a little off the mark as Saxon played to a sell out crowd on the night.
The current tour is to promote their latest release ‘Carpe Diem’, which has been a huge success since its release last year and is their 23rd studio album. The album has seen the band score their highest ÜK chart position in 40 years and has also charted in the United States. As well as that, the album has also been a huge success across Europe with the band reaching the top ten in Germany, Finland, Austria and Switzerland.
The show started off with the title track to the new album ‘Carpe Diem (Seize The Day)’, which got things off to a blistering start. In total, the band played six songs from the current album, the title track being one and the others being ‘Age Of Steam’, ‘The Pilgrimage’, ‘Dambusters’, ‘Black Is The Night’ and ‘Living On The Limit’. All of which were really over with the audience
The rest of the show was a trip down memory lane with Saxon performing all of their best known and iconic songs from their 40-plus year career: ‘Motorcycle Man,’, ‘Wheels Of Steel’, ‘The Eagle Has Landed’, ‘Heavy Metal Thunder’ and ‘Dallas 1pm’ all hit the spotlight…
The band would leave the stage, but it wouldn’t be for long as the huge “Saxon” chants were heard echoing all over the building.
The band would return to the stage to perform a further six songs as part of their encore, starting off with ‘The Pilgrimage’ and going into ‘Strong Arm Of The Law’. They followed that up with ‘Solid Ball Of Rock’, before playing perhaps their most iconic song ‘747 (Strangers In The Night)’. Next would be ‘Denim And Leather’, which saw a number of people throw their battle jackets up onto the stage. Biff would sign them and asked security to make sure they got back to their rightful owners after the show, before finishing off an amazing evening in the company of the ‘Princess Of The Night’.
Saxon played a total of 22 songs over a period just shy of two hours and at 72 Biff Byford still sounds just as great as he ever did. The band were tight and energetic and regardless of how long they have been doing this, haven’t lost a single step.
