By Monk and The Dark Queen
There are historic gigs, and then there are historic gigs. And believe me, this historic venue has hosted more than its fair share of both… and tonight was set to be another as two of the most historically important albums in the history of heavy metal were set to played, in full, back to back for the first time in their respective histories. Have I referenced the historic significance of this gig enough yet? Maybe… but I’ll probably do so a few more times before this review is finished…
It had been six months shy of 40 years since the diminutive but statuesque figure of Udo Dirkscheinder last bestrode these very same boards (although they’ve been replaced several times in the intervening years, but you get my point), but tonight he is BACK, and defiantly so.
Although the house lights mysteriously remain on for the first half of the album’s titular opener, it doesn’t stop him nailing his ‘Balls To The Wall’ right from the off, the song’s signature “whoa whoa whoa” call and return sung back from floor to ceiling, front door to stage door, wall to wall. I look around the venue wondering how many of those voices were similarly raised away back in April of 1986: the answer is probably a good 40 per cent, minimum. Well, you can’t keep us old metallers in our retirement homes, can you?
Udo may be fairly static in his stage movements these days, but that does not diminish from the presence he exudes, and the joy he exhibits in doing what he continues to do, and that is deliver old school heavy metal in the old school way. No matter how many different incarnations the band he founded may subsequently have gone through, there is only one gravelly, gritty voiced individual who can deliver these songs the way in which they were intended… and Udo Dirkschneider proved that very point over the course of an hour of a determined and declarative set.
While the hall darkens, even in the gloom at the back of the hall we can see five seasoned metal warriors striding on stage before BOOM. There’s Biff, one arm raised in the air, his feet confidently apart, staring through his microphone straight into the heart of the auditorium and his assembled congregation before declaring “C’mon make some noise” and unleashing ‘Hell Fire And Damnation’ in all its unmitigated fury.
With a nigh on perfect sound mix which sees the bass pounding straight into our hearts, just like in the good old days, we’re truly revelling in ‘The Power And The Glory’ of this truly majestic performance. Aside from Byford’s commanding and indomitable presence all over the stage, guitarists Brian Tatler and Doug Scarrett bounce in and around each other, dominant in their own respective spaces, whilw Nibbs is ‘banging so hard it’s a wonder his head doesn’t fly off his shoulders.
Saxon are by far a band with their ‘Backs To The Wall’ as they prove when Biff declares that “these are two words I’ve had to live by for the past year” with a majestic, middle finger-raising ‘Never Surrender’. So far, this is a set characterized by defiance and determination: the latter that of a band who have always ploughed their own furrow, as they prove once again when they unleash their own brand of ‘Heavy Metal Thunder’.
Of course, this tour is about celebrating the 45th anniversary of their iconic ‘Wheels Of Steel’ album. As Biff so eloquently puts it: “this was 1980. No fucking mobile phones, no internet, no CDs. We’d stand outside a phone box waiting for our agent to call with a job. We had the magazines. We had the radio stations. We had WORD OF MOUTH. We had the Motörhead tour. We had vinyl… beautiful vinyl: you put the needle down and you got… the sound of a motorcycle…!”
From that opening roar through a 747 landing that doesn’t even need Biff to sing, to a light shining as bright as ever to the final rapid fire ‘Machine Gun’ volley, the album is delivered with flawless precision, panache and passion, the affection for the songs reciprocated by band and fans alike, as the latter threaten to raise the roof of this venerable old venue.
But, of course, there’s a couple more diehard dynamos still to come as battle jackets are thrown on stage and then donned for a rambunctious, and for some present tearful, tribute to the hordes (some not quite) dressed in ‘Denim And Leather’ before that final ride on the ‘Princess Of The Night’ takes us deep into same…
Saxon may have been the progenitors of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal but once again they have proven to be the vanguard of the Old School of Heavy Metal Done Proper… An imperious start to an historic tour \m/
- The tour continues:
- Photos © The Dark Queen/Über Röck.
- All content © Über Röck.