Saxon (band)

Saxon
Saxon at Wacken Open Air (2016)
General information
Genre (s)	Heavy Metal , NWoBHM
founding	1979 (1976-78 Son Of A Bitch)
Website	http://www.saxon747.com/
Founding members
singing	Peter "Biff" Byford
bass	Steve "Doobie" Dawson (until 1986)
guitar	Graham Oliver (until 1995)
guitar	Paul Quinn
Drums	Pete Gill (until 1981)
Current occupation
singing	Peter "Biff" Byford
bass	Tim "Nibbs" Carter (since 1988)
guitar	Doug Scarratt (since 1995)
guitar	Paul Quinn
Drums	Nigel Glockler (1981–1987, 1988–1998, since 2005)
former members
bass	Paul Johnson (1986–1988)
Drums	Nigel Durham (1987-1988)
Drums, percussion	Fritz Randow (1998-2004)
Drums, percussion	Jörg Michael (2004-2005)

Saxon is a in 1979 Barnsley ( Yorkshire , England was founded) heavy metal band. As a pioneer of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal , it had a short phase in the early 1980s with top 40 placements in the British charts and also success in the rest of Europe and Japan.

Band history

Singer Peter "Biff" Byford at the Rockharz Open Air 2016

Saxon was born in South Yorkshire in 1976 under the name Son of a Bitch . The founding members were Peter "Biff" Byford (vocals), Paul Quinn, Graham Oliver (both guitar), Steve Dawson (bass) and Pete Gill (drums). Graham Oliver and Steve Dawson then played in a group called SOB and joined forces with Coast , the band of Paul Quinn and Biff Byford. Under this name one toured among others with the Ian Gillan Band . Later the formation was renamed from Son of a Bitch to Saxon ( English for " Saxon" ) and accompanied well-known groups such as Motörhead on their tours .

In 1979 the band signed a contract with Carrere and released their debut album under the title Saxon in the same year . In 1980 Wheels of Steel followed with the two singles Wheels of Steel and 747 (Strangers in the Night) . The Strong Arm of the Law followed in September of the same year . The chart success continued with singles from the next album Denim and Leather . At this point, Saxon was at the forefront of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWoBHM).

After the album Denim and Leather , drummer Pete Gill left the band and was replaced by Nigel Glockler.

A long series of headline tours across the UK continued the success, but never made it into the US market. In 1982 the live album The Eagle Has Landed was released. The 1983 album Power & the Glory took the band in the US with Jeff Glixman, the producer of, among others, Kansas and Gary Moore . With the album Crusader from 1984, the band tried to focus their music more on commercial interests. Commercial success failed to materialize, a large number of the original fans were lost as a result of this style change, and instead of the breakthrough they had hoped for, the break-in came. 1986 bassist Steve Dawson left the band and was replaced by Paul Johnson.

The next albums reached the British album charts, but with increasingly poor placement, Destiny (1988) was the last album that even reached the charts in the home of Saxon. On this album, the drummer Nigel Durham played instead of Nigel Glockler. Glockler joined the band GTR . However, the change was reversed a short time later. Bass player Paul Johnson left the band and was replaced by 22 year old Tim "Nibbs" Carter. Then the band went on a world tour, which u. a. through Paraguay , Mexico , Brazil , Uruguay , New Zealand and with Manowar through Germany . In 1989, during the tour, the live album Rock 'n' Roll Gypsies was released, which was recorded in Hungary . In 1990 the live album Greatest Hits Live followed , which was recorded in Nottingham . In 1991 and 1992 the albums Solid Ball of Rock and Forever Free were released in this line-up , which only had visible success in Germany.

After the album Dogs Of War 1995, Graham Oliver left the band to reform the band Son of a Bitch with Steve Dawson and Pete Gill . They released the debut album Victim You in 1996 . At Saxon Oliver was replaced by Doug Scarratt. This can be heard for the first time on a studio album on the 1997 album Unleash the Beast . In 1996, the live album The Eagle Has Landed - Part II was released . In 1997 and 1998 the live albums Donnington: The Live Tracks and BBC Sessions / Live at Reading Festival '86 followed .

During the recording of the album Metalhead , which was released in 1999, Nigel Glockler left the band again and was replaced by the German Fritz Randow . This plays almost the entire final version of the album. The album Killing Ground , released in 2001, is also recorded with this line-up. During this time, the ex-members Oliver and Dawson wanted to sue for the naming rights for Saxon. However, Byford and Quinn won the trial. So the band Son of a Bitch , which Pete Gill had since left, was renamed Oliver / Dawson Saxon .

Jörg Michael was hired for the album Lionheart (2004) and the tour because Fritz Randow wanted to concentrate on Victory . In 2005 Nigel Glockler returned again. In 2006 the live album The Eagle Has Landed - Part III was released .

In March 2007 the album The Inner Sanctum was released . The tour for this album was denied with Masterplan and Hellfueled . In the same year, the accompanying DVD To Hell And Back Again was released . Then Biff Byford published his biography Saxon - Never Surrender (Or Nearly Good Looking) . In 2008, after 30 years, the band toured again with Motörhead.

A new album, Into The Labyrinth , was released in January 2009 . The tour to this was denied with Iced Earth . In 2011, the band released a film called Heavy Metal Thunder - The Movie and a new album called Call to Arms . In 2012 the live album Heavy Metal Thunder - Live - Eagles Over Wacken was released , which is composed of old Wacken open air concerts.

The album Sacrifice was released in 2013 . The live album St. George's Day Sacrifice followed a year later : - Live in Manchester . In December 2014, drummer Nigel Glockler suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, as a result of which a UK tour had to be postponed. As a result, Glockler had to undergo surgery for a life-threatening brain aneurysm . After the first operation was unsuccessful, he was able to leave the hospital in spring 2015. Sven Dirkschneider (son of ex- Accept singer Udo Dirkschneider ) was hired as a substitute drummer . After Glockler's return, the band released their 21st studio album, Battering Ram .

In the course of time, the band went back to their roots, but never really stepped out of the shadows of other NWoBHM greats such as Iron Maiden or Judas Priest . Nevertheless, she was able to win back a solid fan base, so that she is usually mentioned as one of the main acts at festivals today.

Since the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015 , the band has been selling a T-shirt in honor of the former merchandise manager Nick Alexander, who was killed in the massacre at the Bataclan Theater. All of the proceeds from the T-shirt, which shows a rider carrying the Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité flag , will be donated in full to Alexander's relatives.

In the following years the band released various live albums. In 2017 the album Classics Re-Recorded was released for which Saxon re- recorded the band's most popular songs.

In 2018 Saxon released the album Thunderbolt. The song They Played Rock And Roll , which appeared on the album, is dedicated to Motörhead front singer and bassist Lemmy Kilmister, who died in 2015.

Music style and lyrics

Guitarist Doug Scarratt performing at Sofia Rocks 2011

With their early works, the band belonged to "the spearhead of the NWOBHM, which stirred up the rusty hard rock scene in the early eighties". Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic described the debut Saxon as "calm before the storm" and "costume rehearsal" for the later successes; Since their record company Carrere did not know how to capture a heavy metal sound on tape, the album interprets Saxon's true personality, strength and compositional potential with songs like Judgment Day , Militia Guard and Stallions of the Highway , the first of theirs numerous rocker anthems, just at. The opening of the album with the progressive-rock- heavy Rainbow Theme / Frozen Rainbow and the glam-rock- heavy pieces , reminiscent of T. Rex , Big Teaser and Still Fit to Boogie cast doubt on the musical direction, according to Rivadavia. He described the debut as disappointing. Fenriz from the Norwegian band Darkthrone, however, explained in Rock Hard magazine : “If I could wish for anything, DARKTHRONE would sound like the cool Saxon songs from the first album - but that's impossible. Fuck! ”Biff Byford assumes that“ some of our best lyrics are on our first album because I used to write most of the lyrics myself. Then we decided to introduce a more democratic way of working on some of the songs ”. Corresponding to Byford's interest in the war, he said the band "always wrote good songs about the war".

Frank Albrecht from Rock Hard describes some of the material on Wheels of Steel as “really brutal [...]. 'Freeway Mad', 'Street Fighting Gang' or the all-crushing 'Machine Gun' with its permanent double bass barrage were basically nothing more than raw Speed ​​Metal . The opposite pole was formed by sensitive, melodic hymns like 'Suzie Hold On' and '747 (Strangers In The Night)'. ”The latter is about an emergency landing. Rivadavia called Motorcycle Man one of the signature anthems of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and a proto-speed metal classic, which, like Freeway Mad and the theme song, again deals with rocker topics. Quorthon of the Swedish band Bathory claimed to have stolen the basis of the song Woman of Dark Desires from the album Under the Sign of the Black Mark from Saxon's Machine Gun . He described the albums Wheels of Steel and Strong Arm of the Law as severely undervalued. Although the heavy metal Thunder contained on the latter is one of the first song titles with the words Heavy Metal , the band Holocaust came before it with the Heavy Metal Mania , which was released in January 1980 , since Strong Arm of the Law was released in September 1980. In the theme song, the band covered their experiences with traffic cops on their first US tour and in Dallas 1 PM the assassination of John F. Kennedy . Rivadavia describes the Hungry Years as blank, and the album has fewer high points than its predecessor; However, for many fans and critics it is the definitive Saxon album, which like its predecessor is hardly missing in any list of the ten best NWoBHM albums.

Albrecht also called the following albums Denim and Leather and Power & the Glory indispensable ; With the former, “everything is really true: The opener 'Princess Of The Night' (perhaps the greatest band hit of all time) alone takes your breath away - just like 'Never Surrender', 'And The Bands Played On' and the immortal anthem to their own fans, the title track, are indispensable components of a SAXON concert. ”He also highlighted Midnight Rider , in whose text Byford processed the memory of the first US tour with text. In Power & the Glory , Albrecht highlighted the “almost thrashy ” title This Town Rocks .

The band developed "towards the mainstream for a while"; With Crusader and Innocence Is No Excuse , the band approached the glam metal trend from the USA, which is arriving in Europe, both visually and musically . According to Albrecht, Crusader contained a lot of mediocre material besides the title song. In contrast, he described Innocence Is No Excuse as recommendable; the production was “a bit badly American. Above all, the drum sound is reminiscent of those shitty, artificial and inflated productions that Def Leppard in particular drove at the time. "Otherwise, it is a" formidable record "on which the band plays" more melodious than ever "and with rock ' n 'Roll Gypsy , Back on the Streets and Call of the Wild deliver “really great radio feed”. While the early albums ended on a faster track, the band later tended to "slow down a bit towards the end".

Byford wrote his own lyrics for Destiny again. “The feelings are deeper, much more personal. When the whole band is doing their part, it's a lot harder to put a song together, you know? ”In addition to the cover Ride Like the Wind, Destiny includes a song about“ A Journey Through Life with Where the Lightning Strikes ”. […] It's about the fate of every single person, regardless of whether you are a journalist or a miner. ” Can't Wait Anymore is a love song that is about a partner“ who gives you a whole range of difficulties “Whereas Calm Before the Storm, dedicated to Byford's father, is about Yorkshire coal mines, fishing fleets and ecology. SOS is about the sinking of the Titanic and alludes to mankind who believed in the stability of the ship, with which the band wants to convey the message "that we should not take anything for granted". Song for Emma refers to a girl who got to know the band in the US and the suicide committed. For Whom the Bell Tolls is about the Berlin Wall , which was still standing then and whose collapse Byford would have welcomed. The title We Are Strong , according to Byford, “shouldn't sound ostentatious, we just want to express that we are strong as a group. [...] Many people believed that we wouldn't do anything anymore because they hadn't heard from us for so long. We worked the whole time, we just weren't in the media. ” Jericho Siren is about the bombing raids on Poland in World War II . Red Alert is about Chernobyl; At the time of the meltdown, the band was in Poland near the Russian border, but was not informed of the incident by anyone until they got back to the UK. Overall, Destiny Byford says, “is an album [...] that I'm [sic!] Slowly building; that is, it has atmosphere. For this reason, we didn't put all the fast songs on the first, but also put some on the second page. ”Following on from the early albums, it ends with a fast track again.

Saxon at the press conference for Wacken Open Air 2016

In 1990 the band returned, according to Albrecht, "back on the right heavy metal path"; since then she has been "an integral part of our scene". “Also and especially live” she is “an absolute benchmark, not least thanks to her extraordinary front man Biff and her tendency to sprawl over several hours of sets”.

Discography

→ Main article : Saxon (band) / discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1979	Saxon	-	-	-	-	-
1980	Wheels of Steel	-	-	-	UK5 gold (29 weeks)UK	-
	Strong Arm of the Law	-	-	-	UK11 gold (13 weeks)UK	-
1981	Denim and leather	DE37 (7 weeks) DE	-	-	UK9 silver (11 weeks)UK	-
1983	Power and the Glory	DE28 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	UK15 (9 weeks) UK	US155 (10 weeks) US
1984	Crusader	DE20 (12 weeks) DE	-	CH26 (1 week) CH	UK18 (7 weeks) UK	US174 (5 weeks) US
1985	Innocence Is No Excuse	DE33 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	UK36 (4 weeks) UK	US130 (8 weeks) US
1986	Rock the Nations	DE44 (4 weeks) DE	-	-	UK34 (3 weeks) UK	US149 (6 weeks) US
1988	Destiny	DE45 (5 weeks) DE	-	CH28 (3 weeks) CH	UK49 (2 weeks) UK	-
1991	Solid ball of rock	DE23 (12 weeks) DE	-	CH28 (3 weeks) CH	-	-
1992	Forever Free	DE58 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
1995	Dogs of War	DE55 (8 weeks) DE	-	CH43 (1 week) CH	-	-
1997	Unleash the Beast	DE61 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
1999	Metalhead	DE40 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
2001	Killing Ground	DE26 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
2004	Lionheart	DE44 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH62 (2 weeks) CH	-	-
2007	The Inner Sanctum	DE36 (3 weeks) DE	-	CH89 (1 week) CH	-	-
2009	Into the labyrinth	DE23 (4 weeks) DE	AT53 (2 weeks) AT	CH61 (1 week) CH	-	-
2011	Call to Arms	DE18 (3 weeks) DE	AT55 (1 week) AT	CH37 (2 weeks) CH	-	-
2013	Sacrifice	DE14 (2 weeks) DE	AT54 (1 week) AT	CH51 (1 week) CH	UK87 (1 week) UK	-
2015	Battering ram	DE12 (3 weeks) DE	AT34 (1 week) AT	CH21 (2 weeks) CH	UK50 (1 week) UK	-
2018	Thunderbolt	DE5 (6 weeks) DE	AT18 (1 week) AT	CH6 (6 weeks) CH	UK29 (1 week) UK	-

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

timeline

Web links

Commons : Saxon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Saxon at Home of Rock
• Saxon at Musik-Sammler.de
• Saxon at Allmusic (English)
• Saxon at laut.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Matthias Mader: Holocaust . Incorrectly connected . In: Rock Hard , No. 315, August 2013, p. 61.
2. ↑ http://www.metal-hammer.de/news/mektiven/article671862/nigel-glocklers-saxon-erste-hirn-op-nicht-erffektreich.html
3. ↑ http://www.metal-hammer.de/news/mektiven/article670647/saxons-nigel-glockler-wegen-hirnblutung-im-krankenhaus.html
4. ↑ SAXON - Shirt To Be Released In Memory Of Nick Alexander; EAGLES OF DEATH METAL Merchandise Manager Killed In Paris Attacks
5. Jump up ↑ Saxon - Liberté, égalité, fraternité - Heavy Metal Thunder France t-shirt in memory of Nick Alexander. ( Memento of the original from November 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Frank Albrecht: Dissecting table . In: Rock Hard , No. 309, January 2013, p. 74.
7. ^ Eduardo Rivadavia: Saxon - Saxon , accessed on August 18, 2013.
8. ^ ^{A b} Eduardo Rivadavia: Wheels of Steel - Saxon , accessed August 18, 2013.
9. ^ Frank Albrecht: Darkthrone . The word for Sunday . In: Rock Hard , No. 310, March 2013, p. 56.
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Pete Makowski: In His Own Words . In: Metal Hammer / Crash , No. 5, May 1988, p. 30.
11. ^ Bathory - Under the sin , accessed August 18, 2013.
12. ^ Eduardo Rivadavia: Strong Arm of the Law - Saxon , accessed August 18, 2013.
13. ^ Jenny Rönnebeck: Hair Metal . »We didn't just want to be an image« . In: Rock Hard , No. 310, March 2013, p. 41.
14. ↑ ^{a b} Frank Albrecht: Dissecting table . In: Rock Hard , No. 309, January 2013, p. 75.
15. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
16. ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .