Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Sebastijan Videc
Location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška / Slovenia
Concert date: 11.12.2016
Attendance: 400
Ticket price: 25€
Saxon, the cult torchbearers of the new wave of British heavy metal, returned to Kino Šiška after three years, presenting their latest studio effort, »Battering Ram« (2015), as part of the current tour. This time, heavy rock fans answered the ‘battle cry’ in decent numbers to catch the legendary English metallers, who have now stopped in Ljubljana on four tours in a row. Let’s hope their visits become a tradition with every new album, because gigs by cult bands playing ‘old school’ metal are sorely lacking in Slovenia.
The Anglo-Saxon metal warriors, who love eagles above all other birds and the sound of ‘iron horses’, brought along Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons as the support act, whose big twist is that it’s an almost entirely family affair. The band, led by longtime Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell, is made up of, apart from singer Neil Starr, his three sons Todd, Dane and Tyla on rhythm guitar, bass and drums. Mr. Campbell and his Welsh ‘bastards’ proved a decent stand-in for the recently retired Motorhead, who simply couldn’t go on without Lemmy. As expected, Phil and his ‘bastards’ mostly played Motorhead classics, except for the opener »Big Mouth« and »Spiders«, which are originals and appear on their recently released self-titled EP. Stylistically it’s a perfect continuation of the Motorhead legacy, meaning dirty, hard-hitting rock’n’roll with the occasional punk rhythmic flavor dominates.
Phil and the family pulled a rather unexpected move when they played a pretty fun cover of the Black Sabbath evergreen »Sweet Leaf«, and then, for »Ace of Spades«, invited none other than the Saxon chieftain himself, Peter Rodney ‘Biff’ Byford, onto the stage. Biff and Starr split the vocals on the biggest Motorhead hit, which was of course the high point of the Bastards’ set. They sprang an even bigger surprise with a seriously solid version of the Hawkwind classic »Silver Machine«, paying a really lovely tribute to its original singer, Lemmy. You could tell, though, that the younger metalheads up front didn’t recognize one of the key pieces of Lemmy’s musical career, from the time when he helped make progressive rock and space rock history. Phil’s boys closed their set with »Going to Brazil« and earned a big round of applause from a crowd that was already well warmed up. For Phil and the Bastard Sons, who are clearly the most diligent keepers of the Motorhead legacy right now, this was the last show of the tour as Saxon’s support act, so you could tell they gave their farewell everything, and they walked off to a long and more than deserved ovation.
Saxon took the stage this evening with an unexpectedly altered lineup, as longtime bassist Nibbs Carter was missing due to ‘urgent family matters’. We missed him quite a bit, since he has been practically indispensable in the band since 1988. He was temporarily replaced by Greek bassist Gus Macricostas, best known for playing in Battleroar. Macricostas did his job decently, though you could tell he hadn’t quite gotten used to performing with a band as big as Saxon, and next to the ‘old tomcats’ Biff, Paul Quinn, Nigel Glockler and Doug Scarratt, he came across as a bit too reserved.
After the intro played from a tape, the AC/DC classic »It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock’n’Roll)«, Biff and his battle-ready crew, who in their lyrics prize big historic events (battles above all), remote places near the American-Mexican border, the smell of engine exhaust and pretty girls, hit the ground running with the title track of the current album and sent a crowd that had by then filled the hall nicely straight to metal/hard rock heaven. The ‘old foxes’ split the setlist pretty well, with every new track followed by a long-standing classic from their mighty treasure chest. As tends to happen with bands that have such a rich legacy and certain stylistic shifts over the course of a career, the stylistic difference between the old and newer material was clearly felt: through the eighties and most of the nineties Saxon were mostly a hard rock band, while in the first decade of the 21st century they started playing bolder heavy metal with a slight hint of the German power metal school. With their last three albums, though, they’ve moved a bit closer again to the classic heavy metal they ‘nurtured’ in the nineties.
The first of the ‘steel standards’ this evening was »Heavy Metal Thunder«, while »Sacrifice« recalled the album of the same name. »Never Surrender« was an entirely expected pick, while »Solid Ball of Rock« was a minor surprise, but after that came really only the most recognizable pieces from their mighty career plus a handful of newer songs. Biff then introduced »Chasing the Bullet« from an album whose title he just couldn’t remember (»Call to Arms«, 2011), although he knew it was made sometime after 2000. Considering Saxon are still extremely active with new studio releases, that’s not so surprising, and Biff’s memory probably isn’t what it used to be in his younger years either.
Before the evergreen »Strong Arm of the Law« from the studio classic of the same name, he of course didn’t forget to mention the story that inspired it: how more than thirty-five years ago the men in uniform stopped and searched them, hoping to find some drugs and royally stitch up the rebellious longhairs, but in the end found nothing. Saxon, like most of their NWOBHM peers, were never fans of intoxicating substances, and that’s probably one of the main reasons for their longevity, and for the fact that, unlike many bands from the seventies, they’re still with us. At one point Biff let the crowd choose which song they’d rather hear tonight: »Broken Heroes« or »The Eagle Has Landed«. In the end the crowd got ‘its way’ and Saxon played both classics. So Ljubljana finally heard »Broken Heroes« for the first time, too. It’s probably an old trick of Biff’s, a way to further fire up the already completely rowdy fans in the front rows, since the always hugely charismatic man is not only (still) a great singer but also an excellent motivator, actually one of the best in hard rock/metal history.
Biff was properly ‘wild’ tonight and his voice failed only once, when a cough suddenly grabbed him for a moment during the unforgettable evergreen »And the Bands Played On«, which he introduced as Lemmy’s favorite Saxon song. The two guitarists and the incredible Glockler, who in his day also drummed for the supergroups GTR and Asia, showed none of their age either, since they still play their instruments like youngsters. In the first encore Saxon surprised us slightly and played a brand-new song, »Let Me Feel Your Power«, which will probably appear on a future studio album, while »747 (Strangers in the Nigh)« was a totally expected pick. It’s become something of a habit that Saxon shows are dominated by classics from the albums »Wheels of Steel« (1980), »Strong Arm of the Law« (1980) and »Denim and Leather« (1981), though most of the crowd probably wouldn’t mind hearing a few less representative pieces too, since in their forty-year career Saxon have never released a bad album.
In the second encore Biff once again offered the crowd the chance to pick any Saxon classic, but the requests that started to prevail weren’t exactly full of imagination. The next classic didn’t take long to arrive, as the gray-haired vocal veteran swiftly pulled a flag with a crusader knight on it from the hands of an eager fan and hoisted it high above his head. »Crusader« simply couldn’t be missing, and so we once again got to marvel at Quinn’s incredible guitar soloing, while the only ‘steel’ Saxon classic left was the expected »Princess of the Night«, with which Saxon closed their set in epic fashion and received thunderous ovations from a crowd that was, by usual domestic rock gig standards, unexpectedly completely ecstatic, with quite a few foreign visitors among them, mostly from Croatia and Italy.
In great spirits, Saxon ‘conquered’ Kino Šiška with ease and ‘riddled’ it with a hefty dose of their most beloved classics. Even on their 40th anniversary, the NWOBHM champions are still a one-of-a-kind live attraction and one of the few ‘old school’ metal bands that earns respect from younger generations of ‘heavy rock’ fans too, most of whom have no idea what real heavy metal is supposed to sound like or where its roots are. The band was as tight and in good spirits as ever, the sound was at a proper level, and the crowd deserves special praise this time too, though they could have done without the incredibly dumb passing around of plastic cups and pizza boxes. There weren’t any particularly big surprises in terms of the song selection, except maybe »Solid Ball of Rock«, which they don’t play all that often, but the NWOBHM heroes still gave it everything and, besides the newer material, played almost all of their most beloved classics, with the exception of »Motorcycle Man«, »Denim And Leather« and »Power And the Glory«. Some of us had hoped to hear »Ride Like the Wind« from the album »Destiny« (1988) too, but sadly Saxon only go for that pick on very rare occasions.
Setlist
Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons setlist:
1. Big Mouth
2. Nothing Up My Sleeve
3. Spiders
4. R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
5. Take Aim
6. Born to Raise Hell
7. Sweet Leaf
8. Ace of Spades
9. Eat the Rich
10. Silver Machine
11. Rock Out
12. Going to Brazil
Saxon setlist:
1. Battering Ram
2. Heavy Metal Thunder
3. Sacrifice
4. Solid Ball of Rock
5. Never Surrender
7. Chasing the Bullet
8. Stand Up and Be Counted
9. The Devil’s Footprint
10. Strong Arm of the Law
11. The Eagle Has Landed
12. Broken Heroes
13. 20,000 Ft
14. Queen of Hearts
15. And the Bands Played On
16. Dallas 1 PM
17. Wheels of Steel
—1st encore—
18. Let Me Feel Your Power
19. 747 (Strangers in the Night)
—2nd encore—
20. Crusader
21. Princess of the Night
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