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Review: Saxon, The Forum, Bath
As challenges go, opening a rock show at 7pm in a seated venue is right up there. But Toby Jepson has decades of experience fronting bands at all levels, from the Louisiana to the Albert Hall, and takes this in his stride. It helps that his current combo Wayward Sons have an excellent debut album behind them, comprising a collection of cracking earwormy hard rock songs that have become ever more familiar through constant touring and airplay on rock radio.
This was never going to be an ideal showcase for Wayward Sons, who find themselves spread out along the front of the Forum’s impressively large stage between Doro’s gear and in front of Saxon’s giant shrouded set. But they make the most of their measly 30 minute slot, winning warm applause as they climax with their best song, Until the End.
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One thing makes the challenge just that little bit harder, however. Each time a suitably enthused audience member rises to his or her feet and bounds into the huge space between the front row of seats and the stage intent on, you know, rocking, a member of the Forum’s security team politely ushers them back to their seat.
“This really isn’t going to be sustainable when Saxon come on,” grumbles a bloke behind me. He’s right. But we aren’t going to have to wait for Saxon to appear for law’n’order to break down at this first metal show in Bath City Church’s lovely art deco venue.
Isn’t it great to see a woman who so evidently loves her work? Germany’s Metal Queen Doro – aka Dorothee Pesch – has been doing this stuff for 35 years now and hasn’t lost an ounce of enthusiasm. Alarmingly, she looks exactly the same as she did when this reviewer first saw her fronting Warlock at the Colston Hall back in 1986. She’s also got one of those great backstories that really ought to attract the attentions of a filmmaker, having devoted herself exclusively to music after recovering from life-threatening tuberculosis as a teenager and choosing not to marry or have children because metal meets all her needs.
Dwarfed by her hairy, well-drilled band, she delivers what must rank as the standard Doro support set, dipping back to those Warlock days as usual for Burning the Witches and serving up plenty of meat’n’potatoes anthems like Raise Your Fist in the Air, which sound more than a little cheesy on record but get the job done admirably in a live context. Indeed, while Doro’s recorded work is patchy at best, she excels at getting the crowd onside with her heavily-accented exhortations to rock.
All of which proves even more of a challenge for the Forum’s formally attired but increasingly alarmed looking security. At first, one or two metal miscreants are guided away from the stage, but by the time Doro reaches fan favourite All We Are, the trickle has become a flood.
Bastardos from current album Forever Warriors, Forever United is another air-punching highlight, consisting chiefly of Doro bellowing “Bastardos!” over a supercharged Mikkey Dee-style Motorhead beat and raging guitars. (She wrote this specifically for her Spanish-speaking fans. Sweet, huh?) By the time she concludes with the self-explanatory All For Metal, the security team have decided that discretion is the better part of valour and retreated to the back of the hall, where they remain watching nervously for the rest of the evening.
They’ve never enjoyed the record sales of contemporaries Def Leppard or the (grudging, belated) critical kudos of Iron Maiden, but Saxon have sheer bloody-minded, never-say-die dogged persistence on their side, which paid off with a recent return to the top 30. The title track of that album, Thunderbolt, kicks off this epic show. There’s no stinting on the big production on which Saxon’s reputation rests as the curtain falls to reveal a gargantuan stack of customised Marshall cabinets flanking Nigel Glockler’s huge drum kit, the stage illuminated by a state-of-the-art light show. By now, nobody remains seated.
Inevitably, the new album dominates the set, its thoroughly modern metal sheen (hyperactive bassist Nibbs Carter even contributes a death metal backing vocal on Predator) complementing the old-school NWOBHM sound of such crowd favourites as Motorcycle Man and Strong Arm of the Law.
Frontman Biff Byford is in garrulous mood, apologising for the “lazy” band’s lack of rehearsal after a rare two-week break from seemingly endless touring. But there’s no sign of rust here, with guitarist Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt on particularly searing form. Biff marvels at the venue, which takes him back to the City Halls Saxon used to play in the eighties, with fixed seats and no crowd barrier.
But nobody seems to have informed him that they’re playing in a church. Of if they did, it makes no difference to his patter. Nosferatu (The Vampire’s Waltz) is introduced as being about the Prince of Darkness, and he reminds us that Solid Ball of Rock describes making the acquaintance of a Mr. Beelzebub down in Louisiana. Still, a neat segue from Sons of Odin into Crusader demonstrates an equal opportunities approach to marauding colonisers, which must prove a comfort to the Christian folks.
Biff also take the opportunity to demonstrate his idiosyncratic headbanging style, which resembles a shaggy dog drying out after a particularly long run in the rain.
Even in a two-hour show like this, there’s not enough time to play everything we want to hear (Never Surrender and 20,000 ft are jettisoned), but the new stuff is strong enough to compensate. Having recovered from both a brain aneurysm and, in this year’s most bizarre tabloid rock story, having part of his nose bitten off by a dog in a Welsh pub (no kidding), drummer Nigel Glockler shows that he’s back to full power with the suitably thunderous tribute to Saxon’s old chums Motorhead, They Played Rock and Roll. “They taught us how to drink and tried to get us to take drugs,” reminisces Biff of the bands’ first tour together back in the ’70s. “It was fucking brilliant.”
They ain’t done yet. Indeed, rather scarily, Biff threatens to follow anyone caught leaving early and sing at them in their car. So we all stick around for the two welcome if rather predictable encores, kicking off with a progtastically bombastic The Eagle Has Landed and finally climaxing with both Wheels of Steel and Denim and Leather.
Quick note to the horrified Forum staff: If you’re going to have a metal show here again – and please do – just take out those front rows of seats and leave the audience to police themselves. They might look a tad scary, but no damage was done, nobody was hurt and everyone had a great time.
All photos by Shona Cutt
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