 | | Saxon (pic: Dino Hudson) |
Ne’er sayers may scoff and point (YES! Point! Saxon’s bassist, if not the band themselves, famously inspiring Spinal Tap and its fabulous excess of pointing) to Channel 4’s recent reality TV debacle at the hands of Harvey Goldsmith, but Saxon would smack said ne’er sayers with the never say die spirit that has seen them weather a stagnant, to say the least, spate in the 80s after their initial glory days. Maybe it’s their Yorkshire roots but such stubbornness pays off. They’ve headed back underground with a series of albums that can be considered pristine metal artefacts of late, culminating in this year’s The Inner Sanctum. Propelling pell-mell into the Gatling gun ricochet ride of 20,000 Feet is a face-slapping showcase of the heaviness they had waaaaay back in 1980 that would’ve seen Iron Maiden, erm, run to the hills in fear of its thrash-metal thunder.  | | Saxon (pic: Dino Hudson) |
Set the vocal aside and Motorcycle Man would give Lemmy a blowback to set his eyes spinning, frontman Biff Byford patrolling the stage with the authority and assurance of that most military of Yorkshiremen, Sharpe, leading his troops through a battle without a scratch. And while the set is simply a top ‘n’ tail of the first and last three or so albums, tellingly the newer material stands up well against the classics. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong in more recent endeavours falling on the sword of 747 (Strangers In The Night) and the choke-kicking Wheels Of Steel. While they might be a long way from the stadia that Maiden reside in, on tonight’s evidence, Saxon are sure to be around touted unashamedly, unabashedly and damned unrepentantly as ‘metal stalwarts’ for some time yet. | 
