Newcastle City Hall was opened in 1927
and has a long and storied history as the city’s first dedicated
concert venue. The hall has hosted The Byrds, Lindisfarne
and Emerson, Lake and Palmer among others but has a particularly
niche place in the city’s musical history when it comes to heavy
metal. A keen observer will recognise the concert hall
interior in Iron Maiden’s video for 'Number Of The Beast' and
the majority of Motorhead’s seminal No Sleep ‘Til
Hammersmith was recorded here. Joey DeMaio and Ross
The Boss reportedly met here at a Sabbath gig, forming the core of
Manowar's classic lineup. This rich history can seem odd
or even jarring to the visitor who walks through the fancy portico
into a 100% seating grandiose concert hall for a heavy
metal show, but the building has its own considerable charm and one
gets the sense that bands who played here “back in the day” and
keep coming back to do so out of a genuine affection- adding to the
atmosphere. That’s certainly the case with tonight’s
triple-header, a sort of 'coda' to Saxon’s Autumn tour of the
UK, with Wayward Sons and Doro in tow.
Wayward Sons kick the evening off.
Fronted by ex-Little Angels frontman Toby Jepson, this five piece are
every inch the gestalt Planet Rock band and deliver everything that
description entails: Simple, energetic blues-tinged rock
occasionally flirting with AOR (of course they’re signed to
Frontiers). While not necessarily earth-shaking, the band acquit
themselves well, clearly have a lot of enthusiasm and deliver a solid
set, whetting the early arrivals’ appetite for the rest of the
evening. Set highlights are most certainly “Crush” and “Until The End”.
The uninitiated and largely unfamiliar
author doesn't quite know what to expect from scene veteran Doro
Pesch. Doro quickly appraises the City Hall of the situation:
Launching onto the stage and into Warlock’s “I Rule The Ruins”
she establishes there is to be 0% fucking around here. The
majority of Doro’s set consists of Warlock songs which serves to
ensure continuing familiarity and participation from the expanding
audience, played with the consummate professionalism one expects from
a well-seasoned band such as this. Some crowd banter early on
harks back to a previous appearance by Pesch with Warlock in
Newcastle supporting the late, great, Ronnie James Dio which feeds
into favourite “Burning The Witches”. By the time “All We
Are” starts up the concert hall is buzzing and the grandeur of the
place feels more in keeping with what’s happening on stage. Doro
follows with “All For Metal” and closes out her set with
“Revenge”, leaving Newcastle set up for main event.
Saxon approach tonight’s show with an admirable confidence in their new material for a band originating in
NWOBHM. Thunderbolt, 2018’s release, boasts six
inclusions in tonight’s set alongside a broad spread of classic
numbers. The title track opens the set and is swiftly followed
by second album track “Nosferatu” and relatively recent
“Sacrifice”, leading into signature song “Motorcycle Man” to
much appreciation. The only really questionable song choice of
the night is “Predator” – understandably present in the set but
slightly throwing the watcher off due to the ill-advised growl
section originally handled by Amon Amarth’s Johan Hegg – it
doesn’t really suit the song and takes one out of the moment.
In the grand scheme of things this is a minor mis-step and the band
quickly course-correct with “Strong Arm of The Law”. The
rest of the set continues to flow well throughout, with Biff Byford’s
now-classically “cozy” sense of showmanship and banter (an
admiral commitment to the correct, ie. Northern pronunciation of the
word “bath” is shown in a brief exchange with drummer Nigel
Glockler), with references to previous shows at the Hall and a
touching tribute to Lemmy and Motorhead leading into “They Played
Rock ‘n’ Roll”. We move into the home stretch after
this: “And The Bands Played On”, “Sons of Odin”, “Never
Surrender” and “Princess of The Night” close the main set but
Saxon aren’t done yet. It’s tough to imagine a stronger
encore selection from their back catalogue than a powerful “The
Eagle Has Landed” leading into “Heavy Metal Thunder”, “Wheels
of Steel” and “Denim and Leather”. For the final number
Byford encourages a couple of denim vest donations from the crowd who
oblige him eagerly, setting up for some solid call-and response on
the chorus to end the night.
The word that frequently comes to mind
with Saxon is 'consistency'. Consistency in quality of
recorded material, consistency of competent live performance. This
night demonstrates that in a nutshell. Saxon remind the
audience, once again why they stood out within the British metal
scene of the early '80s and continue to enjoy a respectable profile
within the scene now. Crackin'.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Craig Stewart
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