B
iff Byford recalled it as the moment when
“the dam began to burst”. In May 1979,
Saxon, the Yorkshire-based heavy metal
band fronted by the foghorn-voiced
Byford, released their debut album. In the same
month, in a Sounds review of a London show with
three other young bands on the bill – Angel Witch,
Samson and Iron Maiden – the phrase ‘New Wave
Of British Heavy Metal’ was printed for the first
time. Change was in the air, a vibrant grass-roots
rock scene was developing. As Byford said: “We
were in the right place at the right time.”
The NWOBHM would make working-class
heroes of former factory workers, labourers and
dole-queue dreamers, and Byford and co. were asproletarian as they come. The band formed in
1976 as Son Of A Bitch, and it was in local
Working Men’s Clubs that they honed their act.
“We’d play three sets a night, maybe with bingo in
the middle,” Byford said. “And in some really rough
places. It was like the Wild West some nights.”
The primary influences for Son Of A Bitch were
the big heavy rock groups of the early 70s: Led
Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep. But as
guitarist Graham Oliver said: “In 1977 we did a few
gigs with punk bands. We supported the Sex
Pistols and The Clash. Their audiences didn’t know
what to make of us, but we had so much energy
we’d really stick it to ’em!”
It was this energy that connected Saxon to a newgeneration of teenage heavy metal fans. “We
started getting a lot of university gigs,” Byford said,
“and we saw a big influx of young kids getting into
the music.”
In 1978, the band found an unlikely home at
French independent label Carrere, best known for
their disco output. At the company’s request, the
name Son Of A Bitch was changed to the more
palatable Saxon. And in January 1979 the band
headed to London to record their debut album
with producer John Verity, a fellow Yorkshireman,
formerly the guitarist in Argent.
It wasn’t all glamour. Although the band had
a £30,000 advance for two albums, they were
billeted in a cheap bed-and-breakfast joint where,
as Byford wearily recalled: “The owners had this
huge green parrot that never, ever shut up from
morning till night.” But the lads had brought along
some noisy friends of their own. “These girls from
Yorkshire,” Byford said. “There was a lot of
shagging”. And while the finished album was not
as rowdy as they had intended – due in part to
Verity’s lightweight production – the best songs
pointed to a glorious future for Saxon.
They threw in some curve balls. Rainbow Theme
and Frozen Rainbow had “a proggy flavour”, Byford
said, and there was a whiff of glam-rock in Big Teaser
and Still Fit To Boogie. But two hard-and-fast
numbers – Backs To The Wall, Biff’s two-fingered
salute to The Man, and Stallions Of The Highway, the
first of the band’s many speed-king anthems – had
the raw power and streetwise attitude that came to
define both Saxon and the NWOBHM.
The album failed to chart. “It came out in a blaze
of, well, nothing, really,” Byford recalled. “But we
were off. And as far as we were concerned, we were
going all the way to the top.”
They didn’t have to wait long. In 1980, Saxon
had not one but two hit albums, with Wheels Of
Steel and Strong Arm Of The Law, both now revered
as heavy-metal classics. And in the title track of
their 1981 album Denim And Leather, the spirit of
the NWOBHM was enshrined. The opening line
of the song was addressed to metal fans: ‘Where
were you in seventy-nine when the dam began to burst?’
For Saxon the answer was simple: they were right
there in the thick of it all.“The album came out in
a blaze of, well, nothing,
really, but we were off.”
Biff Byford
Their most lauded moments might have come in the 80s,
but it was their heavy 70s rock roots and early gigs in Working
Men’s Clubs that started it all for the Barnsley Bruisers.SAXON
Words: Paul ElliottSAXON
46 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM