The solid songbook of Saxon rock
Muirsical Conversation with Biff Byford
Muirsical Conversation with Biff Byford
Although pre-dating the New Wave of British Heavy Metal explosion that took metallic wings in 1980 Saxon were one of the most successful bands to not just emerge through the NWOBHM movement but build a career off of it, going on to establish themselves as one of the premier heavy metal acts in the UK and Europe.
Forty years on from their founding Saxon remain one of the most consistent and solid recording and performing acts in the heavy rock and metal genres.
Yet, like so many veteran or established rock acts, they had a tougher time of it (in commercial terms) through the musically changing 90s and early years of the millennium when what is now termed classic rock took a back seat to changing musical fashions and the grunge, Indie and alt-rock movements.
However, throughout that period, Saxon, in the studio, starting with Solid Ball of Rock (regarded by fans and critics alike as the band’s ‘comeback’ album after the uncertainty of direction in the second half of the 80s) were both strong and prolific – the band released nine studio albums in eighteen years before a resurgence in classic rock, and classic rock acts, saw Saxon’s studio album stock rise with releases such as Sacrifice (2013) and Battering Ram (2015)
Biff Byford, co-founder and vocalist of Saxon, took time out of a busy festival appearance schedule to talk to FabricationsHQ in more detail about that very specific period, now collected and presented by Demon Records as Solid Book of Rock, a comprehensive box set that includes all nine studio albums from 1991 to 2009, two bonus discs, three DVDs and 24 page inset 'book.'
The highly respected and renowned front man also spoke about how important it is to be consistent both live and in the studio and his continuing fascination and love for historical and legend-based lyricism..
Ross Muir: Solid Book of Rock is more than just a box-set, it’s quite the package, in terms of its presentation, form, collectability and the amount of music and bonus material within.
Were you involved in how it was all put together?
Biff Byford: Yeah I was; it’s a really nice package and a good collector’s piece, too. It has some great albums in there and hours and hours of listening time!
I also worked with Paul Gregory on ideas for the artwork as well as all the stuff that went in there.
I think coming up with a good package like Solid Book of Rock is the way to go these days too; it gives the fans something collectible and something that they can really get a hold of.
And the music is from our 1991 to 2009 period so there are some great albums in this set – in fact I don’t think there’s one bad album in there – the first one, Solid Ball of Rock, a lot of people consider to be our comeback album after our late eighties period.
RM: I agree with the comeback comments; I tend to cite it as the album that firmly re-established Saxon’s true identity – "this is Saxon; this is who we are..."
BB: Yeah, we just seemed to come out of nowhere with that album.
I don’t think anyone expected us to deliver an album like that and it really hit at the right time, because I think rock fans were a little bit disenchanted with what had been happening in the late eighties.
So, we hit it right and it was a big selling and successful album for us; that gave us confidence to go on from there and work even harder.
It was definitely a pivotal moment but I don’t think a lot of people realised, at the time, just how much of a great thing Solid Ball of Rock was for us…
Forty years on from their founding Saxon remain one of the most consistent and solid recording and performing acts in the heavy rock and metal genres.
Yet, like so many veteran or established rock acts, they had a tougher time of it (in commercial terms) through the musically changing 90s and early years of the millennium when what is now termed classic rock took a back seat to changing musical fashions and the grunge, Indie and alt-rock movements.
However, throughout that period, Saxon, in the studio, starting with Solid Ball of Rock (regarded by fans and critics alike as the band’s ‘comeback’ album after the uncertainty of direction in the second half of the 80s) were both strong and prolific – the band released nine studio albums in eighteen years before a resurgence in classic rock, and classic rock acts, saw Saxon’s studio album stock rise with releases such as Sacrifice (2013) and Battering Ram (2015)
Biff Byford, co-founder and vocalist of Saxon, took time out of a busy festival appearance schedule to talk to FabricationsHQ in more detail about that very specific period, now collected and presented by Demon Records as Solid Book of Rock, a comprehensive box set that includes all nine studio albums from 1991 to 2009, two bonus discs, three DVDs and 24 page inset 'book.'
The highly respected and renowned front man also spoke about how important it is to be consistent both live and in the studio and his continuing fascination and love for historical and legend-based lyricism..
Ross Muir: Solid Book of Rock is more than just a box-set, it’s quite the package, in terms of its presentation, form, collectability and the amount of music and bonus material within.
Were you involved in how it was all put together?
Biff Byford: Yeah I was; it’s a really nice package and a good collector’s piece, too. It has some great albums in there and hours and hours of listening time!
I also worked with Paul Gregory on ideas for the artwork as well as all the stuff that went in there.
I think coming up with a good package like Solid Book of Rock is the way to go these days too; it gives the fans something collectible and something that they can really get a hold of.
And the music is from our 1991 to 2009 period so there are some great albums in this set – in fact I don’t think there’s one bad album in there – the first one, Solid Ball of Rock, a lot of people consider to be our comeback album after our late eighties period.
RM: I agree with the comeback comments; I tend to cite it as the album that firmly re-established Saxon’s true identity – "this is Saxon; this is who we are..."
BB: Yeah, we just seemed to come out of nowhere with that album.
I don’t think anyone expected us to deliver an album like that and it really hit at the right time, because I think rock fans were a little bit disenchanted with what had been happening in the late eighties.
So, we hit it right and it was a big selling and successful album for us; that gave us confidence to go on from there and work even harder.
It was definitely a pivotal moment but I don’t think a lot of people realised, at the time, just how much of a great thing Solid Ball of Rock was for us…
RM: That album also brought out the best of Saxon’s strengths – we’ve just heard the big-beat guitar rock of the title track but you also have songs such as the pedal down metal of Alter of the Gods and Requiem, a firm fan favourite to this day and a number that exemplifies that metal with melody which Saxon are famous for…
BB: That’s definitely right; I think we do that really well, as do Iron Maiden of course, but we are renowned for that, yes. We try and include that melody and heaviness within our music because I don’t like it when bands get too self-indulgent and start playing to the bloody speakers, and not the audience. [laughter]
You know what I mean though; I like to make music that people are going to like, and listen to. I’m just not into the self-indulgent side of rock music.
RM: Saxon also mix thought provoking or historical lyricism with that melodic metal. Yes you sing about bikes, the fans, the usual suspects – Motorcycle Man and Denim and Leather to name but two Saxon classics – but you have always used history and some myth and legend materials as storytelling devices…
BB: I’ve always liked having that troubadour-minstrel element to metal and rock music; it allows you to look at more interesting things and not just write about the tour bus! [laughs]
And we have lots of great choruses out there on all sorts of stuff we’ve written. On the next album for example there’s a song about the secret of flight, where I’ve got Icarus, Leonardo da Vinci and the Wright Brothers all in there [laughs].
It takes me a while to write those sorts of lyrics to be honest but once they’re finished they can sound great – if you can pull it off. Not everyone can, and I suppose we don’t pull it off all the time either, but when you get it right it can make for a great song.
I think also you have to remember history; I think history is important for the future.
RM: The Forever Free album followed Ball or Rock. That’s one of the band’s faster-paced, power-down offerings but again with some different shades – Just Wanna Make Love to You for example; not every band is going to think to do rework a blues standard for a metal album.
BB: Definitely. And then Dogs of War, which followed Forever Free, moved to an even heavier sound, but again with melody. If you listen to those albums, and the others on The Solid Book of Rock, you can hear the band changing slightly, but still keeping to their roots.
RM: Very much so. The next run of albums, Unleash the Beast – the first to feature guitarist Doug Scarratt –Metalhead and Killing grounds, contained some of the fiercest material you’ve ever done…
BB: Well I think the albums, and the lyrics I write, are all tied in to what’s happening around us at that time but I haven’t really listened to those albums for a while – and I haven’t seen them together before, not like they are in this box set. So, when it comes to this collection I’m seeing and hearing them as a fan!
I really like these sorts of packages, seeing the albums all laid out on a table…
RM: …which are completed by Lionheart – another fan favourite and one of your strongest albums – Inner Sanctum and Into the Labyrinth. Solid Book of Rock also includes three DVDs and two bonus disks.
BB: It really is great package; it’s a massive piece of work. Demon Records, who are Demon Music Group and part of BBC Worldwide, are doing a great job.
If you look at the vinyl box set releases they've done for us, and this new box set, I think we are honestly at the forefront of putting these sorts of things together.
I think Demon Records are the ones to beat for these sorts of collections; they definitely have got it together for delivering fan based product.
RM: And it works on a couple of levels – the Saxon die hard is going to want this for the collection and the more general heavy rock or metal fan, perhaps rediscovering Saxon’s middle-era period, is going to be tempted by the sheer volume of material on offer.
BB: I think, also, there’s quite a few fans who aren’t aware of some of those albums, like Metalhead for example, and others from around that time.
They were huge albums in Europe but they didn’t really hit the mark in the UK, so I think there are a lot of people who will find these albums to be quite surprising when they get to listen to them.
Obviously our hard-core fans will have all these albums already but they will also want to buy this new set because it is such a collectible.
RM: You’re comment about some of those albums not doing so well in the UK will be echoed by many a classic or established rock band that struggled in the musical climate of the nineties and early millennium.
But while album sales dipped there wasn’t too much of a drop off in ticket sales; Saxon have always been a solid and consistent live act…
BB: You have to be. You have to have great product but you also have to be great live – it sounds really easy when I say it like that but it’s not!
And you have to have great songs for the albums but you also have to think of the whole package, including the artwork. Paul Gregory has done most of our covers and, as I mentioned earlier, did the artwork for Solid Book of Rock. So the albums, and this new box set, all look great, too.
But yeah, we play a live a lot, all over the world, so we have to be good and we have to have good songs; that keeps us on the edge.
RM: In terms of studio product and its presentation Paul Gregory is almost like the sixth member of the band. He’s done well over a dozen album covers for Saxon.
BB: Paul has really connected with the band and we love his artwork. And the originals are all real paintings; done in oils.
He did the Demon Records vinyl box sets as well; the artwork for Eagles And Dragons and the live collection, The Vinyl Horde; that was all Paul.
RM: On the subject of Saxon live, something I greatly admire the band for is that you are not a greatest hits act. It would be easy for you to build the set-list around the classics and heavy hitters, but you always mix it up.
BB: We do try and mix it up, yeah, but, when we did Ramblin’ Man recently we performed The Eagle Has Landed, the first live album, as the main part of the set.
We don’t usually do that but I thought it would be nice to do it at Ramblin’ Man because that it was a very eighties festival and it was thirty-five years on from that album. And there were newer songs in the set, we never just play the big hits.
At the Steelhouse Festival in Wales, just after Ramblin’ Man, it was a slightly different set list, but Ramblin’ Man was an interesting set to play because all the big hits were together in the middle of the set – Motorcycle Man, 747, and all the rest – while the more obscure songs, or the ones the festival crowd might not know, were at the beginning. But the crowd seemed to like it!
RM: That’s knowing your audience; you can’t go wrong at a rock festival recreating that particular live album. It’s not just the songs of course, this is a long-standing and consistent line-up, something of a rarity in this classic rock franchise day and band-or-brand age.
Guitarist Doug Scarratt, who I mentioned earlier, has been with the band twenty-one years and long-time Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler returned to the fold twelve years ago.
BB: I think that helps, having that consistency in the line-up. We know each other well and we have that chemistry, which can only be a good thing because you do sometimes get members of a band who don’t actually work for that particular band and move on to another band.
We carefully got people in to the band that we liked and that we all get on with, because that’s very important, especially if you’re touring around the planet together!
I also think you have to give one hundred percent when playing live; you absolutely have to give one hundred percent, or give what you are capable of, each night.
If you’re lucky, and you stay fit, and you don’t succumb to the years too badly, then it’s a great life!
RM: That leads nicely to your good self. You’ve been singing and constantly touring for nigh on forty years – that, particularly in loud and fast rock and roll, can take its toll on the vocals and the throat, but you are still in fine voice.
BB: Well it’s still working so far but let’s just wait and see! [laughs]
I just take it day by day with the voice to be honest; I really don’t do anything special to look after it.
RM: Perhaps always giving that one hundred percent, along with your obvious enthusiasm and passion for the music and performance, is part of the voice-in-good-shape deal…
BB: It could well be. Or maybe it’s just staying while I still have plenty to do and give – or until I don’t have anything left to do or give! [laughs]
BB: That’s definitely right; I think we do that really well, as do Iron Maiden of course, but we are renowned for that, yes. We try and include that melody and heaviness within our music because I don’t like it when bands get too self-indulgent and start playing to the bloody speakers, and not the audience. [laughter]
You know what I mean though; I like to make music that people are going to like, and listen to. I’m just not into the self-indulgent side of rock music.
RM: Saxon also mix thought provoking or historical lyricism with that melodic metal. Yes you sing about bikes, the fans, the usual suspects – Motorcycle Man and Denim and Leather to name but two Saxon classics – but you have always used history and some myth and legend materials as storytelling devices…
BB: I’ve always liked having that troubadour-minstrel element to metal and rock music; it allows you to look at more interesting things and not just write about the tour bus! [laughs]
And we have lots of great choruses out there on all sorts of stuff we’ve written. On the next album for example there’s a song about the secret of flight, where I’ve got Icarus, Leonardo da Vinci and the Wright Brothers all in there [laughs].
It takes me a while to write those sorts of lyrics to be honest but once they’re finished they can sound great – if you can pull it off. Not everyone can, and I suppose we don’t pull it off all the time either, but when you get it right it can make for a great song.
I think also you have to remember history; I think history is important for the future.
RM: The Forever Free album followed Ball or Rock. That’s one of the band’s faster-paced, power-down offerings but again with some different shades – Just Wanna Make Love to You for example; not every band is going to think to do rework a blues standard for a metal album.
BB: Definitely. And then Dogs of War, which followed Forever Free, moved to an even heavier sound, but again with melody. If you listen to those albums, and the others on The Solid Book of Rock, you can hear the band changing slightly, but still keeping to their roots.
RM: Very much so. The next run of albums, Unleash the Beast – the first to feature guitarist Doug Scarratt –Metalhead and Killing grounds, contained some of the fiercest material you’ve ever done…
BB: Well I think the albums, and the lyrics I write, are all tied in to what’s happening around us at that time but I haven’t really listened to those albums for a while – and I haven’t seen them together before, not like they are in this box set. So, when it comes to this collection I’m seeing and hearing them as a fan!
I really like these sorts of packages, seeing the albums all laid out on a table…
RM: …which are completed by Lionheart – another fan favourite and one of your strongest albums – Inner Sanctum and Into the Labyrinth. Solid Book of Rock also includes three DVDs and two bonus disks.
BB: It really is great package; it’s a massive piece of work. Demon Records, who are Demon Music Group and part of BBC Worldwide, are doing a great job.
If you look at the vinyl box set releases they've done for us, and this new box set, I think we are honestly at the forefront of putting these sorts of things together.
I think Demon Records are the ones to beat for these sorts of collections; they definitely have got it together for delivering fan based product.
RM: And it works on a couple of levels – the Saxon die hard is going to want this for the collection and the more general heavy rock or metal fan, perhaps rediscovering Saxon’s middle-era period, is going to be tempted by the sheer volume of material on offer.
BB: I think, also, there’s quite a few fans who aren’t aware of some of those albums, like Metalhead for example, and others from around that time.
They were huge albums in Europe but they didn’t really hit the mark in the UK, so I think there are a lot of people who will find these albums to be quite surprising when they get to listen to them.
Obviously our hard-core fans will have all these albums already but they will also want to buy this new set because it is such a collectible.
RM: You’re comment about some of those albums not doing so well in the UK will be echoed by many a classic or established rock band that struggled in the musical climate of the nineties and early millennium.
But while album sales dipped there wasn’t too much of a drop off in ticket sales; Saxon have always been a solid and consistent live act…
BB: You have to be. You have to have great product but you also have to be great live – it sounds really easy when I say it like that but it’s not!
And you have to have great songs for the albums but you also have to think of the whole package, including the artwork. Paul Gregory has done most of our covers and, as I mentioned earlier, did the artwork for Solid Book of Rock. So the albums, and this new box set, all look great, too.
But yeah, we play a live a lot, all over the world, so we have to be good and we have to have good songs; that keeps us on the edge.
RM: In terms of studio product and its presentation Paul Gregory is almost like the sixth member of the band. He’s done well over a dozen album covers for Saxon.
BB: Paul has really connected with the band and we love his artwork. And the originals are all real paintings; done in oils.
He did the Demon Records vinyl box sets as well; the artwork for Eagles And Dragons and the live collection, The Vinyl Horde; that was all Paul.
RM: On the subject of Saxon live, something I greatly admire the band for is that you are not a greatest hits act. It would be easy for you to build the set-list around the classics and heavy hitters, but you always mix it up.
BB: We do try and mix it up, yeah, but, when we did Ramblin’ Man recently we performed The Eagle Has Landed, the first live album, as the main part of the set.
We don’t usually do that but I thought it would be nice to do it at Ramblin’ Man because that it was a very eighties festival and it was thirty-five years on from that album. And there were newer songs in the set, we never just play the big hits.
At the Steelhouse Festival in Wales, just after Ramblin’ Man, it was a slightly different set list, but Ramblin’ Man was an interesting set to play because all the big hits were together in the middle of the set – Motorcycle Man, 747, and all the rest – while the more obscure songs, or the ones the festival crowd might not know, were at the beginning. But the crowd seemed to like it!
RM: That’s knowing your audience; you can’t go wrong at a rock festival recreating that particular live album. It’s not just the songs of course, this is a long-standing and consistent line-up, something of a rarity in this classic rock franchise day and band-or-brand age.
Guitarist Doug Scarratt, who I mentioned earlier, has been with the band twenty-one years and long-time Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler returned to the fold twelve years ago.
BB: I think that helps, having that consistency in the line-up. We know each other well and we have that chemistry, which can only be a good thing because you do sometimes get members of a band who don’t actually work for that particular band and move on to another band.
We carefully got people in to the band that we liked and that we all get on with, because that’s very important, especially if you’re touring around the planet together!
I also think you have to give one hundred percent when playing live; you absolutely have to give one hundred percent, or give what you are capable of, each night.
If you’re lucky, and you stay fit, and you don’t succumb to the years too badly, then it’s a great life!
RM: That leads nicely to your good self. You’ve been singing and constantly touring for nigh on forty years – that, particularly in loud and fast rock and roll, can take its toll on the vocals and the throat, but you are still in fine voice.
BB: Well it’s still working so far but let’s just wait and see! [laughs]
I just take it day by day with the voice to be honest; I really don’t do anything special to look after it.
RM: Perhaps always giving that one hundred percent, along with your obvious enthusiasm and passion for the music and performance, is part of the voice-in-good-shape deal…
BB: It could well be. Or maybe it’s just staying while I still have plenty to do and give – or until I don’t have anything left to do or give! [laughs]
Saxon, still consistently strong in delivering their solid songbook of rock and metal in the 21st century
(left to right : Paul Quinn, Doug Scarratt, Biff Byford, Nigel Glockler, Nibbs Carter)
RM: You have a new album, Thunderbolt, in the pipeline but are currently touring the most recent album, Battering Ram. That’s another strong statement featuring not just Saxon’s trademark power metal but some genuinely atmospheric or emotive moments such as Queen of Hearts and Kingdom of the Cross.
BB: When it comes to the next album we’ll just have to wait and see but, yeah, at the moment Battering Ram is doing very well; it’s been quite massive for us around the world.
The actual song Battering Ram, people just love it live. Even those who have never heard the song before, by the time we get to the second chorus they’re all singing "like a battering ram!" back to me.
But that’s the beauty of a song like Battering Ram, people can pick it up and get into it so quickly!
RM: Battering Ram and Solid Book of Rock are part of what has been a great few years for Saxon.
You mentioned the vinyl box sets but there’s also the excellent Let Me Feel Your Power live release from last year and 2013’s Unplugged and Strung Up, which proves a great song is a great song, whether it be in the metal environment, acoustically performed or orchestrated.
BB: I do hope so, because I didn’t want to put out the same old thing when it came to the classic songs and older material; that’s why we did different versions of them.
But it’s always great to play or record those songs; they’re all great tracks.
RM: That they are. I’d like to play out with another track that features on Solid Book of Rock, and would like you to choose it. A personal favourite to sing perhaps, or a song that resonates with you?
BB: There are so many great tracks on there that it’s really difficult for me to choose just one, but I do quite like Attila the Hun; that one does resonate with me! [laughs]
And it’s a long track too, so it means we’ll get a lot of airplay if you choose to play it all!
RM: [laughs] Full version it is, sir, complete with intro.
Actually, that’s a great choice because if someone who was only familiar with classic Saxon was looking for a definitive, recent-era song from the band, I might well point to your boy Attila…
BB: Yeah, it’s an interesting track. It’s got the riffs, it’s very heavy, it has melody… it’s got everything, really. It’s the perfect Saxon song!
RM: Which gives us the perfect sign off. Thanks for speaking to FabricationsHQ, Biff; it’s been great to talk about the book – and songs – of Saxon’s rock with you.
BB: Thank you, speak to you again sometime down the road – keep the faith!
(left to right : Paul Quinn, Doug Scarratt, Biff Byford, Nigel Glockler, Nibbs Carter)
RM: You have a new album, Thunderbolt, in the pipeline but are currently touring the most recent album, Battering Ram. That’s another strong statement featuring not just Saxon’s trademark power metal but some genuinely atmospheric or emotive moments such as Queen of Hearts and Kingdom of the Cross.
BB: When it comes to the next album we’ll just have to wait and see but, yeah, at the moment Battering Ram is doing very well; it’s been quite massive for us around the world.
The actual song Battering Ram, people just love it live. Even those who have never heard the song before, by the time we get to the second chorus they’re all singing "like a battering ram!" back to me.
But that’s the beauty of a song like Battering Ram, people can pick it up and get into it so quickly!
RM: Battering Ram and Solid Book of Rock are part of what has been a great few years for Saxon.
You mentioned the vinyl box sets but there’s also the excellent Let Me Feel Your Power live release from last year and 2013’s Unplugged and Strung Up, which proves a great song is a great song, whether it be in the metal environment, acoustically performed or orchestrated.
BB: I do hope so, because I didn’t want to put out the same old thing when it came to the classic songs and older material; that’s why we did different versions of them.
But it’s always great to play or record those songs; they’re all great tracks.
RM: That they are. I’d like to play out with another track that features on Solid Book of Rock, and would like you to choose it. A personal favourite to sing perhaps, or a song that resonates with you?
BB: There are so many great tracks on there that it’s really difficult for me to choose just one, but I do quite like Attila the Hun; that one does resonate with me! [laughs]
And it’s a long track too, so it means we’ll get a lot of airplay if you choose to play it all!
RM: [laughs] Full version it is, sir, complete with intro.
Actually, that’s a great choice because if someone who was only familiar with classic Saxon was looking for a definitive, recent-era song from the band, I might well point to your boy Attila…
BB: Yeah, it’s an interesting track. It’s got the riffs, it’s very heavy, it has melody… it’s got everything, really. It’s the perfect Saxon song!
RM: Which gives us the perfect sign off. Thanks for speaking to FabricationsHQ, Biff; it’s been great to talk about the book – and songs – of Saxon’s rock with you.
BB: Thank you, speak to you again sometime down the road – keep the faith!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Biff Byford
August 2017
Saxon official website: http://www.saxon747.com/
Saxon’s twenty-second studio album, Thunderbolt, is currently scheduled for a January 2018 release.
The website and artwork of Paul Raymond Gregory: http://www.studio54.co.uk/
Photo Credits: Kai Willus (Biff Byford); promotional image/ official website (band)
Audio tracks presented to accompany the above article and to promote the work of the artist.
No infringement of copyright is intended.
Muirsical Conversation with Biff Byford
August 2017
Saxon official website: http://www.saxon747.com/
Saxon’s twenty-second studio album, Thunderbolt, is currently scheduled for a January 2018 release.
The website and artwork of Paul Raymond Gregory: http://www.studio54.co.uk/
Photo Credits: Kai Willus (Biff Byford); promotional image/ official website (band)
Audio tracks presented to accompany the above article and to promote the work of the artist.
No infringement of copyright is intended.