Saxon
St.George’s Day Sacrifice-Live in Manchester
UDR Music
2014
Saxon are a band that no-one can say a bad thing about and they make sure this stays that way by frequently releasing more than pretty solid album, that sometimes even border on being masterful even today only three years shy of their fortieth anniversary! God does time fly…
With countless albums to their name it should come as no surprise that this must be as no surprise that this is something like the eleventh or twelfth live album (there are a couple of albums whose legality is debated as well as one whose availability was very limited – part of a very limited box set – live at Harleem that has not been released as a standalone – sure to be bootleged at some not so distant point in the future…)
While they haven’t reached the album, live album cycle of bands like Iron Maiden or Dream Theater, well there’s no shortage of material coming from the erstwhile Saxon, but I suppose after forty years, if you don’t do archival or documentary releases, then when the funk are you supposed to do them? When you die? Well… makes it a little tough on the fans to buy everything but at least you know you’re getting a top notch performance…
“St. George’s Day Sacrifice Live in Manchester” should be pretty self-explanatory, it’s Saxon doing what they do best, in front of a crowd at the Ritz in Manchester on the 23rd of April. St George’s Day... the crowd’s pretty energetic, but not as much as some of the Southern European or the German ones and let’s not get even started about how some other places react... Yet, Eagles over Wacken more than covers Germany and as Brits, I suppose they wanted to do something “patriotic” after sometime… I suppose the next one, they should record either in Greece, or Spain or something…
The performances are pretty damn good and sound authentic enough, with possibly minimal tinkering, to make it sound good. After all this band is so seasoned that it really plays well... and if they were recording this, they would have made extra sure that they were really good on the night... it’s a nice mix of the old and the new with most of the classics making an appearance and a few “not” (lol) as by this points, in their long career, if they wanted to play every hit, Saxon would need a four hour set, at least.
The band opens with “Sacrifice” and “Wheels of Terror” from the most recent album and begins to pound the fans with hits old and new “Power and the Glory” gets aired, and mingles up nicely with the working man’s epic “Made in Belfast” complete with its charged mandolin melodies. “Rock ‘n Roll Gypsy” gets things more 80s and slightly sleazier, if Saxon ever got into that, thing… but quickly Biff does his thing where he asks the fans what they want to hear – out of a few tunes – by “shouting out for it”… “And the Bands Played On” comes out as the loudest selection and the audience favorite, so it gets an airing. “I Got to Rock to Stay Alive” doesn’t get quite the same reception, even with all the banter about how the band recorded it with the Lemster and Angry Anderson from Rose Tattoo. Another, “Sacrifice” tune, the guitar strong “Night of the Wolf” gets an airing to mixed reception so the band then just unleashes, Crusader 2.0 “Conquistador” complete with a drum solo by Nigel Glockler, to quite better results. The band then does perform the superb and emotionally charged “Broken Heroes” which was written after what happened in the Falklands, back in the day… were some young British soldiers were lost… yet another “Sacrificial” number gets aired “Guardians of the Tomb” and it’s all good... even with so many new songs, the set, doesn’t seem to sag...
“Never Surrender” gets people immediately worked up in a jiffy, as soon as Biff-y announces it, and the cover of CC’s “Ride like the Wind” dynamic as it is works real well too. But it is “Crusader” that really gets a huge response and a great sing-along… and the band just doesn’t let go of “Sacrifice” and launches into “Stand Up and Fight” another quite decent number... but then resolves to the far more classic “Dallas I PM” to make sure, people are still with em... “747 (Strangers in the Night)” comes down rather late in the set, this time around. Sometimes the band tends to perform the song even second or third, just showing that they have no shortage of cool ass songs to play, after having played one of their biggest hits early on. Hehe. And there’s no shortage indeed when “Wheels of Steel” just comes crushing all resistance… Biff, does a whole playful – scream for me answer – response thing with the crowd for a while, resulting in the song lasting some ten plus minutes… then after a bit of a fake “exit” I suppose the band seems to return for a three pronged encore, studded with three timeless classics in the form of “Strong Arm of the Law” that bursts out unannounced, slightly campy but fun as fuck… then the hymn of all metal heads “Denim and Leather” the song that helped the band endure through the “dark ages” just hits, relentlessly in waves and last but not least ninety tons of thunder light up the sky as “Princess of the Night” closes the show in an absolute apotheosis of the band by the adoring crowd.
Saxon. Penultimate British Steel! Nuff Said! Best Experienced Live! Not necessarily on St.George’s Day, any day’s just as good!
With countless albums to their name it should come as no surprise that this must be as no surprise that this is something like the eleventh or twelfth live album (there are a couple of albums whose legality is debated as well as one whose availability was very limited – part of a very limited box set – live at Harleem that has not been released as a standalone – sure to be bootleged at some not so distant point in the future…)
While they haven’t reached the album, live album cycle of bands like Iron Maiden or Dream Theater, well there’s no shortage of material coming from the erstwhile Saxon, but I suppose after forty years, if you don’t do archival or documentary releases, then when the funk are you supposed to do them? When you die? Well… makes it a little tough on the fans to buy everything but at least you know you’re getting a top notch performance…
“St. George’s Day Sacrifice Live in Manchester” should be pretty self-explanatory, it’s Saxon doing what they do best, in front of a crowd at the Ritz in Manchester on the 23rd of April. St George’s Day... the crowd’s pretty energetic, but not as much as some of the Southern European or the German ones and let’s not get even started about how some other places react... Yet, Eagles over Wacken more than covers Germany and as Brits, I suppose they wanted to do something “patriotic” after sometime… I suppose the next one, they should record either in Greece, or Spain or something…
The performances are pretty damn good and sound authentic enough, with possibly minimal tinkering, to make it sound good. After all this band is so seasoned that it really plays well... and if they were recording this, they would have made extra sure that they were really good on the night... it’s a nice mix of the old and the new with most of the classics making an appearance and a few “not” (lol) as by this points, in their long career, if they wanted to play every hit, Saxon would need a four hour set, at least.
The band opens with “Sacrifice” and “Wheels of Terror” from the most recent album and begins to pound the fans with hits old and new “Power and the Glory” gets aired, and mingles up nicely with the working man’s epic “Made in Belfast” complete with its charged mandolin melodies. “Rock ‘n Roll Gypsy” gets things more 80s and slightly sleazier, if Saxon ever got into that, thing… but quickly Biff does his thing where he asks the fans what they want to hear – out of a few tunes – by “shouting out for it”… “And the Bands Played On” comes out as the loudest selection and the audience favorite, so it gets an airing. “I Got to Rock to Stay Alive” doesn’t get quite the same reception, even with all the banter about how the band recorded it with the Lemster and Angry Anderson from Rose Tattoo. Another, “Sacrifice” tune, the guitar strong “Night of the Wolf” gets an airing to mixed reception so the band then just unleashes, Crusader 2.0 “Conquistador” complete with a drum solo by Nigel Glockler, to quite better results. The band then does perform the superb and emotionally charged “Broken Heroes” which was written after what happened in the Falklands, back in the day… were some young British soldiers were lost… yet another “Sacrificial” number gets aired “Guardians of the Tomb” and it’s all good... even with so many new songs, the set, doesn’t seem to sag...
“Never Surrender” gets people immediately worked up in a jiffy, as soon as Biff-y announces it, and the cover of CC’s “Ride like the Wind” dynamic as it is works real well too. But it is “Crusader” that really gets a huge response and a great sing-along… and the band just doesn’t let go of “Sacrifice” and launches into “Stand Up and Fight” another quite decent number... but then resolves to the far more classic “Dallas I PM” to make sure, people are still with em... “747 (Strangers in the Night)” comes down rather late in the set, this time around. Sometimes the band tends to perform the song even second or third, just showing that they have no shortage of cool ass songs to play, after having played one of their biggest hits early on. Hehe. And there’s no shortage indeed when “Wheels of Steel” just comes crushing all resistance… Biff, does a whole playful – scream for me answer – response thing with the crowd for a while, resulting in the song lasting some ten plus minutes… then after a bit of a fake “exit” I suppose the band seems to return for a three pronged encore, studded with three timeless classics in the form of “Strong Arm of the Law” that bursts out unannounced, slightly campy but fun as fuck… then the hymn of all metal heads “Denim and Leather” the song that helped the band endure through the “dark ages” just hits, relentlessly in waves and last but not least ninety tons of thunder light up the sky as “Princess of the Night” closes the show in an absolute apotheosis of the band by the adoring crowd.
Saxon. Penultimate British Steel! Nuff Said! Best Experienced Live! Not necessarily on St.George’s Day, any day’s just as good!