A little over 40 years ago I experienced my first ever hard rock/metal gig when I went to Torquay Town Hall to witness Saxon on their Wheels of Steel Tour, supported by Tygers of Pan Tang. If I thought my head been blown to pieces by TOPT nothing prepared me for Saxon hitting the stage to “Motorcycle Man”, and in some ways it has been downhill ever since! For some weird reason which I don’t have an explanation for, I have never seen them in concert again, although I did interview Graham Oliver and Steve Dawson some years back after they had left, but I have always had a soft spot for the band, and for the first five albums in particular.
On this, his debut solo album, Byford put together a band comprising Fredrik Åkesson (Opeth) on guitars, Christian Lundqvist on drums and Gus Macricostas on bass (plus Biff also plays some bass himself, as he used to when he and Paul Quinn were together in Coast prior to the formation of Saxon). There are also guest appearances by Phil Campbell (Motörhead/Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons), Alex Holzwart (Rhapsody of Fire), Nick Barker (Voices), Dave Kemp (Wayward Sons) and Nibbs Carter (Saxon). He may be 69 years old now, but yet again here is a vocalist who is refusing to show his age and appears to be singing as well as ever. The song which is definitely going to surprise everyone is his take on “Scarborough Fair”, yes, you read that correctly. “It’s a traditional medieval song, and the story goes that Paul Simon happened to hear somebody playing it in Whitby, which is just down the road from Scarborough,” laughs Biff, “But I wanted something which represented Yorkshire and it is a Yorkshire folk song, so we tried a new arrangement which made it a little heavier, and it works really well.” If someone asked me who was singing this, I am sure I would have picked Biff’s distinctive style, but that would be the only clue that it is from someone who has sold millions of albums fronting a metal act.
The rest of the album moves through metal and hard rock, all well played and certainly quite different to the styles one would expect from a straight Saxon album. It is an enjoyable release, but although there are highlights here and there, there is nothing really exceptional about it. It may attract a few from outside the Saxon fanbase, but most of those who will purchase this will already be staunch fans and will be intrigued to see what Biff did when he went off the reservation. I must also say I am a little confused by the artwork to the album as while Biff will always be a proud Northerner he has always been known as a very proud Yorkshireman as well, yet the artwork is obviously heavily influenced by Lowry who was one of the opposition, working in Lancashire. Weird.
Rating: 8/10
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/biffsaxon747/
https://sl-music.net/en/
