I don’t do live reviews.
I really needed this on a wet March evening, a triple bill of gnarled road dogs, brawlers, shaggers and metal warriors. Three bands I like but had never seen before and a wonderfully gentle, friendly metal crowd.
First off, Leeds arena is an excellent venue, capacity 13k, really steep and tall, apparently designed so that the furthest anyone can be from the action is 68m. My cheap tickets up in the (metal) gods are excellent, we are sat quite near to the spotlight operator who’s sole job later on in the evening is to keep Rob Halford in his beam for the whole set.
Uriah Heep are already playing when we get in, they’re surprisingly loud for first band on. I am a helpless sucker for that heavy organ sound, Bernie Shaw (who has only played with Heep since I was 15) is in great voice tonight on ‘Gypsy’ and inevitable closer ‘Easy Livin”. It is a thrill to see Mick Box strut his stuff too (who has only played with Heep since I was -3).
Chatting to my fellow metalheads before Saxon hit the stage was wonderful. Two guys sat in front of me had first seen Judas Priest in 1975 and had the pictures to prove it! One of them had seen AC/DC four times, three times with Bon Scott and once one the Back In Black tour, but ‘I never liked the new singer much’.
So with a certain amount of pomp and circumstance Saxon hit the stage with a new track and the energy is notably high, but it’s when the motorbike sound FX hit the PA heralding the onslaught of ‘Motorcycle Man’ that our energy spikes too. The band are great, including Brian Tatler these days and Biff is a fine, garrulous front man in great voice – half rabble rouser and half pantomime dame, looking trim and sporting a luxuriant mane.
Their set is peppered with new tracks and they’re fine, but hearing the opening guitar line of ‘And The Bands Played On’ puts anything they have cut this century into stark relief. My uncle Ali was right, the original Saxon line-up was just an incredible unit; I thought about him a lot last night. The highlights of the set were ‘Dallas 1pm’*, ‘747 (Strangers In The Night)’ and the final two tracks that they bring on the retired Paul Quinn to guest on ‘Denim & Leather’ and ‘Princess Of The Night’.
Saxon got exactly the great reception they deserved.
One of the moments of the whole night is when the PA plays ‘War Pigs’ at full arena volume while we are waiting for Priest to start and EVERYBODY bellows the words – the loudest non-rugby singalong I have ever been involved in.
So Judas Priest come out all guns blazing with Invincible Shield‘s opener Panic Attack and it’s a worthy choice, Rob Halford wearing a gold lame overcoat as he stalks the stage**. Then we hit the straight with ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin” which is meaner and darker than I’ve heard it previously. We all know the score when Rob calls out ‘Breaking the what?’ to us.
Judas Priest are a consummate arena band, as you’d expect when they’ve been doing this for so well for so long. They mix up the oldies with the newies perfectly, the new stuff certainly passes muster in their set. There are some great older choices in there too, ‘Green Manalishi’ was an unexpected treat.
Halford is in fine voice throughout, although annoyingly he makes us sing every chorus of ‘Turbo Lover’ to him; I prefer my vice versa. He spends every song walking the stage a little like a man who’s lost his dog, but he is a charming and humble presence up there.
Richie Faulkner is superb tonight, especially during ‘Victim Of Changes’ when he was jaw droppingly good. He is ably supported by Andy Sneap, who steps up to deliver his own greatness, at one glorious point he, Halford and Faulkner all sway together at the front of the stage in time-honoured fashion. Ian Hill does Ian Hill stuff at the back, stage left, moving about 4 paces all night, his bass is the loudest instrument in the arena. Scott Travis, slightly cheesy crowd banter aside, plays a blinder, his work on ‘Painkiller’ is just insanely good.
Staging? I love the cool trident lighting rig and the fact that the screens are used more subtly than most arena bands do, they don’t dominate. I also like the way they don’t piss about stopping and starting with an encore, a brief breather and they’re off again. Highlights? ‘Electric Eye’ is immense, ‘Love Bites’ is all mean and moody and ‘Living After Midnight’ is a great pop send off to us all.
Then we are all discharged into the wet West Yorkshire streets, most of us still singing ‘Loaded, loaded’. I had a seriously good night courtesy of all three bands on the bill. In the nicest possible way I don’t think I would want to see any of them again, it would just be a bit of a slight return^, I’ll remember them this way.
Good job I don’t do live reviews, eh readers? otherwise I could just blather on for ages about the gig.
1221 Down (still).
PS: I read a review which mentioned that these three bands had clocked up 160 years of experience between them. I like that.
*Biff let us decide whether we wanted this or ‘Crusader’, no contest.
**he genuinely changes his coat on almost every single track, he goes off stage right into a little curtained off area to do so each time. Like he was Beyonce.
^to borrow from Jimi.
Just can’t imagine Uriah Heep without the great Ken Hensley. Glad they still sounded good. And Judas Priest have always been a bucket list band for me to see live. It’ll probably never happen, so I’ll live vicariously through your adventures.
Thanks a bunch – catch Priest while you can I’d say, that generation of bands are aging faster than they’d like to admit …
Glad you didn’t arrive to late for Uriah Heep! Who would have thought they would still be around.
Cool pictures!
I suspect they’ll outlast us all. After all Charles Dickens did name a character after them.
First time replier here, just found your blog while looking for reviews of the gig – can’t believe I’ve not read it before!! Just wanted to say great write-up, totally agree this was a great gig. I was over on the right, sound was slightly muddier over there but not terrible. But I only saw Ian Hill’s head appear occasionally above the screen box! First time seeing them live since the late ’80s, so hadn’t seen Ritchie Faulkner or Scott Travis in action before – wow! Thought Ritchie and Andy Sneap meshed perfectly, not looking like they were trying to outdo each other. My personal highlight as a British Steel fan was “Rapid Fire”, it’s a great try-and-keep-up-singing-along-to-Rob tune and the way Ritchie tore out the solos was stunning. “Turbo” was also very cool and Hill’s gnarly bass on “Green Manalishi” added a new dimension.
Agree that Uriah Heep and Saxon were both excellent too, first time seeing either. How have I failed to see Saxon before? Anyway if (heavily rocked) memory serves me right “Dallas 1pm” won the crowd cheer over “Crusader” AND “Strong Arm of the Law”!
Thanks for the review! Tim P
Hi Tim, thanks so much for stopping by. The sound was good and clear up in the (metal) gods and I liked that all three bands were loud, nobody playing ego games with the sound. I know it sounds daft but the singalong to War Pigs was one of my very favourite moments of the night, it really was!
I agree about the guitarists, Sneap definitely did play a less flashy role, it was all about the riffs with him. I am jealous you got to see KK and Tipton in action together.
Funnily enough in the days since the gig it is Saxon I’m playing obsessively, they made a big impression on me and I’ll happily see them again next time they’re around. As they all get older, I’m trying not to take all these great bands for granted. My dad always tells the story of not managing to get a ticket to see Hendrix on his last UK tour and thinking ‘Ah well, next time’.
Thank you again for passing through, it’s always a pleasure to know someone’s reading.
Thanks for reply, am now reading a lot of your posts, my music journey was quite similar to yours I think (tho’ I went thrash, not glam!). I saw Priest before on the Ram It Down tour and they played like they had something to prove, which they did after that album! I know what you mean about Saxon making a real impression, they really engaged with the crowd. BTW did you or others here ever listen to Andy Sneap’s first band Sabbat? Really under-rated IMHO but just a bit too weird to get truly massive on the international thrash scene. “History of a Time to Come” and “Dreamweaver” are astonishingly good and really stand up today.
Thank you, that’s kind. I was very much in the glam, umm, camp! I’ve never heard any Sabbat, although Dreamweaver gets recommended to me a lot as the best British thrash LP and I do have a soft spot for all their pagan way of the wyrd stuff. The Sabbat ones are very expensive on vinyl BUT there is a juicy box set on Amazon and I have just won some vouchers at work …
Looks like a brilliant night, well done to you. I didn’t think Uriah Heep were still around so that was eye opening.
It was excellent, the most metal gig I’ve been to in a very long time. I absolutely love a metal crowd, just lots of gentle people.
So cool. Sounds like a great show. I need to try and catch them when they come through Charlotte. Except I don’t think we get Uriah Heep.
Too old to travel I’d imagine! Do you get Saxon ?
Ha! No, I am glad to say that isn’t my excuse. Heck, I flew to NYC to see Kiss so that is not an excuse. And yeah, we get Saxon at least.
No Uriah Heep I mean, not you!! I’d never be so rude to you!!
LOL!! I thought you were poking fun at me!! Too funny…then the answer to your question is probably yes, too old (or visa issues)
Haha, no way. Uriah Heep must have 30 years on you! At least.
Faulkner has breathed new life into this band. They were very fortunate to get him. I don’t think they’d be as viable without him.
I agree totally, he is such a good solo-er, never stays still for a second either.
Yes you do do(Beavis and Butthead are laughing in my head)live reviews. Very well, in fact.
I’m glad you got to go. As these bands age we have to see them live before they’re gone.
Nice writeup.
Thanks Bop, that’s kind. I do do.
I was very impressed by how the new tracks fitted in so well with the more established corners of the setlist. You able to catch them on this tour later?
Unfortunately, they have yet to announce Canadian dates. Maybe a road trip is in order.