Having arrived at Fat Pauly's (Norwich) and parted with my hard earned cash, I was some what disappointed at the lack of turn out for what must be one of the better known bands of the 70's/80's Heavy Metal era. I suppose it must be that the younger generation (generally speaking) just haven't discovered what fun you can have playing air guitar and head banging the night away that we, the slightly older bods, have known for years.
It was good to see Saxon are still going strong despite having an ongoing legal despute concerning their name. We won't be covering that here but will say it was a brilliant night had by all. Those brave enough to stand up at the front were by far in the best position to check out the outragious drum kit that took over the majority of the stage, the drummer of course excelling himself having had a fair few years of practice under his belt.
We were given a thorough set which culminated in no less than three encores covering both new and old such as, Back On The Streets Again, Dogs of War, 747(Strangers in the Night), Dallas 1PM, Power And The Glory, to name but a few. My only real whinge is that every song ended with a twangy twangy session whereas I feel that a nice clean end would have benefitted on more than one of them.
The lads at the front armed with the guitars showed unrelenting enthusiasm throughout the entire set with absolutely no signs of boredom setting in half way through, unlike, it has to be said, some other bands who have been around for a similar amount of time. Strewth. Was it really that long ago?
Over the years the line up has been changed about somewhat and this is where it stands at present:- Nigel Durham, Graham Oliver, Steve Dolson, Haydn Comway and Tony Liddle.
I certainly enjoyed myself as did the others who were there and wished that it hadn't ended quite yet, but all good things have to come to the end and that is the way the world spins etc, so I had to go home, shame, dum de dum de dar back on the streets again da da da....
Photograph by Dom Slater
