Destiny

The ninth album was released by EMI in March 1988 and is the last they made for the label, which dropped them after it sold poorly. It was recorded at Sarm Hook End in Berkshire in 1987 and produced by Stephan Galfas. The line-up is Byford, Oliver, Quinn, Paul Johnson on bass and Nigel Durham on drums — the only studio album those two made together. It reached twenty-eight in Switzerland, thirty in Sweden, thirty-three in Finland, forty-five in Germany and forty-nine in Britain. The opening "Ride Like the Wind" is a Christopher Cross song, released as a single in February. Galfas set out to make the band more commercial and radio-friendly, a direction the members felt ran against what Saxon was. The running order given here is the original pressing's.