SAXON TRIVIA
Trivia
Saxon last played Japan in April 2025: Yogibo META VALLEY in Osaka on the 25th, Daikanyama UNIT in Tokyo on the 26th and Shibuya Stream Hall in Tokyo on the 27th. The Daikanyama UNIT event page gives doors at 18:00 and a 19:00 start, with tickets at 15,000 yen in advance and 15,500 yen on the door, drink not included in either. The billing differs between sources: the venue printed the tour as Hell, Fire And Damnation ~天誅のヘル・ファイア~ JAPAN TOUR 2025, BURRN! ONLINE as Hell, Fire And Steel Tour JAPAN 2025.
The Japanese shows of April 2025 were a rescheduling of dates originally set for November 2024. BURRN! ONLINE reported the new dates on 10 November 2024.
Nigel Glockler joined Saxon just as the band was about to set out on the long tour that followed Denim and Leather. The drummer Pete Gill had injured his hand and left, and Glockler, formerly of Toyah, was brought in at short notice: the official biography says he had to learn the entire set within a day and a half. He is still with the band today.
The cover artwork of Power & the Glory is by the film director Ridley Scott. The official biography calls the record the band’s best-selling album worldwide to that date.
Saxon played the first Monsters of Rock festival on 16 August 1980. The official biography says the reception they got there became the following year’s song “And the Bands Played On”. Their set that day was recorded but not officially released until 2000. They played the festival again in 1982, the first band to appear there twice.
Two singles were taken from Strong Arm of the Law: the title track and “Dallas 1PM”, the latter about the assassination of the US president John F. Kennedy.
The bass on Rock the Nations is played by Biff Byford. Steve Dawson had left the band after the world tour that followed the previous album, and for this recording — the band’s eighth studio album — Byford played the bass parts himself. Elton John guests on piano on two of its tracks.
Saxon placed eight albums in the UK top forty during the 1980s, four of them in the top ten and two in the top five. The official biography puts their worldwide sales at more than thirteen million albums.
In April 1980 Saxon made the first of many appearances on Top of the Pops, performing “Wheels of Steel”. The album of the same name reached number five in the UK and stayed on the chart for six months.
The band were originally named Son of a Bitch. According to the official biography they changed the name to Saxon when they signed to the French record label Carrere, which then released their eponymous debut album. The sources differ on the year: the official biography says 1979, the English Wikipedia July 1978.
By 1989, the year the live album Rock n Roll Gypsies appeared from a 1988 European arena tour, Saxon’s shows at the big stadiums and arenas were few and far between and the band had no record deal; the official biography describes their future as uncertain at that point. What turned it round was a European tour billed as 10 Years Of Denim And Leather, after which they signed to Virgin Records in 1990 and began work on Solid Ball of Rock.
Saxon headlined Wacken Open Air in Germany in 2009. In 2010 they played the Download Festival in the UK, performing the Wheels of Steel album in its entirety to mark the thirtieth anniversary of its release.