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. I had a seriously good night courtesy of all three bands on the bill. Then we are all discharged into the wet West Yorkshire streets, most of us still singing ‘Loaded, loaded’. 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. I also like the way they don’t piss about stopping and starting with an encore, a brief breather and they’re off again. 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. Scott Travis, slightly cheesy crowd banter aside, plays a blinder, his work on ‘Painkiller’ is just insanely good. 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. 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. Richie Faulkner is superb tonight, especially during ‘Victim Of Changes’ when he was jaw droppingly good. Just in case you were wondering what type of music he likes. Love that Halford’s jacket has ‘Heavy Metal’ written on the back. ![]() 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. Halford is in fine voice throughout, although annoyingly he makes us sing every chorus of ‘Turbo Lover’ to him I prefer my vice versa. There are some great older choices in there too, ‘Green Manalishi’ was an unexpected treat. They mix up the oldies with the newies perfectly, the new stuff certainly passes muster in their set. Judas Priest are a consummate arena band, as you’d expect when they’ve been doing this for so well for so long. We all know the score when Rob calls out ‘Breaking the what?’ to us. Then we hit the straight with ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin” which is meaner and darker than I’ve heard it previously. 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**. 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. Saxon got exactly the great reception they deserved. 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’. My uncle Ali was right, the original Saxon line-up was just an incredible unit I thought about him a lot last night. 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. 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. 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. 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’. ![]() It is a thrill to see Mick Box strut his stuff too (who has only played with Heep since I was -3).Ĭhatting to my fellow metalheads before Saxon hit the stage was wonderful. 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”. Uriah Heep are already playing when we get in, they’re surprisingly loud for first band on. 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. Three bands I like but had never seen before and a wonderfully gentle, friendly metal crowd.įirst 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. ![]() I really needed this on a wet March evening, a triple bill of gnarled road dogs, brawlers, shaggers and metal warriors.
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