Face Of Cheam

This was a bot of a wildcard as although I knew that Saxon were one of the prominant bands of the early eighties NWOBH movement, I did not actually know any of their songs. I mainly went for uber rock chick Doro who I saw do a storming show at the underworld a few years ago. Perhaps the best review of this is on Dave Ling's website who described Doro's set as a firecracker. A member of Girlschool guested on one of two tracks from her new album with the rest a best of set including her cover of Breaking The Law and All We Are. She still looks great at 45 too!
Saxon were a bit of a mix with distinct rock songs which were excellent and some overly metal tracks that were not so good. I enjoyed Ride Like The Wind early on and in some places Biff Byford's vocals were uncannilly like Brice Dickinson. Their set was nearly two and half hours going on till nearly half past eleven. A bonus in the encore was when Doro reentered the stage and treated us to a duet with Biff on the second Judas Priest cover of the night, 'You've Got Another Thing Coming'. Great stuff!

Saxon Set List -- 'Battalions Of Steel’, ‘Heavy Metal Thunder’, ‘Demon Sweeney Todd’, ‘Ride Like The Wind’, ‘Requiem (We Will Remember)’, ‘Strong Arm Of The Law’, ‘Valley Of The Kings’, ‘And Te Bands Played On’, ‘Hellcat’, ‘The Eagle Has Landed’, ‘Come Rock Of Ages (The Circle Is Complete)’, ‘Machine Gun’, ‘Never Surrender’,‘Wheels Of Steel’ ////// ‘Live To Rock’, ‘Motorcycle Man’, ‘Crusader’, ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Coming’(with Doro), ‘747 (Strangers In The Night)’, ‘Denim And Leather’, ‘Princess Of The Night’