 Upcoming
British rockers Fury UK open up tonight’s
gig to a surprisingly large crowd. The 3 piece
rock through some heavy rock tracks yet with elements
of heavy metal and power metal, like a clash between
Iron Maiden and Metallica; the guitarist definitely
thinks he’s Kirk Hammett and whilst being
a phenomenal guitarist does go over the top with
the length of some of these solos. All 3 members
very talented; drumming is superb, guitar work
is great and the bass is good. With the vocals
I can make a lot of reference to American band
Taking Dawn; whilst Fury UK have been together
for a longer period of time I can’t help
but think that Taking Dawn annihilate them on
stage and musically whilst the vocals are almost
identical. They have some good energy but not
quite enough to get much reaction from the crowd.
Not a bad opening act but not fantastic.
 Wolfsbane
hit the stage second in tonight’s line up
with former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley fronting
them who is a complete lunatic. Comes on stage
and any member of the crowd not getting involved
gets individually singled out and shouted at,
it’s brilliant. Blaze and his drummer who
is also crazy (Came out in a sparkling gold jacket
and smashed his drums to pieces) are the main
attractions of the show as they are the most out
there. Whilst his onstage antics are cheesy and
have been the same since back in the day it is
still great to see how much energy and effort
he puts into his show aged 47 and still going.
Great crowd participation, “You fat bastard,
you fat bastard!” “THEY’RE PICKING
ON ME AGAIN! Listen you lot, it’s not fat
it’s a 1 pack! Why have a 6 pack when you
could have the whole barrel” wise words
from a legend. Playful and energetic after so
many years you can really appreciate the effort
especially when they aren’t that young anymore.
 We are finally greeted by home grown legends;
we gladly welcome the return of Saxon to the stage!
Pure British heavy metal legends once again grace
our town; whereas modern day metal bands have
pyrotechnics and all fancy things Saxon just keep
increasing the number of lights they have, it’s
a mass of the damn things but adds for some great
ambiance. They throw us out some great anthems
tonight like “Demon Sweeney Todd”,
“Denim and Leather”, “Dogs of
war” and “I’ve got to rock (to
stay Alive)”; on top of this they are debuting
a few songs from their upcoming CD Call To Arms,
“Hammer of the Gods”, “Back
in 79”, “Call to Arms” and “When
Doomsday Comes” to give us a little taster.
On stage singer Biff and bassist Nibbs are very
lively and up for it head banging and bouncing
around the stage but the 2 guitarist are a little
on the opposite side of the spectrum and even
during stupidly heavy and fast songs don’t
give much energy but play it cool, bit boring
in comparison to the other 2 but they make up
for  it superbly. They mix the set list up nicely
for a good balance of different styled songs to
really give the show their edge; tearing through
a 2 hour set at their age with no sign of taking
it easy is massively impressive. On the whole
terrific show from old school NWOBHM legends and
proof that Britain has put out some of the best
acts in the world! All hail Saxon!
Fury UK – 3/5
Wolfsbane – 4/5
Saxon – 4/5
Review By James Webb Photos By Robert Lawrence
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