{"id":399064,"date":"2026-04-26T23:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399064\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T23:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:10:15","slug":"saxon-the-forgotten-debut-album-that-helped-launch-the-nwobhm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399064\/","title":{"rendered":"Saxon: the forgotten debut album that helped launch the NWOBHM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Biff Byford<\/a> recalled it as the moment when \u201cthe dam began to burst\u201d. In May 1979, Saxon<\/a>, the Yorkshire-based heavy metal band fronted by the foghorn-voiced Byford, released their debut album.<\/p>\n

In the same month, in a Sounds review of a London show with three other young bands on the bill \u2013 Angel Witch, Samson and Iron Maiden \u2013 the phrase \u2018New Wave Of British Heavy Metal<\/a>\u2019 was printed for the first time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Change was in the air, a vibrant grass-roots rock scene was developing. As Byford said: \u201cWe were in the right place at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

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The NWOBHM would make working-class heroes of former factory workers, labourers and dole-queue dreamers, and Byford and co. were as proletarian as they come. The band formed in 1976 as Son Of A Bitch, and it was in local Working Men\u2019s Clubs that they honed their act. \u201cWe\u2019d play three sets a night, maybe with bingo in the middle,\u201d Byford said. \u201cAnd in some really rough places. It was like the Wild West some nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

The primary influences for Son Of A Bitch were the big heavy rock groups of the early 70s: Led Zeppelin<\/a>, Black Sabbath<\/a>, Uriah Heep<\/a>. But as guitarist Graham Oliver said: \u201cIn 1977 we did a few gigs with punk bands. We supported the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Their audiences didn\u2019t know what to make of us, but we had so much energy we\u2019d really stick it to \u2019em!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Saxon&rsquo;s\n<\/p>\n

Saxon\u2019s Graham Oliver (left) and Biff Byford performing onstage in the early 1980s (Image credit: Marka\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It was this energy that connected Saxon to a new generation of teenage heavy metal fans. \u201cWe started getting a lot of university gigs,\u201d Byford said, \u201cand we saw a big influx of young kids getting into the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

It came out in a blaze of, well, nothing, really. But we were off. And as far as we were concerned, we were going all the way to the top.<\/p>\n

Biff Byford<\/p>\n

In 1978, the band found an unlikely home at French independent label Carrere, best known for their disco output. At the company\u2019s request, the name Son Of A Bitch was changed to the more palatable Saxon. And in January 1979 the band headed to London to record their debut album with producer John Verity, a fellow Yorkshireman, formerly the guitarist in Argent.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t all glamour. Although the band had a \u00a330,000 advance for two albums, they were billeted in a cheap bed-and-breakfast joint where, as Byford wearily recalled: \u201cThe owners had this huge green parrot that never, ever shut up from morning till night.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the lads had brought along some noisy friends of their own. \u201cThese girls from Yorkshire,\u201d Byford said. \u201cThere was a lot of shagging\u201d. And while the finished album was not as rowdy as they had intended \u2013 due in part to Verity\u2019s lightweight production \u2013 the best songs pointed to a glorious future for Saxon.<\/p>\n

Big Teaser (2009 Remaster) – YouTube
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They threw in some curve balls. Rainbow Theme and Frozen Rainbow had \u201ca proggy flavour\u201d, Byford said, and there was a whiff of glam-rock in Big Teaser and Still Fit To Boogie. But two hard-and-fast numbers \u2013 Backs To The Wall, Biff\u2019s two-fingered salute to The Man, and Stallions Of The Highway, the first of the band\u2019s many speed-king anthems \u2013 had the raw power and streetwise attitude that came to define both Saxon and the NWOBHM.<\/p>\n

The album failed to chart. \u201cIt came out in a blaze of, well, nothing, really,\u201d Byford recalled. \u201cBut we were off. And as far as we were concerned, we were going all the way to the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t have to wait long. In 1980, Saxon had not one but two hit albums, with Wheels Of Steel<\/a> and Strong Arm Of The Law, both now revered as heavy-metal classics. And in the title track of their 1981 album Denim And Leather, the spirit of the NWOBHM was enshrined. The opening line of the song was addressed to metal fans: \u2018Where were you in seventy-nine when the dam began to burst?\u2019 For Saxon the answer was simple: they were right there in the thick of it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Biff Byford recalled it as the moment when \u201cthe dam began to burst\u201d. In May 1979, Saxon, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-399064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}