{"id":748257,"date":"2026-07-07T09:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T09:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/748257\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T09:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T09:51:15","slug":"living-after-midnight-by-judas-priest-the-story-behind-the-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/748257\/","title":{"rendered":"Living After Midnight by Judas Priest: The story behind the song"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the spring of 1980, Judas Priest<\/a> released an album that was to prove so successful within the parameters of its genre that it would almost come to define the term \u2018heavy metal<\/a>\u2019. British Steel<\/a>, the Birmingham group\u2019s sixth studio record, was a masterclass in leather-and-studs bombast.<\/p>\n

More than four decades on, British Steel remains a cherished gem from the golden age of British metal. What separated Judas Priest from the heavy metal crowd was their ability to marry the primal, industrial pounding that had reverberated around their industrial-heartland birthplace to a bloody good chorus.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAlthough I say so myself, British Steel is a very, very good album,\u201d says guitarist Glenn Tipton. \u201cWe had gone into Tittenhurst Park, the home of Ringo Starr, who\u2019d bought it from John Lennon<\/a>, after a previous attempt at another studio, and with only half of its songs written. Until that point, we\u2019d never worked that way before.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll always recall that 1980 was a great summer, and being in such an inspirational surrounding definitely rubbed off on us,\u201d he continues. \u201cWhat came out was a set of very simple yet effective songs that, I\u2019d like to think, helped to shape what else was going on [in heavy rock music] at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living After Midnight, the first of the album\u2019s three huge hit singles (the others being Breaking The Law<\/a> and United), was among the songs conceived at Tittenhurst, near Ascot.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOne night while we were there, John Lennon was on the TV playing Imagine, and of course it was very weird to be in the actual room where he\u2019d been filmed,\u201d Tipton remembers. \u201cYou could almost visualise the white piano in the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judas Priest – Living After Midnight (Official HD Video) – YouTube
\n\"Judas<\/p>\n

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In an equally eerie scenario, singer Rob Halford got the inspiration for the lyrics for Living After Midnight as his bandmates kept him awake by blasting out riffs and drum beats in the studio below. \u201cHe came downstairs to complain and said: \u2018Hey, guys, come on. It\u2019s gone midnight.\u2019 Which shouldn\u2019t really have bothered such a heavy metal icon as Rob,\u201d Tipton says, laughing at the memory.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was 4am and we\u2019d been working all day,\u201d Halford protests. \u201cBut when I said what I did, the guys went: \u2018That\u2019s a brilliant title. Write it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRob\u2019s comment proved to be a spark for a very important song for us,\u201d says Tipton. \u201cIt was one of those lucky spontaneous things that sometimes just happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the song\u2019s swaggering, chest-beating, nocturnal-themed lyric \u2013 \u2018I\u2019m getting hotter by the hour\/Loaded, loaded\u2019 \u2013 seemed to set up Halford as a bit of an all-conquering, love-\u2019em-and-leave- \u2019em sex machine, then the singer has no complaints.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYeah,\u201d he smiles when reminded. \u201cIt made me sound like Clint Eastwood from A Fistful Of Dollars, clutching a condom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living After Midnight begins with a drum intro from the then newly arrived Dave Holland (formerly of Trapeze<\/a>), and then it goes straight to the chorus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t know why it turned out like that,\u201d Tipton admits. \u201cSometimes the simplest ideas just work out the best. Maybe that was in the back of our minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to be said for the very famous phrase that goes: \u2018Don\u2019t bore us, get to the chorus,\u2019\u201d says Halford. \u201cIn this instance, we took it pretty literally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judas Priest – Living After Midnight (from Epitaph) – YouTube
\n\"Judas<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Both agree that the vision of producer Tom Allom, who had been retained after the band\u2019s live Unleashed In The East<\/a>, was fundamental to the project\u2019s success. In those pre-sampling days, Allom suggested the band raid the studio\u2019s kitchen to rattle trays of cutlery as an enhancement of the ominous grind of Metal Gods. (He also recorded the sound of smashed milk bottles and a police siren for Priest\u2019s more commercial-sounding Breaking The Law.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to make our own samples in those days, and Tom had such great ideas. I sometimes think that even we [the band] overlooked his importance,\u201d Tipton offers. \u201cHe was such a diplomatic guy, and great at getting guitar and drum sounds. What an underrated producer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like the hilarious video for Breaking The Law, in which Priest robbed a branch of Barclays Bank in London\u2019s Wardour Street, armed with their Flying V guitars, and then made their getaway in an open-topped convertible, the video for Living After Midnight was a suitably ludicrous affair. Directed by Julien Temple and shot at Sheffield City Hall, it boasted Dave Holland playing an invisible drum kit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe air guitarists, and everybody piling onto a coach, those were early days of videos,\u201d Tipton says of Priest\u2019s comedic vent. \u201cAlthough corny, I still think they were great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Living After Midnight didn\u2019t chart in the US (it reached No.12 in the UK), the immediacy of it opened the door there for Judas Priest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was absolutely pivotal in breaking the band in many parts of the world,\u201d Halford says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeavy metal is all about getting together with your mates, donning the gear, drinking a few beers and watching some great music,\u201d adds Tipton. \u201cAnd in the morning you go back to work, school, college or whatever. It\u2019s therapeutic, nothing more and nothing less.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the spring of 1980, Judas Priest released an album that was to prove so successful within the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-748257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}