SAXON: WHERE'S THE BIFF?

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SAXON: WHERE'S THE BIFF?

Joanne Carnegie

Few heavy metal bands can boast of drinking a lot of tea—but Saxon can! They used up 19,500 tea bags in just four months time during their 1982 tour. That’s a fact that you and I—hell, even the fantastic editors of METAL—would certainly want to remember years from now.

Did I hear someone mumble “Who are Saxon?” You mean?...Funny you should ask—have a seat—I was just about to determine the whos and hows, the wheres and whens, and of course always, the whys of this almighty Saxon.

The names Def Leppard and Iron Maiden should bang a gong to all “hip” metalheads by now. After all, both groups have toured the U.S. a zillion times— especially Iron Maiden, they’ve toured America 22 times so far (for number buffs), but I’m not too sure about Def’s #’s, and I’m not too sure I care to research that one—not just yet.

While both of these British supergroups were surfacing and starting to gain “prominence” in HM circles—during the early ’80s’ New Wave Of British Heavy Metal—Saxon, too, were riding that crest, and not merely tagging along for the ride. They were easily as popular as Maiden and Leppard in Europe, and certainly as good. They had grossed millions of dollars in Italy (Bill Holdship, are you listening?) by 1983 and also enjoyed bigtime status in other countries such as Germany, Poland and even Yugoslavia, where HM has quite the following. While Leppard and Maiden and many others were getting signed to big record deals and reaching respected Billboard chart status in America, Saxon somehow got lost in this “Heavy Metal Shuffle”—not to be confused with the “Superbowl Shuffle.” (Imagine the Fridge in heavy metal gear—Yeow!)

But this band—Saxon—they hadda contend with being on a little bitty label called Carrere back then in the late ’70s/early ’80s, while IM and DL enjoyed their success on biggies like Capitol and PolyGram. Saxon got a record deal in 1978, to be precise. The day they were signed the Sex Pistols were #1 on the charts in Britain. “When punk came along, it sort of ruined it for us,” lead singer Biff Byford recalls. Things have since gotten substantially better for the mighty Saxon, though. After sorting out their legal problems, they finally got off their small label, sustained a few distribution shifts, and now are settled comfortably with Capitol records. Got all that chronologically straight? Now that the formalities are out of the way, please do take off your shoes, grab a beer (or a pop) and a smoke if you dare, and pull up a chair.

Which brings us to Room 140 at an East Detroit hotel where Nance (a friend tagging along for the ride) and I came to talk with Biff Byford (as in By Ford) about Saxon, who used to be called Son Of A Bitch, but that was changed by the record company for obvious reasons. No one in the band seems to know what it means. Shortly into the conversation, Biff offers an English fag (hold on...translation: cigarette) and although I’m usually inclined to say no to offers of fags (seeing as my partner pinches me when I smoke ’em), I was curious nonetheless by the aroma of this English tobacco. At the flick of the Bic, cigarettes in hand, tea on table (of course tea) and tape recorder twirling, we were all set—I mean, what more could you need to conduct a METAL interview?

Biff begins the Saxon story by explaining their lack of promotion on nearly all their LPs, up until the latest, Innocence Is No Excuse, and even with that no one’s seeing poster displays in record stores— but then, not many HM bands are awarded record store window status these days...that’s reserved for bands like Duran Duran and A-Ha. But, Saxon are in the middle of a worldwide tour anyway, which will take them to out-of-the-way places like Hungary and Greece. They’re late on touring America with this LP— opting for Europe instead. The LP was finished last fall and Saxon had hoped to tour America much sooner, it being their “prime objective” at this point, but such things often befall a rock band, and Biff seems to be taking it all in stride.

Do they feel they’ve achieved what they set out to do with the new album—being on a new label and finally having the chance to make a record? “I’m very happy with this record. We’ve moved forward production-wise. We have stuff on this LP that’s not available in England. We step back in rhythm, I think—the songs are more like four or five albums ago.” And melody—something that’s usually lacking in metal music? “None. We’re more heavy if anything,” he says. “I’d like the next album to be a bit heavier—not as in heavy metal, but in feel and heavier sounds, with more emphasis on guitars.” Go for it, Biff! How about ballads, like Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home,” with hopes of getting some radio airplay? “Our audience doesn’t really want us to write love songs,” he says. The Saxon audience is comprised of mostly males, except in Japan, where it’s mostly girls...so let’s talk about girls and Saxon!

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“American people are the best party people I’ve ever met,” he offers. “They’ll party at the drop of a hat.” Are you talking about American girls, too? “American girls are definitely party animals.” Animals? “Yeah, ’cause the first time we toured America we couldn’t believe it...it stunned us.” What did? “We toured with Rush; they were nice guys, very musical and probably happily married, so we ended up picking up their partiers and we couldn’t believe what was happening. We went back to the hotel with about 45 girls, all willing to party. It was great fun. Great for the ego.” How about English girls? “In England, girls are more into Wham! The rock crowds in England are 75 percent guys.” Then, are you jealous of a band like Wham!? “There’s a place for that type of music, not everybody can be into rock, can they? The guy can’t help it if he’s a wimp. He wouldn’t be that rich in a rock band.”

I then felt an urge to ask about the Saxon image—one that does not seem to exist —like Motley Crue and Kiss (i.e. no makeup and mousse). Biff, don’t you think spandex and make-up would help in some small way, like it has with many other metal groups? “I suppose,” he says nonchalantly. “Maybe we could sell a couple million more albums. But, you see we’re not a glam rock band, like Motley Crue. And that wouldn’t be right for us to look like that because we didn’t start that way. So it would be a bit silly to jump on that bandwagon. Besides, English bands tend to put music first—you know, we don’t come from Caley-for-nea,” he says in a funny accent. “We're not trying to be Van Halen, we’re not trying to be anybody, really.”

You wouldn’t want to be like Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, bands who have similar musical sounds and came through the British Heavy Metal Invasion at the same time you did and became successful?

“We sell more records in Europe than Leppard and maybe more than Maiden in some countries. America has eluded us for some reason, except for a few cities, but we also haven’t had the big radio airplay and I think there’s two reasons for that. Our record label in the beginning was a dinky label and the promotion was just enough, you know. Iron Maiden got about 90 percent more hype than we did.”

And there were legal problems to contend with as well, that put them out of work for over a year. “The record company wasn’t promoting us much at all and then they released an album without telling us! It was pointless to tour with no promotion.” And then came court dates, which prevented them from doing any recording. The single “Back On The Street” reflects that legal situation, and was—coincidence?—the last song written for the new album.

While we’ve yet to see the figures from their new album, a previous album, Power And The Glory, sold one million copies in Europe. “We could get rich in Europe and it’d be nice to get rich there, but you have to stay there a lot of the time, and by staying there we’d neglect America.” And America means that much to you? “It's very important for us right now—and we deserve to be big in America. Our music is right for America, and we need to be put in front of people to prove it. But you've got to wait your turn,” he says.

‘‘We can survive, though,” Biff says. “We’ve proven that we can survive and it hasn’t been that hard because we’ve sold a lot of albums. And although we haven’t gotten what we want yet, we’re well on our way. America’s weird...we want to break it, we have our minds set on it. We’re like spoiled kids coming here since 1981. We’ve always been known as the band who’s gonna break. Everyone says, ‘Oh, Saxon’s gonna break this year,’ and we never get over the edge—sometimes we do, but it never spreads.

“But we love to tour. That seems to be where our strength lies. We can put up with it and we don’t feel bitter. We just need to be in the position to get maximum push.”

I gazed down to notice my cup o’ tea empty and took it as a cue to bid farewell to the mighty Saxon. And, for curious folks— Saxon’s moved on to bigger and better vices other than tea; they now drink coffee, Jack Daniels, Courvoisier and champagne. Yum!