1289. Saxon / Wheels of Steel. 1980. 4/5

Saxon’s so-called ‘overnight success story’ had actually been a process of almost a decade by the time they came to record their sophomore album. The band had originally formed in late 1975, lining up with another band that would become a contemporary of theirs, Iron Maiden. Originally called Son of a Bitch, they had come together through the dissolution of two other bands, S.O.B and Coast. To form a new band, S.O.B’s three remaining members Graham Oliver on guitar, Steve "Dobby" Dawson on bass, and John Walker on drums, joined up with Coast’s members singer and bass player Peter "Biff" Byford, and guitarist Paul Quinn. Byford relinquished the bass guitar and took on the vocalist role solely. Son of a Bitch began moving to a heavier sound and spent the next three years gigging extensively. John Walker eventually moved on and was replaced by Pete Gill. In the process of trying to organise a record deal, the band changed their name to Saxon in order to be less abrasive for record sales and radio airplay, and on the back of supporting established bands such as Motorhead and the Ian Gillan Band, Saxon released their self-titled debut album in May 1979.
The album gave the band music to promote on the road, but there was a nagging doubt about the quality and direction the band was heading. Reviews at the time said that the album was mixed, with differing styles in the songs that gave the impression that the band wasn’t sure of its own musical direction, and that the production of the album was also of a lesser quality than would have been desired. It was released at a time that the music landscape of the UK was changing, with the punk revolution and disco themes quietening after making a major splash for a short period of time. In their wake came new wave and also the slow surge of heavy metal, with bands in leather and denim beginning to find their way into the public spectrum. And for a band like Saxon, who had changed their name to avoid missing out on airplay but had also seen an opportunity to come out hard on their debut album slip away, the remainder of 1979 touring and gigging would have been eye opening for what was growing around them. They would have seen the young bands who were rising in popularity, who were p[cking out the clubs throughout the UK, and the music they were producing. And with this all around them, as the band that had the experience of the past ten years that they had spent getting themselves to this position, and with their contract safe in their hands, they entered the studios in February of 1980 with a mission statement in hand. And that was to produce an album that would not only compete with the material that was coming from these new brash young bands, but to be a leader amongst them. The end result was “Wheels of Steel”.

Whatever demographic the band was aiming for with this album, it pretty much nailed all of them with the opening song to the album “Motorcycle Man”. Remnants of the punk movement? Check. Denim clad rising of heavy metal headbangers? Check. Leather clad motorcyclists? Damn check! It is the perfect opening track for the era, the twin guitar vocal screaming hard core rhythm screams out of the speakers, the solid rhythm buffed up by Biff Byford’s opening vocals. This is bright and breezy, a song that incorporates the best of everything that was being showcased by the rise of the NWOBHM bands of the age. It has the metal guitar and drums that brings out the hand bang, and the added speed that brings the fist pump out as well. A terrific opening to the band’s sophomore album. “Stand Up and Be Counted” tracks in the same vein, and great opening riff to the song carries the momentum from the opening song forward. The twin guitars of Oliver and Quinn are excellent here, playing off the solid rhythmic core of Dawson and Gill while Byford sings anthemically over the top. Another solid track to kick off the album. Then comes the more melodic features of “747 (Strangers on the Night)”, a song that is still regarded by hardcore fans as one of the band’s best achievements. The morphing of the guitars into a melodic rhythm are accentuated by Byford’s excellent vocals throughout. This song shows how much the band had grown in the 12 months since their debut album. Though this differs in style from the opening two tracks, they are still paired together by the tougher riff leading out of the bridge into the melody, and then into the guitar solo section, which leaves no doubt as to the style of music the band is creating here. While the song has its change of mood it doesn’t make a left turn when it comes to style and genre. This is followed by the title track “Wheels of Steel” which mixes double entendres with a simple love of cars song, one designed for listening to while cruising in the car on the highway, fist pumping out of the window. Again, here Saxon has found their marketplace and are driving for it with all pistons pumping... slight pun intended. It closes out what is a superb first half of the album.
Let’s keep heading out down the highway (Judas Priest stylings on standby) with the opening song from side two of the album, “Freeway Mad”. And – if I haven’t mentioned it before – these lyrics are not going to win any awards at any songwriting festival that may have existed in the past or present. This isn’t Shakespeare and it isn’t Stephen King. However, they are fun enough, and the music more than makes up for them. Saxon pour fuel on the fire here again, especially in the solos that highlight and light up the track to its utmost. And who doesn’t like sirens added to a track to make it sound like you are being chased by the law... I mean, it only happens on just about every album released in 1980 on one song... don't believe me? Go back and check out Maiden and Priest and their releases from this year. “Freeway Mad” is a good song, and “See the Light Shining” continues on in the same manner, utilising the same template as has come before it and cannonballing through the second half of the album. I mean, the lyrics are... not nonsensical, but they really aren’t trying too hard to come up with a real story either. The lines “show me the way” and “I can see a light shining, shining down on me” take up three quarters of the song. Repeated almost to ad nauseum. Biff isn’t changing gear of pitch too often either. OK, well while we are at it, let’s just rinse and repeat for “Street Fighting Gang”. Saxon have found their niche and their groove, so there doesn’t seem to be any reason to change it, certainly not in the year and environment they find themselves in musically. The song is as on the same ground as the other tracks here but on a lesser scale, perhaps just through sheer tiredness of bashing that template for another song choice. “Suzie Hold On” acts as the ballad of the album, though really only lyrically not musically. Perhaps hard rock ballad is the best way to describe it, with Biff crooning about wishing her was rich to take away the pain of the protagonist woman he is singing about. Yet musically it holds its form with solid riffing. The album concludes with “Machine Gun”, which fires up the speed again. It also brings forth the war theme, giving the album a well rounded review topically. Jump on that rhythm riff to start the song and drive it all the way to the end, broken up only by the guitar solo stretch in the middle of the track. Hey! It’s not the worst closing track of all time. Indeed, it does the job as has been prescribed by the songs that come before it. It offers that same style and structure that the band nails down from start to finish, and if you are a band beginning to push your way into plain sight, if you have something that works, you hold onto it for dear life.

Saxon is a band that I didn’t really listen to until I reached the early 2000’s, when I reached a point at which I decided to go back and try and find music from all of the NWOBHM bands that I had missed on my way through my discovery of the heavy metal genre. As per usual this was not a deliberate thing, and I of course KNEW of the band themselves, but as none of my friends had any Saxon in their collection either, it just wasn’t something I gravitated towards. Eventually I found an opportunity and a desire to go back and find these bands and their albums, and that was when I first began to listen to Saxon the band. And while I got the first four albums and live album all in one hit, I still worked my way through each of them in a methodical way. So, I wasn’t overly enamoured by the first album, this one was different from the start.
Why? Because it SOUNDED like an album from 1980, and that was pretty much what I was looking for. I wanted to seek out other albums of that time in music history from the UK in particular, that found their mark in the rising force of what was going on. I went in with an open mind, and though I didn’t find that on the self-titled album, this one hit the mark. That opening side of the album is electrifying from an historical point of view. It channels everything that was best about the era of the music and puts it down on vinyl. It is a leap forward from their first album, with songs and music that makes you sit up and take notice. Those four tracks - “Motorcycle Man” (which I had first heard on Lars Ulrich's ‘79 Revisited best of collection of the NWOBHM era), “Stand Up and Be Counted”, “747 (Strangers in the Night)” and “Wheels of Steel” is a terrific opening half of an album, a standard that the second side doesn’t quite match but still has very good moments on it. Even today, it still holds up pretty well.
And that is what I have gotten from the album over the past couple of days, having put it back on a listen for the first time in a few years. It immediately brings energy to the fore, a tempo that catches the ear and makes you think “oh yeah, that’s right. Saxon!” My first listen was at work, and from the first ten seconds I had already been dragged in. Even though I didn’t hear this album until the new century, it immediately takes me back to what that scene must have been like in the UK in 1980 where so many bands were either about to make their mark or were in the process of reaching that point of their career. And for Saxon, this is their first true mark. It’s hard to argue against that. This album went to #5 in the UK album charts, a remarkable achievement given what was happening around them at that time.
Last year as I record this, Saxon released their excellent and underrated latest album “Hell, Fire and Damnation”. It was one I listened to at the time and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Listening to this album again over the last couple of days, I have had the same kind of reaction. It’s a little surprising because I know the album and know I have enjoyed it in the past, but it was not one that I thought I would enjoy as much as I have on this reflection. Music is a funny and wonderful thing at times. In the case of “Wheels of Steel”, it is a pleasant one as well.