Live Review : Saxon + FM + Wayward Sons @ Academy, Manchester on October 21st 2018.

Wayward Sons marks the second (or to be honest third or even fourth) musical coming of former Little Angels frontman Toby Jepson. Their debut album ‘Ghosts of Yet to Come’ emerged last year and was an enthusiastic and passionate collection of well-crafted and highly charged heavy rock songs. Live they display that same energy, lust for life and authenticity that made their first album stand out from the crowd. Toby has always worn his heart on his sleeve and tonight we get an obviously chuffed man playing the music he loves to an audience that laps up every single note. It might be 7.00pm on a cold Sunday in late October but Wayward Sons attract a pretty sizable crowd (they emerge to an Academy at least already three quarters full) and invoke an audience reaction that would be the envy of most headliners. With an unbeatable combination of infectious enthusiasm and great songs (Alive, Small Talk and Until The End are amongst the best things Toby had produced in his thirty year career) they have obviously captured the public's imagination and I reckon it won't be long until they are themselves headlining venues of this size. 

FM have paid their dues more than most bands. Back in the eighties they were the next big thing that never quite happened. Their brand of smooth keyboard drenched commercial rock was meant to catapult them into the stratosphere, but despite having the songs (I Belong to the Night and Bad Luck are particularly fine examples of polished accessible AOR) various factors kept them firmly tied to the launch pad. So instead of becoming major league players, here they are thirty odd years later plying their trade in a super-sub support position (they have been drafted in at the eleventh hour to replace Y&T) to a slightly disinterested audience. They do what they do awfully well, but the slightly muted reaction of the crowd underlines the fact that at this stage in their career they are firmly appealing exclusively to the converted.

It's impossible not to marvel at the utterly incredible nature of Saxon's return to prominence in the rock world. When I first started listening to Metal in the latter years of the eighties, Saxon were already considered a spent force. Their contemporaries, in the form of Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, had lapped them numerous times and 1988's truly dreadful ‘Destiny’ saw them haemorrhaging both momentum and fan-base. Then came Metal's great extinction event; grunge, and (at least in this country) Saxon disappeared below the radar for the best part of two decades, surfacing only for a messy battle over rights to the name. However for the last twelve or so years, slowly but surely they have rebuilt their standing and, as the near as dammit sold out Manchester Academy proves, they are probably more popular now then they have ever been in their long rich forty year history. Some of this is down to the re-emergence in popularity of hard rock, but most of it as the result of the charisma, depth and immaculate stagecraft that they show.

Over an expansive and comprehensive two hour set they give a master-class in how you enthral an audience. Biff Byford has matured into a highly engaging elder statesman of rock and his playful rapport strikes the perfect balance between confidence and self-deprecation. As the number of battle vests chucked over the barrier for him to wear and sign becomes frankly silly, he slyly comments that he is going to stick them all on eBay before he decides that they will open their own Saxon clothing store. But personality only gets you so far and Saxon prove that giving your audience what they want pays dividends. The sound is loud but crystal clear from the off and over two hours we get a tightly packed all-killer no filler set. Saxon avoid the urge to pad their time out with unnecessary covers or surplus solo's and instead we get a dense 22 song guided tour through their finest moments. They are not afraid to revel in their past glories and ‘Motorcycle Man’, 'And the Bands Played On’, 'Wheels of Steel' and ‘Denim and Leather' are all wheeled out to a rapturous response of raised arms and voices. But further driving home Saxon’s extraordinary creative and cultural rebirth, the six songs aired from new album ‘Thunderbolt' hold their own perfectly alongside the old favourites and more importantly receive an equally impressive reaction from the crowd. Whilst they will never be fashionable, Saxon have shown that in the end hard work and self-belief pays off. Tonight they were nothing short of magnificent and proved once again that Metal bands, like good wine, improve with age.

Photography by Samantha Guess