One for you metal fans out there. Attended a f**king brilliant gig on Friday in Edinburgh 😈

Headliners Saxon

Support by Anvil

Stand-out moment = Steve Kudlow playing guitar with a vibrator 😆 Great fun.

I remember anvil from the 80s, good to see them finally getting some proper gigs off the back of the film.

I saw Saxon headline an all day festival at Leeds Queens Hall circa 1982 along with Anvil, Girlschool, Twisted Sister. Lips (as he is called IIRC) was doing the vibe thing back then.

Twisted Sister 200% stole the show that day though.

My mate's (who I went with that day) band supported Saxon recently….
Official site

And listen to their music here…

I would be interested to hear any comments/critique about them – they have gone down a storm in Germany with their new album though. Ohh and the one and only Bruce Dickinson recently raved about them on his radio show too.

Why do metal bands look like that? Really, will some-one please explain to me why?

Same as any band fits into the identity expected of the given genre.

I had the amusing experience of overhearing a music genre conversation mid ride on Saturday. When they got to "I lost interest in Genesis when Peter Gabriel left", I also lost what scant interest I had and went off to listen to someone else 🙂

Spinal tap anyone?

I couldn't quite believe Anvil were a real band after watching that documentary.

I was well into heavy metal when I was younger, and remeber it as a bleak and sad time of being a social outcast, not having a girlfriend, and listening to horrible pointless music. This blog sums up the experience quite nicely:

http://www.themetalinquisition.com/

Same as any band fits into the identity expected of the given genre.

Yeah, but it's generally true of most bands that they dress like conventional people, you know Jeans tee shirts, whatever, but metal bands; they ALL without fail, look like those up there…

Why?

Why?

because, obviously, they have little interest in music and like dressing up…

it's generally true of most bands that they dress like conventional people, you know Jeans tee shirts, whatever,

Ahem. 😉

or in Anvil's case – dressing down.

Metal bands have a certain look.
lets face it – Saxon said it best – Denim and Leather brought us all together…it was you (ie Priest) that set the spirit free.

having seen that lot I think I've gone off music 🙁

A metal band yesterday, not looking like them up there and ALL other metal bands.

in fact now I'm going off people if they have to look like that 🙁

You don't have to socialise with them Simon! Or interact with them in any shape or form.

Saxon truly were the closest you would ever get to seeing The Real Spinal Tap. Real legends, they are/were. 😀

I heard the bass player interviewed, saying he liked bass lines that could be played on open (ie unfretted) strings as this left his fretboard hand free to 'point'.

I saw them in about 1992 and the guitarist:
a) Played a 5 minute solo. And I mean 'all on his own' solo.
b) Had a special harness/strap arangment that mean he could spin his guitar right round like a windmill.
c) Would every so often lift his guitar to his shoulder like a rifle and 'shoot' pretty ladies in the audience.

Not one of my top ten gigs, but still a Rock Rite Of Passage of sorts…

Mr Agreeable, missing the point by a country mile…

You couldn't tell by the clothes what those bands styles were. Just that Metal bands pretty much ALWAYS dress like Saxon, you can always tell the metal bands…

Are crocs the big new shoe for purveyors of devil music?

You don't have to socialise with them Simon! Or interact with them in any shape or form.

I was thinking more about being reluctant to share a planet with them…

but metal bands; they ALL without fail, look like those up there… Why?

To Quote SFB:

We have to do something twixt birth (whether breastfed or bottle) to all-to-soon demise, so why not?

As I recall, Saxon were officially credited with being the inspiration for Spinal Tap

They were also the first band I saw live, at the Cresset in Peterborough "ywefgueul" years ago. Supported by Excalibur, as I recall….

to julianwilson:

both the guitarist and Bassist you refer to have left the band since you saw them…

and now have their own band (after lengthy law suites) call themselves 'Oliver/Dawson Saxon'

Biff and the other guitarist continue with a new guitarist, and bassist, and a revolving door of drummers (a bit like Judas Priest)

To Quote SFB:

We have to do something twixt birth (whether breastfed or bottle) to all-to-soon demise, so why not?

sorry, I'm not happy about my quote being dragged to those lengths – surely sudden death would be preferable ??

Oliver/Dawson Saxon?! 😆

Biff's a reet stout northener isn't he? I would loooooove to hear his Stories of Rawk over a few jars with him but he'd probably get fed up as I am both from the South and quite French.

Really, will some-one please explain to me why?

Cos it's metal.

And anyway, Orthodox (pace Sunn o))) ) don't:

Now, y'black metal is what you want for le tosseurs…

10 most ridiculous black metal pictures…

As Brian Clough once said, metal isn't a matter of life & death, it's far more important than that.

Probably.