Judas Priest - Saxon Hammersmith Apollo - 26-5-12

On a balmy late May evening we were greeted by a queue snaking around the block and sold out signs for the last night of the Epitaph World Tour.

First up were Kobra And The Lotus from Canada who although I have heard and liked the debut album, made little impression mainly due to a mix that was so muddy you were unable to pick up a single word singer Kobra Paige said.

Lots of synchronise head-banging but very little substance if I’m honest.

Next up were Saxon who came on like returning heroes and for 50 minutes were quite fantastic. With a better sound how could they go wrong with this setlist?

Heavy Metal Thunder

Hammer Of The Gods

Power And The Glory

I’ve Got To Rock (To Stay Alive)

20,000 Feet

Crusader

747(Strangers In The Night)

Denim And Leather

Wheels Of Steel

Princess Of The Night

Biff was in fine voice and the crowd responded like they were the headliners.

The whole set was a highlight and it had the feel of a festival set with them kicking arse and getting off!!

After the excellent “Call To Arms” cd we await the next instalment of Barnsley’s finest renaissance!!

After 119 shows Priest’s Epitaph tour came back to the UK for one final show and if this really is it then what a great send off.

After Saxon’s set we didn’t need to warm up as there was sweat coming down the walls but with an enormous light rig and more explosions and flame throwers than you could shake a stick at. The temperature went up another notch or two.

Over the course of 2 and a half hours we had the same set as last year but here in all its magnificence it needs another reading!!

An intro of Sabbath’s “War Pigs” with an enormous sing-along that was as loud if Sabbath had been coming on!!

Rapid Fire

Metal Gods

Heading Out To The Highway

Judas Rising

Starbreaker

Victim Of Changes

Never Satisfied

Diamonds And Rust

Dawn Of Creation/Phrophecy

Night Crawler

Turbo Lover

Beyond The Realms Of Death

The Sentinel

Blood Red Skies

The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown)

Breaking The Law

Short drum solo/Painkiller

Encore 1

The Hellion/Electric Eye

Encore 2

Hell Bent For Leather

Ritchie Faulkner solo/You’ve Got Another Thing Coming

Encore 3

Living After Midnight

Judas Priest have a legacy of great shows with everything thrown into it. Lights, lasers, flame throwers and metal by the bucket load and this was no different.

With the show being filmed for a forthcoming dvd and the last night of the tour this was top notch.

Over the course of the last year Richie Faulkner has really grown into the job of replacing KK Downing .Not only a superb guitarist he has an excellent stage presence with a real knack of getting eye contact with the crowd. I really think his presence has given the whole band a collective kick up the bum.

With Rob Halford now in his sixties he still has an incredible voice and can hit notes others fear to go near!!Although he could have gone up a small notch in the mix!!Also losing the enormous boots of a couple of tours ago, he now moves around adding to the stage presence levels. He also changes his jacket after every song with an amazing array of bacofoil creations!!

And Scott Travis (drums) makes a 150 minute gig in a sauna look easy and Ian Hill (bass) does what he does best laying down a groove for all the others to play over!!

Song highlights included the first 3 song kick of Rapid Fire/Metal Gods/Heading Out To The Highway, Green Manalishi, a quite wonderful Beyond The Realms Of Death with superb solo from Glenn Tipton, Breaking The Law with no vocals from Rob and sang with great gusto by one and all and the encore section with Harley Davidson entrance to top it off.

After a lengthy departure for the cameras and many “PRIEST” chants they were gone.

If this is it, although Rob said they would be back ,it was a fitting farewell to a classic band who will be very hard to replace.

We await the DVD for a great reminder of a quite wonderful evening.

Due to finding some rather excellent youtube footage of Priest’s performance we have added it to our gig archive to tide us over till the dvd is released!!