Saxon Release HEAVY METAL THUNDER – THE MOVIE
The silver eagle has finally
landed for audiences worldwide!
After enjoying a limited “Fan
Club Only” UK release, Heavy Metal Thunder – The Movie, Saxon’s wonderfully
unfiltered and intimate account of their ascent to the upper echelons of heavy
metal, will finally enjoy an international release in December. The
double-disc set features the soon-to-be-celebrated story of Saxon, while the
second disc is packed with bonus features including a full-length performance
(on St. George’s Day) from April 23rd, 2008. Rivetingly honest, and including
the frank memories of every musician who has played in the band, Heavy Metal
Thunder – The Movie pieces together the earliest incarnations of Saxon, from
frontman Biff Byford’s teenage years in the coalmines of Yorkshire and Son Of A
Bitch (the first incarnation of Saxon) all the way through to top 10 hits and
world tours. “Our music was more sort of machinery banging together, wheels
turning, machines making noise,” says Biff of those early, industrial days,
“It’s what Heavy Metal is all about. Heavy Metal is all about hard, big sounds
bashing your skull in. I used to work in factories where big machinery made lot
of noise and I used to sing along to the noises they made.”
It is a documentary which
looks for all the world as though it’s a superbly crafted script, as much a
tale of pure, honest, working class triumph as just another rock’n’roll story.
Heavy Metal Thunder – The Movie shows every facet of Saxon on their journey
without once diluting the true characters who make up the band. “We basically
played every dump and shithole that there is in England over a period, probably
just short of eight years,” laughs Biff. “You know classic cliché of transit
van, up and down and we used to play more or less every night. One gig might be
a good paying gig and the other one might be no money or ten quid but it was an
obsession, you had to play every day.” These wonderfully naïve young men sought
nothing more than a great gig, a good time and maybe a nice girl, before
suddenly finding themselves on tour in the US, exposed to the sorts of things
which (quite frankly) Barnsley simply didn’t offer in 1980. And from that
point, Heavy Metal Thunder – The Movie, takes the viewer on a journey - on a
rock’n’roller of a journey encompassing it all from triumphs to tears to
tea-bags and beyond.
Nothing is forsaken and
nothing skipped. Despite the fact that to this day there remain problems
between the Byford/Quinn and Oliver/Dawson parties, everyone tells the
full-unedited Saxon story with heartfelt honesty and integrity.
“We do have a great legacy,” says
Byford, “whether you joined the band in 1994 or (as) an original member.
There’s a legacy there and I’ve tried hard to not let people demean it and to
spoil it and you have to look after that thing that is Saxon.”
UK release December 10th, 2012
FORMAT
• DVD Digipack (2 Discs)
• Blu-ray
Tickets for Saxon's 2013 UK tour are now on sale.
APRIL 2013
Sun 28 Bristol O2 Academy 0844
477 2000 www.o2academybristol.co.uk
NH