Judas Priest/Saxon/Uriah Heep
London Wembley Arena
‘Tonight’s show is a glorious yet senses-draining experience.’
Three of the great enduring British hard rock/heavy metal bands come together to deliver a show of real strength.
We are often reminded that patience is a virtue, and tonight Judas Priest roll into London for the first time in almost a decade, following the pandemic and an ill-fated Special
Guest spot with Ozzy Osbourne that was postponed multiple times. With tonight’s headliners’ critically praised latest album Invincible Shield having leapt into the UK chart at No.2 – their highest ever placing – and having not one but two iconic bands as an under-card, there’s an unmistakable feeling that despite being seated (well, seats are there) this evening’s lucky 12,500 punters are going to be part of something very special indeed.
Uriah Heep kick things off at the ludicrously early time of 6.40pm and are allotted just 35 minutes on stage. C’mon, man, if the show is gonna be an early starter then why not pull things forward by another 10 minutes and allow these elder statesmen the dignity of playing for three quarters of an hour?
It’s Uriah Heep’s first time playing here since 1976, when the place was called the Empire Pool and the band’s singer David Byron was about to be booted into touch during a campaign for the album High
And Mighty. Cast in the image of guitarist Mick Box, a man who probably smiles even during a visit to the dentist, Heep is a happier ship these days, and defying the time limitations they crowbar two songs (opener Save Me Tonight and Hurricane) from last year’s current album Chaos
&Colour, and one (Grazed By Heaven) from its 2018 predecessor Living The Dream into the set-list. Heep are far from alone in emphasising the new, and across tonight’s triplepronged performance 11 of the 37 songs played, more than a quarter were recorded in the current millennium. So much for this genre being a museum.
The rare inclusion of Free ‘N’ Easy, a bulldozer introduced by Heep’s chirpy Canadian singer Bernie Shaw as “three minutes of what heavy metal sounded like back in the early seventies”, sees them compete on an even footing with the two bands that will follow them, although what Heep can do that the others cannot is summon the light and shade of an organist to add colour, as on Rainbow Demon and Gypsy. Sure enough, they end with Easy Livin’ and an outro of Land Of Hope And Glory, with the Wembley audience on their feet.
Saxon take the stage to The Prophecy, a spokenword intro by none other than actor Brian Blessed. It precedes the arrival of another foghorn-voiced Yorkshireman, Biff Byford, who reveals that Saxon have never played Wembley before. They were supposed to have done so back in 1980, until Ritchie Blackmore threw them off a tour with his band Rainbow. “We’re fookin’ here now, though,” Byford states, grinning mischievously.
Guitarist Brian Tatler is proving an able replacement for co-founder Paul Quinn, who stepped back from touring last year but makes guest appearances when he feels like it. Surprisingly, Quinny doesn’t turn up at Wembley.
Saxon mix NWOBHM standards such as Motorcycle Man, The Power & The Glory, And The Bands Played On and Heavy Metal Thunder with newer songs such as Hell, Fire And Damnation, There’s Something In Roswell and Madame Guillotine, with no hint of frustration from the audience. Like Heep, Saxon simply have too many great songs to be condensed into a support set, so Byford offers a choice: we can hear Crusader, Dallas 1pm or Strong Arm Of The Law? The second, their ode to the assassination of US president John F Kennedy in 1963, complete with sampled gunshots, receives the loudest roar of approval.
“I don’t buy tickets, I’m from Yorkshire, but I’d fookin’ buy one for this,” Byford remarks after his band have cranked through 747 (Strangers In The Night).
Denim And Leather, Wheels Of Steel and Princess Of The Night conclude Saxon’s set, which includes Byford telling us – in an awful attempt at a cockney accent: “We’ll probably see you dahn the ’Ammersmith next year.”
What an opening one-two-three punch Judas Priest throw with Panic Attack, the first single from
Invincible Shield, followed by You Got Another Thing Coming and Breaking The Law, the latter introduced by Rob Halford teasing us: “Breaking the what?!”
With his multiple changes of outfit and quirky bunny-hops across the stage, the shaven-headed and bushy-bearded rainbow warrior makes the most unlikely of heavy metal heroes, but over the course of 105 pulsating minutes he sings way better than any seventy-two-year-old has a right to.
It helps that he’s backed by a wonderfully professional band. Guitarist Richie Faulkner plays magnificently, as does producer-turned-live guitarist Andy Sneap. Drummer Scott Travis even introduces the mighty Painkiller. From our seats high stage-left we barely see Ian Hill until he strides to the front of the stage to accept plaudits as the band depart; the rest of the time the bassist simply finds his spot and stands there for the duration, headbanging.
Sinner, a song you could play a visiting alien to define heavy metal, is rotated into tonight’s set over its tour alternative Beyond The Realms Of Death
(personally, I’d have preferred to hear the latter).
A thunderous Hellion/Electric Eye begins the encore, and engulfed in a plume of smoke Halford ‘rides’ his motorbike to the centre of the stage during Hell Bent For Leather. Then the ailing Glenn Tipton walks on from the wings to play guitar in Metal Gods
and Living After Midnight.
Tonight’s show, with three of the great British hard rock/heavy metal bands, is a glorious yet sensesdraining experience, and once it’s over one can only wonder whether we are likely to see it again. Three or four years down the line, into the circuit of what would be a twentieth studio record, Halford would be in his mid-70s, and these are extremely difficult songs to sing. But his final words are to tell us that “the Priest will be back”, and we hope that against the odds there is still at least one more chapter to be written in this amazing story.