Angel Air\/Border<\/p>\n
Prior to SAXON, back in the first half of the seventies, there was SON OF A BITCH. Deemed unsuitable by the band\u00b4s record label at the time, Carrere, the name was ousted in favor of what was to become Barnsley\u00b4s most major music export. In 1986 history repeated itself as SAXON originals Graham \u201cOly\u201d Oliver, guitars, Steve \u201cDobby\u201d Dawson, bass, and Peter Gill, drums, joined forces with THUNDERHEAD vocalist Ted Bullet and guitarist Haydn Conway, guitars (ex. SARACEN). The band\u00b4s debut gig was headlining the Isle of Man TT and things looked good until Peter had health issues and Ted ran into contractual obligations with THUNDERHEAD. <\/p>\n
This album opens with one of two question marks. The overly heavy \u201cBitch of a Place to Be\u201d is too grinding at times, especially as things escalate towards the end. But please don\u00b4t let that or the oddball \u201cEvil Sweet Evil\u201d put you off. Because in here is the songwriting duo\u00b4s best after SAXON track, \u201cPast the Point\u201d, which would have made them even more rock stars a decade earlier. The force, the refrain, the steamy energy, everything that made SAXON big is in here, created by the probably most prolific songwriters of the band. The feel good English old school hard rock of the likes of \u201cDrivin\u00b4 Sideways\u201d, \u201cTreacherous Times\u201d and, of cause, \u201cOld School\u201d keeps my pulse beating. And the sheer ballad straightfulness of \u201cI Still Care\u201d works fine in that department too. In addition to the old edition of the album we get the excellent bonus track \u201cRunning Away (from You)\u201d. I regard the exclusion of the track on the original album as a mystery, since it is right up there with \u201cPast the Point\u201d and the energetic title track. The latter benefits very much from the vocal talents of Mr. Bullet. In some of the tracks I really miss Ted in OD SAXON, but in other cases present OD SAXON vocalist John \u201cWardi\u201d Ward, is hard to beat. Both of them have more voice left than is the case of Biff Byford in many ways these days, but I don\u00b4t want to start a debate. I recommend this album, and I would happily purchase a follow-up if they get down to doing that one day.<\/p>\n
Track List
\nBitch of a Place to Be
\nDrivin\u00b4 Sideways
\nPast the Point
\nNo Ones Getting Over
\nTreacherous Times
\nLove Your Misery
\nI Still Care
\nOld school
\nMore for Me
\nEvil Sweet Evil
\nVictim You<\/p>\n
Bonus Track
\nRunning Away (from You)<\/p>\n
www.angelair.co.uk www.oliverdawsonsaxon.co.uk <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Angel Air\/Border Prior to SAXON, back in the first half of the seventies, there was SON OF A BITCH. Deemed unsuitable by the band\u00b4s record label at the time, Carrere, the name was ousted in favor of what was to become Barnsley\u00b4s most major music export. In 1986 history repeated itself as SAXON originals Graham […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cd_reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}