40th Anniversary : Castles & Eagles Tour
with support from Diamond Head, Girlschool & Uriah Heep

O2 Apollo, Manchester – 28th January 2022

What a beast of a line up!

Well we were in for a treat on this Friday night in January in Manchester! 4 massive bands were rolling in and the giants headlining were Saxon celebrating their 40th Anniversary (Turned out to be 42 due to Covid)

This was an early doors gig, opening at 5pm, and first band onstage at 6pm! The openers were Diamond head fronted by Danish man Rasmus Bom Anderson. Belting out his huge vocals Ras did not disappoint and was end to end of that stage while interacting with the crowd who were loving it!

Brian Tatler on guitar was the original band member who formed the group and proved to still rock out after almost 40 years! A few changes along the years now sees this 5 piece making new music and touring. Look out for them touring with Saxon later in the year.

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Next up it’s it’s all female band Girlschool who I was looking forward to seeing! I am a big fan of Joan Jett, and as this band were around the same time as the Runaways, were similar sounding. The 4 piece rocked it right from the start and threw in a couple of covers “Race with the Devil” and “Bomber” Kim smashing the vocals while bassist Tracey giving the odd high kick during the set, they proved they’re a force to be reckoned with even after around 40 years on the scene! My camera was drawn a lot to guitarist Jackie who was shredding that guitar, and doing lots of headbanging. Awesome set from these ladies, and I will be back to see them again as soon as I can! Girl Power 🙂

With half hour break in-between each show and running back to the stage front, I was getting my steps in tonight for sure! Next was Uriah Heep. Now I have not heard a whole lot of their music so was intrigued. Well, they blew me away! What a great show! From entering the stage to finish, they rocked it and frontman Bernie Shaw hardly stayed in one place. The crowd were bouncing and singing along to their classic songs. Mick Box smiled the whole show, making it a pleasure to shoot him and his guitar poses. A 7-song set included “Look at Yourself”, “July Morning” and ending with “Easy Livin” which everyone was singing along to. Smoke shooting up from the front of the stage and a huge backdrop added to the visual aspect of the show, all round a top set and I am new fan!

I hot foot it down to the front for the big headliners of the night – SAXON! Just before they graced the stage, we had a slideshow of a few images of them from the last 40 years which was a nice touch I thought. The backing drops to the floor and they are on stage to huge cheers. Biff looking ever so cool in his long black coat and announcing he is 71 years old! No way! He can still belt out them huge songs of theirs and looks great. Doug Scarett on lead guitar played with such confidence and Tim Carter coming to the front several times to head bang along with the crowd while bass bashing. At one point a cut off denim jacket full of patches was launched on stage by a fan, Biff not hesitating to wear it the rest of the set. They had an amazing ever changing backdrop of videos, and huge skulls, and the huge eagle which was hanging in the background was brought down to hover overhead. What an amazing show this was and I can tell that place was full of loyal fans of Saxon from over the years. Some very happy faces in there. You can catch the guys again later in the year.

I am off home to rest my legs, but what a fantastic evening and one I will not be forgetting in a hurry!