Saxon – Never Surrender (Or Nearly Good Looking)

ISBN:
978-3-931624-44-6

"We knew we'd recorded a good album; we just didn't know it was that good..." recalls Biff Byford of 1980's breakthrough album »Wheels Of Steel«. Sales of the record took off in an astonishing manner, and the album soon reached a phenomenal 'Top 5' placing in the mainstream charts, after which there was no looking back for Saxon.

Emerging from the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal at the end of the 1970's, which brought to fame platinum album selling acts like Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, Saxon established themselves as one of the UK's foremost rock bands. By 1980, they had clocked up two Top Twenty albums in »Wheels Of Steel« and its follow-up »Strong Arm Of The Law« and two Top Twenty singles (almost unheard of for a heavy metal band) and also toured Europe and America, criss-crossed the UK twice and appeared at two of that year's most prestigious events - Motörhead's Heavy Metal Barndance and the inaugural Monsters Of Rock festival at Castle Donington. Since then, they've toured the world numerous times, headlining festivals from Reading to Wacken in front of some 30,000 people and selling millions of albums and singles.

Saxon was the people's band, the band that every metal fan wanted to see, the band that was seemingly unable to do any wrong. A string of hugely successful albums and singles such as "747 (Strangers In The Night)" and "And The Bands Played On", coupled with almost constant touring, great press and numerous TV appearances made them hugely successful throughout the Eighties, in particular in their homeland and across Europe. Saxon now is arguably a much stronger and much more potent force than it was ever before, drawing large crowds across Europe's metal heartlands and producing critically acclaimed albums such as »Metalhead« and »Lionheart«.

For over thirty years, Saxon has been led from the front by charismatic and larger-than-life vocalist Biff Byford. In his autobiography, he tells his story for the first time, from his working class childhood as a terribly shy schoolboy in Yorkshire through the mega-days of the early Eighties to the band's Twenty-First century rise to fame once more. Sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, but always brutally honest, »Never Surrender (Or Nearly Good Looking)« lifts the lid on the myths surrounding Saxon, as well as revealing the hard work and heartaches it takes to make it to the top and stay there.

2007 may well be the most successful year in Saxon's enduring history. Biff Byford will be starring a major role in a Spanish movie production called »Parcival«. Tying in with the release of Saxon's 17th studio album »The Inner Sanctum«, the long awaited autobiography »Never Surrender (Or Nearly Good Looking)« will hit the UK bookshops. Adding to the promotional buzz surrounding the band, Channel 4 is airing a 60-minute feature on Saxon in April 2007.

Authors: Biff Byford and John Tucker


Release Date: April 2007

Pages:
272

Language: english

Price: £ 17,63

Attention:
ISBN german version:
978-3-931624-49-1

Titel of the german version: »Saxon -Der Adler ist gelandet«

Release date Spring 2008