Gig review: Saxon + Girlschool + Grand Slam at Huxley’s Neue Welt, Berlin

Live review: Saxon, Girlschool and Grand Slam at Huxley’s Neue Welt, Berlin on Monday, March 3 2025. 

By PETER COATES

YORKSHIRE NWOBHM rockers Saxon are one of the stalwarts of the scene formed in 1978 and released the ground-breaking Wheels of Steel album in 1980.  I was at Hammersmith Odean for that tour, so it was fantastic to be able to witness the 45^th anniversary of the album, on this Hell Fire & Steel Tour – which includes the full playback of the album as the second half of the band’s set.

With a few line up changes, Biff Byford remains in charge. The band is still very active –  the current European tour has been a juggernaut, including fellow NWOBHM band Girlschool and the band that Phil Lynott set up with Laurence Archer after Thin Lizzy, Grand Slam. That initial version of the band only lasted a year, but came up with some great songs and Archer re-started the band in 2016.

Grand Slam continue to channel the riffs and memories of Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy and the set opens with the Lynott song “Nineteen”, before Grand Slam’s own “Crazy”.  Then the band piles into the Gary Moore rocker “Military Man” which was always a Lizzy-like track, given the punch and the melodies.

Mike Dyer is a giant and commands centre stage throughout the set, with Rocky Newton prowling the stage with his low-slung bass while Benjy Reid hammers the kit through Spitfire,and Sisters of Mercy has the signature melodic riffs of Gotham and Robertson, and this rolls into a memorable version of the Lizzy classic “Whiskey In The Jar”.

Laurence Archer crouches over the signature Flying V and churns out the riffs and melodic guitar lines, backed by some keyboards, delivering lead break after solo with exquisite touch.

Girlschool is currently short a Denise Dufort who was unable to tour due to illness, and has conscripted Larry Paterson to man the kit.

Kim McAuliffe remains front and centre with new girl Olivia Airey on bass (after the departure once again of Tracey Lamb) and the blonde bombshell Jackie Chambers is on lead guitar – the three providing a sonic bludgeoning that puts you right back into the early 1980s when some of the NWOBHM bands were actively straddling punk and heavy metal.

The set kicked off with the power of “Demolition” and the blistering “Cmon Let’s Go”, before a slight drop in intensity for “Hit & Run” – all Girlschool classics. “Out To Get You” featured an extended middle section with the packed crowd clapping along while Kim growled the vocals- and Jackie let rip with the solo.

There was a frenetic pace to “Kick It Out” with double kick drums powering the tempo,and the sharp accents behind the powerchords were solid from the wild man behind the kit.  New song “It Is What It Is” from the latest album What The 45, and needed Jackie to get turned on – which resulted in multiple offers from the crowd.  Olivia provided the grungy baseline to kick it off and then special guest Joe Stump from Alkatrazz joined to let Kim focus on vocals for “Are You Ready” also from the What The 45 record.

“Race With The Devil” is a crowd favourite and lets Olivia show off on the bass, while Kim and Jackie share the melodies on guitar. Time for a ballad, Kim announces, and they rip into “Bomber” from best mates Motörhead, and this triple-guitar onslaught absolutely tears the place down. The intensity persists for the climactic “Emergency” to bring the set to a thunderous close – proving that Girlschool can still cut it and can still hold a large crowd to the end of the set.

After the “Prophecy” intro tape, Saxon drove breakneck into “Hell, Fire And Damnation” from the most recent album and the first half of the set is a mixture of old and newer favourites spanning the band’s long career.

As with so many bands around from the 1980s, there are fewer original members left, with Steve Dawson and Graham OIiver both departed and Paul Quinn no longer touring with the band. Nigel Glockler on drums has been on the drum stool since 1981, so is almost an original, while Nibbs Carter took on bass duties in 1988.

The twin guitar assault of Doug Scarratt (1996) and Diamond Head’s Brian Tatler (2022) has taken on the mantle with enthusiasm – and they flank the main man Biff Byford throughout the set.  We get thunderous renditions of “Dogs of War”, “Backs to the Wall” and “Madame Guillotine”, before the spine-tingling version of “And The Bands Played On”.

Nibbs Carter kicks off the bass intro to “Dallas 1 PM”, which includes the radio broadcast commentary mid-song, and then we get a trilogy of Saxon classics in “Solid Ball Of Rock”, “Strong Arm Of The Law” and the mighty “1066”.

There is no break at all before the band rolls into the play through of Wheels Of Steel, and it is as though we have all been transported back to 1980 – the entire crowd singing along and raising the horns as the band motors through the album, from the roaring motorbike engine that prefaces “Motorcycle Man”, into “Stand Up And Be Counted” and the absolute epic that is “747 (Strangers in the Night)”.

Wheels Of Steel has the whole crowd in unison for the chorus,and then it is into “Freeway Mad”, “See The Light Shining” and “Street Fighting Gang”, before the melodies of “Suzie Hold On” and the monstrous “Machine Gun” which closes the album and the band leave the stage to rapturous applause.

The encore includes “Crusader” and “Heavy Metal Thunder”, before the anthemic “Denim and Leather”,and a brilliant version of “Princess Of The Night” to close the show.

Saxon is a band that refuses to lie down and take it easy and while still relying on the classics to keep the fans engaged, they are also proving that they can still deliver new material in the same vein – which may well engage a new generation of fans.