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There are some moments in a rock groups history that are separable from all others, moments that in time become the very definition of a band, here is one of them.
Fifty thousand metal-heads standing ankle deep in mud and piss begrudgingly listening to the underbill acts so that they may get to the headliners, RAINBOW, JUDAS PRIEST and the SCORPIONS, not necessarily a friendly crowd to play for. In the end SAXON managed to turn much of the bottle throwing mass to singing, chanting, fist pumping, fans or, at the very least, got them to stop throwing shit at the stage. The forty-five minutes of stage time captured here represents the full power and capabilities of a band that would go on to much success, so much so that currently there are two bands trotting the globe calling themselves "SAXON." This set is as raw as rock gets, just blokes with guitars drums and a microphone unknowingly creating the Heavy Metal template that would be used for the next two decades. Of the nine tracks here both "747 (Strangers in the Night)" and "Wheels of Steel" are the instantly memorable "hits" with each of the other seven numbers equally as high riding as compositions if not on the charts. Biff Byford's constant antagonizing of the police and venue security is just so classic that it alone is worth the cash spent to own this version of the show. He would never get away with that these days, unfortunately.
Liner notes from the band themselves tell the story of the day at Donnington and how it was recorded which is a nice bonus and evens the slightly disappointing live sound on the first few numbers to make this whole package just short of perfect.

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