Just as their name sakes floated their armies across the sea to conquer new lands the modern day SAXON have once again set upon the great waters to bring their thunder to bear on the ears of both Americas. First to fall were select cites of North America where the group blitzed its way through two weeks of Stateside Metal exhibitions, (mostly on borrowed equipment!) before withdrawing to Europe to slay some Spaniards and then it was on to rally the considerable SAXON legions of South America. With all this world-wide pillaging going on the SAXON standard looks to fly in front of more people in 2002 than in any year of its existence and that is itself something beyond glorious given the state of "Rock" music today.

Also worthy of much celebration is the new SAXON CD, "KILLING GROUND." Here is a band that found its formula many years ago and has added to their sonic broth only occasionally leaving the taste the same bounty of power that it always was. Perhaps a bit more "Metal" than their early day Hard Rock and Roll but still unmistakable and unshakable SAXON. There are eleven tracks, each with their own selling point but the most impressive, to me, has to be the SAXON toppling of the KING CRIMSON classic, "Court of the Crimson King." Powerful, progressive and eminently persuasive as much in it's live rendition as on disc. Me thinks this is a classic SAXON piece for all times and a disc that only the Metal-blasphemous dare not own.

Lucky as I was to be sitting with one of the founding instigators of the New wave Of British Heavy Metal I still couldn't help but chide lead vocalist Biff Byford a bit. I asked him if he planned on donning his spandex for that evening's performance as he had each night in the eighties. Byford looked at me unblinkingly for an extremely pregnant period of time until finally he said, "Naw, me balls are too big nowadays for the spandex." Byford smiled, stood, threw his balls over his shoulder and led his raiding party of fellow SAXON's through an evening of Metal conquest that left all in attendance dead, deaf or delirious. All hail the conquerors form across the sea.

DAVID LEE It must have been two or three years since you have toured in the States?

BIFF BYFORD Yeah, that's right.

DL And this time through it was only ten dates but it is nice that you could do those at least.(laughs)

BB Yeah, well we haven't got time to do any more really. We have only got a two-week window and things are really exploding in Europe which is really fantastic so we have to go back there. We have some gigs in Spain and then five days in Brazil and then we are mostly doing big festivals across Europe with the Eagle and everything so things are really going good for us. It is unfortunate that we really couldn't fit in any more shows for us in America this time around.

DL SAXON is a unique kind of animal in that it has continued as an entity but not existed as a reto-act, you always have new music.

BB That's right.

DL And, as you say, it is booming business for SAXON all around the world.

BB Yes, we are doing fabulous everywhere really but North America is very slow.(laughs) I think that one of the reasons for that is that we are not getting the festivals really, the shows that would put us in front of a younger audience like we have everywhere else. It is unfortunate but there you go. In a lot of countries our profile is sort of high again and I watch a lot of the teenage fans getting into Rock and they are getting into our newer albums and we are fairly relevant again and it is cool!(laughs)

DL That is a beautiful thing. In my case, I got into the band around '83 or so and though it was brand new to me you guys had been around for some time and I would imagine it is the same feeling for a lot of those teenagers today.

BB Yeah, that's right. It is great to go 'round full circle really.(laughs) It is a brilliant feeling really so we are quite happy about the guys getting into us, everybody is getting into us really and it is unfortunate that North America is not really, they couldn't give a shit really!(laughs) We have a lot of fans here obviously and that is the reason that we come. We certainly don't come for the money.(laughs) So, we just come and play for our fans and generally we do some bigger shows in Texas which is pretty cool but we really need to do an Ozz-Fest or something like that or get with somebody into a package thing, that would be good.

DL Even for American bands it is hard, Metal bands that is. Iced Earth for example, they play to a fraction of the numbers here that they do in Europe, it is sad really.

BB Yes, it is.

DL As far as "KILLING GROUND," it has been out for a while and I know this is pretty much out of the question for America but is it getting actual radio play in other territories?

BB Well, we are picking up a lot of airplay at the moment from the "Court of the Crimson King" cover that we did on this album which is a bit of a strange phenomena because we never expected it really but we are getting tons of airplay. A lot of our older stuff gets played all the time which is really cool but we are not really in the business to be a retro band so I think that maybe, to some extent, it is a lot harder to go that way really. The way that we have gone is a lot harder, to go and play what we do instead of an hour's worth of old songs so I just think that if we stick to that thought then it will be better. The rewards are much harder to get, do you know what I mean?

DL Absolutely.

BB It is not like a MOTLEY CRUE or a DOKKEN thing where they do a really good business in America but they are not really active, it is all a bit retro really. A bit antique-y and I mean, they are good bands and they do a good business but their new albums are not breaking any new ground.

DL Yeah, I like them both very much but they do seem to have this aura of resignation about them as if they have given up the fight.

BB Yeah, they are not active bands. Don't get me wrong, I really like the bands, they have done some good music in their time but they are not really in the forefront of anything particularly anymore. I think there was so much of that music that was down to youth, a lot of the Rock scene in America, usually girls, but you know!(laughs)

DL And we are very happy about that aren't we?(laughs)

BB Yeah, but it was more of a glamorous, pop-idol kind of thing and I think that in South America it kind of took on an almost religious tone really. It really was looked at as an art form, the music was.

DL Strangely enough the scene that seems to have grown directly from what SAXON and some others have done is in Scandinavia and I would imagine that those countries are pretty good for you now?

BB Oh yes, Scandinavia was a big area for us in the 80's and a lot of the musicians now who are in the sort of harder or darker bands watched SAXON in the 80's and were definitely influenced by us. When we go there it is like a "who's who" on the guest list, it is crazy.(laughs)

DL I bet, and when you go there these guys who are in relatively big name bands are looking to SAXON like "Gods of Metal" or something, must be a nice feeling?

BB Yeah, there is a "legend" aspect to all of it but we don't really get off on that. We are not really a bunch of massive egos in our band really. We are quite humbled by it in actual fact. We don't really see ourselves as "Gods of Metal" or "Legends," we consider ourselves to be a bunch of musicians who write in a certain genre and one of the top bands to do it right along with MAIDEN or PRIEST or any of the other bands that are still around. I do think that our formula is the best one though!(laughs)

DL There is another guy who has been at it as long as you have and who will be touring a new album here soon, Lemmy and MOTORHEAD. I was just looking at a picture of both SAXON and MOTORHEAD when they toured together back in the very early 80's and who would have thought that the both of you would still be doing it this far into the future?

BB Yeah, well, we are certainly two of the only ones who have been consistently the singers of bands from day one. Lemmy is a good lad, we are still great friends. You know, we look on Lemmy as a legend as well you know. He has been around for a decade, maybe more than a decade longer than we have.

DL Each fan of the group will have an album that is special to them but I wonder, with all of these "babies" that you have given birth to, do you have a favorite?

BB I think that there are always periods in a band's career where they sort of pop a good one. Sometimes we popped two or three on the trot but there is always a single time when a band really connects with its audience, a time when a band writes and album that the fan base really likes but then there are some times that you write an album that all of the fans are just OK with. If I knew why and I knew how to write the albums that go above that I would probably be a millionaire!(laughs) You know, I like "KILLING GROUND" right now and it has been received as a very, very special album. It is a great mixture of styles but running through it is that sort of 80's thing that we helped to create and people have really warmed to that. Every so often we will do an album like that and I think that an album like "SOLID BALL OF ROCK" had sort of the same thing going for it. "METALHEAD," the one right before "KILLING GROUND," put us in front of a much younger audience because it was much more "Euro-Metal" and it is much darker. We had great fun experimenting but that was about as dark as we go really. You know, we have been very lucky and the last five albums have all been very well received and a lot younger audience has gotten into them and it really has regenerated the band. Having an audience like we had in the 80's again makes if feel like the 80's again because I mean, we go on stage in front of 30,000 people and you get all of the older fans with all of the younger fans and it is really just a great atmosphere again and that is what it is all about really.

DL SAXON has always maintained a certain sense of identity through the years but you have still covered a lot of sonic ground, does that hinder the compiling of a set list? I mean, can you do any given track at any given time and not have something sound out of place?

BB We do have a problem on occasion but at the moment we are not running with a set list. I just make it up as I go along basically which is pretty cool.(laughs)

DL Trying to make the younger guys in the band earn their pay then are you?(laughs)

BB Well yeah!(laughs) they like it actually and when you are doing clubs like this one it can get kind of boring if you are doing the same songs night after night. It just gets a bit boring for us so we swap and change a lot.

DL Do you try and catch the other guys off guard sometimes?

BB All the time!(laughs) Oh yeah.

DL Are there fines involved for missing openings or starting the wrong song?(laughs)

BB Naw! They are not paid musicians, they write the songs so they are fully-fledged members of SAXON but we do want to try and have a bit of fun as singers do with their bands.

DL That is great. You are a very hard singer and you have been doing this for quite some time, in fact, I would say that there is a very short list of guys who have sang as hard for as long. . .

BB A very short list.(laughs)

DL How is it that you have maintained a voice for near on thirty years of Heavy Metal howling?

BB Well, you just look after yourself really. Don't abuse yourself and just rest really especially if you are doing these long tours with no days off. If you start partying you start to slip down below the level of performance that you need.

DL The last time that we spoke was for the "METALHEAD" disc and while we were on the phone I could hear your young ones running around, it must be hard for Dad to be away for so long?

BB Well, it is not too bad really. We have cut down the long weeks away, we don't really stay out for too long. When we do Europe we go away for about nine weeks but the thing is with Europe I can fly home whenever I get a day off or something. It is not as bad as it used to be but it is still pretty hard when you are away from your young family, they miss you a lot but that is my job really, it is what we do.

DL Right, some have Seaman Fathers who have to spend months at sea. . .

BB (Laughing) "Seamen Fathers?"

DL (Laughing) Yeah, that didn't sound right, how 'bout "Sailor Fathers?"

BB Yeah, yeah!(laughs)

DL But they have Dads that are away for long times traveling the world much as you do.

BB Yeah and they miss their children too but it is not forever.

DL Right. Well, we kind of have to cover some other darker ground here now, there is another group calling itself SAXON at the moment, this has to be a tremendous thorn to you especially when trying to promote a new record?

BB Um, it is actually not so bad now. We don't really get bothered by it because most people know now that there are these assholes that are on the fringe trying to fuck us up as much as they can. Since it has turned around for us a couple of years ago and we have been doing some really big shows again they have become insignificant really.

DL The people who are coming out to see the shows will already know the difference between this band and the other one?

BB Yeah, everyone knows that they are around now so people do a double check. It is not really out in America as much but people will check on the posters and such. You know, we always tour on the current album so we are very unlikely to be doing a tour that says something like, "Greatest hits from '82 to '85" or something like that.(laughs) We will always be touring on the "KILLING GROUND" or something like that. We did notice that a couple of weeks ago they were playing at a little pub and the bastards had actually used the "KILLING GROUND" album as the background!

DL That is a bit cheesy.(laughs)

BB Yeah, they are a bunch of sad bastards really, aren't they. They can't write a song obviously because if they could they would be writing them wouldn't they? The fans don't give them any respect or credibility at all so it is not good for them really. Wankers.(laughs)

DL It seems that you are always a record ahead in the planning so, do you have another record in the offing at this point?

BB We are just pacing ourselves this year. We have got the re-recorded album called "HEAVY METAL THUNDER" which comes out in September which we want to be a little bit special so we have fourteen re-recorded songs on it and maybe an "official" bootleg from one of the shows here, I don't know yet. It will have photograph files and video clips and some other stuff that you can download so it will be a bit special. Then in September we have a DVD+ coming out and it is looking good. We have tons of old footage and camcorder stuff and interviews from the seventies and lots of stuff so it is pretty good as well.

DL Oliver and Dawson have both seemed to have cleaned out their attics of old SAXON material, do you have boxes of unused things sitting around that will be released at some point?

BB No, we are a pretty tidy band really. We don't leave any loose ends really. The thing is, if we do have songs that have good bits to them, we bastardize them.(laughs) Yeah, we nick the bits, like a chorus or something. We are not really the type of band that writes fifty songs and uses only ten of them so we are pretty tidy as that goes. As far as the stuff that has been released, it is not much for a twenty-year period, the odd stupid song here and there that we didn't like. I think that a lot of it is just them trying to create a thing for themselves really but I cant see why anybody would want to put out songs that we didn't think where good enough for the album in the first place. Then they are on a little bit of a losing run with it because they are all sung by me!(laughs) they are fucked because it is me singing so there is nothing around that I haven't been singing on. They try to paint this picture where I was "employed" around 1980 or something but it is not true. I was the originator of the band with Paul Quinn but anyway, everybody knows the story.

DL The comparable type of thing seems to be with COMPANY OF SNAKES with members of WHITESNAKE from various periods going around doing the old WHITESNAKE numbers though I do have to say they are quite good.

BB Yeah, well, that is slightly different isn't it? If Dawson and Oliver were going around as "A company of Warriors" or "A band of Saxons" it would be slightly different. I know Bernie and he is not actually going out as WHITESNAKE so I don't see a conflict there. A COMPANY OF SNAKES is obviously doing WHITESNAKE songs and I think that is cool.

DL What is really strange is that they are using the same singer that OLIVER/DAWSON used on one of their discs, small world.(laughs)

BB I have no idea.

DL I know that tonight is an exception but SAXON is playing in front of larger audiences than maybe you have ever played in front of?

BB Yeah, it is really back to the 80's definitely. We will do a couple of hundred thousand people this summer definitely.

DL Would you rather play those big shows or a club like this one you will play tonight? Does it help getting closer to the audience?

BB We take everything as it comes really and when you are playing with the eagle and all the pyro and the castles and all that it is a much different beast than we are today so we are lucky enough to be experiencing all fields of venues.(laughs)