One of the strongest live acts in the heavy metal genre, Saxon, is celebrating this year its 30th anniversary. Saxon frontman, Biff Byford, finds it hard to believe that time went by so quickly and so do we every time we see him and his gang hit the stage…Their new album “Into The Labyrinth” was released in January and it has gathered quite some positive reviews from fans and the press worldwide. Solid Rock caught up with Biff Byford during the band’s tour, enjoy the short but compact conversation...

Solid Rock: “Into The Labyrinth” was released one month ago. Has the result of the album met your expectations and how do you see the response from the audience/fans so far?

Biff Byford: It’s awesome......I expected that it was good...but not that good.....everybody loves the record and also the chart entries were amazing

Solid Rock: The album is also doing well on the European charts as well as USA Billboard charts. This is not everything but it definitely is something…

Biff Byford: It means that the fans are buying the CD immediately and really waited for the release...it means a lot to us

Solid Rock: In a few, simple words I’d describe the “Into The Labyrinth” album as powerful, heavy, classic -yet modern- and solid. How would you describe “Into The Labyrinth” in a few words?

Biff Byford: I couldn’t have said it better.....that`s exactly how I describe the album.....well done...Lila!

Solid Rock: In late 2008 you toured UK with Motӧrhead and Danko Jones, you are currently touring Europe with Iced Earth, then you will tour UK and Ireland with Doro Pesch, surely some summer festivals and more dates will come up. How do you manage with such a heavy schedule? And tell us a few words about the tour.

Biff Byford: SAXON is still a touring band. That’s our life and we get used to it. We have a routine to work things around our private life. The tour with Motörhead was a blast from the beginning to the end. We played in front of huge crowds. The tour with Iced Earth was also very good.....it was different package and a lot of young fans came to the shows.

Solid Rock: You have got a very loyal audience here in Greece and it would love to see you live again. Are there any plans for a concert in Greece during this tour? Has any Greek promoter contacted you so far?

Biff Byford: We would love to play in Greece and I promise you we will. I don’t know if a promoter contacted us...that’s a management affair.

Solid Rock: So, do you still ‘Live To Rock’ three decades after Saxon’s kick-off? Because it definitely looks like that to us…

Biff Byford: You nailed it......we still alive, breathe and eat Rock N´Roll.....hard to believe that it’s now nearly 30 years ago when we started. The time went by so quickly...

Solid Rock: By the way, apart from being a great song, “Live To Rock” made a great video too. You also shot “Battalions of Steel” as a 3D video, right? Tell us about it.

Biff Byford: Hm.......I will not tell you much about the 3D video because it`s not fully done yet.....I hope that we will have it ready by April when the UK tour start. The video for "Live To Rock" was great......

Solid Rock: On the occasion of your 30th anniversary this year, are there any plans for an extra ‘gift’ to the fans? Anything that’s cooking?

Biff Byford: Oh wait `til we announce that we will play the "W..........." ups!.....no I will not tell you....ha ha......wait and see!

Solid Rock: Tell us a bit about the Riffking competition. Was it the band’s or the label’s idea at first? What do you think of the participation so far?

Biff Byford: It was an idea between the record label SPV and us and I think they did a great job. We extended the competition `til April because everytime we get new entries.

Solid Rock: The last few years we have witnessed some important reunions, long awaited releases from bands that hadn’t been active for years, big tours and festivals, plenty of new bands that are becoming more and more…Would you say that there is a revival of the heavy metal and hard rock scene in our days?

Biff Byford: Yes......metal is coming back...people want to have handmade music and are fed up with all the computer music....people wanna have fun at the concert and that’s what metal is about....

Solid Rock: The last words belong to you…

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