Last Friday was the big show, one that I would have never expected to book in my town. But it happened against any expectations and it was quite a night.

The venue was the Gillioz Theatre. This is a historic spot that was originally opened in 1926, then closed in 1980 and re-opened after restoration in 2006. The spot holds roughly 1,000 people. It has been an occasional hotspot for shows and I’ve seen a handful there. It is a seated venue with not a ton of room to stand around in, a point that will come up in a bit.

The show was Saxon and Uriah Heep, two long-running British rock and metal acts who are still going strong after decades. Uriah Heep started in 1970 and have been running since, and Saxon got off the ground in 1975 and released their first album in 1979.

While Saxon was the first act to play, this was a co-headliner tour where each band got equal stage time, roughly an hour and twenty minutes. No openers or anything like that, just long sets for the featured acts and straight to the point. I’m getting to enjoy this kind of show without openers who I forget about before they’re sometimes even off stage. Opening a show like this would be a killer opportunity for an emerging band, though I do also appreciate the extra spare time from not having one.

Saxon were up first and got right into it, they played the intro and then the title track from their newest album Hell, Fire and Damnation, which I conveniently reviewed the other day. In all, five songs from the new disc got into the setlist so Saxon are clearly high on this new material.

Another thing Saxon do a lot of are title tracks – including the new album, a total of seven title tracks got stage time. This ran the string from early Saxon releases like Denim And Leather and Wheels Of Steel, to the more recent Sacrifice and also stuff like Power And The Glory being somewhere inbetween it all.

The band were totally on point all night, these guys are seasoned pros and there wasn’t going to be any let down. It could be said that their intensity was greater than that of the seated crowd, who to be honest were a bit tame. This did seem to capture Biff Byford’s attention as he brought it up more than once and a fair portion of the crowd got up and put in some energy in response. I have nothing bad to say about the venue, but an open standing sort of place would have been a much more appealing venue for this show. Sadly we don’t have much of anything like that in town, at least for a show this size.

Even with the contrast between a heavy metal band on stage and a crowd all stuffed in theater seats, the show went off without a hitch. I was very happy to see Saxon as it was my first time. I don’t know why I hadn’t caught them before, they aren’t exactly shy about touring, but whatever the case I finally got another band off my bucket list.

In a bit of trivia – I have no clue if Saxon had ever played Springfield in the past, this town did get some shows in the ’80’s long before I lived here. But I do know that their most recent member, guitarist Brian Tatler, had played town just seven years prior with his main outfit Diamond Head. There’s a story or more in that show that I will tell in a post sometime down the road.

After Saxon left the stage there was a pretty quick stage turnover to get ready for Uriah Heep. Saxon were actually only occupying the front part of the stage in fairly cramped conditions, as UH already had their gear set up behind Saxon so the changeover was pretty seamless. I’ve noticed that set turnover is a very quick process these days – back in the ’90’s when I started attending shows, the change from one band to next could take an eternity.

Uriah Heep is a band I have been familiar with but haven’t spent a ton of time listening to. They’ve had a few songs in rotation on classic rock radio but I hadn’t played an album of theirs or anything. I did put together a playlist of sets they’d done at shows prior to my stop in order to familiarize myself more with their stuff, another nice convenience of the modern age.

Uriah Heep does have one remaining original member, guitarist Mick Box. In fact, Mick is the only surviving original member so it’s not like anyone else would have the opportunity to join him. Mick was joined by singer Bernie Shaw, who has been with the group since 1986. Bassist Dave Rimmer has been around since 2013, and Drummer Russell Gilbrook has been on board since 2007. Regular keyboardist Phil Lanzon was unable to join Heep for the tour, so the band landed one hell of a special guest in his place – Adam Wakeman, the son of legendary Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, helmed the organ keys for this show.

The Heep are also touring behind a recent album, 2023’s Chaos and Colour. Three songs from that album made the set, as well as one from their 2018 effort Living The Dream. The rest of the set was culled from the band’s classic early 1970’s work. I will say that the newer songs were all really good and have me eager to visit these more recent albums. It’s a tough task to catch up with the group as they have 25 total studio albums.

The band were in fine form as they delivered their goods. Most of the stuff was performed faithful to the original, while UH took a few liberties here and there. After shouting out Saxon, Shaw made a remark that today’s music is pigeonholed into genres, while when Uriah Heep were starting out music was mostly either good or not. Then UH showed off their own metal chops with a heavy rendition of Free n’ Easy. Russell Gilbrook especially got down hard and heavy on the song, an illustration that sometimes drums are honestly the line between rock and metal.

There were a few treats in store for those, like me, who enjoy extended live jams and departures from the original recordings. UH again struck up a heavier tone on Look At Yourself and also drew the jam out for a pretty long time. They also aired out their long ballad July Morning, a gentle reminder that ten-minute long songs existed long, long before Taylor Swift. We then got the encore, which was capped off with the band’s obvious hit Easy Livin’.

That was all for the show, it was off into the night for us afterward. It was a true honor to finally see Saxon live, a true stalwart of the NWOBHM. And it was a real privilege to see Uriah Heep and I will be working their albums into my rotation as I move along, they are far too good to not listen to. I was surprised that this show got booked here and I’m damn glad it did, my gigs these days are very few and far between and this was a true highlight of my concert going.

Photography by Susan Cummins

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