And the band played on - 40 years later Biff Byford and Saxon are still rocking

Saxon and their frontman Biff Byford have survived nearly 40 years as a band and are still going strong, writes Ed Power

Not many bands can claim to have helped create an entirely new genre of music but heavy metal icons Saxon arguably achieved just such a feat in the late 1970s. They were prime movers in the ‘new wave of British heavy metal’ — NWOBHM to diehards — and are acknowledged as one of the earliest acts to combine the molten ferocity of heavy rock with the catchiness of pop.

They weren’t the only innovators. Def Leppard and Iron Maiden were likewise giving loud, aggressive music a punter-friendly makeover. Nonetheless, Saxon are generally regarded as NWOBHM’s pioneering exponents and their influence has proved enduring. Wherever men with shoulder-length perms gather to mosh and make devil worship signs, Saxon are present in spirit. Without them there would be no Metallica or Guns ’n‘ Roses. They are encoded into the DNA of heavy metal.