Band : Oliver / Dawson Saxon
Album title : Rock Has Landed – It’s Alive
Record label : ABC Entertainment – Zyx Music
Distributor : (unknown)
Release date : 2008
Release : DVD

Late December of last year, our editor-in-chief was off on a short trip to Poland with his girlfriend, and from that trip he brought home some goodies in the form of a fair amount of incredibly low-priced (and recently released) albums and DVDs (and yes!, you wíll find this same intro elsewhere), and I have to say I’m somewhat dumbfounded with the obvious…deceiving of the fans that’s goin’ on here.

More about that later, first I have to give you a short history-of-the-band, as their last release has simply been too long ago for me to be able to lok up the info thére! So, when the original line-up of Saxon split up in 1995, the band was split into two camps: Graham Oliver (guitar) and Steve Dawson (bass) on the one side, Biff Byford (vocals) and Paul Quinn (guitar) on the other. While the latter continued under the Saxon monicker, the first re-vamped Son Of A Bitch (which was the original name of the band, really, and one they had to change when they signed to French label Carrere for the release of their self-titled debut album), albeit still regularly performing as Saxon, fealing justified in that by the fact that they had first enlisted drummer Pete Gill (a former Saxon member) and then replaced him by Nigel Durham (also formerly of Saxon). In early 1999 Oliver disbanded Son Of A Bitch and started a Jimi Hendrix tribute band with his son (later the Angel Air label would release a CD of live recordings), but by June the two had joined former members of Stormwatch and Witchfynde to create the Luthar Beltz Band forlive gigs. Oliver and Dawson joined forces again in early 2000 and, enlisting Durham again, also enlisted former Saracen guitarist Haydn Conway and singer John Ward (a veteran of the scene formerly of Hurricane, Shame, St. Valentine, Shy, London, and a couple more bands), started operating and touring under the monicker of Oliver / Dawson Saxon. That same year saw the release of live album Re://Landed through Phoenix Music (later re-issued through Angel Air), the 11 tracks of which already included two new songs (“Past The Point” and ”Rockin’ Again”). In October 2002 the band was invited to support Dio on his UK dates, and a month later the live DVD Rock Has Landed: It’s Alive! was released. In early 2003 the soundtrack of that same DVD was issued through Angel Air as a CD titled simply It’s Alive! In February 2003 the High Court in London favoured in favour of Biff Byford about the use of the bandname Saxon, but in spite of that Oliver / Dawson Saxon persevered, recording the 5 tracks that were to grace the 3-way split (the other bands being Girlschool and Tygers Of Pan Tang) album Second Wave – 25 Years Of NWoBHM (released through the Comminiqué label later that same year). The three bands on the split did do a UK tour in promotion of the album, but for Oliver / Dawson Saxon the blow they had got earlier in the year would be somewhat fatal. In 2004 Ward joined guitarists Alan Nyland and Baz Eardley (NwoBHM veterans, respectively having played with Handsome Beasts and Chevy), bassist Toby Pelham (ex-V8) and drummer Ted Duggan (also Chevy) to form Iron Horse. In 2005 Oliver joined Tempest, and in the Summer of 2006 he did live work with Blues Rock band Twin Dragons. Rumours came that Oliver / Dawson Saxon were then preparing to record a new album (tentative title Whippin’ Boy), but to this date it hasn’t been released yet. Actually, I doubt very much whether the band as such is still active, as their website hasn’t been updated anymore since 2003. In October 2008 however, it was revealed that Dawson and Oliver were working on a book to be titled Saxon Drugs And Rock And Roll: The Real Spinal Tap, due out in 2009.

Right, so far the history lesson, now back to the things at hand. Apparently Zyx Music obtained the rights to re-issue the original Rock Has Landed – It’s Alive DVD, and in doing so also gave it a different cover (in the process forgetting to mention the song “The Eagle Has Landed” in the track-list). Although the credits mention the DVD to be recorded at the Pennington Night Club in the British town of Bradford on May 13, 2003, and while I may well believe that a majority of the footage indeed stems from that day, it’s clear that the footage was mixed with that of other events. Regretfully, someone forgot to synchronize things propertly, and a large portion of the DVD finds the sound ¼ second ahead of the images (which díd severely hamper the enjoyment factor in my own personal case). The sound is of acceptable quality, by the way…which can’t always be said of the image! Besides a fair portion of Saxon classics (“Power And The Glory”, “Rock And Roll Gypsies”, “Strong Arm Of The Law”, “Dallas 1PM”, “747 (Strangers In The Night)”, “The Eagle Has Landed”, “Motorcycle Man” and the closing “Wheels Of Steel”), the writing of which Oliver and/or Dawson contributed to, there’s also three Oliver / Dawson originals in “Past the Point”, “Bitch Of A Place To Be” (these two actually written in the re-vamped Son Of A Bitch days, lyrics still being credited to Ted Pullit), and “One More For The Road”. The live footage is interrupted after each song, giving you some extra “backstage”, “travel”, and “reheasal” footage to boot. With inclusion of the final backstage footage (which includes some female nudity – this IS a night club the boys were playing that night, you know!) and the credits, the “Play Concert” footage will take you some 71 ½ minutes to watch. As bonusses, you’ll find an alternate recording of “Strong Arm Of The Law” (chose “Select Song” in the main menu to find it) and a comprehensive story in the “Read Sleeve Notes” section.

Personally, I’m not too hot about this DVD. On the one side there’s the fact that is was badly put together (lack of synchronisation, remember), but also the Saxon songs simply don’t sound the same without Byford behind the microphone! Ward may be a good singer in his own right…and in fact what he’s done with the original Oliver / Dawson songs, also on the Second Wave album, was much appreciated…but his interpretation of the Saxon aterial simply isn’t up to standards! DVD, so no rating…which is fine by me (because I don’t really like to drag musicians’ products through the mud)

Tony.