Oliver Dawson's Saxon Tickets

OD Saxon play Warehouse23 with local classic rock heroes. Plus support from Hamerex, Bad Touch and Voodoo Vegas. 

In 1994, Graham Oliver and Steve Dawson, founding members of Saxon, reunited under the name Son of a Bitch (which had been Saxon's own name originally, before they became well known) and released Victim You. They performed under various names such as "SAXON-Son of a Bitch tour" and "SAXON-the early years", before deciding on their current name "Oliver/Dawson Saxon" in 2000.

The band has been known by this name ever since, and despite recording other material from 1996 onwards have always relied primarily on Saxon songs during live sets. An attempt to perform under the name "SAXON" alone was prevented by Peter "Biff" Byford, another member of the original band, threatening legal action.

In 1997, Oliver and Dawson registered "SAXON" as a trademark, and attempted, through their management company, to prevent Byford's band using the name on their promotional material. Byford opposed this registration, but initially the UK Patent Office held that the registration was valid, as Oliver and Dawson (as original members of "Son of a Bitch" in 1978) had equal rights to Byford in the name "SAXON". However, in the High Court, Laddie J overturned the registration, ruling that it had been applied for in bad faith.

Oliver and Dawson were thereby prevented from describing themselves simply as "Saxon", and obliged to prominently include the "Oliver/Dawson" element of the name in their advertising material. The name "Saxon" had been given to the band by then Freddy Cannon, Managing Director of Carrere Records UK, because retail outlets refused to carry "Son of A Bitch" in 1978.

In 2011, frontman of rock group Seventh Son Joined as the lead vocalist.

Hamerex are a heavy metal band founded in 2004 by guitarist Steve Blower. The band also consists of vocalist Chris Moules, bassist Andy Firth and drummer Darren Kelsall.

The band are an energetic and entertaining live band with their influences coming through in both their music and live shows. Hamerex have supported such bands as PowerQuest, Conquest Of Steel and Funeral For A Friend as well as playing at Clarence Park Music Festival in July 2012.

2012 saw Hamerex release their debut album on Casket Music which was highly praised by a number of reviewers with Rhys Stevenson of Global Metal Network saying "'Rites Of Passage' brings a whole new stance on the meaning of original and traditional, this is by far one of the most impressive rejuvenations of old style metal to be unleashed, a sheer class of absolute proportions."

2013 is set to be the bands biggest year to date with a high profile gig already under their belts when they opened for Funeral For A Friend in April. The band are excited about the release of their second album 'IX' which shows Hamerex at their musical best with their most varied and experimental release to date

Plus BAD TOUCH:

Bad Touch is an energetic, professional, talented hard rock band from Dereham who burst onto the Norfolk music scene in 2009. Now performing both locally and nationally, they’ve gained a loyal following, and their fan base is growing gig by gig thanks to their amazing live performances.

Career highlights so far include winning the Exposure Music Award 2012 for Best Live Act, as well as performing at the O2 Academy Islington, Hard Rock Hell 2012, The Underworld, the legendary 100 Club, Gig in the Park and the Cambridge Rock Festival.

Bad Touch’s first recordings at Leeders Farm in 2011 were made under the watchful eye of Nick Brine, and these were released in a 1000 limited edition EP ‘Born to Please’ – which has now sold out.

A second 4 track EP recorded at The Mill Studios in May 2012 demonstrated the band’s determination to succeed through a meticulous approach to song writing and recording well beyond their years. All 4 tracks have spent a combined total of 15 weeks at number one in the UK Unsigned Chart during late 2012 and 2013.

The Band returned to the studio late 2012 in conjunction with The Animal Farm to released three singles, the first being ‘Set the night on fire’ in March 2013; a high-tempo, catchy anthem, blending heavy riffs and catchy choruses, with a classic British rock beat at its heart. A further two singles have been released, “Too Late” May 2013 and “Mirror Man” July 2013.

Having recently performed alongside the likes of The Brew, The Electric Boys, Red White and Blues, Heaven’s Basement, Bonafide, Jettblack, Wolfsbane and Buckcherry, the boys are really making their mark on the rock world, and with a busy schedule for the remainder of 2013 which will see them travel all over the country, supporting The Quireboys and Bonafide the future is very bright.

At Last Some Pure Rock Energy, I want to hear more – Art & Soul Magazine -2010

Bad Touch’s music tears through your rib cage, rips your heart out, and stamps rock and roll on it in permanent ink, so that even after you’ve left, you can’t rid yourself of their infectious songs’ – A Review of the “Born to Please EP” Launch party – 9th September 2011

Plus Voodoo Vegas

***Explosive New Young Hard Rockers’ Pledgemusic-Powered Debut Album ‘The Rise Of Jimmy Silver’ Released March 4th Via Cargo Records***

“They’ve the ability to take their Guns N’ Roses and AC/DC influences into their own territory. Keep an eye on ‘em” - Malcolm Dome, Classic Rock

“Their attitude-charged brand of bluesy hard rock bowled me right over” – Dave Ling, Metal Hammer

Rapidly rising new young quintet Voodoo Vegas’ debut album, ‘The Rise Of Jimmy Silver’, set for release on March 4th on the band’s own label, distributed by Cargo, is nothing other than a glorious, guitar driven, melody drenched, hard rock delight. Since forming in 2006 in Bournemouth, the band have gigged tirelessly on both home turf and the continent, honing their craft during regular rounds of the French, Belgian, Italian and German live circuits, and raising the musical bar still higher in support slots to standard bearers such as Glenn Hughes, Uriah Heep, The Wildhearts and Fozzy.

Having won over hordes of fans with their tight, powerful live performances - let alone a storming set-list of self-penned crowd-pleasers - it then took Voodoo Vegas less than 24 hours to smash through the original target of their April 2012 PledgeMusic.com campaign to fund the recording of their debut album, before going on to raise a jaw-dropping 344% of the figure the band first aimed for. Aiming high, they subsequently managed to secure the services of acclaimed producer Pedro Ferreira, (The Darkness, Therapy?, Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, Enter Shikari, Tokyo Dragons) and booked Wales’ renowned Rockfield Studios to record ‘The Rise Of Jimmy Silver’ in the summer of 2012.

The Rise Of Jimmy Silver’ is a lean, filler-free first offering at 34 minutes, which flexes an astonishing musical range in its succinct running time. Lead track ‘King Without A Crown’ gallops out of the starting gate all guns blazing, as Meryl Hamilton and Nick Brown’s duelling six-strings dazzle over the gritty, ground-shaking rhythms provided by Ash Moulton (bass) and Matt Jolly (drums). Vocalist Lawrence Case channels Appetite-era Axl on numbers like ’Mary Jane’ with such ease that Gilby Clarke was compelled to invite him onstage to perform ’It’s So Easy’ during a recent UK tour. On ‘What I Pay’ meanwhile, the singer’s heartfelt delivery to Nick’s show-stopping acoustic slide prove Voodoo Vegas can play the blues every bit as well as they can turn out high-octane rock numbers.

Lawrence draws on the bitter life experience of being jilted at the alter for ’Lost In Confusion’ - a song which started life as a letter to his runaway bride, written at the suggestion of the friend who joined him on what would have been the honeymoon holiday. On record, Lawrence’s letter morphs into a swooping tour-de-force ballad, which is topped off with the legendary lung power of Stevie Vann Lange, known for her work with the likes of Def Leppard and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.

Personified in ‘The Rise Of Jimmy Silver’s’ cover art by noted comic book artist Jim Boswell as a city-smashing, axe-toting rocker, ‘Jimmy Silver’ is a straight-up celebration of the sheer love of rock ‘n’ roll which has fuelled Voodoo Vegas‘ progress so far already. ‘The Rise Of Jimmy Silver, an album as ripe with the scent of vital new blood as the breakthrough efforts of either The Darkness or The Answer, looks all set to launch Voodoo Vegas into hard rock’s heady stratosphere.