biffs vocal eqip

That's a good question, s747r.

I don't think there's any members' tech stuff section on the official site. If Biff had his own personal site, it would have been something mentioned there - a little like Nigel Glockler's site.
I've also not read anything about this in Biff's interviews and such.
I do recall that we have a couple of technical geniuses on the forum, so they may be able to help you out. But, sorry to say, I'm crap when it comes to the intricate side of the music business!
 
You must want this info for one of two reasons 747, either you are doing "Wheels of Steel" on a karaoke machine down your local, or are in a Saxon tribute band and want that sound just right.if the latter let us know about your gigs and you`ve got my support mate.
 
Saxonized - Ha! Yeah - 'Wheels Of Steel' on karaoke! I did it recently at my works leaving do at a pub in Gloucester! I could not believe that they actually had a Saxon song on the list!
Although I suspected that no-one in the place knew the song, I think it went down pretty well! It certainly got an attractive - and drunk - young lady to attempt some pole-dancing moves on my mike stand!
Seriously, S747R - why are you asking this question? Like Saxonized, I'm intrigued!
 
Funny you should mention pole-dancing and Saxon songs Nightwar, i have a true story involving O/D Saxon, does anybody want to hear it(see it then)?
 
Well spotted Paxoman I posted that five day ago, and could not believe no one wanted to hear a story involving O/D Saxon.

Now if you are all sitting comfortably I will begin (sorry guys)

I`m into Motorbikes, and in June 2002 I booked to go to the Isle Of Man TT Races.This is a Hard riding , Hard Rocking, Hard drinking week of excess. Anyway checked into the hotel , unpacked then went down to the bar , glanced across at a leaflet titled TT Week Entertainment, to my sheer delight who should be playing Sat night but SAXON!!! This was perfect I thought I was in a Carlsberg TV advert (ha ha).

We had arrived on the Friday so I decided to check out if it was the real Saxon playing the gig,.NOT SOME COVER BAND!!!. The place is called “The Venue” and is in the capital, Douglas, right on the sea front, sure enough the posters said Saxon live plus support. Still not believing it totally I decided to go in and ask, I was answered with a “Yes mate it’s the real Saxon , tickets selling fast” I was reaching for my money while he also explained the management has drafted in ten stunning pole dancing babes to entertain us all between the bands.

Saturday night arrived and we made our way to the show , we had been in there no longer than ten minutes, then these gorgeous women started dancing on stage. The support act came on, did about a forty five minute set, making way for the girls again. Then we had the bomb shell dropped on us “ Will you please welcome to the stage OLIVER DAWSON SAXON!!!!!!” you could feel the disappointment in the crowd, I was gutted . Now remember this was 2002, Biff won his court battle in 2003 so in the eyes of the law O/D Saxon did nothing wrong , they also cleverly got announced as O/D Saxon just before going on stage. It was too late for us we had already paid good money. I decided to get pissed as quickly as possible but was sober enough to witness them to allow a pole dancer on stage with them maybe for the last four or five songs of their set.

I still respect Graham Oliver and Steve Dawson for what they achieved with the real Saxon , but to fight Biff for the Saxon name and then let things like that happen, it makes a mockery of their past success . Some people may say whats the harm in it at a bike festival, a bit of fun.

Saxon name first and foremost , nothing wrong with the girls they were great , but keep it separate entertainment, bands with a reputation to uphold need to remain professional in whatever guise.

Long live Saxon


Arise Sir Biff.
 
Saxonized - sorry, mate. I didn't see your invitation for a 'Campfire Tale' until just now!

Man, what a great story! It deserves a thread all of its own! That is exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for whilst writing my Saxon project! Brilliantly told, mate!

"I decided to get pissed as quickly as possible" - Bloody great line!


I can imagine that you were pretty gutted when it turned out to be O/D Saxon and not the 'Real' Saxon, but it still must've been good to see Oliver and Dawson? Although, the use of the band's name was pretty shameful. And they must have knew it was the wrong thing to do, because they were announced as O/D when they came on stage. They also could've created loads of problems for themselves - I mean, if they had a few hard-core Saxon fans in the crowd that were pissed and had a pissed-off attitude, the band could have risked being hassled on stage even before they started playing!
I know it was a year before the Court action, but they were never going to win over the fans like that, were they!

Anyhoo - there must be something about Saxon songs and Pole Dancing! If only I had that effect on the ladies!

Once again, thanks for the tale, Saxonized! Nice one!
 
SAXONIZED said:
I still respect Graham Oliver and Steve Dawson for what they achieved with the real Saxon , but to fight Biff for the Saxon name and then let things like that happen, it makes a mockery of their past success .

Agreed and well said! Cool story, thanks for sharing that with us!!
 
Dunno about the kit Biff uses, but I did talk to a chap some years ago who, I think, was Saxon's monitor engineer. He told me that there been problems eliminating an annoying whistle during gigs, something to do with the vocals. Eventually, after much investigation, it was discovered that the whistle wasn't something the engineer could do anything about. It was, apparently, coming from Biff's false teeth.
I am led to believe that Biff now has a specially made set of "stage teeth", just for gigs!
(I have no information on whether he has a special flightcase for them, or whether he is negotiating a sponsorship deal with Steradent!!)
 
Badlad - that is kind of funny (especially the sponsorship gag!) but a fault like that would have been picked up before a tour during rehearsal!
All I can say is, for a guy with no teeth (supposedly), Biff sure has alot of hair and, most importantly, energy!
Dare I say it, but maybe this chap you spoke to was one of those weird, drunken individuals that stagger about the city, making up strange stories and asking for money?
 
Alas no! He is actually a well-respected and talented sound engineer. We were just talking shop during a show, discussing what juicy jobs we had done/were doing. When he mentioned he had worked with the mighty Saxon he suddenly became my hero, LOL. To be fair, he didn't actually say that the problem had presented itself at gigs, he simply said "Biff's had to have some special teeth made 'cos his normal ones whistle through the foldback, and no-one could find where it was coming from".
He did also say that they were a great band to work for and he'd had a ball working for them (Didn't say whether or not it was a Solid Rock one!!), but he'd succumbed to the lure of nice, easy, well-paid corporate gigs (don't we all?)
 
Badlad - LOL!
Thanks for giving a little more info! Man, what a weird thing!
Mind you, I suppose if you actually do it as a living, there are probably lots of weird things to experience in regard to the artists you have to work for!
I'm just trying to figure out how much those teeth could get on eBay!!

Btw - fully understand about going where the money (and the work) is. If I was skilled at that kind of trade, I'd probably do the same thing!
 
nightwar and saxonized i was trying to think of a question no one has asked before and would have been good if we could have got some new or different info on saxon.

Maybe be good if they could put a tech info thing on the web site like nightwar was saying, wish they would put there own bloody guitar tab section on the website as well lol, i no we could go searching for it on the net but would be better if the website compiled its own get paul and doug to be part of this maybe.
 
That's a Great Idea, Mr Saxon747!

Like you said, we could compile our own. It would be nice to have Quinny and Doug to help out, but their schedule is rather demanding this year.

For now, maybe we could build a foundation for this section by creating our own tabs and by searching the Web. It could be built like that?
If we've got people willing to do this project, then we can get Vince to provide the technical support to install it onto the site.