Saxon: To Perform With Polish Philarmonic Orchestra

Saxon frontman Biff Byford has revealed the band’s next project will see them join forces with Polish Philharmonic Orchestra to give some of their most famous songs an orchestral overhaul.

The veteran rockers are thrashing out the details which will see them head for Poland for a special performance of unplugged and orchestral versions of their songs which will then be filmed for a DVD – as will the build up as part of a "Making of" documentary.

In a RockAAA exclusive Byford revealed:

“We’re going to do a show with an orchestra next year in Warsaw. The guy who runs the Philharmonic Orchestra asked us to do and we fancied it as we have a quite few songs which are scored to orchestra like ‘Call To Arms’ on the new album and we’ve just done ‘Crusader’ with an orchestra which sounds fantastic so it will be a bit unplugged and a bit orchestra and a bit if heavy metal too.

“It will be filmed and we’ll do a making of too. We don’t know exactly when that will be but we’re trying to work it out now as it is a nightmare logistically.”

“`Call To Arms` is our 19th studio album and we are getting on for 20 now.

“I believe it is writing new songs which refresh the band. Every new album does that and gives us a burst of ideas and energy. I think it would be different if we were just touring the old songs. But we don’t and we always try and play songs off our most recent albums.

“I think it is a big mistake for bands to do that because you just become known for your old songs. There is nothing in itself wrong with that as songs like ‘Wheels of Steel’, ‘Crusader’ and ‘747’ are all fantastic songs but I think bands have to write new songs and not be afraid of not selling as many.

“I think some bands are worried they won’t sell as many records as they did in the 1980s so that means they are a bit scared of writing new albums. Bands like ourselves, Motorhead and Judas Priest are doing it and I think it is important.”

“We just haven’t been offered them basically. I think that’s probably because we are touring now. We were going to do Sonisphere but it didn’t turn out and we were going to do Bloodstock but they wanted to announce it too early which would have taken tickets away from our northern shows so the promoters didn’t want us to do that.”