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BRIAN TATLER is “not craving to do DIAMOND HEAD again”: “I'm really enjoying being in SAXON”

Saxon - 013 - Tilburg - 2 maart 2025© Walter Sterkenburg

04-06-2025

In a new interview with Metal JournalDIAMOND HEAD guitarist Brian Tatler, who has been playing with SAXON since early 2023, was asked if there are any plans for DIAMOND HEAD activities beyond the release of a new live album, “Live And Electric”, on July 11 via Silver Lining Music. He responded: “At the moment, the live album is the main thing. That comes out July 11th on Silver Lining. And after that, who knows? We haven’t got any plans to record a new album. And there are no dates in the book. I just thought once I joined SAXON — and I joined in March 2023 — I just thought it was gonna be difficult to book DIAMOND HEAD gigs because SAXON is so busy that we could easily land right on top of a DIAMOND HEAD gig. ‘Cause, as you know, you book six months in advance, nine months in advance, and I didn’t wanna be in a position where I said, ‘Well, I’ve gotta do the SAXON gig, so we’ll have to cancel the DIAMOND HEAD gig and let people down,’ and et cetera, et cetera. So I said, ‘Let’s just take a break.’ And the management advised us the same> ‘Take a break. Let’s see how the land lies in a year or two years.’ And then we’ll just see. I’m happy where I am. I’m really enjoying being in SAXON. We’ve done a lot of gigs already. There’s a lot more gigs coming up and we’re working on the next record. So I’ve got a lot on my plate, and I’ve almost got everything I need to fulfill my needs. So I’m not craving to do DIAMOND HEAD again. I feel like I’ve been doing DIAMOND HEAD since I was 16, and it’s been a long road. But I’m happy where I am at the moment. I’m enjoying the challenge and the change. And playing with different people is fun as well.”

Asked if he still has any contact with original DIAMOND HEAD singer Sean HarrisBrian said: “No, not really. Well, he does his thing and I do my thing. It’s just the way it is. It’s just gone that way. We all live nearby. The four original members all live within about a mile and a half of each other, but we rarely see each other. Myself, Colin (Kimberley, bass) and Duncan (Scott, drums) sometimes go for a curry, and we’ve been doing that for maybe 10 years. But I haven’t seen Sean for a while now, a number of years. As I say, we kind of move in different circles and we’ve just lost touch with each other.”

As for whether he has received any substantial financial offer to reunite the original DIAMOND HEAD lineup for a festival appearance or two, Brian said: “No, not really. You get the odd offer, but there’s nothing — no big offer… I mean, maybe a couple of people would like that to happen, but it’s not a big deal. I don’t think it would change the world. I mean, Lars (UlrichMETALLICA drummer) has got closest — hasn’t he? — by getting us all to reassemble and play the NEC in Birmingham with METALLICA in 1992. So he’s come closest. But having spoken to Colin, the bass player, he doesn’t really wanna do DIAMOND HEAD again. When he left the band, he sold all his gear, and he’s never played the bass since, other than when we did that NEC show. We once had a rehearsal just for fun in Stourbridge, but that was about 2000. So even that’s been 25 years ago. So I can’t see the original lineup playing together again.”

In the beginning of 2024 SAXON have release the band’s 24th studio album, Hell, Fire And Damnation, which came out on January 19. 2024 via Silver Lining Music. Now the band released the official music video for the song “1066”, taken off that album. The video is released in celebration of the band’s upcoming tour.

Watch “1066” below.

Saxon’s Biff Byford says – “A totally British themed song, the massive invasion… In fact, it was the end of the Saxons really, so I’m singing about the demise of the Saxons. I did a song with Amon Amarth a while back called ‘Saxons and Vikings’ which was about the end of the Vikings in England and the rise of the Saxons, so I thought I may as well do a song about six-seven hundred years later when William the Conqueror comes over and nobbles the Saxons.
We’ll be playing the song on the Hell, Fire And Steel tour next month, which is gonna be fantastic.”

The song was written by  and credited to the band’s member Peter Byford and Brian Tatler.

Watch the previously released official lyric video for “Witches Of Salem” below.

“Hell, Fire And Damnation” is an album which sees SAXON investigate all areas of history and mystery amidst ten of their most confident and thunderopowerful songs yet. In “Witches Of Salem”, lead singer and founding member Biff Byford explores the unjust condemnation of the women victimized at the Salem witch trials and the sheer bigotry and mass hysteria prevalent at the time.

“This is an American story, but the witch trials started in Scotland, spread into England and across the sea to the colonies in America. Those poor women in Salem,” explains Byford, “they weren’t ‘witches’ more than just unfortunate women, really, blamed for everybody’s ailments… whether your horse died, or the milk went sour, they blamed women. Maybe because they were jealous of them, or maybe it was because some guy had made some advances and she’d told him to piss off, so he’d declare that she was a witch. And once a person was declared a witch, I don’t think there was any way back from that; very few of them were found innocent.”

Produced by Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIESTEXODUSACCEPT) and Byford, with Sneap mixing and mastering, “Hell, Fire And Damnation” strides the perfect line between confident, current power, and gloriously irreverent flexing of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal muscle which SAXON co-created.

“I think this album’s one of the best he’s done sound-wise, and he’s done a lot of albums,” Biff declared. “It has a really raw, vibrant sound… if you compress the total time making this album, it was four weeks tops… you can hear everything brilliantly, nothing’s overcomplicated, nothing’s over compressed. The guitar sounds are fucking immense, they’re just great, raw guitar sounds. And we haven’t done a lot of overdubbing on there, it’s just playing. I really, really like it.

SAXON will adavance through Europe to promote their new album this year:
04 Feb – Aladin Music Hall Bremen, Germany
06 Feb – Amager Bio Copenhagen, Denmark
07 Feb – Conventum Club 700 Örebro, Sweden
08 Feb – Valkyrian Norrköping, Sweden
09 Feb – Slagthuset Malmö, Sweden
11 Feb – Rockefeller Music Hall Oslo, Norway
13 Feb – Trädgår’n Göteborg, Sweden
14 Feb – Folkets Park Huskvarna, Sweden
15 Feb – Cirkus Stockholm, Sweden
17 Feb – Docks Hamburg, Germany
19 Feb – Lucerna Music Bar Prague, Czech Republic
20 Feb – STUDIO Kraków, Poland
21 Feb – Gasometer Wien, Austria
23 Feb – Progresja Warsaw, Poland
25 Feb – Muffathalle München, Germany
26 Feb – Live Club Trezzo Sull’adda Mi, Italy
28 Feb – Volkshaus Zürich, Switzerland
01 Mar – CENTRAL ERFURT | B2B Erfurt, Germany
02 Mar – Poppodium 013 Tilburg, Netherlands
04 Mar – Huxleys Neue Welt Berlin, Germany
05 Mar – Haus Auensee Leipzig, Germany
06 Mar – Mitsubishi Electric HALLE Dusseldorf, Germany
22 Mar – HELLS HEROES 2025 Houston, TX
06 Jun – Heavy Weekend 2025 Nancy, France
25 Jul – Öland Rock 2025 Borgholm, Sweden
30 Jul – Wacken Open Air 2025 Wacken, Germany
05 Sep – Santana 27 Bilbao, Spain
05 Sep – Saxon (Bilbao) Bilbao, Spain
06 Sep  – Sala La Riviera Madrid, Spain
06 Sep – Saxon (Madrid) Madrid, Spain
07 Sep – Razzmatazz 1 Barcelona, Spain
07 Sep  Saxon (Barcelona) Barcelona, Spain
04 Nov – Ulster Hall Belfast, United Kingdom
05 Nov – Olympia Theatre Dublin, Ireland
07 Nov – O2 Apollo Manchester Manchester, United Kingdom
08 Nov – Octagon Centre Sheffield, United Kingdom
09 Nov – O2 Academy Glasgow Glasgow, United Kingdom
11 Nov – O2 City Hall Newcastle Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
13 Nov – Bristol Beacon Bristol, United Kingdom
14 Nov – Wolverhampton Civic Hall Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
15 Nov – Eventim Apollo London, United Kingdom
16 Nov – The Great Hall, Cardiff Uni Students Union Cardiff, United Kingdom

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