OLIVER DAWSON SAXON To Release 'Motorbiker' This Month

OLIVER DAWSON SAXON, the British heavy metal band featuring founding SAXON members Graham Oliver and Steve Dawson, will release its long-awaited album, "Motorbiker", on February 27 via Angel Air Records. The CD was described by Dawson in a recent interview as "what me and Graham do best . . . a hard rock album, maybe metal . . . in that classic SAXON tradition."

"Motorbiker" track listing:

01. Chemical Romance
02. Motorbiker
03. Whippin Boy
04. No Way Out
05. Just Another Suicide
06. Sinternet
07. Ghost
08. Nevada Beach
09. Screaming Eagles
10. World’s Gone Crazy
11. Hell In Helsinki
12. Nursery Crimes

After spending a few years battling with Biff Byford and Paul Quinn over the SAXON name, Oliver and Dawson reached a settlement in 2003 with the members of the original band SAXON over the usage of the name and logos belonging to the original partnership.

OLIVER DAWSON SAXON, consisting of Oliver and Dawson, acknowledged that the band featuring Byford and Quinn will continue to be known as "SAXON", and have use of the logo. In return Byford and Quinn acknowledged that OLIVER DAWSON SAXON has a legitimate use of the name in that form.

In a January 2011 interview with the "Talking Metal" podcast, Graham Oliver revealed that he was writing a book called "Saxon, Drugs, And Rock 'N' Roll: The Real Spinal Tap", which will include a foreword by Harry Shearer (whose character in SPINAL TAP was based on SAXON member Steve Dawson).

Speaking to SouthYorkshireTimes.co.uk, Graham said about the upcoming book, "It promises to be a who's who of the metal scene of the late '70s/early 80s. It's taking a lot of writing and getting quotes off people — like Lemmy from MOTÖRHEAD and Ozzy Osbourne."

He added, "My biggest memory of the Hollywood gig we played with METALLICA was that Ozzy Osbourne was in our dressing room. It was just after his 'Blizzard of Ozz' guitarist Randy Rhoads had died and he was inconsolable. We were trying to give him some support, but you just felt helpless and we had to psych ourselves up to go onstage for what was one of our biggest U.S. gigs at the time. I remember spending all night in our dressing room with Ozzy and Sharon when he supported SAXON on one of our European tours and Randy borrowed my Gibson Flying V guitar for his performance. We had jammed together for hours earlier playing Jimi Hendrix stuff. I'll never part with that guitar."

Formed in the late '90s, OLIVER DAWSON SAXON previously recorded and released an album called "Re-Landed", which got a limited release on a local label before being reissued via Angel Air as "Re-Landed..Plus".