Saxon celebrate 1979 tour with Motorhead in They Played Rock And Roll video

By Scott Munro
( Classic Rock )
published

Saxon release lyric video for their brand new track They Played Rock And Roll - taken from upcoming album Thunderbolt

Saxon
Saxon

Saxon have released a lyric video for their new track They Played Rock And Roll.

The song and promo celebrate Saxon’s 1979 tour with Motorhead, with frontman Biff Byford revealing its existence in September 2016.

It’ll feature on Saxon’s upcoming studio album Thunderbolt, which is set for release on February 2 via Militia Guard/Silver Lining Music.

Byford says: “The song tells the story of Saxon’s very first tour in 1979 with Motorhead. I want people to get a flavour of what it was like in the UK in 79⁄80 for Saxon and Motorhead at the start of the 80s musical revolution.”

Saxon revealed the title track from the new album in November. Find the Thunderbolt cover art and tracklist below, along with the band’s upcoming tour dates.

Saxon Thunderbolt tracklist

  1. Olympus Rising
  2. Thunderbolt
  3. The Secret Of Flight
  4. Nosferatu (The Vampires Waltz)
  5. They Played Rock and Roll
  6. Predator
  7. Sons Of Odin
  8. Sniper
  9. A Wizard’s Tale
  10. Speed Merchants
  11. Roadie’s Song
  12. Nosferatu - RawVersion (Not available on vinyl)

Saxon Thunderbolt 2018 tour dates

Feb 23: Cardiff University, UK
Feb 24: Cambridge Corn Exchange, UK
Feb 25: Hull City Hall, UK
Feb 27: Tilburg 013, Netherlands
Feb 28: Saarbruecken Garage, Germany
Mar 01: Hannover Capitol, Germany
Mar 02: Frankfurt Batschkapp, Germany
Mar 03: Dresden Schlachthof, Germany
Mar 22: Wilkes-Barre Mohegan Sun Arena, PA
Mar 31: Detroit Masonic Temple, IL
May 05: Mexico City Formula 1 Autodrome, Mexico

Biff Byford: "The late 70s were a wasteland – Saxon came out of that"

Scott Munro
Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.