With just two UK dates announced this year for Judas Priest‘s Shield Of Pain tour, the opportunity to get some fresh sea air at Scarborough’s Open Air theatre seemed like a good enough reason for a road trip. As the tour title suggests, the focus is on their latest album, Invincible Shield, and Painkiller, an album which incredibly sees its’ 35th anniversary later this year and if that doesn’t make you feel old, then the fact that Priest last played in this Yorkshire town when promoting Rocka Rolla in 1975 will surely make you wince.
Following their 50 Years of Motorhead tour earlier in the year, Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons are now back out playing their standard sets. Their support certainly helps get the crowd in gear from the unrelenting ‘We’re The Bastards’ opener and the full on rock and roll of ‘Step Into The Fire’. The inclusion of ‘Straight Up’, a co-write with Rob Halford, from Phil’s solo album seems apt this evening.
It was also entertaining watching the signer trying to keep up with all of Joel Peters foul language. The 40 minute set gives them a good crack and by the time they get to the back to back covers of ‘We Are The Roadcrew’ & ‘Ace Of Spades’ the crowd are truly fired up. They could have ended it here but instead close on ‘Strike The Match’ from their most recent release, Kings Of The Asylum, proving that they have a great deal still to offer beyond Phil Campbell’s past.
Anybody who’s seen the mighty Judas Priest live in recent years will know how it starts with ‘War Pigs’ playing over the PA. It usually has the desired effect of having the crowd join in. Following Ozzy’s death just the previous day, it seems all the more poignant. There are plenty of Ozzy and Sabbath shirts in the audience and tonight everyone seemed to sing that little bit louder to show their respect.
Lightning and thunderclaps ring out as dry ice billows around the stage and Rob Halford appears and screams out the first couple of lines of ‘All Guns Blazing’ with remarkable clarity and accuracy before being joined by the rest of the band for a heads down metal assault which segues seamlessly into ‘Hell Patrol’.
‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ is up next and this works so much better than the extended encore to which we’ve become accustomed. The setlist has been mixed up from the previous tour and not just in respect to the two albums they are celebrating. With such a magnificent back catalogue it is refreshing that Priest can pick out some lesser played gems instead of relying on the same old hits. I certainly don’t mind foregoing ‘Victim Of Changes’ to be able to hear the likes of ‘Freewheel Burning’ or ‘Solar Angels’, both of which get an airing tonight and I cannot recall seeing them performed at any of the shows I’ve seen in the last 20 years. Even when it comes to Invincible Shield, the songs are different to those premiered on the last tour.
While KK And Tipton will forever be indelibly ingrained into Priest’s legacy, the way in which Faulkner and Sneap have rejuvenated the band cannot be underestimated. The classics are rendered faithfuly, and the newer songs bring a freshness without deviating too far from the Priest blueprint. Their interplay on ‘The Serpent And The King’ is simply magnificent.
Following a sublime ‘Between the Hammer and the Anvil’, Rob Halford takes a moment to honour Ozzy Osbourne reflecting on the previous 24 hours in a heartfelt tribute. Unsurprisingly this is greeted by huge applause and the chants of ‘Ozzy, Ozzy’ lead nicely into Priest’s ‘Giants In The Sky’ which celebrates those iconic artists who have all left us too soon. The addition of two huge classic Ozzy images to the backdrop screen alongside Lemmy, Dio, Freddie Mercury and others makes for a touching moment.
‘Painkiller’ is as razor sharp as ever and closes the main set before an encore beginning with ‘Electric Eye’ before Rob re-appears through the smoke filled stage astride his Harley Davidson with flat leather cap and riding crop as they tear through ‘Hell Bent For Leather’. It’s surely one of the most enduring images of metal over the past 45 or so years, and as they wrap things up with ‘Living After Midnight’, they do so confirming that few do this better.
Setlist:
All Guns Blazing
Hell Patrol
You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
Freewheel Burning
Breaking the Law
A Touch of Evil
Night Crawler
Solar Angels
Gates of Hell
Battle Hymn
One Shot at Glory
The Serpent and the King
Between the Hammer and the Anvil
Giants in the Sky
Painkiller
Encore:
The Hellion
Electric Eye
Hell Bent for Leather
Living After Midnight
