The 2020 eBook by Martin Popoff.

The power, the glory, the moustaches, the cravats and bandannas…

If you like the way I’ve been doing these books, a chapter per album, every song addressed—and if you were a card-carrying NWOBHM maniac—then this book is for you.

Denim and Leather: Saxon’s First Ten Years is 248 pages of biker metal hail after hail, with two four-page colour sections, loads of fresh interview content, all the facts and dates and even some of the hot disputes.

As the back cover crows…

Stand up and be counted! Now that there’s no more Motörhead, it’s up to Iron Maiden and Saxon to uphold the fine tradition of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, something both bands have been doing for over 40 years now. Indeed, 2020 marks the 40th anniversary of Saxon’s landmark Wheels of Steel album, a record we celebrate in this book with much reverence and many pints of ale clinked between headbangers clad in both denim and leather.

Of course there’s more than that but not everything! Indeed, Denim and Leather: Saxon’s First Ten Years focuses on the band’s golden era, Saxon’s prodigious first decade of output. Saxon, Wheels of Steel, Strong Arm of the Law, Denim and Leather, Power & the Glory, Crusader, Innocence Is No Excuse, Rock the Nations and Destiny each are dedicated stand-alone chapters, inside of which Popoff deconstructs every song across both sides of the original vinyl, while not forgetting bonus tracks and B-sides, as well as the live material along the way, including the beloved The Eagle Has Landed album.

It’s a glory-bound Saxon-fest that is long overdue, and it is the hope of the author that at the end of this sometimes critical examination that the reader returns to these records with new reflections on the NWOBHM and some of the detrimental things that came after for many bands, the heroes of our story included.

Calling all Gen ‘Exbangers! My new book, Holy Smoke: Iron Maiden in the ‘90s, has just arrived at the office and is ready for signing and shipping. It’s the follow-up to Where Eagles Dare: Iron Maiden in the ‘80s with matching design and style, same tipped-in sections of colour photography, every song examined deeply and all that. You’ve all been very kind in making my recent books like this on Sabbath and Priest sell pretty damn good, so this one is very much a style match to those too.
Finally I get to do the Maiden story… relaxed, fully involved, include all the detail, lots of facts and trivia but no holding back on opinion as well. There will likely be a third one to bring us up to present day, but I haven’t even started (doing Mercyful Fate next instead).

Learn more about Martin Popoff at http://www.martinpopoff.com

This eBook is presented here as a full high-resolution PDF to maintain the layout of the original book, and provide images at the highest quality.

eBook File Size - PDF Format - 17.3 MB (248 pages)