I had been looking for some Saxon memorabilia for years, in which was the autograph of the original drummer of the band Pete Gill, who was there from when they were formed in 1978 until 1981 when in the middle of the Denim And Leather Tour he injured his hand and had to be urgently replaced by current drummer Nigel Glockler.
Pete Gill recorded his first four albums with Saxon, three of which are the cornerstone of his career and the N.W.B.O.H.M. , which contain great classics from Heavy Metal history and have influenced many famous Metal bands that came after them.
There are very few Saxon memorabilia for sale in the World, autographed by Pete Gill; which makes it difficult to find them, although over the years some appear. First of all , any Pete Gill / Saxon object is at least 40 years old , secondly getting the signatures of the five original members out is already hard as hell , also you have to take into account that Gill never played with Saxon in Spain and he retired from the musical world in 1986 (although he reappeared to lend a hand to his former colleagues and friends from Saxon, Graham Oliver and Steve Dawson with the recording of Victim You (1996), the band's only album Son Of A Bitch.
Then you have to assess the status of the autographed object, such as that it is without personal dedications and what its level of damage is, as well as the quantity and clarity of the signatures, which object it is; a vinyl, a single a photo, a poster, a maxisingle, etc ...
After years of searching and controlling prices in the international market for this object I was looking for ... finally this past summer I found some collectors from England who put on sale a 1980 Saxon Wheels Of Steel Tourbook in good condition, with the entrance to the Manchester Apollo Theater concert on 5/31/80 where all the original members signed it !!!
The price ??? .... those are things that a collector does not say, because only he understands that value, the rest is posture so I am not going to say it and that I already had that Tourbook, I have really paid for the autographs.
So blind and obstinate was I going after the signing of Pete Gill that it was not until I had the Tourbook in my hands that I realized that I had another collector's autograph on it and it is the almost childlike signature that Peter "Biff" Byford made in the first time of the group, that while all the members used their own signature of always, Biff was signing with that so chorra (Biff!?) !!!! .... ha ha ha, until a short time later I modify it already, with Biff's scribble and including the Byford surname more or less with the form and stroke with which I have his autograph on the guitar (although I have better autographs of him) who signed me at the Garatge Club in Barcelona on the Unleashed The Beast Tour (1996) where I accompanied them to various concerts around the country, as I have been doing since 1991.
An example of his hybrid signature of transition between one and the other I put in photos 18 and 19 of a Tourbook that sold the Worthpoint auction house of The Eagle Has Landed Tour (1982) so it could be fixed on those dates 1981/82 your signature transition.
After the purchase and payment of the Tourbook, I saw in the follow-up of the order, that they held it for a long time I do not know why, in the two customs both in the English and in the Spanish and to me that it was already giving me a fucking heart attack with that they kept it from me for so long !!!!
When I arrived and enjoyed it, I already got in touch with Andrés Panadero from Passepartout, the framing and graphic design store with which I do my quality work and the first store that collaborated with Satan Things by the way and that I highly recommend for the quality of their work.
Andreu has very good taste and suggestions and I explained that I wanted to give the Tourbook's framing an air of old urban English with red tochana, like many of the old buildings, houses and factories of England, as Biff and his son Seb say on their 2021 joint album Red Brick City.
So we double-framed the Tourbook, with a first red brick re-framed with a black frame with the entrance at the back of the painting so that the book and entrance are always together ... the result has been BRUTAAAAAAL !!!!!
And there he is in a privileged place presiding over my dining room, hanging low to be able to observe the autographs well when he wants, because in those years they were made with a pen or pencil and they do not stand out exaggeratedly, there were not the cool marker pieces of today.
Without a doubt it is one of my greatest and most precious relics that I have been able to get from my favorite band and this is the passion of collecting, pursuing, locating, working hard at it and finally getting it, it is really .... FANTASTIC !! !
NEVER SURRENDER !!!!!
JAVIER BARBA VALLEJO
