Saxon endorse Electro-Voice

Since the end of last year, British heavy metal legends Saxon have been relying on Electro-Voice microphones. The band’s vocalist and leader, Biff Byford, is mightily impressed with REV wireless and the new PL series microphones for vocal and instrumental applications.

Straubing, May 2009 The British band Saxon has been writing heavy metal history for more than 30 years. The band’s last tour – together with Motörhead – demonstrated that Saxon still has a huge and loyal following throughout the world. On this tour and beyond, front man Biff Byford is relying exclusively upon REV wireless and the new PL Series microphones from Electro-Voice.

“The REV wireless system really gives you a lot of freedom and the guitars don’t knock the microphone out of your mouth when you trip over the leads,” says Byford. “I can actually walk around, which is good especially at big festivals. As headliner we have quite a big stage where we go upon ramps and other things, so it’s good for that. The REV wireless system with the N/D767 capsule has been really great. We’ve had no faults at all.”

Torben Ibs, the FOH Engineer on the Saxon tour, shares Byford’s enthusiasm for the REV wireless system and the PL Series microphones. He comments: “Yeah. I’m very impressed with the enormous gain before feedback of the PL80a. It’s easy to handle monitors and it’s easy for me to handle it up front. It’s got good background noise rejection. And because the background level is very high – we’ve got around six to eight Marshall cabs, which are full on – it was always hard for me to get the guitars out of the vocal mics. I’m very happy with the PL mics, and the monitor guy is too. They cut through the mix.”

About Saxon
Saxon has been going strong since 1976. Since the early days, a close friendship has existed between its members and Motörhead. This was manifest in Nov. and Dec. of last year when the two groups embarked upon a joint tour of Europe. The five members of Saxon see Germany as a second home. It’s also where they recorded their most recent album, “Into the Labyrinth”, which was released on the Jan. 9, 2009.

Equipment list

1 x REV-D D-Band Dual UHF Channel Receiver
3 x REV-HD7 Concert Handheld N/D767
1 x REV-HD9 Concert Handheld N/D967
2 x PLDK7 Drum Kit (1xPL33, 4xPL35, 2xPL37)
2 x N/D868 Kick Drum Microphone
1 x PL35 Snare/Tom Microphone
1 x PL37 Overhead Microphone
3 x PL80a Vocal Microphone
3 x N/D468 Instrumental Microphone
1 x HM7 Lead Vocal Condenser Microphone
2 x LPA500 Log-Periodic Antenna