Former SAXON Drummer NIGEL GLOCKLER Talks About His Departure

The Dio Message Board recently conducted an in-depth interview with former SAXON drummer Nigel Glockler. A couple of excerpts from the interview follow:

The Dio Message Board: You had an injury back in '98 which has prevented you from being in SAXON and being a full-time member yet you still work with the band. Can you tell us what happened back then and also how things "work" now with yourself and SAXON?

Nigel Glockler: "We had some gigs in Brazil in, I think, September/October '97, and it wasn't worth taking my kit all the way over there just for them so I used a hire kit. My kit can be set up within millimetres every night but the hire kit was a little unfamiliar and stretching that extra bit for a china cymbal one night ended up tearing a muscle between my neck and shoulder — I didn't feel it at first and we then went to Sweden (with my kit) and I started getting pains in my neck — I initially thought I had done something to my vertebrae in my neck so went to an osteopath and a chiropractor just after Christmas. Early in the New Year we went to Spain and it really started hurting — I then saw a doctor and he said I'd ripped a muscle and, having kept playing, it had kept tearing more and more — I was told I needed to have three to four months off from playing so I decided that the English gigs we had booked would be my last for a while. The band went to the U.S. and, during that time, I started writing the 'Mad Men' album and other bits of music — I've got a studio here at home for that purpose — a lot of the ideas for 'Unleash...' originally started off on keyboards here. SAXON then asked me if I'd write an intro for 'Metalhead' — I'd already done the play-on tapes for the 'Dogs…' and 'Unleash...' tours — the next thing was to get involved with the writing on 'Killing Ground' and, later, 'Lionheart'. I actually went up to the studio in Lincolnshire for 'Killing Ground' and played during the writing sessions — some of the ideas for 'Lionheart' were started here in my studio. The end result was that I knew my injury was healed but I didn't think it would be fair for me to do the recordings and let Fritz do the touring — plus the fact I'd started writing all kinds of stuff and was enjoying the creativity of being in a studio. I played a couple of songs at Wacken last year and also in London so I know for sure that everything's all healed up now!! One other thing is that we'll all be mates for life — when you're together for so long it would take something pretty drastic to break those bonds. We speak all the time."

The Dio Message Board: What do you make of the whole SAXON vs. OLIVER/DAWSON thing, surely they did have some right as they were in the band and songwriters?

Nigel Glockler: "I honestly felt that they had to be stopped just calling themselves SAXON — I was even advertised as playing at one gig!!! — and that's not fair on the fans. I went ballistic and contacted the promoters in case they didn't know — you've got to admit that using my name to try and help sell tickets is a bit of a con! — I didn't know anything about it until someone said they'd see me after the gig!!! I know they were songwriters but you can't have more than one band with the name going round plus the fact that I was in the band longer than Pete Gill and Steve Dawson — does that mean I could call a band SAXON too? Nibbs has been in the band longer than Steve as well. It's not as if SAXON split up and stopped touring/recording — they were still doing all this when the bogus one suddenly popped up! You have to ask yourself this — for instance, Ritchie Blackmore wrote with DEEP PURPLE so could he have his own version going at the same time as the real one? What if he got Jon Lord and maybe Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale together? It would be crazy!!

"Anyway, I think it has been resolved now — I'm not that involved with it. Life is too short and I've recently spoken to Steve and Graham and, hopefully, some bridges have been built — I think so — it was good to talk again — but I will always say that they shouldn't have called themselves SAXON. It would have been a different matter if the band had split up but it was touring and recording — anyway, enough!"

Read the entire interview in the "Don't Talk to Strangers" forum at The Dio Message Board (free registration required).