“We knew we’d done something great, but we didn’t know we’d written a defining album for that era”: How 747 (Strangers In The Night) made Saxon unexpected stars of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal

Biff Byford singing with Saxon in 1980.

With their 1980 single 747 (Strangers In The Night), Saxon found their big break, reaching No. 13 in the UK charts. In 2019, on the cusp of his band’s 40th-anniversary celebrations, singer Biff Byford spoke to Hammer about the song’s impact and back-story.

The Great Northeast Blackout took place on November 9, 1965. Due to disastrous technical problems, electricity supplies to thousands of people in southern Ontario, Canada, and across eight north-eastern American states, were abruptly cut. Alarmingly, this included power supplies to airport runway lights, forcing countless planes to be re-routed elsewhere.