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Around Town Meets...
Graham Oliver
Guitarist and founder member of Saxon.
Interviewed by Brian Elliott
 I have never interviewed an internationally-known rock musician before, someone who has toured the world with Saxon, meeting some of the great names in popular culture and achieved the accolade of a biographical listing in Hugh Gregory’s 1000 Great Guitarists book.
What’s more, Graham Oliver has contributed to a string of hit records and played solo on Top of the Pops. Not bad for a modest Mexborough lad whose dreams were almost shattered when told that he would never play a guitar again, following a serious finger accident. I need not have worried. Graham is a down to earth guy. No edge. And we have known each for years, largely because of our mutual interest in local history.
Graham’s other great passion (apart from his family) is local pots and potteries. Show him a sherd of pottery from a local source and, like an archaeologist from Time Team, he will tell you what it once comprised, where it was made and the story of the works. It reminded me of Bill Wyman’s own fascination for the past through his metal detecting hobby. Graham was consulted by archaeologists during the excavation at the Denaby Pottery site and has just written a piece in the Northern Ceramic Society’s newsletter on the connection between the Hawley (Top Pottery, Rawmarsh) and Don potteries.
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 I wanted to explore the contrasting aspects of Graham’s life when I visited his Mexborough home on a pleasant February morning. He had no qualms about meeting me fairly early, even though he had not got back from a gig in Sunderland until three the same morning. Not long after our chat he was off again, bound for another evening performance with ODS (Oliver/Dawson/Saxon), to Newcastle under Lyme in Cheshire. It’s hard to distinguish work and leisure in Graham’s life as he has the enviable situation of doing the thing that he obviously enjoys so much - performing live and entertaining an appreciative audience - involving people who have followed the music for years, as well as loads of newcomers - be it jamming in a pub or club, or playing at a large venue.
We began by exploring Graham’s relatively recent interest in local ceramic history. It started in 1990 when his wife bought a Rockingham cup at an antique fair. Finding a little more information about the Bramelds and their Swinton pottery proved to be so fascinating that it developed into a much wider appreciation of local works, with a special interest in the human aspects of the trade. Graham is particularly fond of earthenware pots, once in everyday use in working class households, therefore quite rare compared with fine porcelain cabinet pieces.
And yet his enthusiasm for the subject may well have its origins much earlier. He recalled being very upset when a favorite mug was broken when he was a small boy. Motivation increased when he found out that his great great grandfather George Oliver served five years as an apprentice at the Don Pottery and 55 years at Kilnhurst Pottery, working for the Twigg family. Another paternal ancestor, Christopher Oliver, even worked for the Bramelds. A very recent discovery was that Rawlinson’s Terrace in Mexborough (now demolished) where Graham once lived, was used by the managers at the nearby Rock Pottery. So local pots and potteries are an integral part of Graham’s family history which also helps us all to appreciate what an important part the pottery industry once was in and around the Don and Dearne valleys, along with glassmaking, boat-building and farming, before the modern development of coal mining. You will usually find Graham at antique fairs, his enthusiasm and interest as strong as ever.
At school Graham did not get opportunity to develop a musical interest though he did purchase an acoustic guitar, for £6, from Jackson’s music shop in Mexborough. He remains self-taught. Oliver’s first ‘proper’ electronic guitar was bought from Smedley’s in Doncaster for £20. He still
has it.
It was a after a chance listening to the Gates of Eden, the B-side of Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone (issued 1965) that he was smitten, absolutely turned on to music. ‘You get Dylan or you don’t,’ Graham told me. Then in 1966 there was an unforgettable experience of The Spencer Davies Group at the Gaument in Doncaster (where the Beatles had played a couple of years earlier) and was turned on to the sound of Stevie Winwood’s white Fender guitar and Stevies Blues. But the greatest live influence was Jimi Hendrix (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) at Sheffield City Hall, wagging off to school to attend, with his mate Neil Hawthorne, cousin of the late great Mexborough-born Formula One racing champion: ‘It just blew me away.’ Years later, Oliver met Hendrix’s dad, James ‘Al’, in Seattle, Washington, when Saxon were on tour and also chatted to Jimi’s 101-year-old grandmother, Nora, a Cherokee Indian, who spoke to Graham about her grandson’s early life. What an experience.
The music listened to when on a Spanish holiday with his dad, camping on the beach at the height of the ‘Flower Power’ summer of 1967, was also memorable for Graham, listening to the haunting sound of White Shade of Pale on the way home. What a year that was.
Graham's performing origins really began when he played in bands in front rooms during 1968/69, getting a few local gigs under the name of Blue Condition (taken from the old Cream song), with Steve Firth also on guitar. The first booking was at the Canal Tavern, ten bob to share but worth a fortune. Graham was then working at the Modern Methods & Materials factory in Mexborough. The old band, almost unchanged, revived their first performance there thirty years later, just before the building was demolished, a 'brilliant evening'. The Heavy Metal band Saxon emerged from two groups: one from Barnsley named Coast and SOB (or Son of a Bitch [after the Free album, Tons of Sobs]). Graham recalls SOB gradually gaining in local popularity. For one gig, at the Eagle and Child in Conisbrough, the place was so crowded, the band had to gain access and exit via a window. In 1976 the combined 5-piece line-up consisted of Graham Oliver and Paul Quinn (from Monk Bretton) on guitars, Steve Dawson (from Swinton) on bass guitar, Peter 'Biff' Byford on vocals, and drummer Peter Gill from Sheffield. 'We started writing songs together,' said Graham, 'and the chemistry worked. We kept being invited back to venues and they would sell out.' Saxon gradually gained a following and it wasn't long before they were supporting touring bands such as Motorhead and, with international recognition, were dubbed THE MEANEST BAND IN THE WORLD.
By 1979 the band had signed to Carrere Records, a French record label and a debut album, Saxon, reflecting their new name, was released. Perhaps not surprising in the Punk era, it did not attract a popular following but did well in the Heavy Metal Chart. It was their next album, the classic Wheels of Steel (1980) that really put them on the British music map, reaching 5 in the UK charts. Saxon were Big. A string of other silver and gold album hits followed, including Strong Arm of the Law (11, 1980), Denim and Leather (9, 1981) and Power and the Glory (15, 1985 and 155 in the US). P & G sold 15,000 copies in Los Angeles in one week following its release. Their first official live album, The Eagle Has Landed (inspired by the '69 Moon landing) also reached 5 in the UK charts. Hit singles at this time included Wheels of Steel (20, 1980), 747 (Strangers in the Night), (13, 1980) and And the Bands Played On (12, 1981). For a more detailed discography try their listing on the internet free encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Saxon played Top of the Pops five times, as well as many other UK and international TV appearances. On TOPS they shared the same bill as Johnny Rotten, Motorhead, Judas Priest and Deff Leppard. On one memorable occasion the set included performances from Tony Capstick and Hazel O'Conner, so there were three artistes with Mexborough associations!
Saxon were particularly popular in Germany but a whole series of stadium tours encompassed America and the Far East, either in their own right or with HM groups such as Whitesnake, Rush, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult, Rainbow and Judas Priest. On one occasion Ozzy Osbourne's new band Blizzard supported Saxon. The band shared a dressing room with ABBA, John Denver, Peter Gabriel and the Commodores on an Italian awards programme, broadcast to an audience of 40 million. Saxon followed Denver who played a brilliant, live acoustic number. They were also the first band to play twice at the Donington Monster of Rock festival. Legal issues undermined any financial gains relating to their early successes, resulting in a switch to a more commercial label, EMI, which may not have suited die hard fans.
Now in his third decade as a professional musician, its great that Graham Oliver is still touring, making guest appearances here and there and planning to write new songs with his long-time mate and fellow performer, Steve Dawson; along with band members Haydn Conway, from Rawmarsh (guitar), ex Saxon Nigel Durham (drums) and Birmingham's ex Slash/Guns & Roses vocalist John 'Wardie' Ward. The quality is still there, reflected in a comment that Graham made to me when he talked about the poor instrumentation of the Punk groups of the 70s: 'You have to be good in Yorkshire - you can't fool a northern audience or they will let you know.' Check out ODS via their My Space listing (URL: http://www.myspace.com/httpwwwmyspacecomods) where
you can look, listen, interact and find out about forthcoming gigs. See you at an antique fair, Graham - and keep on rocking.
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