Rock pioneers Judas Priest brought their Shield of Pain Tour to the Yorkshire coast with a headlining show at TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre.
The British legends – who have shaped the sound and style of heavy metal for more than half a century – made a visit to the seaside in celebration of 35 years of their iconic album Painkiller as one of only two UK dates this summer.
Kicking off the night with the album’s All Guns Blazing and Hell Patrol, frontman Rob Halford wasted no time in delighting the rocking crowd segueing perfectly into more of Painkiller’s track list including A Touch of Evil, One Shot at Glory, Between the Hammer & the Anvil, Hell Bent for Leather and the title track.
The near two hour set was not without other glorious hits from Priest’s back catalogue with Breaking The Law, Freewheel Burning and Electric Eye making the break before Halford and pals ended the night with 1980’s Living After Midnight.
As has become the norm with Judas Priest’s live shows, Giants in the Sky paid tribute to fallen heroes of rock, with rock icon Ozzy Osbourne sadly added to that tribute following his death Tuesday.
Speaking ahead of the song, Halford said: “It’s good to be home, we’ve been all over Europe the last six weeks or so. We started in Finland, we’ve been all over Europe, everywhere you could imagine. That’s the power of metal, it’s everywhere man but we’ve been looking forward to these two show back home here at Scarborough and a couple of days later at the 02 in London.
“Look, it’s been tough the last 24 hours right but he would want us to be doing this, he would want us to be together, he would want us to be having a good time which is what we’re doing right now. We love you Ozzy.
“This next song is all about him and all of the other greats that we’ve lost. Their music lives forever. They used to be down here on the earth plain, now they’re in the sky plain as we call it. This is Giants in the Sky.”