Judas Priest

It should come as no surprise that Judas Priest captured lightning in a bottle when they recorded "British Steel" 30 years ago.

Not when you consider where the heavy metal act recorded the album, which went on to become the band's seminal recording and the focal point of its current North American tour, which makes a stop at Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre tonight.

British Steel was recorded at Tittenhurst Park, a studio in a home previously owned by John Lennon. The room that spawned the Priest hit "Living After Midnight" was where the ex-Beatle put "Imagine," one of the most influential rock songs in history, on tape in 1971.

As legend has it, Priest vocalist Rob Halford was awaken one night during the recording of "British Steel" to the sounds of guitarist Glenn Tipton working on the riff that would lead to "Living After Midnight." Tipton just happened to be working on the song in the same room Lennon had used to record "Imagine" nearly a decade earlier.

Talk about instant karma.

"We've always just gone into the studio and recorded what we've written," Tipton said over the phone from North Haven, Conn. "In fact, with 'British Steel' we hadn't gotten all the songs written. We wrote at least 40 per cent of it in the studio and that was really unusual for us. But it was such a great vibe there. It just came together.

"We were short on songs so we wrote and recorded them in the same session, which is unusual. But it really seemed to work. It's those immediate songs you write that usually are the strongest."

"British Steel," which included some of Priest's biggest hits and live staples ("Living After Midnight," "Breaking The Law" and "Metal Gods"), has endured over the years and become one of the classic heavy metal albums. But it's not something Priest planned... or expected.

"A lot of the stuff has become classic... well, classic Priest," Tipton said. "I'm not going to say all-time classics but classic Priest songs. We couldn't pat ourselves on the back and say, hey, 30 years on these songs will still be as strong as ever. It's just what we did at the time and the way we wrote.

"We're very lucky we've got that writing chemistry in the band. They've withstood the test of time, these songs, which is a great thing. I think the best compliment people can pay us is that our music is timeless. I have to say we're very lucky we've got the writing chemistry.

"We never set about to write songs that have got longevity, it's just the way it's turned out."

On the current tour, Priest will perform "British Steel" in its entirety for the first time. Many of the album's songs have been played live countless times over the course of the band's nearly 40-year lifetime but a handful will be rarities on the set list.

"You're asking the wrong person, I have the worst memory in the world," Tipton said with a laugh when asked if Priest has never played any of the tracks live before. "I think we've touched on nearly all of them at some point. But we've never played them in their entirety from start to finish, which is the beauty of it. That's the statement, really, to play the whole album.

"In fact we've never played a whole album before from start to finish so it's a first in two senses."

None of the band members - Halford, guitarist K.K. Downing, bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis round out the current, and close to original, lineup - can recall whose idea it was to play British Steel live but the idea was soundly endorsed by all.

"We were just sitting around the table and we thought it would be nice to do something special as it is the anniversary, more or less, of British Steel," Tipton recalled. "We thought that would make a good choice. It's a great choice of songs as well. You've got 'The Rage', you've got 'Living After Midnight,' 'Steeler,' 'Rapid Fire;' there's a real good selection of songs there. 'You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise.'

"They're all good crowd songs. It's been great for everything. 'To be Old To Be Wise' is a singalong song, 'Living After Midnight' is (too). Obviously 'British Steel' isn't enough for the set, the complete set, so we had to put some other songs, some retro songs, around it. Relevant songs from that era.

"'Rock Hard/Ride Free,' 'The Ripper,' we brought back the original version of 'Diamonds and Rust.' They're all great crowd favourites."

The Toronto show will be the eighth of the tour, which started in Indianapolis late last month, and only stop in Canada. The last scheduled date is Aug. 23, when Priest plays in Gilford, N.H.

There were a few "shaky moments" early on, according to Tipton, but those were quickly sorted out. Now Priest is rumbling like a finely-tuned Harley-Davidson, which you can expect to see Halford ride on stage at some point in the show.

It's a two-month grind that comes hot on the heels of a European leg during the spring. It can be a tough go being on the road that long for a band that isn't getting any younger - Tipton is 61, believe it or not - but Priest wouldn't have it any other way.

"It is different, touring means a different thing now. I think everybody, the older you get ... the travel (is difficult) really," Tipton admitted. "When you set foot on stage it's great, every night you get the roar of the audience and there's no better place to be. The travel can be arduous now. I love my home so it's a wrench to come away from home.

"But there's just no substitution for the roar or the audience when you're about to walk on stage. So when you set foot on stage, everything is just joyous really. When we've been playing songs like 'Living After Midnight' for 30 years, you'd think you would get sick of them but you don't because as soon as you set foot on stage and the audience is singing along with you, it's just as good as the first time we ever played it.

"It's the audience that makes everything, we feed off the audience and the audience feed off us."

Opening acts tonight include Whitesnake, another product of the 1970s and '80s British metal scene, and American rockers Pop Evil.