Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler will be reunited with the nurse who helped him recover from life-saving brain surgery when the band play in Newcastle this month.
Glockler took seriously ill ahead of a scheduled Newcastle gig on the band’s winter UK tour in December 2014 and was diagnosed with an aneurysm. One of the medics who looked after him at the city’s Royal Victoria Infirmary was a Saxon-loving nurse.
And as the band prepare to return to Newcastle for the first time since his illness, Glockler was keen to track down the man and invite him along to the October 28 show at the O2 Academy as his special guest.
Not long after launching a social media appeal, Matt Kerr got in touch – and he’ll attend the show along with his son.
Glockler tells TeamRock: “Not surprisingly, considering what I was going through at the time, I couldn’t remember the guy’s name. But I knew I and my wife Gina would recognise his face so we asked for help to track him down on social media.
“Before I knew it, he had got in touch and Gina recognised him straight away. It’s great and I really look forward to seeing him and his son at the show.
“We have already reached out to the surgeon Dr Patrick Mitchell and his team to invite them to the gig too, but I remembered Matt was a big Saxon fan and I knew he’d appreciate it.
“These people saved my life – I can’t ever thank them enough. Matt was part of a team that were in seeing me every couple of hours, taking my blood pressure and scanning my brain to make sure everything was okay.
“I can’t wait to see Matt face-to-face rather than looking up at him from a hospital bed.”
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Glockler made a full recovery from the surgery in lightning quick time and was back playing with Saxon just four months later. He recalls how stunned his doctors were by the turnaround.
He says: “My local surgeon nearly fell over when I told him I was gigging already in April last year. They were really expecting it might take a year or two for me to get back to live performing.
“I’m not having to do anything too different. I just generally take better care of myself – I drink plenty of water and get lots of rest. I have a job to do with Saxon and I can’t burn the candle at both ends.
“I’m looking forward to seeing Matt again and I’m especially excited to finally be playing in Newcastle again, because I obviously missed that gig in 2014. I want to have the best show of my life that night.”
The quick reactions of Glockler’s wife Gina on the night he fell ill gave him the best chance of surviving. Doctors told him he was extremely fortunate as “one out of three people who have what I had never make it to the hospital alive.”
Gina recognised something was wrong and Googled her husband’s symptoms, which included slurred speech, and called immediately for help.
Saxon are working on the follow-up to 2015 album Battering Ram and recently issued live package Let Me Feel Your Power. They will tour the US with UFO next year.
Saxon tour dates 2016⁄17
Oct 28: Newcastle O2 Academy, UK
Oct 29: Glasgow ABC, UK
Oct 30: Belfast Limelight, UK
Nov 01: Dublin Academy, Ireland
Nov 02: Manchester O2 Ritz, UK
Nov 03: Bristol O2 Academy, UK
Nov 05: London Shepherd’s Bush Empire, UK
Nov 06: Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall, UK
Nov 08: Sheffield O2 Academy, UK
Nov 09: Nottingham Rock City, UK
Nov 11: Tilburg 013, Netherlands
Nov 12: Weibenhauser Strand Metal Hammer Paradise, Germany
Nov 13: Zwolle Hedon, Netherlands
Nov 14: Paris Trianon, France
Nov 16: Strasbourg La Laiterie, France
Nov 17: Stuttgart LKA Longhorn, Germany
Nov 18: Telfs Rathaussaal, Austria
Nov 19: Zlin Masters of Rock Winter Festival, Czech Republic
Nov 21: Warsaw Progresja, Poland
Nov 22: Berlin Huxleys Neue Welt, Germany
Nov 24: Aarhus Voxhall, Denmark
Nov 25: Odense Musikhuset Posten, Denmark
Nov 26: Copenhagen Amager Bio, Denmark
Nov 27: Malmo Kulturbolaget, Sweden
Nov 29: Gothenburg Tradgar’n, Sweden
Nov 30: Ronneby Klubb Ronn, Sweden
Dec 02: Osnabruck Hyde Park, Denmark
Dec 03: Oberhausen Ruhrpott Metal Meeting, Denmark
Dec 04: Leipzig Hellraiser, Germany
Dec 05: Saarbrucken Garage, Germany
Dec 06: Munich Backstage Halle, Germany
Dec 07: Vienna Simm City, Austria
Dec 09: Pratteln Z7, Switzerland
Dec 10: Geiselwind Christmas Bash Festival, Germany
Dec 11: Ljubljana Kino Siska, Slovenia
Dec 13: Bologna Zona Roveri, Italy
Dec 14: Milan Live Club, Italy
Dec 16: Bilbao Santana 27, Spain
Dec 17: MAdrid San Miguel, Spain
Dec 18: Barcelona Razzmatazz, Spain
Dec 20: Lyon Le Transbordeur, France
Dec 21: Lille Le Splendid, France
Dec 22: Antwerp Trix, Belgium
Mar 09: Houston Scout Bar, TX
Mar 10: Dallas Gas Monkey Live, TX
Mar 11: San Antonio Alamo City Music Hall, TX
Mar 14: San Diego House Of Blues, CA
Mar 15: San Francisco The Independent, CA
Mar 16: Los Angeles Belasco, CA
Mar 18: Anaheim The Grove, CA
Mar 19: Las Vegas House Of Blues, NV
Mar 21: Denver Summit Concert Hall, CO
Mar 24: Sioux City, hard rock Casino, IA
Mar 26: St Charles Arcada Theater, IL
Mar 28: Cleveland House Of Blues, OH
Mar 29: New York B.B. King’s, NY
Mar 30: New York B.B. King’s, NY
Apr 01: Jim Thorpe Penn’s Peak, PA
Apr 02: Allston Brighton Music Hall, MA
