The SAS Band Story
Spike reminisces
Tony Hadley, filming of TV Pilot "In Session with The SAS Band".
Photo by Amanda Rose
It all began in the summer of ’94. I had been contacted by Gosport Borough Council in Hampshire, because having spent my formative years in the Gosport and Portsmouth area, I was known to them as a ‘local muso’. Every August, Gosport had been in the habit of having a festival in the Big Top at the local park. I had played at previous festivals as a member of The Cross with Roger Taylor and The Vegetarians of Love with Bob Geldof. This particular year, however, I was band-less - ‘Billy No-Mates’ so to speak. It was suggested to me that I might like to organise a ‘jam session’ (yuk)!! I have a very jaded view of jam sessions as in my experience they always seem to end up with fifteen head-banging guitarists of very limited talent playing endless blues solos all at the same time and very loudly! So that idea was out of the question, but it did occur to me that I had only recently finished a tour with one of the finest bands I’d ever played with, The Brian May Band, so I duly contacted them.

Cozy Powell on drums, Neil Murray on bass and Jamie Moses on guitar all readily agreed to be involved. Next, I needed singers. Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann’s Earth Band) was my first choice as I had worked with him on The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium the previous year. Then I bumped into Tony Hadley, whom I knew from the old touring days of Queen. Jamie was working with Paul Young at the time and some other friends were working with Kiki Dee. Amazingly, when I asked them all to come and have some fun in Gosport, everybody said “Yes”.

SAS Band at the Academy
Next we needed something great to play, so I made a list of the singers’ greatest hits, threw in a few Queen tunes that the Band already knew, filled it out with some rock classics and ‘Bob’s yer uncle’. When Chris Thompson strode onto the stage that fateful Friday night and launched into “Davy’s on the Road Again”, The SAS BAND was born!

I know I’m making this all seem so incredibly easy, but that’s the key to the whole thing; it was incredibly easy. Put together some great musicians with some brilliant singers, give them some fabulous material to play, mix in a dollop of fun ... et voila - you have the recipe for one hell of a gig! Of course, everyone had a complete blast on stage and off, and the talk was, “Oh, we must do this again and soon - get on and organise it, Spike!” The word spread and gradually more and more musicians and then more performers started to line up to join in the fun.

The response to the debut of The SAS Band was overwhelming and what started out to be a bit of a social club for singers and musicians has lead to a steady flow of bigger gigs, outdoor festivals, TV specials, a couple of studio CDs and a live video, as well as performances at several Prince’s Trust’s “Party in the Park” concerts, where The SAS BAND was one of the few bands who dared to play live in front of over 100,000 people in London’s Hyde Park and to a worldwide TV audience of some 100 million viewers.

Roy Wood, filming of TV pilot "In Session with The SAS Band".
Photo by Amanda Rose
The philosophy of The SAS BAND through the years has steadfastly and simply remained ‘Maximum Fun, Minimum Grief’! We only do gigs or songs we know we’ll enjoy and if someone comes along with any attitude, or ego nonsense, we elbow them - tout suite! So... we’re left with talented, good-natured types who enjoy each other’s company and put their very best effort into every performance the Band gives. I can put my hand on my heart and honestly say that we’ve never had a bad gig. We might have inadvertently ended up in some less than salubrious surroundings, but we’ve always gone on stage and delivered the goods.

Our plan is now to take The SAS BAND further and further afield. The airwaves and TV are filled with manufactured, pre-formed stage-school squeakers to whom dancing and haircuts are the main priority. The SAS BAND doesn’t worry about haircuts (isn’t that the truth!); The SAS BAND wants to play the best songs with the best singers and send everybody home from their gigs exhausted from singing and dancing, safe in the knowledge that they’ve just seen one of the best shows of their lives.

Yes, I do have sleepless nights and outrageous phone bills, putting all of this together, but you know what ... I love every moment of it because I think I have more fun than anybody I know and when I walk off stage after every SAS BAND gig, I think to myself, “There’s plenty more where that came from...!!”

Photo by Amanda Rose Photo by Amanda Rose Photo by Amanda Rose