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Plays: 3035
Views: 4327 |
Official Site: www.sassafras.org.uk
iSound Site: www.isound.com/sassafras
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THE HISTORY OF 'SASSAFRAS'
Sassafras were first formed in 1970 as a three-piece band with guitarist Ralph Evans, bassist Ricky John Holt and drummer Rob Reynolds. Guitarist David (Dai) Shell, who was working in a residency in Titos nightclub in Cardiff was the first |
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| Sassafras @ Martyr's club on 11.25.06 | | Venue: | Martyr's club | | Date: | 11.25.06 | | Time: | 7:00 pm | | Location: | Merthyr Tydfil, [GB] | | Price: | |
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THE HISTORY OF 'SASSAFRAS'
Sassafras were first formed in 1970 as a three-piece band with guitarist Ralph Evans, bassist Ricky John Holt and drummer Rob Reynolds. Guitarist David (Dai) Shell, who was working in a residency in Titos nightclub in Cardiff was the first musician they drafted in to enlarge the band.
Ralph "We all thought that Dai was a wonderful guitarist so we asked him to join us...."
Dai "So it wasn't my looks then?"
Ralph "It was probably because you had a mini-van at the time and we wanted to use it.
Sassafras found themselves an agency in Hereford and the band were finally on the road. In 1971 Dai Shell set up Ddraig (Dragon) Studios in Severn Road, Cardiff with the help of musician Peter (Jake) Jacobs and Carl Leighton-Pope. Steve (Pudding) Jones joined them at Ddraig as did John Kelly who later went on to produce Kate Bush, Chris Rea and Paul McCartney to name a few.
Dai "Draig means 'dragon' in Welsh, but we spelt it with two 'd's because we were a bit thick! That was when Jake came in and part financed the studios. Well, he didn't really part finance it - he stole most of the bricks and some matresses for the walls, so he was in."
Feeling the need to expand once again, vocalist Terry Bennett from Nottingham was invited down to Ddraig to record some songs, instead he found himself being auditioned, his distinctive voice was exactly what Sassafras were looking for.
Ralph "I was also playing in a residency in Cleopatra's in Newport. Terry Bennett turned up one weekend with his band. He did his routine with the tambourine and we thought he sang rather well, he had a distinctive voice. As we wanted to enlarge the band he was the natural choice."
Terry "I was actually quite slim at the time." "My band was called Exit, it was a 'way out' band..."
Ralph "Terry's been waiting thirty years for the opportunity to use that one"
Terry "We were called 'EX 17' up the valleys because they didn't know it was a 'T', they thought it was a '7', but I thought it had to be a good move to join Sassafras, Ralph also said that he'd come and pick me up from Nottingham which was another inducement."
When Sassafras decided to turn professional Rob Reynolds, who had a young family decided not to make the leap. A new drummer was found, Congo Jones; he had played with 'Love Sculpture' who had topped the charts with Dave Edmunds and 'Sabre Dance'. Carl Leighton-Pope took over the management of Sassafras from the Hereford agency with Peter (Jake) Jacobs acting as tour manager.
Terry "Jake became quite good at the bookings side of things, although the only problem with Jake was that he had no conception of distance, he'd send you to Frankfurt, then you'd be in Aberdeen the next day."
The now five piece band recorded a demo album at Ddraig studios and sent it to Polydor in London. A recording contract with Air, London swiftly followed, and Sassafras released their first album, Expecting Company with Polydor in October of 1973.
With Carl and Jake at the helm, Sassafras were soon performing at venues such as The Roundhouse and The Marquee, and the name 'Sassafras' can be seen engraved on a brick in the 'wall of fame' at Liverpool's famous Cavern Club. Sassafras played an 'In Concert' for Radio One at The Paris Theatre with Bob Harris, now of Radio Two fame who liked them so much that he put them on The Old Grey Whistle Test twice. They were regularly featured on 'The Saturday Rock Show' with Alan Freeman, 'Radio One in Concert' and 'The John Peel Show'.
During this time, Congo Jones left the band and was replaced by Chris Sharley, and bassist and co-songwriter Ricky John Holt left to be replaced by Steve Finn. Both Congo and Chris were to leave and return to Sassafras a number of times over the ensuing years as was founder member Ricky John Holt.
Terry "Congo, in all fairness, had been used to the larger gigs, then he left for a period and we got Dicky Owen. He was into transcendental meditation, and when he should have been practicing he was meditating, in fact he meditated all the way to Switzerland. Dick Owen unfortunately ony had one eye, he actually took it out one night like people take their false teeth out and put them in a glass of water, he took his eye out and put it in a glass, and he had a dog called Rizla, and Rizla must have got thirsty and chewed his eye, consequently Dick did the tour of Switzerland with a Long John Silver blackeye patch on, which made him look like Johnny Kidd and the Pirates plays with Sassafras. And then there was Chris Sharley who was also a good drummer, he had a head problem, in actual fact he had a problem keeping his hair on his head, he had this rather obvious sort of 'piece' which sometimes looked like a foxes arse and sometimes like a badgers arse, but never looked like hair. There was another guy called Peter Stroud who is now playing with a tribute band called Bjorn Again, he was possibly the best drummer that we ever had, Congo was the most fastidious, but Peter Stroud was full of energy, full of ideas."
Young music enthusiast Ray Davis (now deceased) was employed as a driver for Sassafras, he went on to become tour manager for the Chippendales. On leaving Sassafras, Ray was replaced by long time fan Frenchman Bernard Mayeur who had a habit of driving on the wrong side of the road.
Sassafras were now getting noticed and attracting rave reviews in music magazines Melody Maker and NME. Their second album, Wheelin' and Dealin', came out in 1974 but this time with Chrysalis.
Terry "In one magazine just inside the cover it said "One of these bands will make it big in 1973" so you open up the centre pages, and on the first page was a whole page of Sassafras, that was one of the bands, and on page two was Queen."
Dai And nobody's heard of them since have they?"
Ricky John Holt rejoined the band with Congo Jones to tour the U.S.A. and promote Sassafras' new record. They began touring with 'Ten Years After' but also picked up with 'Fleetwood Mac'' and Peter Frampton'. The band found themselves playing to crowds sometimes in excess of 75,000, right across America from the East Coast to the Mid West.
Terry "We played New York, Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Boston, Philadelphia, Cuddly toy, they all had audiences in the region of 70,000"
Ralph "We were quite lucky really because normally if people do an American tour they end up doing the small sleazy clubs, but we were on the back end of a tour with 'Ten Years After', we also picked up with Fleetwood Mac and Peter Frampton who was recording the 'Peter Frampton Comes Alive' album on the tour that we were on. Therefore because they were all big established bands over there, they were all big auditoriums, anything up to 75,000."
Dai "Some of them were bigger than that."
Terry "Well, Boston Gardens, it was so big that it had clouds in the dome, and bats flying about, couldn't believe it."
Dai "and they used to land Jumbo jets on the roof!"
In 1975 drummer Dick Owen joined Sassafras for a brief spell and they recorded their third LP Riding High at Rockfield Studios which was released by Chrysalis Records. Having completed their recording sessions at Rockfield, Sassafras travelled straight off to what was then the Eastern Block to tour Romania and Yogolavia as it was known then, becoming one of the first bands to tour behind the Iron Curtain.
Dai "Romania had only previously been toured by Procul Harum and Cliff Richard. In fact we were Chauchezcu's favourite group, only to be surpassed by a gas cooker! In fact we used to be massive in Bedlinog."
Terry "You mean Foxy, she was a massive fan wasn't she? She's got so much front that woman, she could sling one over one shoulder and give her ass a black eye. We were the only band that was breast fed for a fortnight."
By now Sassafras were touring harder than ever despite the record company paying the management to take them off the road to write more songs. In fact Sassafras completed 332 gigs in one year, earning themselves the record for playing the most gigs in one year.
Ralph We found out afterwards, that during this time Chrysalis had paid our manager, Carl Leighton-Pope, a fairly large sum of money to keep us off the road so that we could write songs for the next album. This album never materialised because we never had any time to write songs.
Terry "and we used to get paid £20 per week each, £5 per day. We could have possibly done three albums in a year, but Popey (Carl Leighton-Pope) and Jake were putting us out seven days a week. One day we actually did three gigs in one day, we started off in Land's End, went up to Stockport, and then did the last gig at the Nottingham Boat Club at 9 o'clock in the evening, I went on singing until half past eleven and then I collapsed. Melody Maker had a piece in the middle pages that said "Don't give up your day job", then it said all about Sassafras, Queen and Slade. It said "This is the most hard working band" and that we (Sassafras) now hold the record for being the band that did the most gigs, and number two was Slade. We did 332 days in a year and Slade had 331 or 330 or something like that."
Despite the hard gigging when a day in Scotland would turn into a week, Sassafras still found time to record some material at Air Studios and Rockfield. It was at this point that they were approached by another manager who felt that he could take the band further. However, their friendship and loyalty to their current manager Carl Leighton-Pope, lead them to decline; the manager who had made them the offer then went on to manage Wham!
Congo Jones left the band once again, and was replaced by Peter Stroud who now plays with Bjorn Again. In March 1995 Sassafras played a farewell concert at Finsbury Park Astoria with Procul Harum, and to mark the closing of the venue. The album 'Over The Rainbow' made from a recording of the concert was released later that year. The band were joined by professional driver Gerald (Gerry) Pascoe who has remained a member of the team to this day.
Eventually the never ending life on the road took its toll and Sassafras decided to split up. They continued to honour their commitments through to 1996, and it was at this time that Sassafras were asked if they would let a new band called 'Brand X' support them on a three week tour in and around the London area. It turned out to be Phil Collins making his debut as a singer and pianist away from Genesis. Sassafras mixer and roadie Steve (Pudding) Jones had also mixed for Phil Collins on the 'Brand X' tour, and when Sassafras finally disbanded, Phil Collins invited Pudding to join him. Pudding has remained with his ever since.
Ralph "Our managers phoned up and asked if this band Brand X could borrow our p.a. and roadie, basically because they hadn't got anything, but they just wanted to go gigging, and they would support us for about three weeks in and around the London area, so we said yes, and it turns out that it was Phil Collins who had put a band together called Brand X and they supported us. Steve (Pud) Jones our roadie at the time was mixing us at the time, and mixed for them as well, and that was one of the last things we did before the band split up, so Pud ended up mixing for Phil Collins when we split up,
Although some members of the band occasionally reformed to play benefits and concerts such as Cardiff Aid and the odd open air concert at the top of mountains, it wasn't until the new millenium and the year 2000 that Sassafras was to rise again from the ashes. Guitarist Dai Shell was aproached by musician and studio owner Danny Chang to play alongside Racing Cars at St. Davids Hall on 15th September,2000. Dai, Ralph Evans and Terry Bennett set about putting together. Bassist Raymond Jones, formerly of 'Smokestack' and 'Quest' was immediately drafted in, as was another ex 'Smokestack'er keyboard, violin and mandolin player Marco James, and drummer Gary Davies who had first played with Dai Shell over thirty years before, completed the line-up. On the night the band ended up as a fourteen piece, with a five piece brass section and three backing singers. St. David's hall holds approximately 3,500 people, all the former fans were back and the night was a sell-out.
Dai "We've got two good boys in the band now who are songwriters, one of them has been top of the Welsh hit parade, Ray Jones the bass player, he's a prolific songwriter, then there's Marco James the keyboard player who has got some wonderful songs. I'd asked them and Gary if they wanted to do the gig and they said yes, learn some numbers and we'll get together and see what happens, the first rehearsal was a bit of a fiasco, bet they had a very keen interest and it turned out that they knew the numbers better than us."
Terry "On the day I think everybody was shitting themselves. Although we'd practiced, we hadn't done a gig as a band, that was it, you know there was a lot to think about, but I got out there and as soon as that follow spot hit me, I was home, back again, it was wonderful. Looking back on it now I think everybody performed admirably, and I didn't forget any of the words
The rest, so they tell me, is history. |
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