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Review: SAILOR in Scarborough, Yorskhire (UK) 1974:
In autumn 1974, SAILOR played the
Penthouse in Scarborough (Yorskhire, UK). The DJ, one Matt
Watkinson, had been playing the album on odd nights, and I'd been
quite impressed, so I'd bought it (he also worked at the local
record shop which helped), and persuaded a few of my friends to
come along to see this weird band who promised such an
entertaining evening. Expect the unexpected, as they say.
The Nickelodeon on the stage convinced a few that we were in for
something a bit unusual, but this was 1974, and we were a hard
audience to please. We were all "into" synthesisier
bands (Seventh Wave played a gig at the same venue a few weeks
later, to great acclaim), but rather looked down our noses at
"pop" bands. Which, it had occurred to me, this SAILOR
might well be.
When these four guys walked onstage wearing the ridiculous sailor
suits, I thought, "Lord, what's this?", and, when they
started the first song ("Let's Go to Town", of course)
and the sound failed, it looked as though it was going to be
embarrassing.
They returned to the dressing room (or whatever), waited five
minutes while somebody fixed the sound, then came back and blew
the place away. They played the album in its entirety, plus (I
think) Panama and (definitely) Pimps' Brigade. For encores, they
played more or less the entire album again. ("We don't know
many songs.") At the end, we were informed it had been the
first time people had paid to see them play - I can't say whether
this was true or not.
They came back to the Penthouse several times over the next
couple of years. The gigs were always packed out from then on,
going down in Scarborough folklore, though none matched the sheer
refreshing novelty of the first night. I also saw them supporting
the Make Me Smile vintage Cockney Rebel at Leeds Town Hall
(featuring your friend Stuart Elliott), a gig famous for Henry
Marsh remembering to namecheck Scarborough but getting it mixed
up with (if memory serves) Newcastle. Not an easy mistake!
After "A Glass of Champagne" and the second album,
things changed a bit, not necessarily for the better. There were
supposedly serious interviews in the NME (headline "Hello
SAILOR" - do us a favour!), but there was never likely to be
much critical respect for such a maverick, easily categorisable
band.
There was a fairly big gig at Leeds Uni with lots of flashing
lights and stuff, and of course loads of encores. Commercially,
SAILOR had come as far as they ever would, but were being
pressured into becoming either a crowd-pleasing "pop"
singles band or a "serious" album act. In 1975, there
wasn't any half-way house, you see.
For the "Third Step" tour, Manchester was as near as
they came to my part of the world, the Palace Theatre I think.
There were various other synths and stuff disguised as street
barrows and the sound was a bit more varied. The old magic was
still there, they still clearly enjoyed what they were doing and
the newer songs were OK, but they were kind of caught in a trap -
do they change the style or subject matter and lose their
individuality, or persist with a fairly limiting format and risk
stagnation?
They never really solved that dilemma, I'm afraid, nor, even
after all these years, can I imagine how they could have done.
Certainly, their failure to come up with another "hit
single" gave them little room for manoeuvre.
I lost touch a bit after that, but picked up the wonderful "Street
Lamp" a few years ago. Also, I saw Noir on "Top of the
Pops 2", thinking, "That bloke looks familiar",
and when the announcer said someone called Georg Kajanus was one
of the duo, it took a while before it sank in who he was!
Anyway, I've followed (among others) early Roxy Music, Van der
Graaf Generator / Peter Hammill, Joy Division / New Order, the
Wedding Present, Dead Can Dance and lately Tindersticks - a few
good names to drop in that lot - but I'm still proud to admit to
being a SAILOR fan too.
Best wishes,
Steve
Last updated: 25 August 1999
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