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1977

Four older guys and their "Girls, Girls, Girls"

In America their concerts were not as successful as expected. "We are not that famous over there yet", realises Grant Serpell (32), drumer in SAILOR, self-critically. But during their tour in Germany last year all concert halls were sold out. Especially teenies were screaming loudly for them - some of them were so young that they had to be accompanied by their mothers.
The age of the audience of SAILOR can be compared to the audience of the Bay City Rollers. The difference: BCR are quite young themselves, while SAILOR are real men with pirate-look. "Our average age is 30", says Grant, "and we are all married and have short hair." And when the four guys sing about their "Girls, Girls, Girls" you may only impute their best intentions.
Their hits have made SAILOR famous in the last two years. Isn't there the danger that this fame might disappear over night? "No", says Grant, "we have a great musical repertoire."
Of course the melodies are simple and it's easy to sing along and clap your hands like in all typical chart-songs. What makes the four guys from England different from the usual music-mixture is the arrangement of the songs and their instruments.
The instrumental sound is dominated by the Nickelodeon. "It is a keyboard-instrument that we have created", explains Phil, "which combines the sound of a normal piano with an organ. Basically it is a full electronic set with two pianos, two ARP synthesizers, and electronic glockenspiel and some other things."
SAILOR is one of the few bands that can't be put into any special concept. Stage show (South-American palm-tree mood), songs (mostly self-composed) and production (the tour is self-sinanced) are handeled by SAILOR themselves. "We have worked hard for our success..." Grant laughes.

The text next to the photos says:
Music that doesn't fit into any normal category: Waltz, folklore and Latin sounds, organ and boogie are combined. Georg Kajanus plays a Charango, Grant Serpell is behind his drums.
Phil Pickett plays the "pregnant guitar". Henry Marsh announces and comments the SAILOR songs and -of course - also plays music.

Article by courtesy of Janette Herlinger (Wuppertal, Germany)

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