Blood and Sand started life as a Shadows-type band called the Solitaires featuring school friends from Falmouth. When Alan left, they changed their name to Blood and Sand and gigged around for a time as a three-piece. As a three piece Steve left the band was replaced by Dennis Wood on Drums.
Meanwhile Rick Woolcock was playing in Backstairs Influence, gigging around the local area and school dances. Terry was at Falmouth Art School taking a course in technical illustration and decided to leave the band to take up a work placement. By now Blood and Sand had built up a strong reputation locally, Rick was asked to join the band and decided that that it was a good step up from Backstairs Influence and took up the post on guitar.
Chris Sowden also joined at the same time playing vox continental and also some excellent blues harmonica. Rick didn't sing at the time so vocals were also handled by Chris, however Rick soon took over from Chris taking on lead guitar and vocals.
The band played covers of R&B materials, such as Stones and The Birds. They also covered a lot of blues based materials, such as Spoonful and Smokestack Lightning. As time went on they started to also cover a lot of Motown. By the late 60s they were covering heavier material but still with a blues edge, such as Hendrix and Cream.
While solely a covers band they chose not to cover the more common material. Often they supporting visiting bands from Plymouth and Exeter (especially at Princess Pavilion where they were a very popular support act). The main act would quite often cover the hits of the day, so the band picked up the lesser know material to make them stand out.
They were managed by Pete Brown of BCD Entertainment and he would help secure them good high profile gigs across the county. They supported The Tremeloes, Status Quo, Andy Fairweather-Low, Small Faces and The Pretty Things at The Flamingo. Also later they would support Jethro Tull and Yes at the Winter Gardens. Another memorable band they supported were The Artwoods at Blue Lagoon in Newquay. They also played on the same bill as David Bowie when he came to Princess Pavilion as part of Gerry Gill's Magician's Workshop, sadly very few people were there to witness it! It was a very different environment to today and they would often have a beer and a chat to the headline act after the gig, there were fewer barriers than in the music industry today.
They always had good equipment for a local band and often found themselves loaning gear to the headline act. Many of the visiting bands would not realise how far away Cornwall was and would arrive at the venue minus their gear, which would be a couple of hours away!
They would occasionally venture into Devon, playing in Plymouth. The band loved playing the summertime gigs, especially in the seaside villages which would usually be packed solid with the visiting holiday makers looking for a night out.
In 1968 Rick left for college and his brother David took his place. He would still play with the band when returned from college but by the end of the 60s they decided to call it a day.
Chris went off to uni and Jim moved away. Rick and David would form Motherchild.
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