One of the more popular early bands from the Penzance area. They started life in the early 60, playing mostly instrumentals. One day Chris Smith caught the band rehearsing at the Al Greco Club in Penzance. His previous band, The Thunders, had folded and offered his services to sing with the band. After getting up and singing a few numbers he was offered the vocal spot in the band, which also helped secure bookings at the club.
The Sabres played St Just Town Hall nearly every week. They played so much they were starting to get a bit fed up with it, so starting switching around gigs with various bands including The Layabouts so they all got to play different venues including The Flamingo in Redruth and The Pavilion in Penzance and many others.
Chris left the band and was replaced by Eddie Osborne. Chris Martin also came in on bass around this time. Eddie left the band after a while and Chris Smith came back to replace him.
They were building up quite a following in the local area and Malcolm wanted them to become more polished and professional, which is the direction they were starting to follow anyway. Chris Smith had a bust up with Malcolm’s father around this time and left the band, being replaced by Eddie again. Anita, Chris Martin’s girlfriend, also sang with them for a while. Grant also joined them on sax.
With Chris they were playing a lot of rock ‘n roll numbers (Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc.). With Eddie the material relied a lot of Billy Fury, in fact he sang so much Billy Fury it became a joke!
The band supported a number of big bands, including Emile Ford, Lance Fortune, Outlaws, Gene Vincent and the Vernon Girls.
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