FLYING HEROES
Carl Seager:guitar/vocals*Lucie Baines:drums*Charlii Allen:bass/vocals
Steve Linton Band
1977
It was a lucky day for me (in 1975...ish) when Steve asked me if I knew of any bass players looking to join a band. 'Not offhand, but I'll give it a go'...I think that's what I said, and we began rehearsals a couple of days later in Pete Haggart's (the drummer) dining room. I have to admit I was a bit surprised that Steve took me on as I hadn't played bass before and I was a crap guitarist compared to him. But having seen him doing his Hendrix impersonations around the local music shops on Saturday mornings I was more than keen to get involved. I didn't expect to be part of the band for long but as it happened I did okay and we worked well together. Steve's own material sat well beside the Hendrix, Robin Trower and Jeff Beck covers we used to pad out the set and the band soon became a regular feature of the London circuit. As the buzz grew it became obvious that Steve was drawing alot of attention. Dingwalls, the Rock Garden, the Bridgehouse...we were familiar faces by now and around this time James Diggings was drafted in as drummer. We were the first band (maybe the only band) ever to get 100% from all the judges in the Melody Maker Rock Contest...semi final at The Marquee, London. Two double decker bus loads of supporters came with us to the final at the Roundhouse only to see us come...nowhere. I remember Bob Geldof calling for calm as the result was announced...'and the winners are...the Loosers'. A few of our number had taken a disliking, and the odd beer can, to the judges...Bob, Justin Hayward, Roy Harper (he was my hero at the time) and...someone else, I forget. Word of the band still grew though, and it wasn't long before Les Sampson (ex-Noel Reading drummer) became part of the Steve Linton Band, as we were now called, and things shifted up a gear. We'd auditioned Nico McBrain too...don't know what was going on there but it was strange to be playing with these names. We'd been going for some time before the rot started to set in. I think it was a dodgy manager that did it for me. It may have been whilst he had me up against a wall by the throat that it dawned on me this wasn't good (we HAD just sacked him). I figured we'd given it a fair shot and reluctantly quit to see what else was going on in the world. To this day Steve is at his formidable best when he inadvertently slips back into Hendrix mode.
Seags
