Scrapbook
1994


Promotion for an Oldie Night with SAILOR in Stuttgart (Germany) in March 1994 which was also shown on TV:

The history of the band SAILOR, who had their first performance 1970 at the "Café de Matelot", a popular nightclub in Paris, that burned to the ground under strange circumstances, is a little strange indeed.
And then the band members: Georg Kajanus, son of a Russian prince who plays a 12-string guitar; Henry Marsh, who went to the Joan-Baez-Schule für Gewaltlosigkeit, and plays unusual instruments like accordion and Nickelodeon (that's how they called the electric pianos in pubs in which you had to put a 5-Cent-piece, a 'Nickel'); Grant Serpell, the drummer whose biggest dream is to build a huge zeppelin in the size of Paraguay; and Philip Pickett, who went to Oxford and is the bass-player of the band.
(Phil and Henry were mixed up in this text concerning their education!)
Indeed a wild mixture of temperaments and interests, that had to be successful in the more and more streamlined music business of the 70s.
As different as the tenperaments of the four musicians were the ingredients of their great hits. The above mentioned Nickelodeon, created by Georg Kajanus in order to be able to create piano and street organ sounds at the same time, the melodies that could have their origin in the countrified sound-worlds of the Irish folk, but they also include wonderful choruses in the timbre of the Beach Boys and also a bit of coffeehouse-atmosphere from the above mentioned Café de Matelot in the hits like "Girls Girls Girls" and "A Glass Of Champagne".
Between 1973 and 1978 SAILOR success remained unbroken. The first album entitled "Sailor" went Gold to everyone's surprise, "Trouble", the second album with the above mentioned hits also went Gold all over Europe. The sound of SAILOR was prominent, although the band has not helped writing the history of pop music. The interestes of the band members were much too different. Georg Kajanus, who is something like the "spiritus rector" of the band, is also familiar with other genres, in addition to music he's also interested in painting and writing. Philip Pickett appeared in another very successful band after his success with SAILOR: As a keyboarder he was on tour with Culture Club and wrote hits like "Karma Chameleon", "It's A Miracle" and "Church Of The Poison Mind" together with Boy George. Grant Serpell returned to his old profession as a Chemistry teacher after the break of the band. Henry Marsh is a successful composer of music for movies and television in London. It was silentaround SAILOR for more than ten years, until they reformed again in 1989 - in the original line-up! And that guarantees the original feeling with the hits from the 70s.


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