Sahara Farm

Bob Noble tells the story of Sahara Farm

…My dad had been to the US some months before we started and told me of a place he visited in California called “Sahara Farm”. So when we were looking for a name, I threw the name in the hat, and we all decided to use it. We didn’t stick with the name that long though, because with the coming of punk we all felt that it was a bit ‘hippy’ so we became ‘Smiffy’ (named after the character in the Bash St Gang in the Beano comic). I don’t know why, but “Smiffy didn’t last long, and we became “Robert and the Remoulds”.

We did start by using covers, as we didn’t have any of our own material. I remember doing songs by the Box Tops, Joe Cocker, and even a Beatles cover. We started writing soon after we formed and soon had a complete ‘set’. All five of us had different influences ranging from the Beatles, Eagles, the Who, Roxy Music and Tamla Motown.

We didn’t set out to be a punk band, it just happened that our songs were considered to be in the ‘punk mould’. I personally thought of our songs, that they were pure ‘‘pop” and if you heard them I think that as a punk aficionado, you would agree with me.

I can’t remember all of the bands that we supported, but I remember supporting The Adverts, Chelsea, Cockney Rejects, the Cortinas, XTC, Lurkers and The Members. We always seemed to go down well, which surprised me to a certain extent because as I said earlier, I considered us more of a pop song type band. As for the spitting, it did happen, but I didn’t like it, and unlike Monica Lewinski, I did get my clothes cleaned as soon as possible.

Sahara Farm played the London Roxy Club. Our manager at the time went to the club and secured the gig, but somewhere our manager and Kevin St John got their lines crossed. We turned up to play and St John went bloody potty, screaming that he could not put on an unknown band on a Saturday night (which was understandable). He relented when he saw how many people had come with us, I don’t think he wanted a riot on his hands.

The more I think of it we did not support XTC that night, I know that the Cortinas were officially the support and I clearly remember one of the Cortinas and the keyboard player of the main band in deep conversation. I remember thinking at the time that here were two so called punks, talking in a very arty farty way, and were actually acting out being punks, which in the case of many of the mainstream punk acts that we played with was pretty much the case.  

One incident stands out it was so funny; one of our friends (who was far from being a punk) came to see us at the Roxy. Well he like everyone else outside the punk scène though that all punks dressed in black bin liners, so he thought that he would as well. The problem was that he had had a few drinks and went into the gents and returned with a black bin liner on, and nothing else, and to top it off he went up to a girl and asked her if she wanted to dance. The look on her face, and just about everyone else who saw him was just amazing, but the best of all was seeing him at the bar, and St John’s face looking at him.

For the best part I liked most bands, But there were a few that I thought were bloody awful, Sham 69 comes to mind as a band that lived up to their name. I once saw The Vibrators, who I felt at the time were miming, and consequently never had any more time for them.

Our splitting up was a strange affair. We were playing at a punk concert at ‘Bones’ club in Reading, when we were approached by one of the owners of ‘Beggars Banquet’ records. He told us that he had seen us a few times and that he wanted to sign us. As you can imagine, it was what we all wanted or so I thought. The next day two of the members quit, saying that they could not handle the thought of being famous, and did not want to sign a record deal. I decided at that time that I would not want to continue with just the three of us left, so myself and the drummer started looking for a new guitarist and bass player. What happened next is another story and another band.

Punk77 – That band was Robert & The Remoulds that has some success after all. Just noticed the Sham 69 graffiti on the wall on the cover – ha ha!

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