SOS was the name we eventually settled on, thinking “Sounds Of the Sixties”. As time has passed, the alternative “Silly Old Sods” seems more appropriate! Whatever, SOS it is. The duo consists of Nick, predominantly lead guitar, and me (John) on rhythm guitar. We both handle lead vocals, depending on the song, and with the hi tech computer backing we sound just like a whole band.

We live in Sussex, though for a while we seemed to work mainly in Surrey! We had a connection with the Royal Earlswood Hospital (a place for the severely mentally-handicapped) and they kept us busy for many years. Sadly, the Hospital closed and the residents have been spread around the community - so our work there is finished.

Since 1986, when Nick & I first started jamming together, we have developed beyond the sixties, covering pop and rock from late fifties right through to today.

At first we were just two guitars and voices, with a rudimentary drum machine. Occasionally, Nick would play bass, but that meant there wouldn’t be a guitar solo as I don’t do lead. We took a major leap forward when Nick came up with MIDI and the Commodore 64. Now, bass, piano, just about anything we wanted could be created on the computer, leaving us to supply rhythm & lead guitars and vocals. The software was very limited, and we only had two or three tracks where we used it.

Then along came the Commodore Amiga, hard disk drives and sound modules (TG100 etc). That was probably around 1995, and we still use that set up today! Music X software, and around 400 backing tracks written from scratch by Nick. At the click of a footswitch, off we go and woe betide if we miss the beat.

We cover Beatles, Stones, Hollies, Searchers, Buddy Holly - you get the picture - and nowadays we can throw in a bit of Oasis, Travis etc. This isn’t our profession - we just do the odd private gig whenever we are asked. I expect if we went looking we could do more, but it may lose its sparkle and become a chore if we did too much.

When we started out, the oldies thought we were too loud - today the oldies are into the Stones and volume is rarely a problem.

50th/60th birthday? - drop us an email (see Contact page).