| Dates connected with James: | 1989+ |
| Contribution/Role/Speciality: | Percussion, Guitar, Violin |
Birthday : 28th June 1965
Band Nickname : Bob
First gig : Isle of Wight Festival 1970
Football Team : Barcelona
Born in Oldham, Saul moved to Scotland when he was a child before moving to Hull in 1980 where he met Adrian and the two became close friends, Saul replacing Dave Rotheray (of the Beautiful South) on drums in Adrian’s band.
Two years later, Saul was expelled from Manchester University’s law school in 1982 after six months for taking speed in the faculty toilets. Saul then spent several years travelling Europe. He did however manage to complete his degree in 1987.
Saul joined in 1989 just before the first version of Sit Down came out. He was discovered by Larry at the Band on the Wall in Manchester at an improvisation night on the day Dave had finally agreed to join James. Saul walked in with a violin and Larry was immediately intrigued. Saul was leaving Manchester at twelve the next day so Larry called a rehearsal for ten and Saul was offered the job on the spot.
He allegedly had never even heard of James and had to ask his friends who they were. He saw the move into James as purely a stop-gap measure initially. Tim described him as the “last of the international playboys” as “he lives all over the world and knows how to enjoy life. He’s very flamboyant and will go for it onstage. He’ll take risks onstage, visually, and in terms of like, flying. He wants to fly a lot on his violin – his natural style is to play masses and masses. He’s got so much talent and he’s just dying to get it expressed, and then to have to work through – working in a band which is hard at the best of times and patience is the biggest thing you need – I think it’s probably been hardest for him”
Saul is instantly recognisible by his widely varying hairstyles – bald, dyed bleach blonde, floppy bob, long with a dodgy beard – and his (usually drink-fuelled) taunting and provoking the audience in the live arena.
Since Larry’s departure, Saul has become more prominent in the songwriting of the band – he sketched 20 or so base tracks for the Millionaires album at his home in Scotland before presenting them to the rest of the band. With his insecurity hidden by his flamboyant stage persona, Saul was afraid the band would hate the material. His contribution is recognised by Jim in the credits to Millionaires – “Jim Glennie would like to personally thank Saul for his work on this album over and above the call of duty.”
Outside of James, Saul has participated in the Money offshoot project and also worked with Youth on his Celtic Cross project. He has also produced albums by Priya Thomas and Michael Kulas’ debut “Mosquito”.
Find out about Saul on Wikipedia.
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