Sabre

Neat Records, the imprint most closely tied to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, added Croydon’s five-piece Sabre to its roster as another minor act. The group unveiled a raw yet high-energy style—undercut by painfully inept lyrics—on the 1983 single “Miracle Man” and its somewhat more pertinent B-side, “On the Loose.”

Sabre had formed in late 1980 around vocalist John Ward, guitarists Nick Fusco and Alan Beschi, bassist Geoff Gillespie, and drummer Allan Angold. Kerrang! twice spotlighted the band in its “Armed and Ready” column, prompting Neat to solicit the track “Cry to the Wind” for the 1982 metal compilation 60 Minutes Plus. The single appeared shortly afterward, while “On the Loose” later surfaced on the 2002 anthology The Flame Burns On: The Best of Neat Records.

Despite clear parallels to labelmates Persian Risk and the early recordings of the far better-known Tygers of Pan Tang, Sabre disappeared after that final release.