Sam Apple Pie

Originating in Walthamstow, London, England, the irreverent group launched their own blues venue, the Bottleneck. As a popular live attraction, Sam Apple Pie infused their 12-bar boogie with humour, yet this quirkiness proved hard to convey on record. The unit’s debut album featured Sam ‘Tomcat’ Sampson (vocals, harmonica), Mike ‘Tinkerbell’ Smith (guitar), Bob ‘Dog’ Rennie (bass), Steve Jolly (guitar), Malcolm Morley (keyboards) and Dave Charles (drums), and contained the cryptic ‘Uncle Sam’s Blues’. Morley and Charles soon left to establish Help Yourself, and by 1972 Sampson led a fresh line-up comprising Andy Johnson (guitar), Denny ‘Pancho’ Barnes (guitar), Mark DeMajo (bass) and Lee Baxter Hayes (drums). Nevertheless, when the band’s second album appeared, Barnes had already departed and Martin Bell had taken over from Hayes. Despite ongoing personnel shifts, Sam Apple Pie remained active into the late 70s, with a line-up that included Sampson, Johnson, Gary Fletcher (bass) and Jimmy Knox (drums). Fletcher later joined the Blues Band.