The Vipers

This irreverent band was formed in Walthamstow, London, England, where they ran their own blues club, the Bottleneck. A popular live attraction, Sam Apple Pie laced their 12-bar boogie with humour, although this quirkiness was difficult to capture on record. Sam ‘Tomcat’ Sampson (vocals, harmonica), Mike ‘Tinkerbell’ Smith (guitar), Bob ‘Dog’ Rennie (bass), Steve Jolly (guitar), Malcolm Morley (keyboards) and Dave Charles (drums) completed the unit’s debut album, which included the cryptic ‘Uncle Sam’s Blues’. Morley and Charles soon departed to form Help Yourself and by 1972, Sampson was fronting a new line-up of Andy Johnson (guitar), Denny ‘Pancho’ Barnes (guitar), Mark DeMajo (bass) and Lee Baxter Hayes (drums). However, by the time the band’s second album was issued, Barnes was absent altogether and Hayes had been replaced by Martin Bell. Despite such instability, Sam Apple Pie were still active in the late 70s. The line-up featured Sampson, Johnson, Gary Fletcher (bass) and Jimmy Knox (drums). Fletcher subsequently joined the Blues Band.