THE Daily Echo story on rock legend Sir Rod Stewart’s links with the Southampton based Soul Agents has brought memories flooding back for a former band member.

Before he hit the big time Sir Rod served part of his musical apprenticeship with the popular band which is etched in the musical history of the city.

Bass guitarist Jim Sach was in the original Soul Agents which was fronted by the spiky haired rock star for about seven months between the end of 1964 and June 1965.

The band also included Tony Good (guitar) Don Shinn (keyboards) and Roger Pope (drums)

Jim, who was involved in the music business for 40 years in Southampton, now splits his time between Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire and Malta and often meets the remaining members of the Soul Agents to reminisce.

He said: "We joined Malcolm Nixon a London agent, who had collared the majority of blues bands around at that time, including Long John Baldry and the Hoochie Coochie Men, who we occasionally supported. Long John had a warm-up vocalist by the name of Rod Stewart who was lucky to do a couple of numbers, but he was a performer with a unique voice and we thought he would suit our band.

Long John’s band soon broke up and we saw the opportunity to take The Soul Agents to a new level. Although Rod had been part of other bands he had never been a frontman but accepted the offer to join us.

Rod lived in Highgate, London, the rest of the band in Southampton. Most times we would pick Rod up from home but on a Saturday, no matter where we were playing, Rod would make his own way to the gig after his regular game of football. He was sometimes late but never let us down. He would stroll into the club looking immaculate with his coiffed hair and way out gear mostly made by a girl at the Chelsea College of Art. On stage he had the audience in the palm of his hand, although early days he said he was never comfortable being a front man.

The closest we got to rehearsing with Rod was in the band wagon. He would sometimes bring an acoustic guitar and rattle off a number and say “this one is for tonight”.

The highlight of those few months with Rod was when we backed Buddy Guy on his first tour of the UK, February 1965, with Rod as ‘second string vocalist’ - two icons in the making!