SAQQARA began in mid-summer of 2005. End of June early July. It began with a text message to a mobile phone. Jamie had finally plucked up the courage to contact Kev. This moment had been a year in the making. Jamie and Kev had worked together (briefly) at a large factory somewhere near Southampton, and had realised they both loved the same thing; music. Jamie was a rhythm guitar player with a love for Machine Head and Metallica. Kev was a drummer with a love for Slayer and Anthrax. They both talked about playing together but for an entire year it didn’t happen. Then the text message arrived…. “hi dude, long time no see, are ya still playing drums…?”.
Jamie had been jamming with a lead guitarist called lee, and they had been writing a few songs together in the indie-rock type style, and they needed a drummer, and happened to both have a friend called Dean, who played bass.
Once they’d all hooked up and began jamming bits and pieces of other bands’ songs, certain riffs were beginning to form… ‘Unholy Communion’ was the first song to be completed and at that time it was four and a half minutes long. Others were quick to follow… ‘6845’, ‘Keep your Rules’ and ‘Someone who Cares’ were among others to be in a more or less finished state back then. After much rehearsing the band played a warm up show at ‘The County Arms’ in Winchester before playing in support of “GALLOWS” at ‘The Railway Inn’.
The County Arms was absolutely packed with people who had come to see what the fuss was about; SAQQARA was the answer to that. Most of these people had gotten hold of their first demo recordings and some it seemed, already knew the songs. Once ‘Keep your Rules’ started the whole place erupted into the rhythmic chanting and glass breakingly heavy riffs (I’m serious!) and by the time ‘Unholy Communion’ rang out the way over capacity crowd went home hungry for more. December 22nd saw ‘GALLOWS’ arrive in Winchester, with ‘Obsidion’ in tow, would Saqqara fill the third space slot? Glad too, again this time around the whole place (Railway Inn) was packed with Saqqara supporters. Everyone sang and drank as loud and as much as they could, this gig was monumental as it cast several of the bands’ more frenetic songs in stone, ‘Someone who Cares’ was unleashed that night on an unaware audience. This was new, loud and fast. Generally in keeping with what had already been written but with the mesmerising double kick-drum and chest pounding riff, this one hurt, this was a taste of what more lie in wait…
‘7-7’ has been described as “brutal” at Valley Studio’s in Winchester, where Saqqara rehearse, and brutal it is in a live scenario, with its false intro it leads you to believe you’ll be o.k. then it picks you up and throws you around for several minutes, leaving you far from where you were at the beginning. Show closer ‘Unholy Communion’ was already a classic among this audience and this time around it was longer and heavier and a monumental testament to the bands song writing abilities. Saqqara does exactly what it says on the tin. Brutal.
2006 saw some line up changes as Lee exits the band closely followed by Dean who both had other commitments to deal with, enter Matt on lead guitar, exit Matt and enter Kamil on bass duties. Meet Matt in a park, exit Kamil on bass but enter Kamil on lead guitar and Sebastian handling the bass. 2007 sees Kamil exit the band and Andy takes over lead guitar, Saqqara is back, the songs are back and brutality will reign again…..look out!
