SF2 were a band from Lincoln who played in Nottingham frequently and got themselves a Thursday night residency at the Imperial on St James Street in 1976. Colin Moss joined the original Scapa Flow in the early seventies and I talked to him about his and their history.

For many years in the seventies the Imperial was the place to see local groups and in that long hot summer of 1976 one of the many bands I saw at the Imperial on St James Street in Nottingham was SF2. Apart from having a good night, my memory of those nights at the Imperial has almost blended into one experience, and SF2 was a group I knew very little about. They had long hair (most of us did back then) and I heard that they were from Lincoln and that was about it. Some 46 years later I was at a gig at the Chameleon in town and chatting to Luke Moss (in the Scene Killers) after the gig, and when he heard I was interested in old Nottingham groups he said “my dad was in a band”. That band was SF2. Another chance meeting a couple of months later in the “Poacher” and his dad was there too.

Colin Moss was Lincoln born in 1952. At 15 he started playing in his first proper group called The Counter Beats around 1966/67. “we did covers of The Beatles and The Kinks, playing working men’s clubs. When I left school at 16, when I look back, I could have made good money playing working men’s clubs 3 or 4 times a week“.
Colin used to go to the Boston Gliderdrome. Opening at the dawn of the sixties it was a venue that attracted the cream of the sixties groups. “I saw Ten Years After, Ike and Tina Turner, The Nice The Equals, Amen Corner and Ginger Bakers Airforce. It was 30 miles away and there was no media then and I missed some like Stevie Wonder and Otis Redding“.

By the early 1970’s Colin joined East Anglian band Scapa Flow named after the deep water natural harbour in the Orkney Islands used through the centuries as a naval base. Scapa Flow had a long history stretching back into the sixties. Two brothers from Harleston were the central focus of the group. Ben (Drums) and Ronnie Burrows (Guitar, Vocals) who along with Robert Mac (Bass Guitar, Vocals) formed at school in 1963 and played their first gigs in 1964 as “The Boys“. Ian Kerrison who was their manager from the start, providing them with electrical equipment also managed their rivals “Garlic Flowers” who featured Mike Webb.

By 1968 the musical landscape had changed and this necessitated a name change from “The Boys” and Scapa Flow was chosen.

An article about the history of Scapa Flow appeared in the “Diss Express” in December 1971.

1972

By the time Colin joined them (1972/73ish) progressive blues rock was a popular sound. “We did Ten Years After songs, Rory Gallagher and a couple of our own“. Scapa Flow lasted until 1973. Along the way they supported the Gary Moore band, The Pink Fairies “maybe at a college in Retford. They were dressed like us, long hair and platform boots and they were really pissed. They were really good though“. They also supported the Edgar Broughton Band and at Newark one night Brewers Droop featuring a young Mark Knoffler.

1973

By the summer of 1973 the band had tired of their name. They announced a number of times that they were disbanding but they kept on playing. They changed their name to “Cousin David” but it didn’t last long. Suggestions for a new name came in, one punter suggesting “Tears”, “Cretin” and “Pernickety”. Probably because they were well known as Scapa Flow on the gig circuit they still kept getting billed as Scapa Flow.

In September 1973 Scapa Flow changed their name to “Cousin David” literally named after Ronnie Burrows cousin. This name didn’t last long and a new version of the band was formed called SF2 (Scapa Flow 2) which lasted until 1976. “We did our own material, a little bit proggish. Me and the other guitarist were into AC/DC and the rest of the band were into Yes“. They were a six piece band and were managed by Pete Benney. By the hot summer of 1976 they were playing regularly at The Imperial. That summer other bands playing the Imperial were Brass rock band “Cisco”, Notts/Birmingham band Slender Loris, Storm, Desperate Dann with Tim Disney, Tomorrow the World and Gaffa. That same year SF2 disbanded. Hopefully, some recordings of SF2 still exist.

After a bit of a break they reformed with a new name, The Pictures. “In 1979 we supported Simple Minds playing the likes of the Leadmill in Sheffield and Erics in Liverpool. We got a deal with Arista and we recorded an album produced by Dave Batchelor who had worked with Alex Harvey and The Skids, but then they dropped us. Then we got a deal and signed with Stateside records who inherited the tapes. As we disbanded and moved on they kept hold of the album. Nothing came of it but twenty years later they released the album online without us knowing“.

In 1980 Colin produced the Lincolnshire band “Sinking Ships“. Later he was in Red Alert (not to be confused with the Sunderland punk band, a later incarnation of The Cigarettes and the Mick Pini Band.

More recently, Colin has been in a soul covers band for ten years and a Beatles tribute band but still finds time to write his own material.

More coming later ………………