Members

Debbie Boyd  (Lead Vocalist)

Debbie began singing professionally in 1993 performing original material with a jazz/funk/soul band called "D&M Control" in her hometown of Aberdeen before forming a rock group "Amoeba Red", again playing original material, with whom she sang for a number of years. She also played many leading roles in local musical theatre productions and sang with various function bands before deciding to move to London to attend drama school.

In 1999, Debbie graduated from Guildford School of Acting (now The Conservatiore) gaining a distinction in her diploma and winning the musical theatre prize for being the most outstanding student of her year. She also played leading roles in both graduation musical productions, Lola in "Damn Yankees" and Ilona Ritter in "She Loves Me".

Upon graduation she was immediately signed up by a well known and respected personal manager and enjoyed a few years of diverse theatre projects including the 3rd UK & Jersey tour of "What A Feeling!", the 80s Rock and Pop show where she starred alongside Limahl (Kajagoogoo) and Gwen Dickey (Rose Royce), playing the role originally played by 'Sonia'.

Debbie proceeded to spread her wings into the field of theatre production when she co-produced  "Music From The Last Century", a whirlwind tour of musical styles from 40s swing to 80s pop, starring Bonnie Langford and Limahl in which Debbie also featured as a vocalist accompanied by a 16 piece full swing orchestra.

No performer escapes Christmas pantomime, and Debbie played many principal boys including ‘Dandini’ and ‘Dick Whittington’ before ‘retiring’ from panto and proceeding to spend Christmas 2002 with Liberty Mounten, one of the world’s premier Elvis tributes, in his UK and European Christmas Concerts tour.

Debbie also played Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes in the 2003/2004 UK & Ireland theatre tours of "Legends of Country".

Whilst enjoying the theatre work, Debbie missed the passion and freedom of singing her own choice of songs, in her own way, with a regular band of fantastic players so she joined "Rhythm Rising" a latino, soul and funk band, where in addition to fronting the band vocally, she was also trained to play percussion, a skill which she has continued to develop ever since.

In 2004, Debbie was invited to front Sahara and she is now a joint business partner.  Sahara has gone from strength to strength as Debbie's own musical influences and natural gift with audiences have combined with Sahara's existing soul and disco roots to produce an outstanding act which is fast becoming one of the most sought after in the UK.

Visit Debbie's personal website - www.debbieboyd.co.uk

Nigel Hallsworth  (Bass Player)

Nigel first became interested in music when he was 3 years old and he showed a great interest in playing keyboards. His passion for music was nurtured and he began playing trumpet when he was 8 years old, finally settling on his favourite instrument, the bass guitar.

Nigel's first gig was “The Golden Years” at the Norwich LCR in front of 1500 people, sharing a stage with Tony Sheridan (who used to play with The Beatles, sadly, before they became famous!). Although Nigel was the youngest and least experienced musician on the bill, he played bass for 6 bands on that same evening and afterwards found himself inundated with requests to join other bands.

As a result of this, Nigel joined a well known soul artist (Lucas) and worked all over the UK for a couple of years before leaving to form his own act, “Sahara”. Within 4 months, Sahara was heralded in the Norwich Evening News as being “one of the hottest groups on the scene” and Nigel has continued to build upon this excellent reputation ever since.

A crowning achievement for Nigel was when Sahara supported “The Average White Band”, especially when the crowd yelled for an encore, despite the fact that this would delay the appearance of the main act!

Nigel’s natural gift for music has also led him into the fields of sound engineering, programming and arranging music and he made his theatre debut in 2004 touring the UK in Phoenix Productions “Legends of Country”.

Nigel is the backbone of Sahara in many ways.  His musical prowess, technological genius combined with sheer talent, enthusiasm and commitment have made Sahara the  successful and highly sought after band they are today.

• Andy Libby (Saxophone)
• Andy Lowe (keyboards & backing vocals)
• Andy Sear (Drums)
• Anna Kirby (Saxophone)
• Ben Bradley (Trombone)
• Ben Hackett (Guitar & Backing Vocals)
• Brian Diprose (Saxophone)
• Carole Laine (Vocals)
• Chris Causon (Saxophone)
• Curtis Stansfield (Keyboards)
• Darren Ashford (Drummer)
• Dave Stanley (Guitarist & Vocals)
• John Paul Gervasoni (Trumpet)
• Jon Radford (Trumpet)
• Jon Shenoy (Saxophone)
• Kate Buxton (Vocals & Saxophone)
• Kirsty Palmer (Vocals)
• Martin Bishop (Guitar & Backing Vocals)
• Martin Brown (drums & backing vocals)
• Matt Goom (Drums)
• Mike Lesirge (Saxophone)
• Neil Baker (guitar & backing vocals)
• Neil Brocklehurst (Drums & Percussion)
• Paul Tasker (Saxophone)
• Richard Perks (Guitar & Backing Vocals)
• Ross Power (Keyboards & Vocals)
• Steve Hynes (Drums)
• Toby Drummond (Drums)
• Will Smith (Trumpet)