Recently by Paul Cole

The Midland musician who played sax on Britain's best-loved Christmas hit reveals how members of the band were almost arrested - after being mistaken for alcoholic down-and-outs.

Nick Pentelow, son of Emmerdale actor Arthur, was a founder member of Roy Wood's Wizzard and had a starring role in the group's worldwide hit I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday.

But while filming a Top Of The Pops Christmas special at the BBC Shepherds Bush studios, he ran in to the long arm of the law.

"The trouble with TOTP was that you weren't allowed to play your instruments," says Nick, now 57, as he prepares for a series of reunion gigs in the Midlands.

"We all had to mime, and we were bored stiff. If you watch a video of our performance, you'll see that I don't even put the sax to my lips.

"My mate Mike Burney, who also played sax in the band, and I reckoned we'd had enough. We were fed up of standing round doing nothing. It wasn't the real thing, and it was hot under the studio lights.

"So we dragged on old greatcoats over our crazy stage clothes and sneaked out to the off-licence. We picked up a bottle of cider and went to sit on the green nearby. We were dying of thirst.

"It was only when a policeman asked what we were doing that we realised the green was full of vagrants, knocking back booze out of bottles in brown paper-bags. He thought we were old drunks."

The pair explained to the sceptical cop that they were in a famous pop group, and had to get back to the studio to finish their song.

After leaving Wizzard, Nick played alongside the likes of Roger Chapman, BB King, Albert Collins, Steve Gibbons, Gary Moore, and even worked in the Far East with a Japanese pop band called Dreams Come True.

Now, saxmen Nick and Mike have teamed up again in a six-strong R&B band called Old Horns, which also features former Wizzard keyboard player Bob Brady. "It's like a family reunion," says Nick.

"People forget that Wizzard dabbled in jazz. Sure, they had all the pop hits but listen to the b-sides and album tracks and you'll hear Roy and the rest of us experimenting with jazz, rhythm and blues.

"We've taken our name from the Old Horns pub in Great Barr. It seemed apt for a band of old sax players!"

Catch Old Horns live at Birmingham United Services Club this Friday July 25, at Pavilion Blues in Shenstone on Saturday July 26, and at the Kings Head at Aston Cantlow, near Stratford-upon-Avon, during the afternoon on Sunday July 27.