Rob Sas – Guitar
Rob started playing guitar aged 18.
In 1980 he started recording with originals band Killerhurtz and gigging with them the following year.
Killerhurtz disbanded four years later having supported The Nashville Teens, The Groundhogs and other such rock bands of the time. Rob concentrated on his recording studio, producing and recording bands which satisfied him for a while, but he itched to get back to live playing.
He spent 3 years with local band So What, then ex Killerhurtz drummer Ian Rooston arrived with vocalist Mick O’Toole to do some recording. This meeting sparked the birth of Bad Attitude in 1990 and a wealth of songs were written and recorded. However, Ian did not stay long and Rob went in search of a high calibre drummer. He found Ross Elder, then drumming with the Les Payne Band.
Ross brought keyboard player Hilly Briggs into the line up. Bad Attitude was complete and had several songs that Warner-Chappell and various companies were interested in. After some months, Hilly pulled out due to touring commitments elsewhere but introduced Tom Dussek from Soul Purpose who quickly took over. However, the recession bit deep, the new artist roster was slashed by the record company and Bad Attitude died shortly after, having played only a handful of gigs.
This led to the formation of a covers band. Tom brought in vocalist/bassist John Heywood from Soul Purpose and drummer Simon Alexander completed the line-up. In 1993 BURN was up and gigging with its first line up within weeks.
Two years later, dissatisfaction with the drumming department required that Ross Elder be brought in to replace Simon Alexander. This line up toured Denmark twice.
January 1997 saw the departure of Tom Dussek to other musical avenues. Burn remained a three piece until that line up’s brief demise in June 2005. The band reformed in January 2006.
In addition to Burn, Rob has worked with the John Coglan Band (ex Status Quo) for a few years, touring the UK and Europe where they often supported Manfred Mann’s Earthband. He then joined Quatermas 2, which unfortunately did not last long, a band headed by the late drummer Mick Underwood (Gillan, The Outlaws, Strapps).
Rob has had short stints in various other bands, sometimes put together for one or two nights and has played with a plethora of other name musicians which include Nick Simper (Deep Purple, Warhorse), “Hud” Hudson (Strawbs, Hudson-Ford), Gary Barden (Michael Schenker), Chick Churchill (Ten Years After), Pete Parks (Warhorse), Chuck Sabo (Right Said Fred, Shakespear’s Sister), Clem Curtis (The Foundations), Jimmy James (The Vagabonds), Steve Priest and Mick Tucker (The Sweet), Doogie White (Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen, Micheal Schenker), Danny Vaughn (Tyketto), Paul Morris (Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen).
In January 2004 Rob completed a solo album called Partly Covered, featuring recordings of some of Rob’s songs from the past and more recently recorded personal favourite cover songs. In January 2010 Rob released a second album called Sassed.
Rob worked with London based vocalist Elliot Tuffin for a couple of years in his band and duo and then worked with Jonnie Hawkins in a rock duo. Jonnie made it as far as Sharon Osborne’s X-Factor boot camp many years ago.
Rob also played with Spanish rock covers bands Halcyon Dayz and Art Club Band in Spain. Halcyon Dayz were one of the Costa del Sol’s leading cover bands at the time and featured ex Chickenshack guitarist Bill Brown, who was a friend of Rob and the subject of a BBC TV documentary which featured a gig Rob played with his band.
In the UK Rob divided his time between BURN and BACK 2 BACK, a duo fronted by a female singer and he also played solo instrumental gigs in the UK and southern Spain.
In September 2008 Rob was invited to join Deep Purple tribute band 24 Carat Purple.
In February 2012 Rob relocated to Marbella in south Spain where he continued with his solo instrumental gigs and formed The Rob Sas Band whilst still returning to the UK for 24 Carat Purple and Burn duties for a while until Rob left 24 Carat Purple at the end of 2012 and Burn called it a day (again) in August 2013 after 20 years of gigging. There have since been the occasional Burn gigs both in Spain and in the UK.
In July 2013 Rob was invited to join a Soul function band on the Costa del Sol called Soul Survivors and since then he has been involved in several one off gigs with bands put together especially for the night, including one prestigious party night in Marbella where the band including Rob on guitar, backed a Supremes tribute act from the UK, followed by legendary soul singers Clem Curtis of The Foundations and Jimmy James of The Vagabonds.
In 2014 Rob started presenting the weekly Rob Sas Rock Show on Castle Radio FM in south Spain, later moving to the larger Central FM Spain in 2016, where he plays the best of classic Rock songs and interviews big name artists in the Rock world. In 2018 Rob´s show was taken up by ARfm in the UK and Pure Rock Radio in Canada (now closed down) and in 2024 by Bulldogs Radio in Europe. In May 2025, The Rob Sas Rock Show was taken up by Hard Rock Hell Radio in the UK.
Also in 2014, Rob was endorsed by Planet Tone pickups which he uses in his Fender Stratocasters. For geeks out there, Rob uses a 100W Marshall JCM 900 amplifier with one or two Marshall 4×12 speaker cabinets and a Line 6 Helix pedal alongside a Digitec Drop pedal. Occasionally, he will use a Blackstar Amped 1 amplifier instead of the Marshall.
In 2014 Deeper Purple, an international tribute to the music of Deep Purple was formed. The band have played several tours of the UK, Germany and Spain, playing prestigious events at venues such as Blackpool Winter Gardens Arena, 02 Academy’s across the UK as well as for the Harley Davidson Owners Group in Jerez, the Mijas Auditorium and the Estepona bullring in Southern Spain.
In mid 2023, Bad Attitude was reignited and nine original songs re-recorded, with completion of these songs in late 2024. The band was rebranded to Bad Matrix in January 2025 and on October 1, 2025 the bands debut album Dangerous Game was physically released on Kivel Records and then digitally world-wide on Rock Avenue Records in July 2026.