‘Spit and sawdust bangers’: SAS marks 60th loud and proud
Veteran Harry Moffitt celebrates 60 years of the SAS his way – with a rock album.
Harry Moffitt can’t think of a better place to mark the SAS’s 60th birthday than on stage with a guitar in hand, belting out “spit and sawdust” bangers partly inspired by his tours of duty in war zones such as Afghanistan.
The SAS veteran who served more than 25 years in the unit reckons it’s fitting his band, The Externals, are set for a big role in next week’s milestone, as nearly two dozen special forces operators have played in the band.
Moffitt says The Externals, which have just released their sixth and latest album, Back On The Cans, have been an important part of SAS sub-culture since the 1990s.
“We’re not the only (SAS) band ever, but we’ve certainly taken it to a different level with albums and big tours and gigs … we’ve supported bands like the Cosmic Psychos and played Big Day Outs,” says Moffitt, the author of best-selling book Eleven Bats, a searing account of his war service, including the day he was seriously wounded.
Australia’s SAS turns 60 next Wednesday and to mark the occasion, The Externals will perform a private show at an undisclosed location during the week, and on Friday the band gears up for a “come one, come all” public gig in Perth at The Leopold Hotel in Bicton.
Moffitt is the engine room of the band as lead singer, rhythm guitarist and main songwriter and will be joined for the two gigs by Matt “Colonel External” Stevens, an ex-SAS officer who still serves in the Australian Defence Force.
A current SAS trooper who cannot be named will be on guitar, while two civilians, Nick Frichot on lead guitar and David Leach on drums, are also key members of the line-up.
Moffitt, who deployed overseas 11 times to destinations including Afghanistan and East Timor, likens The Externals sound to Radio Birdman and The Celibate Rifles. “We’re pretty spit and sawdust musicians and producers, but I think (Back On The Cans) has scrubbed up OK,” he says. “You could also say we’re a bit surf rock and small p punk.”
Moffitt happily admits The Externals aren’t known for hidden meanings in their music, and their songs have a raw honesty to them. Take Back On The Cans, the title track of the six-track EP. It was largely inspired by Melbourne’s brutal Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, and even includes a sampling of Dan Andrews’ “get on the beers” line.
“Back on the Cans is pretty straight forward, we had the hard lockdowns here in Melbourne … we just couldn’t wait to get back on the beers and in a pub. And when we came out of Covid it crystallised into ‘now we’re out of Covid we’re back on the cans’,” he says.
The Hell Beyond, the final track, captures an ambush in a corn and maize field and the death of a trooper Moffitt calls “Rowdy”.
But in reality it is a gut-wrenching “tip of the hat”, as Moffitt describes it, to his mate “Brownie”, SAS trooper Jason Brown who died in a Taliban ambush on August 13, 2010. “It’s part fiction, part fact … but it was written with Jason Brown in mind,” he says.
Moffitt wasn’t on that mission, but during his tours of Afghanistan was involved in regular firefights with the Taliban. “I wasn’t there the day that Brownie died but I have been there enough times when other mates have died … the headline is a tip of the hat to Brownie.”
Moffitt is a compulsive writer; books, music, poetry and other articles. And being beyond the wire in Afghanistan wasn’t going to stop him. “I wrote a bit of pretty average poetry in Afghanistan … just got to keep writing all the time, and then occasionally a little gem pops out and you latch on to it,” he says. Moffitt sees the 60th anniversary as an opportunity for the SAS to move forward from the war crimes investigations that have dogged the unit recently. “With all of the troubles the regiment has been through the 60th is an opportunity to draw a line and seize back our narrative, and move towards healing,” he says.
“For many, that is next. To counter the unbalanced and negative reporting, and re-establish the unit’s strong standing in the hearts and minds of all Australians, whom we represent. A group of senior guys will be releasing a documentary to that effect next year. Who dares wins.”
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