A NEWPORT band that last played in the city more than 30 years ago will reunite on stage later this month after its drummer instigated a gig on his return from the United States.

Stephen Bull, 64, moved to San Francisco in 1980 and played with Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship’s Joey Covington. He had had spells played in bands including Racing Cars – leaving before they scored their hit single They Shoot Horses Don’t They? in 1977 – and Bear’s Head.

But now, The Isca Band, who played together from 1976 to 1978 at The Isca pub on Clarence Place, will put on a special gig on April 25.

Mr Bull has arranged for guitarists Ray Ennis and Hywel Maggs and keyboard player Gary Maggs to perform together while he visits Newport.

Bass player Julian Smith will play in place of Jim Woods, who died last year. He has gone on to play bass with The Who, Jools Holland and Jeff Beck.

Band members said they were inspired to play in a jazz fusion style by seeing their friend Pino Palladino play around South Wales.

Mr Bull said of the Isca Band: “We didn’t take it on the road. We just played it because there was a huge influx coming from America. We got so inspired and we got a band together and [Mr Palladino] used to watch us. That’s how we got into it."

“The timing at The Isca was one of those things. We wanted a place to play. We asked the landlord and he said: ‘But we can’t pay you.’ And I said: ‘We don’t want money, we just want to play.’ He started paying us a couple of bottles of wine. But after a couple of weeks, it was packed.”

Hywel Maggs, who still lives in Newport, went to great lengths to ensure the band’s music was heard.

He said: “I was duplicating cassettes by going to bed and every 45 minutes setting an alarm to turn the cassette over. They were handmade, one by one. I think I made about 150 of them like that, having completely disturbed sleep.”

On why he has lived in California for over three decades, Mr Bull said: “I left and went to Canada and back to LA and San Francisco, where I hooked up with Joey Covington. I had met him in London and he asked me to join his band. At that time, punk was just hitting and I thought: ‘I’m not dying my hair pink and sticking a pin through my nose’ so I went to America.

“After landing in San Francisco and seeing what it was like there, I thought: ‘This is it. I need to go somewhere warm and diverse, full of culture’, and it appealed to me.”

He came back returned to Newport last year when his mother sadly died last year, and returned to the city to celebrate a number of important birthdays – his two brothers’, his niece’s and great niece’s which all fall this month – and managed to arrange the concert.

The concert will take place at The Riverside Tavern on Clarence Place on Saturday, April 25 from 8.30pm until 11pm.

Mr Bull’s band will play for the first half and the second will include guests from Newport, the South Wales Valleys and England.