The band consisted of Bill Elliott (born 28 July 1950, died 6 June 2021) and Bob Purvis (born 31 May 1950). They had been playing together for a bit around the Tyneside area of England in 1970 and then formed a band called Stone Blind. The band would perform some gigs and record some demos before changing their name to Half Breed. But there were tensions in the band and Purvis left. Elliott continued on with Half Breed who briefly changed their name to Elastic Oz Band to promote a single called ‘God Save Us’ (originally title ‘God Save Oz’ which was written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono). The single went out on The Beatles‘ Apple record label. After this, Elliott and Purvis, along with their manager, Rob Hill, formed a band called Truth, but Purvis soon left the band and moved to London where he worked with producer Tony Visconti (who would work with T Rex, David Bowie and The Boomtown Rats to name a few) and Mike Gibbons of Badfinger. It was Hill who brought Elliott and Purvis back together and this time they formed Splinter. There was a lot of interest in the band, but they eventually signed for George Harrison’s Dark Horse Records and Harrison, who had heard some of their material and liked it, produced their debut album, ‘The Place I Love’. The album included the single ‘Costafine Town’ which would be their only UK hit, going to number 17. Despite no further success, they continued to record and release records up till 1984 when they decided to call it a day.
SA Singles Charts 