Sax - on the beach?

I remember when I used to watch Top of The Pops I was younger - say early teens perhaps - that there were certain instruments that were clearly way cooler than others.

The clear loser of these in those days, as it is now, was the keyboard/guitar thing that was so popular amongst many a coiffured pop band. The undoubted winner, and the one we all wanted to play, was the saxophone.

Sax was on loads of records - obvious smash hits as Baker Street and The Heat Is On - but also countless lesser known top 40 hits. There was a smattering of sax everywhere, and to have a sax player on the Pops was the ultimate kudos for a band.

But what now? We don't seem to use sax players any more, so where have all the sax players gone? Ok, so there's still 'horn sections', but it's not the same thing (and many are synthesied anyway).

The solitary sax solo seems to have drifted into pop obscurity, and I'm not here to campaign to bring it back. Good riddance I'd say.