Simon Byrne – Singer – Songwriter
Being in a band in the late ’60s was an amazing experience. How many people get the chance to open for the likes of Cream, Rod Stewart, The Faces, Deep Purple, John Mayall, King Crimson, The Nice, Supertramp and many, many
others…
Working the circuits in the UK at that time was a truly great formative
experience. Originally from Bath in the UK’s West Country, inspired by The Beatles and The
Beach Boys, Simon along with Henry Marsh, John Perry and others formed a cover band in 1964. After three years they moved up to London and the adventure began.
At that time, as a musician, this was the center of the universe. Their band, ‘Gringo’ became known for its playing ability and vocal
harmonization. They played extensively in the UK and Europe, releasing singles and an album before finally disbanding in 1972.
Over the years Simon has had several noteworthy successes as a songwriter and as a musician including ‘We Got Love’ co-written with Johnny Goodison and released by Donny and Marie Osmond and ‘Heart and Soul’ co-written with Andrew Howell which was the final hit by The Monkees in 1987. Simon also played drums on the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest winner ‘Save Your Kisses For Me’ by the Brotherhood of Man. This was to become the highest selling single by a Eurovision entry ever. It even outsold ABBA! Simon was also one of the backup singers for the 1982 UK Eurovision entry ‘One Step Further’ by Bardot. We didn’t win that time but also very cool.
The songs that Simon has written are heavily influenced by all the experiences that he has had over the years. He’s been lucky enough to have collaborated with a number of people, principally with Henry Marsh and Andrew Howell and now Colin Newell. Henry and Simon write their songs under the banner of The Sandles. Andrew and Simon were introduced to each other by Record Producer Roger Bechirian in the early 80’s and have been involved in many projects together including Simon’s solo record ‘Dream Crazy” which was co-written by Simon and Andrew and released by Epic Records in New York in 1986. It is still available to listen to on YouTube.
‘Canadian World’ has been written by Simon Byrne and Colin Newell and has been produced and arranged by Henry Marsh and will be released under the banner of The Sandles.
Henry Marsh – Singer – Songwriter
Henry grew up in Bath UK. Joining a band that Simon had been in for three years or so, Henry quickly found a place as lead singer and lead guitarist.
This line up morphed into Toast in the late 60’s and with bass player John G Perry, they moved up to London. Quickly securing a recording contract. In the 70’s Toast morphed again and with the addition of a female lead singer became Gringo and worked and toured in the UK and Europe.
Breaking up in 1973. Everyone went their separate ways.
In the 70s Henry was a founder member of the group SAILOR who achieved international success with numerous hit records including “A Glass Of Champagne” and “Girls Girls Girls“.
Since that time, Henry has established himself as a prolific composer for theatre and television.
Always close friends, though now living thousands of miles apart, Simon and Henry rekindled their writing partnership in the late 90’s. They called this project The Sandles. These early recordings by The Sandles are going to be available on the Sandles website shortly.
Colin Newell – Singer-Songwriter
From an early age, Colin had been at the piano. With a mom who was a classical pianist (who had the good fortune of playing with jazz great Oscar Peterson in the late 1950’s), Colin had music in his DNA.
After several years learning music at a local convent (long story), Colin dropped the ivories for the six-strings. By the mid-1980’s Colin had played in a variety of very unsuccessful juke-box bands, quickly pivoting to music engineering and production.
In total, Colin had his mark on around a dozen projects from 1981 until the early 2000’s – mostly folk rock soloists or combo’s. By 2008, he was ready for his own thing and joined troubadour Charlie Burton in creating their debut album – Island Standard Time by the folk duo “Two Old Goats…” They received modest radio play on CBC and NPR in the U.S.A. garnering a top-50 spot next to the likes of Cher on CBC Radio 3!