It was during the cold, short days of 2006 that Sandi Thom had her first Eureka! moment. Instead of driving to gigs up and down the country in her old car, as she had done for years, the singer from Scotland resolved to try a different approach. She bought a webcam, announced a run of 21 shows to be performed on consecutive nights in the basement of her flat in South London and became the first artist in the history of the music industry to broadcast a tour live from her home. The audience capacity in the flat was just six people. But the half-hour shows were to be broadcast, free of charge, via her website at www.sandithom.com. The first night, 70 people tuned in, the next night it was up to 670. And by the middle of the second week she was performing to a peak audience of 70,000. By then, the suits from every major record label had visited the flat to see the show for themselves. What they heard was a singer with a sensational voice – strong and expressive enough to fill the largest theatres, but also warm and soulful enough to win over hearts and minds in the most intimate of settings.
Even before her debut album, *Smile… It Confuses People* was released on June 5, preceded by a single, *I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker* on May 22, 2006 Sandi Thom was a phenomenon. The record company called her "the first webcast signing in major record label history" and she became the overnight internet star who won a global audience and a megabucks handshake thanks to her investment in a £60 webcam. Needless to say, the story goes a little deeper than that.
Sandi Thom has spent half a lifetime writing songs and performing gigs. She actually began learning piano at the age of three. Sandi was born in a small fishing village called Banff on the North East coast of Scotland. Both her mother and father came from musical backgrounds. Her father, a fisherman who became a helicopter pilot, used to sing and play guitar to Sandi every day.
"The first thing I remember was listening to my Dad's records when I was little, on vinyl," Sandi says. "I grew up on Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac and many more. I've always been influenced by the Blues and Rock along with singer-songwriters, like Dylan, Carole King and Buffy Saint Marie. It was a funny mixture that certainly influenced the way I sing and play."
When she was 14, Sandi joined a local covers band called the Residents who played pubs, social clubs, weddings, you name it. The rest of the band were all middle-aged semi-professionals, but she fitted in fine, playing keys and singing – often in four-part harmonies – learning a repertoire of classic pop and rock songs by artists such as Creedence Clearwater revival, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and many more.
After several years with the Residents Sandi applied for a place at the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts, and was successful accepted as the youngest student ever to attend the school.
She also joined a gospel choir and at just 18 performed at Anfield football stadium singing *You'll Never Walk Alone* to a crowd of 40,000 people.
After graduating, the hard graft continued. A period of hustling for work in the music business landed her several jobs as a session singer and a publishing deal with Windswept Pacific Music. She began recording the songs that comprised her debut album and toured as support with The Proclaimers and the late great George Michael among others, while playing numerous gigs of her own.
Since then Sandi has went on to make her mark on the International music scene, playing live to sell out crowds across the world, including, being No.1 in the Australian charts for an impressive 12 weeks, the current world record for any artist in that country. She accumulated 7 no.1 positions throughout the world and has sold in excess of 2.5 million records.
After a 3 year stint of entertaining fans at festivals and gigs across the globe, Sandi returned to set up her own label; Guardian Angels Music snd was the first female label owner to land a digital and physical distribution deal with absolutely no sales history whatsoever. She said “I was very fortunate to have met the CEO of the company at the time at a restaurant in London, we hit it of and I told him my story, he said he could see my desire, drive and passion t
Guardian Angels released the Critically acclaimed 'Merchants And Thieves' on May 5th 2010, which remained at No1 on the I tunes Blues/Rock charts for 4 weeks, and after 9 months, still remains in the top twenty.
This record marked Thom's brave departure from the pop market, to Blues/Rock.
Sandi has had much praise for this venture into Blues/rock, hailed it as "The greatest musical re-invention this year".
Mojo magazine gave it a 4 star review describing her sound as having the "oomph of Joan Osbourne", Maverick magazine wrote home with a 5 star rating and Classic rock magazine stamped their approval on the record by displaying Sandi on their front Cover.
There is no doubt that the new sexy, sassy, raw and rootsy Thom won the respect of the media and music critics alike, with this new record, however she also caught the attention of her peers.
Having now appeared on the same stage as the King of the Blues himself, BB.King, and being invited to tour Europe with the biggest thing in Blues today, Guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa. Joe liked Sandi's style so much, he guest appeared on her album.
In August 2014 Sandi recorded and released her 4th studio album with The Black Crowes band produced by Rich Robinson in Nashville. With performances by Rich himself, Buffy Saint Marie and the late Bobby Keys. Followed swiftly by the critically acclaimed Covers Collection, released in 2015 featuring a cover of Guns n Roses November Rain, the video of which has had 1.5 million views. She then went on to release a further two albums; one a baby sleep aid entitled Logan’s Lullabies and her 6th studio album “Ghosts” released in the spring of 2019.
Sandi has numerous projects in the pipeline including a possible film about her incredibly interesting life, a 7th studio album and the build of her first animal shelter BARC; the Bahrain animal rescue centre.
As well as spending huge amounts of time raising her 3 year old son Logan she is training for the 2019 Bahrain Iron man and for the past year and a half Sandi has voluntarily managed the Dogfather centre following the death of its founder Tony Waters. All of the inhabitants of the dog father centre will be relocated to BARC, a custom built animal shelter, training facility and educational facility. Sandi’s long term goal is to duplicate this effort worldwide under the umbrella “The ARC Foundation” her animal charity.
Fireproof Talent and MadHead Music are a direct booking agent for Sandi Thom so you don't need to look anywhere else.
