Welcome to The Martells Website!
After a 12 year absence from the music scene, The Martells are back together again wowing audiences wherever they play.
The Martells were originally formed in the 1960's and soon became one of the most popular bands in the East of England playing packed venues. There aren't many people in the East Anglian area that have not heard of them. In fact many people (mostly over 40's ) will say ' I went to see them at so and so back in so and so year'.
The original line up has changed over the years but it appears that they given the same high level of entertainment and dedication to their performance as they always have done. By researching back to the late seventies / early eighties, the line up consisted of Sandy Sutherland on drums and vocals, Merv Perry on guitar and vocals, Jimmy Dodd on bass guitar and vocals, Rex Seeley, also on guitar and singing, and Dave Parnell on keyboards.
As with all walks of life, circumstances change and people move on, needless to say, over the years, band members came and band members left. However, due to the group's popularity and fan base, there was always a string of local top musicians more than ready to take their place under the 'Martells ' spotlight. Names such as Rod Frost, who is an excellent vocalist, keyboard and guitar player, Jack Jacobs, another superb guitarist with an amazing singing talent, Gary Nunn, who's abilities on the guitar, lead or bass, really need to be seen to be believed, to name but a few.
Sadly, by the time the middle the late nineties were upon us, the band was down to just three musicians, Sandy Sutherland, Rod Frost and Jack Jacobs. Despite this the guys were still delivering superb music and providing a great evening's entertainment to their ever loyal followers.
That was until Jack Jacobs decided to buy himself an olive farm and retire to sunny Spain. It was with great sadness that the band went their separate ways.
All the band members remained friends, some even stayed in touch and of course they were often crossing each other's paths at various different music events. Three of the guys that did keep in touch were Sandy, Rod and Gary.
It was while the three of them were helping a friend out with a few gig commitments in the middle of 2008 that they decided to stay together and do something as a 3 piece group. Halleujah, this was the day that The Martells were reborn.
Unfortunately, that line up didn't work and it was mutually decided that Rod would go and do his own thing. Gary and Sandy soon found other musicians keen to join The Martells and so we welcome Alec Robinson on vocals, keyboard and guitar and John Wright on vocals and bass guitar.
The Martells have to announce the departure of our singer Alec Robinson.
We have enjoyed working with Alec for the past 6 months as we have shared some fantastic gigs, but in the end it just wasn’t to be!
We would like to thank Alec for his hard work and dedication during his time with us and wish him all the very best in the future.
On a happier note, we would like to welcome Peter Wolfe as lead vocalist/guitarist. Peter has been a friend and fellow band member to Sandy and Gary for several years now as he is also lead vocalist/ guitarist for local blues band Just Blues.
We are very much looking forward to our first gig in February with the new line-up.