From a practice gig at Eastside Community Centre to the Isle of Wight festival, Whitby band Sunbeam marked its tenth anniversary this weekend and say, “playing in Whitby is different to anywhere else”.
To celebrate the milestone, Sunbeam raised the roof of The Royal Hotel with a special show for the occasion.
Ahead of the tenth anniversary gig, The Anchor caught up with lead singer Jimmy Organ-Simpson about those early days and future plans for the band.
While some band members have changed over the years, Sunbeam started with Jimmy, Sean Stuart and Nicky Baxter.
And while many bands today are put together by the industry, Sunbeam came about with a sing-along in the car in 2016 while the lads were on their way to buy a Sainsbury’s meal deal.
Gigs in Whitby’s local pubs followed, as did being a support act for music nights at Whitby Brewery before headlining there.
Jimmy admits most people think Sunbeam arrived on the scene when they headlined, and sold out The Spa Pavilion to nearly 1,000 paying punters in 2024.
There had been years of hard graft before, but, that gig was a game-changer, he adds.
He said: “Playing in Whitby is different to playing anywhere else. There is that collective of everyone – families and friends are there.
“It feels like home. Everyone has got behind us and that is a massive part of where our success comes from. If people had not come to our gigs at the start, and then brought their friends, it would have never kicked off.”
It was also that gig which was the first one to make him nervous pre-show. Jimmy says the only time he gets nervous is if he is ill in the run up.
“That was the first one we did at The Spa. It sold out in three days, everybody was buzzing – and I had the flu.
“I was necking honey and Nicky said ‘let’s practice’. I got half way through a song and there was no voice. It was two minutes before we went on and we just went out. The crowd sang the first song back to me and it was amazing, they took me home that night.”
Prior to last night’s show at The Royal, Sunbeam has just finished a tour in the north of England, with another tour planned for later in the year.
At the end of June they are going into the studio to record four new singles, with a view to an album coming out next year.
It is also a chance to do something with the 3,000 voice notes Jimmy has sent to himself on his phone.
He said: “Any time anything comes to me, I have got to get that down. It has got to the point where, for the amount of time we have been together, we have got 16 songs recorded.
“I have got 3,000 voice notes on my phone and it is frustrating”, he jokes, “and for the lads as well, but we are going into the studio at the end of the month.”
If you’d have asked Jimmy when he was younger if he saw himself fronting a band playing at the same festival as Justin Timberlake, being played on Radio X, being invited to appear on the talkSPORT breakfast show and This is the Life having more than a 100,000 plays on Spotify – he’ll say no.
“I will be out running or driving and kids are going ‘da da da da da da da’. If I am out shopping people will come and say ‘hi’ and I love it”, he said.
“At school I didn’t think I would get into music, I had no idea. I thought I was going to be a footballer until I was 15, like every other lad in England.
“One of my best mates went to university and did sports therapy and I knew I didn’t want to go to uni. I got a job at the scampi factory, then as a mentor and thought, I needed a career.”
Jimmy has a career in sales which takes him on the road for three days a week, which he balances with being a husband and father.
As do the other members, now joined by Sean Danby and David Stuart. They all have varied careers and families – managing to find the time to practice, perform and push the band further.
Jimmy added: “I would do this full time and nothing else – but it needs to be a proper living. We will keep going, keep getting better and I am manifesting.”
