Simon McBride

Simon McBride (born 9 April 1979, Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a singer, songwriter, producer and guitarist, who has played with other artists as well as recording and touring his own band, and teaching at BIMM in Dublin.

McBride started playing the guitar when he was ten. By age 15 he entered Guitarist Magazine’s Young Guitarist of The Year, a performance competition staged that year at Wembley Conference Centre, which he won.

Less than a year later, a few months after his sixteenth birthday, McBride was recruited by the Belfast-based metal band Sweet Savage, which reformed in 1994 without their founding guitarist, Vivian Campbell (Dio, Def Leppard), who McBride replaced. He toured with the band and recorded two albums, Killing Time 1996 and Rune 1998.

After leaving Sweet Savage in 1998, he joined fellow Irishman Andrew Strong, who made his name in the 1991 cult film The Commitments and went on to establish a singing career. Playing with Strong was in stark contrast to Sweet Savage, involving mostly of soul, R&B and some pop songs. The change of musical style was a useful learning experience and closer in style to the rock and blues artists that had inspired McBride to start playing the guitar. He spent six years touring with Strong before leaving to pursue the idea of a solo career.

In 2008 McBride released his debut album, Rich Man Falling on Nugene Records, a boutique label with a specialisation in guitarists and blues-based artists. The album contains covers of Be My Friend originally by Free (band) and the Jimi Hendrix song Power of Soul.

His 2010 sophomore release Since Then (Nugene Records) gained him nominations in the British Blues Awards.

By this time he had opened shows in the UK and Ireland for Jeff Beck, Joe Bonamassa and US slide guitarist Derek Trucks. In autumn 2010 he toured the UK supporting one of his early guitar heroes, Joe Satriani. In 2011 he played major festivals including Glastonbury Festival, and other gatherings including a special guest spot at Don Airey’s Soul & Blues Festival in 2011 and 2013.

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