Selwyn Schneider was born in East London South Africa. He fell in love with music when he became a huge Elvis fan at the tender age of 5. He taught himself piano at the age of 7 after his brother Les showed him his first chords: C, F and G. He then taught himself guitar, bass and drums. He wrote his first song at the age of 11, inspired and influenced by The Beatles, who had a monumental impact on the young Selwyn. He has never stopped playing or writing since.

At the age of 7, Selwyn and his next door neighbour Garth Greenhalgh spent many hours learning new chords, and trying to work out the hits of the day on Garths new accoustic guitar, which was the pride of Garth and the envy of Selwyn. In fact, Selwyn had no guitar of his own and remembers running round to Garths house every day in the hope of getting in a little time on his guitar. When Garth finally acquired a real "bridge Pick Up" for this guitar, they pooled in and bought an old radio, as they had no amplifiers. The holes in the back of the radio had no indication of what they were for, and on plugging the Pick Up into any old one......it promptly blew up. Such were the early days of Rock n Roll in East London, South Africa.

Selwyn's next musical union was with his other best buddy Les Todres, and together with the aid of Beatle wigs, they set about becoming The Beatles of East London, playing at friends get-togethers as often as they could. At 9 Selwyn won his first talent competition singing Lets Twist Again. A year later Selwyn and Les won a talent competion together singing one of thier own songs in front of hundreds of cheering kids. Selwyns path in life was set!. They tried forming bands with a few other friends and hounded the local music store Bothners to let them play live at least once. It must have been a delightful racket indeed!

Then in 1967 with Les Todres on rythym and Selwyn on drums, he finally formed his own proper high school band "THE NEWTON FIG" with Garth Greenhalgh on Hofner Beatle bass, newly aquired by his very helpful parents.

They recruited school mate Ben Liebrand on lead guitar. This line-up did not exist for very long. Ben left after a year or so to join a band that was actually gigging...and getting paid for it.

Sadly there are no pictures of this line-up.

Garth and Selwyn bumped into Jethro Butow some time later, at a time when they were tring to get the band going again.

Jethro had been in junior school with Selwyn and apart from a school performance of California Girls, their musical paths had not yet impacted on one another.

( Selwyn also did a piano solo [Pipeline by the Ventures] at the same concert...and the school piano teacher walked out !!)

This time he knocked them out by playing "Run with the Devil" note for note. After a very quick discussion in the corner, Jethro was immediatelty invited into the band and was resident guitarist for the next three or four years. (Jethro went on to become one of SA's best, most succesful and well known guitarists.) They began gigging around East London, playing at local dance halls ("sessions").The band was a little ahead of its time in its refusal to play all the hits of the day. They were into playing heavier, lesser known tracks from albums by "underground" bands. Dave Kent (R.I.P) was brought in on second guitar.

THE NEWTON FIG went through changes after Jethro and Garth left to do compulsory army training. David Chapman came in on Lead Guitar. Mike Laden came in on Keyboards and Vocals, and Reggie Fourie (R.I.P) came in on bass. When Garth returned from the army , he rejoined for a while, playing Flute and singing. For a short while they even had Rodger Cumming (R.I.P.) on Sax and David Tarr (R.I.P) on Violin!

As well as playing with the NEWTON FIG, (who changed their name to FYBO, a name which was to resurface in CT later) he also formed the 42nd PHILHARMONIC DUSTBIN BAND ( again with Jethro ), and the very short lived GAS BAND with Anthony Heyman, Koos Van der Merwe, and Mike Laden.

After finishing High School at the Tech Art College, Selwyn went off to do his compulsory army training and was lucky enough to get himself into the Entertainment Unit where he met and started playing with Trevor Rabin. This led to the first incarnation of Rabbitt, which became SA's most famous band to date. Unfortunately, due to personal differences with other band members, it became inpossible for Selwyn to remain in the band and remain sane. Selwyn left before fame hit. Selwyn and Trevor (who of course went on to international success with YES) still remain friends to this day.

After the army Selwyn went to Cape Town where he began playing with his brother Les (on keyboards) in the money earning DEJA VU, playing at weddings, night clubs etc....but whilst doing this, Selwyn helped form NEXUS ( a non money earning band!) with good friend Tony Kaplan, and Anthony Flesch. For just over three years Nexus played mostly music that they had written themselves and performed all over Cape Town, particularly at the University of Cape Town . NEXUS was a band that started up as an accoustic 3 piece and evolved into a 5 piece Folk/Rock band. Other members at various times included James Davidson on Bass, Chris Wildman on Piano, David Malyon on Guitar (R.I.P) Colin Kaye on Drums and Lanny Behr on Bass/Guitar after James left. (Lanny is now known as Tarshito. He lives near Byron Bay, playing and writing, and has released many albums.) Whilst doing all of this, Selwyn also fitted in a six month long nightly gig at a Cape Town hotel as part of a duo (also called Nexus..with the band's permission) with old Newton Fig mate Mike Laden

After NEXUS disbanded due to most of its members final UCT exams coming up, Selwyn continued to perform with Lanny and David, calling themselves L.S.D. and playing hard edged blues/rock.

Then came FYBO with Terri Cohen on vocals, who was later to be in the great "Pressure Cookies" and where Selwyn was once again reunited with Jethro on guitar.

FYBO was short lived and only did two or three concerts before Selwyn quite suddenly left S.A. (another story for another time) and ended up in London in late 1977, where he lived for the next 26 years.

The London stories and recollections are HERE .

.PICS..........ALBUMS...........IN LONDON..........IN SYDNEY...........BACK IN SA