Sandy Edmonds – Nostalgia Central

Born in Liverpool, England, Rosalie Edmondson moved to Auckland, New Zealand, with her family at the age of 15.

After attending Takapuna Grammar School, she began working as a dental assistant when she was discovered singing at an Auckland cafe.

In 1965, she started working under the name Sandy Edmonds and released her debut single, Oh No Not My Baby and toured New Zealand, backed by The Pleazers.

She went on to tour with The Rolling Stones, The Searchers, The Walker Brothers, The Yardbirds and Roy Orbison.

In 1967, she became a co-host with Lee Grant on C‘Mon – the best-loved local television pop show of the period.

Her Carnaby Street style was much mimicked by the fashion-conscious.

Her face was on magazine covers as the image of the Swinging Sixties Downunder, and she became the mascot for a New Zealand Navy ship (HMNZS Inverell), the face of Napro hairspray, and an Air New Zealand poster girl.

In late 1966, Edmonds released her most successful single, the novelty song I Love Onions, and her debut studio album, The Sound of Sandy, was released in early 1967 (the first record in New Zealand recorded in stereo).

Edmonds gradually grew disillusioned with the music industry, and – following her second album and her own brief television show (The Four Faces of Sandy) – she turned her back on it all and moved to Australia, performing low-key blues gigs with various groups, most notably Climax.

She married in 1970 and began travelling on the “hippie trail” visiting places like Bali, Burma, and India.

With almost a decade of travel behind her, Edmonds returned to Melbourne and opened a clothing shop called Penny Lane in Camberwell (Melbourne) with a friend.

A few years later, she started her own fashion house (named ‘Picked By A Rose’) for an elite clientele.

Sandy Edmonds died on 19 December 2022 in Melbourne, Australia, after a short illness.

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