Gary Simmons

Gary Simmons was born in 1971 and joined his brother Darren to become Taste of Honey (which later became Legacy) in 1986. Gary performs the parts of Paul Simon, John Lennon and Robin Gibb in the three sections of the Legacy multi-tribute show and also plays piano and guitar. Gary entered into showbiz at the very early age of seven when he entered a holiday camp talent contest and not only won it, but so impressed the holiday camp managers that they decided to hire in a professional record company to record a single of Gary singing a song called The Bores have Got My Daddy. The single was placed in the holiday camp juke box and sold in their gift shops. At the age of 11, Gary found that he enjoyed acting and discovered that he had a natural talent for it that would lead on to much bigger things. After his old primary school headmaster kept pointing out Gary's exceptional acting gift, he decided to audition for a local amateur dramatics company who were going to be performing 'Oliver' at the Bristol Hippodrome. Gary thought his chances were slim of even making the chorus line, but after three auditions he landed the lead role of Oliver Twist. The show ran for one week to full houses of approximately two thousand people each night. The local newspaper critics loved Gary's tender acting performance and strong singing voice. Gary had tasted showbiz and liked it. Although 'Oliver' was only put on by an amateur dramatic company, Gary later on that year, got to hear about the sensational auditions that we being held in London's 'West End' for an up and coming professional production of 'Bugsy Malone' that was to be produced by 'Mickey Dolenz' of the Monkeys fame. It ran for over a year at the prestigious 'Her Majesty's Theatre' and turned out to be one of the largest auditions ever held. The TV coverage of the auditions themselves was phenomenal, although Mickey Dolenz had already been round to all the stage schools recruiting the lead roles, he held public auditions to find members to make up the rest of the cast. London ground to a halt on audition day as 10,000 members of the public queued in the wind and rain to get their five minute audition. Just under one hundred people were needed from 13,000 and Gary was one of them. After going through short list after short list, Gary not only got into the show but so impressed the production team during rehearsals that he eventually got promoted to play the title role of 'Bugsy Malone' himself. Gary performed for three months with the Bugsy Malone stage show (which is the maximum a child can work in one year) and it enabled him to apply for his Equity membership which all professional actors need to even get a look in at most auditions. Gary had been spotted by famous child star agent and stage school owner Sylvia Young who immediately signed Gary on her books. On returning from London, he went on to get roles with the prestigious 'Old Vic Theatre Company' in a production of the Sherlock Holmes mystery A Crucifer of Blood and also appeared alongside his sister 'Kelly' in a 'New Vic' production of the 'Dolls House' by Henrik Ibsen. Once again these were professional work contracts that earned Gary money and helped build his already stunning looking resume. Although Gary was very busy, he still managed to find time for his hobby of computer programming and playing computer games. Gary wasn't to know yet but later on these two other hobbies would merge to provide another exciting opportunity.

In 1984 Gary finally made a break through into film when some of the old production team from Bugsy Malone recommended him to audition for a film called Haunters of the Deep. The film was to be a children's horror film made by the Children's Film Foundation and Gary was auditioning for the lead role of Josh who was to be haunted by the ghosts of dead miners. Gary did not feel his audition went at all well, and in fact, after his audition, he and his mother caught the train straight home. Little did Gary know that as he walked away from the audition the film director had come out to tell Gary that he had the part only to find that to their surprise he had already left. They contacted him later by phone to give him the good news. In Haunters of the Deep Gary also starred alongside the late Andrew Keir. Gary impressed the film crew greatly with his sensitive and adult acting style.

In 1984 'Haunters of the Deep' premiered at the 'London Film Festival' and Gary and his family attended as special guests as they watched the screening at the National Film Theatre. Later that year the film also had a second premier in Plymouth where Gary attended with his family so he could be the special guest of the Lord Mayor of Plymouth. Haunters of the Deep still gets occasionally repeated on TV today and in the 90's had many repeat viewings on Sky television. When Haunters of the Deep had finished filming Gary found himself with another tough decision to make. He had been sent to the Grange Hill auditions by his agent on several occasions and after many repeat auditions he was awarded the opportunity of one of the main speaking parts. Although Gary was tremendously excited by the prospect, the job was going to be a long one and would mean Gary, at the age of 13 years old, would have to leave his home and go to live in London. Gary was already beginning to feel he had been away too much and it was always an uphill battle trying to catch up on the schooling he had missed while he was away. Made worse was the fact that this job would go on quite probably for 5 years, so Gary eventually declined the part so that he would be open to a greater variety of acting roles in the future. Declining the Grange Hill role did not mean Gary didn't stay busy. That year he did voice over work for ITV documentaries, stared in a TV commercial for 'Tomy Tronics' hand held computer games, and had a secondary part in a film for colleges where Gary played a teenager terminally ill with cancer. Gary was also shortlisted down to the final four for a role in the movie 'Kane & Able' starring Sam Niell.

In 1985 Gary got the Part of Thor in the touring stage show 'The Nerd' starring Jasper Carrot. The show had been in London for many months with Rowan Atkinson in the lead role and they now had Jasper Carrot replace him for the touring version. Gary was delighted as he had always been a fan. Strangely, the tour ended its final week in Gary's home town of Bristol at the Bristol Hippodrome theatre where Gary's acting career had begin 3 years earlier with Oliver. After Gary returned home from touring with The Nerd, he didn't have time to catch his breath before another unbelievable job was offered him. Over the past few years Gary had spent some of the money that he had earned on his other great passion, computers. Gary was a keen programmer as well as games player, so when he was offered a job as a presenter on a Computer and Science technology programme called Video & Chips, it was right up his street. Not only was this to be a network programme viewed by approximately seven million each week, but it was also all to be recorded in HTV studios in Bristol, Garys home town. It was a very happy time for Gary who had all the computer software and hardware companies sending him free hardware and software to test out for a possible review on the show. In Video & Chips, Gary was one of three presenters but he was the only child. Gary's co-presenters were Capitol Radio's Mick Brown and Sonya Saul. Whilst working for Video & Chips Gary was sent out of the studio on occasions to broadcast reports from technology related events that were happening across the country.

Gary left school in 1987 and joined his brother Darren full-time as Taste Of Honey. Taste of Honey enjoyed great success throughout the 90's as the UKs premier Bee Gees tribute band and made several TV and Radio appearances including one with the Bee Gees themselves. Taste of Honey later became Legacy in which Darren & Gary pay tribute to three of their favourite acts, the Bee Gees, the Beatles & Simon & Garfunkel.

In 2008 Gary and his brother took their Bee Gees tribute show to new heights launching a major UK Theatre Show tour featuring a a full live band and string section.

That show is still touring the UK theatres today (March 2014). Gary still manages to maintain his two passions, performing and computer programming. As well as performing in Legacy, Gary is also an instructor and vice president of an online university called the Game Institute. The Game Institute teaches students how to program the latest cutting edge programming techniques used in today's computer games.