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The Burton Mail / Andy’s handy with sand

by ED HILL

A FAILED gameshow contestant and Stringfellows stripper from Burton who moved to London to find his fortune is hoping his latest venture will not hit the bunker. Andy Robertson has gone from pulling pints at Burton's Waterloo Inn pub to sculpting sand art on London's Waterloo beach. Sandy Andy, as he is known, used to live in the Ashby Road pub and also at the Barley Mow, in Park Road, Church Gresley.

Now the former pupil at Woodville's Granville Community School, whose parents still live in Newhall, makes sand sculptures on the bank of the River Thames. It comes after a failed career as Santa Claus, in Birmingham, which saw him branded the worst Father Christmas in the UK by the Daily Mirror newspaper.

In between, the 27-year-old has fitted in a stint as a professional gameshow contestant - at one point winning £20,000 on Liza Tarbuck's Without Prejudice - and spent two months sleeping rough.

Other highlights of his life include working as a stripper at London night club Stringfellows and opening his own magic shop, which went bust. Before leaving Burton five years ago, he also worked as a radiographer at Applied Inspection, in Bond Street. Now he is auctioning off one of his specially crafted sand sofas - and promising to become a sand slave for the day - to raise cash for charity.

Proceeds from the sale on internet site eBay will go to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), which saved Andy's life when he got swept away in the Thames last year. The sculptor, who has also appeared at Glastonbury music festival and on ITV's This Morning, said: "When I was down on the beach last year, before discovering the joys of sand, I thought it would be a good idea to go swimming in the Thames. "I was wrong. The current swept me along and was too fast for me to swim back. It swept me past the beach to where the sides of the river are sheer concrete. "I had no way out and I was swallowing lots of water just trying to float and hang onto the sides. I was screaming for help. "The RNLI came in and dragged me out, bloody fingers but still alive."

Andy started making sand sculptures when he was bored and homeless. Since then he has made everything from witches to 200-tonne dragons, from sofas to sleeping workmen. He said: "I started making sand sculptures while skint with nowhere to live, not for a job, just for something to do. "Then someone threw a pound and I kept building. It's got quite huge now, the concept that is, not the sand castle."

Anyone interested in bidding for the charity sand sofa should search for dirtybeach - the name of Andy's new production company - on eBay.

ENCOURAGING ORIGINAL STREET ART IN LONDON