Simon Binks

Australian rock musician

Simon John Binks (born 27 November 1956,) is an Australian rock musician who was a guitarist and singer songwriter for Australian Crawl from founding in 1978 to disbanding in 1986.

Binks was raised in the Mornington Peninsula suburb of Mount Eliza on the outskirts of Melbourne and educated at The Peninsula School. Spiff Rouch Bill McDonough (drums) replaced David Reyne within the first year. Bill's brother, Guy McDonough (guitars, singer songwriting) joined Australian Crawl later that year. the third album, Sons of Beaches in 1982, had Binks providing guitars but no songwriting credits. Drummer Bill McDonough left early in 1983, the Crawl recorded an EP Semantics with Graham Bidstrup on drums. The EP Semantics charted on the Australian Singles Charts to reach No. 1 and consequently some sources list "Reckless" as a No. 1 single. After the EP, John Watson replaced Bidstrup as drummer. as producers. He signed with Blue Pie Productions, in July 2004 but didn't produce any recorded materials and subsequently left. An injury in a 1995 car crash at a North Sydney Council roadworks left Binks slightly brain damaged with some sensory loss and restriction of finer movements of his right hand, which had prevented him from regaining the high level of skill he had previously shown. A court in 2006 awarded him $330,253 in damages, down from an estimated $750,000 because lawyers for North Sydney Council provided evidence that Binks was speeding and over the legal alcohol limit. Binks later disputed the alcohol reading as belonging to another driver and stated the remuneration mostly went to his lawyers.