Launceston Church Grammar School teacher Jeff Clarke said it was in 2016 that four students approached him with the idea after a school trip to New Zealand.

Will Robertson, Tarrant Edwards, Conall Cassidy, and Oscar O'Shea were inspired by other groups and wanted to give it a go.

“Their first performance in 2017 was at the busking competition in [Launceston], and then it’s grown from there,” Mr Clarke said.

Mr Clarke said Club Sandwich performed at the Barbershop Australia regionals. 

The group qualified for both the youth competition nationals and the open competition, making them the “first group ever from Launceston” to qualify for nationals.

“They get quite a few gigs around the place now,” Mr Clarke said.

He said Cassidy was on bass, Edwards on lead, O’Shea on baritone, and Robertson on tenor.

Cassidy said being in a barbershop quartet was “a lot cooler” than being in a choir.

“We definitely enjoy it a lot more than singing accompanied and acapella stuff,” he said.

“It’s probably one of my favorite styles to sing. It’s good fun, you get to interact with the audience.”

Cassidy said their success was “gratifying”.

“Our goal was always to sing at nationals this year, but we never really knew what we were going to be doing along the way, so it’s something different for Launceston, I think, and people enjoy it,” he said.

“When people ask us to perform, it’s usually pretty fun.”

Cassidy said the name Club Sandwich began as a joke.

“We were brainstorming names and Mr Clarke suggested it, but as a joke, and said, ‘please don’t choose this’,” he said.

“So we decided to choose that.”