The band was founded by Steve Nardelli, Chris Squire, Andrew Pryce Jackman, Martyn Adelman and John Painter.
The band played their first gigs at The Graveyard, a youth club at St. Andrew's church in Kingsbury, and Blackbirds Cross in Wembley.
The roots of The Syn are in an earlier north London R&B band called High Court including Steve Nardelli on guitar and his school friend George Arzymanow on vocals.
The band evolved over time and, in 1965, with Nardelli now handling lead vocals and John Painter on guitar, they changed their name to The Syn.
Shortly after, however, in 1965, The Syn merged with The Selfs, so Nardelli and Painter were joined by Chris Squire (bass), Andrew Jackman (keys) and Martyn Adelman (drums).
The band moved away from R&B covers and started writing their own material, led by Jackman and Nardelli.
The Syn went on to have a long-running residency at the club, supporting bands including Pink Floyd,[3] The Moody Blues, Cat Stevens and Procol Harum before establishing their own weekly headline night at which they launched their Gangster and Flowerman rock operas.
Nardelli and Jackman recorded a planned further Syn single, entitled "Sunshine and Make Believe", with session appearances by Tony Kaye on keys and David O'List on guitar.
John Wetton was originally to have played bass, but pulled out at the last minute and was replaced by Steve Gee (bassist in progressive rock band Landmarq).
The band released their first full studio album Syndestructible in October 2005, with Cathedral of Love coming out beforehand as a single.
[9] Richie Unterberger for Allmusic said, "It's rather like hearing a slightly middle-of-the-road version of Yes, with plenty of multi-sectioned song structures and progressive rock interplay between the instruments.
"[11] Nardelli assembled an album, Armistice Day, combining a new studio track ("Armistice Day", recorded with Johnson and P. Stacey) with live work from 2006 recorded at XM radio studios in Washington DC(with Steve Nardelli, Chris Squire, Alan White, Gerard Johnson and Shane Theriot).
Work on this stalled, but Jeremy Stacey appeared on the debut album from Squackett, with Squire and Steve Hackett.
[16] In October 2008, Umbrello Music Entertainment released a digital track written by Nardelli for the musicians from The Syn fan forum called "Reasons and Rituals".
[citation needed] A US tour began (with Nardelli, Dunnery, Brislin, Kull, Ramsey, Jackson and Jamie Bishop) in April 2009, including 2 days of music workshops and charity concerts for the students at Gloucester High School in Virginia,[17] but was cancelled after 6 dates when Nardelli had to return to England following the creation of his eco town project being accepted by the UK Government,[18] with the band breaking up acrimoniously as a result.
In December 2010, Nardelli announced a new collaboration with Swedish band Moon Safari, known for their artistic rock sound and five-part harmonies.
"[22] In an interview for Progzilla radio on 25 October 2014, Nardelli confirmed final recording for the album was scheduled for early December 2014 and January 2015.
[23][24] Umbrello Records announced in January 2015 that Jonas Reingold, Swedish bass player with the Flower Kings and Karmakanic, was producing the Trustworks album.