Barrie James - In his own words:

 

Barrie James - A Rough Blog.

Apart from singing in the choir at Bitterne church whilst still at school, I suppose my real singing career started with Carroll Levis around 1956 !! He was the forerunner to Hughie Green, running talent shows. I was an apprentice jockey at the time, and when the Carroll Levis Show came to the Grand theatre in Southampton, or the Kings or Theatre Royal in Portsmouth, he’d send me a letter, asking me if I’d like to sing in the first half of the show, which was a talent competition. I of course accepted every time, and really enjoyed it. He introduced me as the singing Jockey !!! I won the Southampton area finals of the Revlon £1000 competiton at The Grand which took me to Skegness for a weeks all England finals.

In 1959 my sister persuaded me to take her to the Royal pier in Southampton on a Saturday night. It was a good night, but at the end of the evening, I went up to the manager (Len Canham) and said that I has enjoyed the show but I could singer better than the current act!! He called me a cheeky sod!! But said that the "Hi-Fi" group would be rehearsing next morning at the Pier and that I could have an audition. I apparently impressed, and from then on, I sang with the "Hi-fi" regularly at the Pier and various other venues alongside such names as Billy Fury, Dickie Pride, Johnny Gentle, Duffy Power, Gene Vincent, Georgie Fame, Ray Ellington, to name but a few. ! A lovely time.

The next band I worked with was "The Dominos" who I joined when the Brook Brothers went solo and professional. The band consisted of Chris Hillery, Bob Brown, Eric Williams, and the drummer Brian Jeffries We had some great times and did some great gigs.

At this time, I was still working, but Len managed to get me an audition for a 9 day tour, with Emile Ford, Ricky Valance, Norman Vaughan, Sounds Incorporated, and a few other acts. I passed the audition and was told to "Go home, pack up your job and join the show at Cardiff that day." From then on, under Len’s guidance, things seemed to snowball, a record contract with Parlophone records, the radio show at Earls Court, ( I mimed record, just before Anthony Newley, a favourite of mine), and a London agency.

It was about this time that Len formed the "Strangers" and "The Barrie James Show" with Collier, Funnel and Fergie. Also in the show were Gary and Lee, 2 brothers singing harmony, and doing Everly brothers impressions, Patti Knight (Vocals) and various other artists, who came in when someone left i.e. Johnny Watson (great drummer) Sandy Lane, Shirley Gaye, John Baker (Drummer) and Pete Jackson (Bass). We did impressions, jokes, rock and roll, ballads and generally tried to entertain. We even did a 3 month show in Northern Ireland called " London West One " We were working all over the UK because Len was doing deals with other promoters and swapping venues. That’s really how I became friends with the Barron Knights, they gave us work and Len got them working locally on "our patch".

WE WERE NOT HOME VERY OFTEN !!!

By 1964 I was getting fed up with touring, and it seemed that none of the bands in our agency was getting anywhere, and my wife had just had our second child, (I hadn’t seen much of our first, who was born whilst I as working in Ireland!) so I decided to retire from singing professionally. Len wasn’t too happy, but we agreed he’d take over "Barrie James |Enterprises", the agency he’d started for me and re-name it "Avenue Artists".

I then worked in clubs and pubs semi-pro, with Bill Pritchard, Clarrie Moore, John Picken, and for a while Roger Pope at The Silhouette Club, Celebrity Club etc etc ( Roger was a bit loud for the Silhouette !!)

Peter Madsen asked me to join his band with Shirley Morgan in 1965 at the Pier, but he was to be replaced by Derek Butterworth in a couple of months. I joined Alan Ross as resident vocalist, with Shirley Morgan in 1966 at the Top Rank Suite, and stayed on when Pete James took over until mid 1971.

I then spent over 25 happy years singing with "The Southampton All Stars Orchestra " working with some of the best musicians in the area. I retired from the band in January 2000.

The man mainly responsible for helping musicians and singers in the 50’s and 60’s was the late Len Canham, best man at my wedding and godfather to my daughter.

I’m truly grateful to all the musicians, who have used their skills and their talents to accompany me over these years. Many thanks.

Barrie James