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How NOT to Make It in the Pop World (diary of an almost has-been)

by John Barrow

285 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-1791; ISBN 1-4120-1413-1; US$22.99, C$28.99, EUR18.85, £12.99

Tenor sax man John Barrow has played and recorded with world name artists. This is the tale of his stroll through the labyrinth of dreams that is the pop industry.

About the Book

Leicester-born tenor sax man, John Barrow, is one of the journeymen of pop. In a playing career that covers more than twenty years he has worked and recorded with world name artists including:

BOY GEORGE / CULTURE CLUB / THE FUN BOY THREE / IGGY POP / MUSICAL YOUTH / JERRY DAMMERS / LAUREL AITKEN / THE CLASH / RHODA DAKAR (THE SPECIALS) / CRAZYHEAD / THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH / BANANARAMA

always on the periphery, never quite hitting the pay dirt, this is the tale of one man's quest for unlimited world wide fame and fortune

For more information, please go to www.theswinginglaurels.co.uk

About the Author

Tenor saxophonist John Barrow is one of the journeymen of pop music. His playing career began in 1975 with Soul / Funk outfit Sister Big Stuff playing the clubs and discos of the U.K. playing support to a number of chart acts. In 1977 he joined funk band Black Gorilla who scored a top 30 hit enabling him to make his debut Top of the Pops appearance. They toured extensively across Europe headlining top funk venues.

After the demise of Black Gorilla in 1980, John played on releases by the Newmatics and the Sinatras and recorded a Sinatras live Radio One session for John Peel. Tracks on albums by the Godfather of ska Laurel Aitken followed.

In the same year he founded the Swinging Laurels with college friend Gaz Birtles. They signed to Albion Records and their debut release Peace of Mind reached No 1 slot in the embryonic independent charts. By 1982 the outfit was gaining national music press attention and building a solid reputation as session brass players. During a hectic 1982 they:

• Recorded a Radio One session for John Peel
• Released a 4 track. EP A Taste of ... on Dining Out Records
• Signed to major label giant WEA Records
• Played session brass on the Fun Boy Three hit The Telephone Always
• Rings making several TV appearances including: Top of the Pops -
• Cheggars Plays Pop - Saturday Superstore - Something
• Else - Riverside - Generation 80 (Belgium) with Bananarama.
• A video to promote the track was produced by Ultravox vocalist Midge Ure and featured cameo appearances by: Bananarama - Madness - Ultravox - Alexei Sayle and David "Kid" Jensen.

Other recorded brass sessions included:

• A Jerry Dammers produced single for 2-Tone Records by the Apollinaires called The Feelings Gone
• Tracks on an album by Worldbackwards for Illuminated Records
• A session with teen chart toppers Musical Youth (produced by the Fun Boy Three)
• A single by Coventry band Splashdown
• Work on the Fun Boy Three follow up hit Summertime.
• Recordings with French chart act 24hrs
• Live work with Coventry band Team 23 who were managed by Specials drummer
• Brad (they later transformed into chart toppers King)
• upported chart acts, Shakatak Ð Mari Wilson Ð Classix Nouveau.

The first Swinging Laurels WEA release, Rodeo, hit the streets in September 1982 and featured the distinctive percussive influence of Scritti Politti drummer Tom, but despite saturation Radio One airplay, was restricted to lower reaches of the national chart. Culture Club producer Steve Levine lent his expertise to the second single Lonely Boy which originally featured a fine vocal contribution by Boy George but due to contractual objections by his record label Virgin Records was eventually released minus his efforts.

1983 saw John touring with the Swinging Laurels, in their own right and as a special guests of Culture Club, at the request of Boy George who was a self-proclaimed fan. They were special guests on both of their sell-out UK tours in March and December. A Janice Long Radio One session was followed by a highly-successful Dutch festival tour where they supported Nick Lowe and Osibisa as well as headlining dates.

After parting company with WEA Records the Swinging Laurels formed their own label identity, Happy Records based, at their Leicester Studio Happy House.

The first Happy Records offering Zoom (Take the Test) achieved critical acclaim in 1984 and in promoting the disc they appeared on Radio One road shows hosted by disc jockeys Peter Powell and Adrian John.

Through 1985/86 John worked with Happy House featuring ex-Specials vocalist Rhoda Dakar. 1987 ushered in another Swinging Laurels platter Push and Shove through Happy Records.

During 1988 John was playing session sax with Food / Parlophone Records act Crazyhead, most notably on an eleven-nation tour of Europe and Scandinavia as special guests of godfather of punk Iggy Pop.

This was followed by a live T.V.appearance for the Thames Television series The Concert in 1989 and a slot at the prestigious Reading Festival. A chance to audition for Beautiful South along with the other Swinging Laurels brass men Gary Birtles and Tony Robinson was passed over due to other commitments. In hindsight this wasnÕt the wisest decision as they went on to notch up many hit records.

No Label Records reissued Push and Shove by the Swinging Laurels in 1990. Further brass sessions resulted in releases in the 1990s. One was in 1991 for Norman Beaton, star of Channel 4 world wide hit sit-com Desmonds, as well as tracks on an album by top ska exponents Ska-Boom on Extremely Nice Records in 1992.

Compilation CD albums featuring some earlier work surfaced through 1994 / 95 / 96 / 97. These included:

The 2-Tone Story and the No. 1 Ska Album (featuring versions of the Apollinaires track The Feelings Gone

Fun Boy Three compilations -The Best of the Fun Boy Three - Really Saying Something (Featuring Bananarama)

The Best of the Fun Boy Three and Colourfield (featuring various mixes of The Telephone Always Rings and Summer of 82.)

A six track Swinging Laurels CD was released in 1997 entitled Be Someone - signalling another collaboration with song writing partner and Beautiful South sax man Gaz Birtles. 1996 / 97 heralded re-runs of Fun Boy Three, Top of the Pops appearances on UK Gold television.

2000 saw the release Be Someone released by Internet label www.peoplesound.com and in the same year John completed a highly successful UK / Irish tour with Baby Genius as special guests of The Beautiful South. Baby Genius also scored a prime time TV appearance on BBC's Children in Need with Louise and Atomic Kitten. A 15-track Swinging Laurels compilation album Greatest Bits was issued in 2001 and tracks were recorded for an album called Learning To Cope with Happiness by The Charmers in 2002. In November 2002 a re-run of an earlier Top of the Pops appearance with the Fun Boy Three was shown on BBC2 s Top of the Pops 2.

In 2003 tracks were recorded with Normal Position for their album Rave Killed the Romance.

For more information, please go to www.theswinginglaurels.co.uk

Reviews

This invigorating autobiography is delivered in the chatty style of a raconteur.

A hugely inspirational read, for anyone interested in the sordid underbelly of the pop world.

Adam Dawson
Aesthestica Magazine

Barrow has a fine selection of anecdotes all told in an admirably warm style.

Cila Warncke
Q Magazine

I can't recommend this book highly enough. A hugely enjoyable read.

Si Wooldridge
Synthpop

An enthralling, engagingly told tale.

Shane Baldwin
Record Collector

A fascinating book, written in an anecdotal style.

Artrocker

Barrow's account is emotive and charming.

High Voltage Magazine

What a great book! John Barrow has somehow managed to cram a lifetime's experiences of flirting with "the bigtime" into 271 pages of "I don't want to put it down" readability. There's not a dull paragraph in any of the 33 chapters covering John's musical odyssey - from humble beginnings gigging around the country in a one-foot-in-the-grave tranny van, to appearances on Top of the Pops & sell out tours supporting icons of the 80's such as Culture Club & Iggy Pop, this highly enjoyable journey is narrated like you were enjoying a pint down the pub with the man - by the end of the book I felt like I'd been a mate of John's for years!

This book also serves as a superb guide to the "do's & don'ts" of making a career in the fickle jungle that is the mainstream music industry - a must read for any dedicated indie musician aiming for chart success.

Reviewer: Mark Edwards
www.skidmark.org

Excerpts and Table of Contents

CHAPTERS

1. Beginnings
2. Sister Big Stuff (Is The World Ready For This?)
3. Enter Dean
4. Sammy Day - Marvin Dyche - Stuart Mc Millan - Welcome
5. New Faces
6. Sister Big Stuff Ð The End
7. Picking Bananas In The Funky Jungle
8. Top Of The Pops
9. Scotland - Lock Up Your Daughters
10. Jean-Paul Barrow
11. A Day At The Palace
12. Bernard Mannings Straight Man
13. No Woman - No Cry
14. Moonlighting
15. The Peel Session
16. The Independent Label
17. Swinging Laurels Are Go
18. The A & R Man
19. Decadent Berlin
20. Team 23
21. Publishing - Albion We Love You
22. Mark & Dean - Come On Down
23. The Hope & Anchor
24. Miles Copeland (How Does It Feel To Be Rich?)
25. Top Of The Pops Revisited
26. Rodeo - Name The Guilty Men
27. Boy George - Make Way For The Lonely Boy
28. Goodbye Mr.Warner (And His Brothers)
29. Happy Records
30. The Radio One Road Show
31. Rhoda
32. Crazyhead & The Space Bastards.
33. The Telephone Always Rings - The Beautiful South.

FOREWORD

The misconceptions surrounding the workings of the pop industry are many and varied; one misguided belief chief among them is that if you've strutted your stuff on "Top of the Pops" you must be rolling in it! Nothing could be further from the truth. I am living proof of that. I am one of those unfortunate journeymen of pop, always on the periphery, never quite hitting the pay dirt.

The industry exists by allowing gullible kids to believe the myth. The dream machine that feeds on it's own legend.

Throughout my misguided quest for unlimited world wide fame and fortune, I have strutted my stuff with two bands on Top of the Pops

"Black Gorilla" in 1977 and "Fun Boy Three" in 1982.

There is NO Lear jet in my driveway!

During twenty-five years in the fairyland that is the pop world, I can point to over forty record releases. I have also worked / recorded for many major and independent record labels and signed megabucks recording / publishing deals associating with world-name pop icons and producers.

There is NO Lamborghini in my driveway.

This is the sorry tale of my stroll through the labyrinth of dreams that is the pop industry.

Answer this? What makes an outwardly level headed chap pull on leather trousers and bare his soul on stage in front of thousands of screaming pre-pubescent females? I can point to a few pivotal points. I remember as an eight year old in 1964 watching The Kinks on Top of the Pops performing You really got me. Still the hairs on the back of my neck bristle on hearing those opening chords. I pleaded with my mum to let me have a pair of Cuban heeled boots, the kind favoured by another hero of mine John Lennon. I begged her to let me discard my Bryl-creem plastered short back 'n' sides haircut for a P J Proby. I didn't get the boots and I didn't get the pony tail!

The sixties were good. The Brits were taking on the pop world and winning. England even won a world cup. Could it get better than that?

As a kid I was in a band. We were fuelled by Mersey fever and inspired by the sixties scene. We slaughtered Beatles covers in the street banging cardboard boxes for drums. I saved my pocket money to buy a guitar; it cost me a £2 pounds 11 shillings and sixpence. I never could play it.

In 1972 I was blown away at a Roxy Music concert at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester. That night a spellbound nineteen-year-old was introduced to the very wonderful saxophone playing of Andy Mackay. I was smitten. I disparately wanted to be that cool sax player who received such adulation that night.

Another stunning night was in 1973 at a Faces gig at the Birmingham Odeon; it was the week after the terrible IRA Birmingham pub bombings. They were awesome. Surely one of the best ever "GOOD TIME" rock n roll bands.

In my time in pop I achieved almost everything apart from enjoying a hit in my own right. I played on other people's hits, undertook major tours, and performed on top-flight television and radio shows. One journalist once described my failure to make it with the line,

"Like a goal line clearance, in the last minute of a play off final at Wembley." There is no such thing as overnight success. People automatically assume that when band scores a first hit, they are newcomers. What they fail to see are the years of graft, and endeavour to get up and running.

Most books on this subject focus on people that have achieved mega star status, never on the poor stiffs like me, who have come so agonisingly close.