Banker strikes gold with Bond composer biography
THE great film music of Oscar-winning composer John Barry has long been admired by Derby banker Gareth Bramley.
"The first Barry record I purchased was the Persuaders TV theme single which I bought from Selectadisc in Nottingham in the mid-1970s – and from that moment I was a fan," says Gareth.
John Barry, best known for his music for the James Bond films, has also composed classic scores for movies such as Dances With Wolves and Out of Africa.
"I think it's his orchestrations and arrangements that grabbed me," says Gareth. "They are instantly recognisable and have a certain quality and mood about them (whether it is Bond or something else) – they all have that trademark quality and capture the action on screen perfectly – yet they are all quite different."
A decade ago Gareth joined forces with two other fans, Bristol's Geoff Leonard and Stourbridge JobCentre worker Pete Walker, to write a book about the music maestro's life.
"We wanted to do it for the fans and believe me there's a lot of them out there," says Gareth.
The result was the Man with the Midas Touch, a detailed biography that came out in 1998.
"We contacted lots of people who knew him and they told us bits and pieces which we put together," says Gareth. "We even spoke to Fiona Fullerton who told us she had a crush on him in 1972."
The book has now been substantially updated and contains a host of new pictures and has been reissued to celebrate John Barry's 75th birthday.
For Gareth it has again been a labour of love.
"The first Barry LPs I got were some of the Bond re-issues (From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball and You Only Live Twice) from HMV in the late 1970s after leaving school," he says. "I started collecting all Barry recordings after these tasters and remember buying the soundtrack LPs to Moonraker and The Black Hole when they were first released in 1979. I have collected everything since and have an exhaustive collection which includes all his 1960s and 1970s recordings with other artists as well as all his film scores.
"But I have only met him once at a reception for his comeback concerts in 1998. They were massive two-and a-half hour extravaganzas and we went to a party afterwards at Decca Records which he attended."
Barry famously avoids publicity but Gareth believes he must have approved of the first book at least.
"His wife ordered about 50 copies for friends and family so we assume he liked it."
Barry hasn't done a James Bond score since The Living Daylights in the 1980s and Gareth is not impressed with the music to the 007 films since.
But his personal favourite score is not a Bond movie.
"Some of the best scores are from films that are dire," he says. "My favourite score is from one of the worst films, Raise the Titanic. But certainly the James Bond films weren't the same without him. I have no interest in the Bond films any more."
John Barry: The Man With The Midas Touch
By: Geoff Leonard, Pete Walker and Gareth Bramley (foreword by Don Black).
Publisher: Radcliffe Press
Price: £19.99.
Available: Waterstone's or from the website www.johnbarry.org.uk
JOHN Barry is far and away Britain's most successful and celebrated film composer, responsible for some of the most memorable movie music in cinematic history. Such is his standing within the film industry that he remains the only musician from the UK to have won five Academy Awards (The Lion In Winter, Out Of Africa, Dances With Wolves and two for Born Free). His contribution towards creating James Bond's musical persona is now well documented.
During the formative years of British rock 'n' roll, John Barry led his own band, The John Barry Seven, into the charts as well as masterminding the emergence of singer Adam Faith, whose distinctive string of hit singles – epitomised by What Do You Want? – lit up the pre-Beatle pop era. Ever versatile, Barry has also composed many popular themes for TV, among them The Persuaders, and wrote the long running hit musical, Billy.
