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The "Audience with." nights at the Ipswich Magical Society are always
fascinating, and the one with Barrie James (or perhaps that should be pop
sensation Barrie Bernard?) was certainly no exception. I think it fair to say
that there is a lot more to Barrie James than just the magic that we all know
and love him for.
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I was well aware that Barrie had been part of a pop group in his younger days,
but I had no idea exactly how big a name he actually was in the music world,
and I am sure many of us in Ipswich that night were as amazed as I was to hear
his story.
Coventry born Barrie, first got involved in music during his schooldays where he taught himself to play the Bass Guitar. It wasn't long before he was subsidising his pocket money by playing with Vince Martin and a band called the Vampires. At this time he was also associated with an Irish Show band that frequented the numerous Working Mans Clubs of the Midlands. |
 The first notable
band that Barrie belonged to was Pinkerton's Assorted Colours, whose music
style has often been compared to "The Lovin' Spoonful". It was with Pinkerton's
that Barrie had his first top ten hit, a song called "Mirror Mirror" which
reached the heights of number 8 in the UK chart in 1966.
Barrie talked fondly of his days with Pinkerton's relating stories of when they toured with the likes of "Hermans Hermits" and Gerry Dorsey (now more commonly known as Englebert Humperdinck). After Pinkerton's Barrie joined "Jigsaw", the band which would prove to be his main claim to fame in the world of popular music. With Jigsaw, in the 1970's he regularly appeared on TV programs such as the "Two Ronnies", "Crackerjack", "Ready Steady Go", "The Basil Brush Show", and of course - it goes without saying, "Top of the Pops". Although Jigsaw weren't the biggest band of the era, they were big enough, and they often toured with the likes of Joe Cocker, Pink Floyd, and Rod Stewart. By 1974 they already had a few minor hits with songs covered by other Artists. For example, Bo Donaldson made the charts with "Who Do You Think You Are?", a song from the "I've Seen The Film, I've Read The Book" LP and Candlewick Green covered the same track, having the hit in Britain. |
Their own first big hit came in 1975 with a song called "Sky High" that was
recorded for the film "The Man From Hong Kong" (aka "The Pineapple for
Breakfast"). The film was an unsuccessful James Bond rip-off that starred
former Bond George Lazenby.
Barrie related a story of how the song was requested on a Friday, written on the Saturday and recorded (complete with full Orchestra) on the Monday. Not bad for a song that reached No. 3 in the USA, No.9 in the UK and more notably No. 1 in Japan. In fact to this day it is still the number two all time best selling single in Japan. This was probably helped by the fact that it was chosen as the theme song for a popular Sumo Wrestler of the time. Just out of interest the number three all time best selling single in Japan is Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the number one is "Tie a Yellow Ribbon round the old oak tree" by Brotherhood of Man. If you want to hear a snippet of "Sky High" follow the link on the Amazon website, then scroll down to the bottom of the page, but be warned. It's difficult to get out of your head once it is there! After the success of Sky High Barrie and the boys went to the USA for a three week tour and ended up staying there for eight years. In this time they had several world wide tours including some very successful ones in Japan. It was whilst in the USA that Barrie saw a small magic act called Siegfried and Roy, which of course helped focus his later career. Jigsaw finally split up in 1987, by which time Barrie was back in England. He formed a new comedy band under the name Barrie Starr, which lasted about a year. Following this he went solo as a singing comedian and (amongst other things) a DJ. It was around this time that Linda, his second wife (don't ask how many in total) was assistant to Magician Lenny Blease. Barrie also met up with Mike Austin and the Ipswich Magical Society where with the help of a Jim Steinmeyer book he started building his own illusions. To this day Barrie James has a reputation for building top quality Illusions at very reasonable prices. As well as building the illusions, Barrie and his lovely assistant Sue (his wife) also have a reputation as master illusionists, although we hear that he is currently working on a new act with his 11 year old daughter as assistant. It is a Chinese illusion act called "Foo Lin with No.1 daughter" (hhhhmm) and we are all looking forward to seeing it at the 2006 Hickson Cup Competition. |
Some of the many Jigsaw LP's |
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Reviewed by Simon Shaw
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