Paul Barrett
Encyclopedia
Paul Franklyn "Legs" Barrett (born 14 December 1940 in Blackwood, Monmouthshire) is the UK's best known agent and manager of 1950s style Rock and Roll
artistes, an author and previously a singer and film actor. He is married to Lorraine Barrett
, the former Welsh Assembly Commissioner and Assembly Member for the Cardiff South and Penarth
constituency.
Barrett is probably best known as the discoverer, mentor and first manager of the singer now known as Shakin' Stevens
during the 1960s and 1970s, but has also represented and promoted many more of the genre's greats during a long and varied career.
, 4 miles from Cardiff
, at a young age, where he has lived ever since apart from a short period in London during 1960. His father was a brass moulder and his mother was a housewife and author. His parents named him Paul after Paul Robeson
the black American Marxist Communist
and Francis after Sir Francis Drake. However Barrett always disliked his middle name and formally changed it in 1961 to Franklyn because he preferred the name and admired Franklin Delano Roosevelt
. He reached well over six feet tall by his mid teens and earned the nickname "Legs" due to his height and slim build, a nickname that has stayed with him all his life.
He was educated at Cogan School, King's College, Cardiff and Victoria Road School, Penarth. Barrett attended Kings College at the same time as Colin McCormack
, later recognised as one of the UK's most renowned Shakespearean actors, and they became close friends. On leaving secondary school in 1956 Barrett bounced in and out of dozens of mundane and undemanding jobs including photographer's assistant, market barrow-boy, door-to-door salesman, council labourer, brewery worker, warehouseman, plastics-moulder, potato-packer, railway-signalman, shop assistant, grassmower, hospital porter and hotel receptionist.
During the 1950s he developed a passion for American rock and roll music that has never left him. In his spare time he started acting as agent and manager for Penarth's first rock group, the Backbeats, and began promoting the teenage dances at the local venue, the Paget Rooms, that would continue until the early 1980s when health and safety issues, coupled with alcoholic drinks and smoking bans, virtually closed the venue to dances and concerts. During the 1960s Barrett's promotions ran regularly under names such as "The Penarth Poll Winners' Concert", "Midsummer Night's Madness" and the "Annual Christmas Rock and Roll Extravaganza". Barrett was active in promoting events during the annual Penarth Holiday Fortnight each July.
A staunch supporter of disgraced American Rock and Roll DJ Alan Freed
, Barrett also organised well attended film nights at the Paget Rooms, featuring 1950s classics like The Girl Can't Help It
and Rock, Rock, Rock
. He also opened a specialist rock and roll record shop on Glebe Street, that specialised in importing 1950s classic records from the US, that became known countrywide as the best source of the genre in the UK.
With his entrepreneurial eye always on trends, Barrett decided to cash in on the 1960s psychedelic movement in British music and the Backbeats briefly shifted to performing as the 'flower power'-style "Earl Fuggle and the Electric Poets" with Barrett himself taking the persona of Earl Fuggle on lead vocals. The idea developed further into a performance group named "The 98% Mom and Apple Pie West Coast Rock and Roll Band" that featured former Backbeats' David "Batman" Goddard on bass, Cyril "Sid" Petherick on guitar and Robert "Rockin' Louis" Llewellyn on drums with additional musicians, psychedelic painter "Gerald the Artist", nude female dancers and circus performers in a multimedia experience that shared London bills such as the Roundhouse
with bands like Soft Machine
, Hawkwind
and Pink Floyd
.
It was the Rebels that Paul Barrett reluctantly went to see after a recommendation early in 1969. Although distinctly unimpressed with the band itself, Barrett saw something in their young singer who, only a few years earlier, had been hanging around looking for ideas from the Backbeats. He offered to manage Michael on two conditions: firstly, he would have to ditch his group and, secondly, he must find himself an exciting new stage name. Barratt, agreeing to both suggestions, promptly left the Rebels and then, inspired either by the memory of an old school friend playing bat and ball or maybe even an eccentric local roadsweeper, Michael Barratt rechristened himself Shakin' Stevens.
Barrett would manage Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets until 1977, even appearing on stage with them and adding his distinctive bass vocals to the show. As soon as Shaky began rehearsals for Elvis!-The Musical, the Sunsets pressed on with their alternate plan to have Rockin' Louie as their frontman, until Stevens was free from his commitment to the show. This worked fine until one night at the Rock Garden, London when an audience became disappointed by the non-appearance of Shakin' Stevens (as well as the crazy Sunset's pianist Ace Skudder who had inexplicably also failed to turn up for the gig) and nearly rioted. The venue's management apparently used this as a reason to negotiate a rebate from Paul Barrett, a suggestion which nearly ended in a violent confrontation.
The Sunsets persisted for a few more years with Barrett arranging mildly successful tours of the Netherlands
and Ireland
for them as well as countless one night gigs all over the UK. Barrett also negotiated Rockin' Louie’s recording of an album titled ‘It Will Stand’ for Charly records that became a minor seller in European markets and a minor hit in the Southern US states
, becoming part of the developing 'Beach Music' scene and also benefitting from a 1950s vintage black rock ’n’ roll revival dance trend. When Louie finally decided to leave the Sunsets and reform the Backbeats, with Sid Petherick and Dave Goddard, Barrett decided the time had arrived to sever his association with the Sunsets. It was several years later before the Sunsets started performing again with original members, but with no further association with Barrett.
After Stevens signed a new management deal with music industry doyenne Freya Miller in 1979 and went on to national and international success, Barrett became embroiled in a seemingly endless litigation for twenty years over unpaid royalties from several albums that had been written and produced under his guidance, but later rereleased to commercial success. In 1993 after 16 years of backwards and forwards negotiations Barrett's sense of injustice at monies owed came to fruition. As a result, Shakin' Stevens found himself in Cardiff High Court alongside record producer Dave Edmunds
facing charges of non-payment of royalties from former Sunsets Rockin' Louie, Carl Petersen, Steve Percy and Paul Dolan. The prosecution claimed that the former band members were due a share of royalties which Shaky and his management had received from the reissue of the album A Legend in the early 1980s. The judge agreed and, while the unpaid royalties only amounted to around £70,000 to be divided amongst all of them, the court costs ended up costing Shaky and Dave Edmunds £500,000.
While Shaky was willing to call a truce after that court case, Paul Barrett was still seething from the non-payment of royalties from the I'm No J.D. and Rockin' And Shakin' albums. As a result, Barrett reissued both albums on a single CD
in 2005 under the uncompromising title of How To Be Awarded Two Gold Records And Not Be Paid A Penny In Royalties, complete with sleeve notes issuing a challenge to both Sony
and Universal
(who now officially own the rights to the two records) to sue him if they believed their rights had been breached. Neither conglomerate
have yet to accept the challenge.
, Bill Haley's original Comets, the Jets
, Matchbox
, Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers
and Linda Gail Lewis
(sister of all time rock great Jerry Lee Lewis
). He has promoted and organised weekend long rock and roll themed events and major concerts all over the UK and on mainland Europe. Paul Barrett Rock and Roll Enterprises is now recognised as the principal agency for the genre.
horror film 'Bloody New Year' (aka Horror Hotel (UK), aka Time Warp Terror (US)) directed by cult film-maker Norman J.Warren. Barrett was also featured in the rock 'n' roll movie Blue Suede Shoes and appeared in the 1987 TV drama mini-series Sins that starred Joan Collins
.
doctrines. A later supporter of the "pre-New Labour" Labour Party he met and married fellow socialist Lorraine Barrett
(née Booth, born 18 March 1950) in 1972 and they have two children, a son, Lincoln Barrett
, also known as drum and bass DJ High Contrast and a daughter, Shelley Miranda, who has appeared in many television programmes and starred as 'Mandy' in BBC Wales
cult comedy series 'Satellite City'. Shelley is married to the former Australia
n actor Richard Norton. Barratt's wife Lorraine is the former Labour
Co-operative
Member of the Welsh Assembly for Cardiff South and Penarth
from 1999 to 2011 and an Assembly Commission
er from 2007 to 2011.
The "Rock 'n' Roll Corner" in Penarth's Windsor Arms pub has been dedicated to Barrett and features photographs and memorabilia from his long and varied career.
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
artistes, an author and previously a singer and film actor. He is married to Lorraine Barrett
Lorraine Barrett
Lorraine Barrett is a former Welsh Labour & Co-operative Member of the National Assembly for Wales for Cardiff South and Penarth and an Assembly Commissioner since 2007...
, the former Welsh Assembly Commissioner and Assembly Member for the Cardiff South and Penarth
Cardiff South and Penarth (Assembly constituency)
Cardiff South and Penarth is a constituency of the National Assembly for Wales. It elects one Assembly Member by the first past the post electoral system...
constituency.
Barrett is probably best known as the discoverer, mentor and first manager of the singer now known as Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens, also known as "Shaky" is a platinum selling Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter who holds the distinction of being the UK's biggest-selling singles artist of the 1980s . His recording and performing career began in the late 1960s, although it was not until 1980 that he saw...
during the 1960s and 1970s, but has also represented and promoted many more of the genre's greats during a long and varied career.
Early years
Barrett was born in Blackwood, Monmouthshire in 1940 but moved to PenarthPenarth
Penarth is a town and seaside resort in the Vale of Glamorgan , Wales, 5.2 miles south west from the city centre of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff and lying on the north shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay...
, 4 miles from Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, at a young age, where he has lived ever since apart from a short period in London during 1960. His father was a brass moulder and his mother was a housewife and author. His parents named him Paul after Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
the black American Marxist Communist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
and Francis after Sir Francis Drake. However Barrett always disliked his middle name and formally changed it in 1961 to Franklyn because he preferred the name and admired Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
. He reached well over six feet tall by his mid teens and earned the nickname "Legs" due to his height and slim build, a nickname that has stayed with him all his life.
He was educated at Cogan School, King's College, Cardiff and Victoria Road School, Penarth. Barrett attended Kings College at the same time as Colin McCormack
Colin McCormack
Colin McCormack was a professional Welsh actor who enjoyed considerable success in classical stage performances and television shows over a career approaching fifty years from his debut as a child actor in a BBC TV's Dixon of Dock Green episode, a show he returned to twenty years later when he...
, later recognised as one of the UK's most renowned Shakespearean actors, and they became close friends. On leaving secondary school in 1956 Barrett bounced in and out of dozens of mundane and undemanding jobs including photographer's assistant, market barrow-boy, door-to-door salesman, council labourer, brewery worker, warehouseman, plastics-moulder, potato-packer, railway-signalman, shop assistant, grassmower, hospital porter and hotel receptionist.
During the 1950s he developed a passion for American rock and roll music that has never left him. In his spare time he started acting as agent and manager for Penarth's first rock group, the Backbeats, and began promoting the teenage dances at the local venue, the Paget Rooms, that would continue until the early 1980s when health and safety issues, coupled with alcoholic drinks and smoking bans, virtually closed the venue to dances and concerts. During the 1960s Barrett's promotions ran regularly under names such as "The Penarth Poll Winners' Concert", "Midsummer Night's Madness" and the "Annual Christmas Rock and Roll Extravaganza". Barrett was active in promoting events during the annual Penarth Holiday Fortnight each July.
A staunch supporter of disgraced American Rock and Roll DJ Alan Freed
Alan Freed
Albert James "Alan" Freed , also known as Moondog, was an American disc-jockey. He became internationally known for promoting the mix of blues, country and rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll...
, Barrett also organised well attended film nights at the Paget Rooms, featuring 1950s classics like The Girl Can't Help It
The Girl Can't Help It
The Girl Can't Help It is a 1956 comedy musical film starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, and Edmond O'Brien. It was produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, with a screenplay adapted by Tashlin and Herbert Baker from an uncredited novel Do Re Me by Garson Kanin...
and Rock, Rock, Rock
Rock, Rock, Rock (film)
Rock, Rock, Rock is a 1956 black-and-white motion picture featuring performances from a number of early rock 'n' roll stars, such as Chuck Berry, LaVern Baker, Teddy Randazzo, The Moonglows, The Flamingos, and The Teenagers with Frankie Lymon as lead singer. Future West Side Story cast member David...
. He also opened a specialist rock and roll record shop on Glebe Street, that specialised in importing 1950s classic records from the US, that became known countrywide as the best source of the genre in the UK.
With his entrepreneurial eye always on trends, Barrett decided to cash in on the 1960s psychedelic movement in British music and the Backbeats briefly shifted to performing as the 'flower power'-style "Earl Fuggle and the Electric Poets" with Barrett himself taking the persona of Earl Fuggle on lead vocals. The idea developed further into a performance group named "The 98% Mom and Apple Pie West Coast Rock and Roll Band" that featured former Backbeats' David "Batman" Goddard on bass, Cyril "Sid" Petherick on guitar and Robert "Rockin' Louis" Llewellyn on drums with additional musicians, psychedelic painter "Gerald the Artist", nude female dancers and circus performers in a multimedia experience that shared London bills such as the Roundhouse
Roundhouse
A roundhouse is a building used by railroads for servicing locomotives. Roundhouses are large, circular or semicircular structures that were traditionally located surrounding or adjacent to turntables...
with bands like Soft Machine
Soft Machine
Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...
, Hawkwind
Hawkwind
Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....
and Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
.
Shakin' Stevens
A keen fan of the Backbeats was a teenager from Cardiff, named Michael Barratt, who frequently hopped on stage at the Paget Rooms to perform a guest vocal with the band and pestered Rockin' Louie for singing and dancing tips and, soon enough, Michael was being referred to as 'Rockin' Louie II'. By the mid 1960s however, Michael had formed his own rock band with school friends. Originally named the Olympics, then the Cossacks, they finally decided to call themselves the Denims, by which point they found themselves as a support act to Michael's heroes, the Backbeats. Eventually, when the Denims fell apart, Michael wasted no time in forming a new group named the Rebels.It was the Rebels that Paul Barrett reluctantly went to see after a recommendation early in 1969. Although distinctly unimpressed with the band itself, Barrett saw something in their young singer who, only a few years earlier, had been hanging around looking for ideas from the Backbeats. He offered to manage Michael on two conditions: firstly, he would have to ditch his group and, secondly, he must find himself an exciting new stage name. Barratt, agreeing to both suggestions, promptly left the Rebels and then, inspired either by the memory of an old school friend playing bat and ball or maybe even an eccentric local roadsweeper, Michael Barratt rechristened himself Shakin' Stevens.
Barrett would manage Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets until 1977, even appearing on stage with them and adding his distinctive bass vocals to the show. As soon as Shaky began rehearsals for Elvis!-The Musical, the Sunsets pressed on with their alternate plan to have Rockin' Louie as their frontman, until Stevens was free from his commitment to the show. This worked fine until one night at the Rock Garden, London when an audience became disappointed by the non-appearance of Shakin' Stevens (as well as the crazy Sunset's pianist Ace Skudder who had inexplicably also failed to turn up for the gig) and nearly rioted. The venue's management apparently used this as a reason to negotiate a rebate from Paul Barrett, a suggestion which nearly ended in a violent confrontation.
The Sunsets persisted for a few more years with Barrett arranging mildly successful tours of the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
for them as well as countless one night gigs all over the UK. Barrett also negotiated Rockin' Louie’s recording of an album titled ‘It Will Stand’ for Charly records that became a minor seller in European markets and a minor hit in the Southern US states
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, becoming part of the developing 'Beach Music' scene and also benefitting from a 1950s vintage black rock ’n’ roll revival dance trend. When Louie finally decided to leave the Sunsets and reform the Backbeats, with Sid Petherick and Dave Goddard, Barrett decided the time had arrived to sever his association with the Sunsets. It was several years later before the Sunsets started performing again with original members, but with no further association with Barrett.
After Stevens signed a new management deal with music industry doyenne Freya Miller in 1979 and went on to national and international success, Barrett became embroiled in a seemingly endless litigation for twenty years over unpaid royalties from several albums that had been written and produced under his guidance, but later rereleased to commercial success. In 1993 after 16 years of backwards and forwards negotiations Barrett's sense of injustice at monies owed came to fruition. As a result, Shakin' Stevens found himself in Cardiff High Court alongside record producer Dave Edmunds
Dave Edmunds
David 'Dave' Edmunds is a Welsh singer, guitarist and record producer. Although he is primarily associated with Pub rock and New Wave, and had numerous hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has always been towards 1950s style rock and roll.-Early bands:As a teenager Edmunds first...
facing charges of non-payment of royalties from former Sunsets Rockin' Louie, Carl Petersen, Steve Percy and Paul Dolan. The prosecution claimed that the former band members were due a share of royalties which Shaky and his management had received from the reissue of the album A Legend in the early 1980s. The judge agreed and, while the unpaid royalties only amounted to around £70,000 to be divided amongst all of them, the court costs ended up costing Shaky and Dave Edmunds £500,000.
While Shaky was willing to call a truce after that court case, Paul Barrett was still seething from the non-payment of royalties from the I'm No J.D. and Rockin' And Shakin' albums. As a result, Barrett reissued both albums on a single CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
in 2005 under the uncompromising title of How To Be Awarded Two Gold Records And Not Be Paid A Penny In Royalties, complete with sleeve notes issuing a challenge to both Sony
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
and Universal
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
(who now officially own the rights to the two records) to sue him if they believed their rights had been breached. Neither conglomerate
Conglomerate (company)
A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...
have yet to accept the challenge.
Manager and agent
Ever since first managing Shakin' Stevens in 1969, Barrett has continued to be a professional agent, manager and promoter of 1950s style rock and roll artists including Wee Willie HarrisWee Willie Harris
Wee Willie Harris is a British rock and roll singer. He is best known for his energetic stage shows and TV performances since the 1950s, when he was known as "Britain's wild man of rock 'n' roll".-Life and career:Working a job as a pudding mixer at Peek Freans' London bakery, Harris turned...
, Bill Haley's original Comets, the Jets
The Jets (British rockabilly band)
The Jets are a British rockabilly band, who had a hit single in February 1982 with "Love Makes The World Go Round". The song reached No. 21 in the UK Single Chart, and was featured on their album, 100% Cotton....
, Matchbox
Matchbox (band)
Matchbox is an English rockabilly band that formed in 1971, and is still active .-Career:Matchbox was formed in 1971 by Iain "Houndog" Terry, Fred Poke, Jimmy Redhead and Wiffle Smith. After 1978, the line-up consisted of Graham Fenton , Steve Bloomfield , Gordon Scott , Fred Poke and Jimmy Redhead...
, Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers
Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers
Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers are a Teddy Boy band from South Wales...
and Linda Gail Lewis
Linda Gail Lewis
Linda Gail Lewis is an American singer and pianist. She is the sister of Jerry Lee Lewis.She plays piano and has recorded with Stephen Ackles, Van Morrison, and with her brother. She also has recorded with her two daughtersMaryJean Ferguson, and Annie Marie Dolan in a group called The Lewis 3...
(sister of all time rock great Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
). He has promoted and organised weekend long rock and roll themed events and major concerts all over the UK and on mainland Europe. Paul Barrett Rock and Roll Enterprises is now recognised as the principal agency for the genre.
Performing
Barrett's spoken and bass vocals were featured on several early Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets albums, on tracks such as "Oh Baby" and "At the Hop", he also spoke the commentary on the track "Superstar". The album "I'm no J.D." was re-released as "Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets" in the 1980s and was awarded a Gold Record. Barrett also sang live on stage with the band, adding his vocals to the Sunset's mix.Acting
Since the 1970s Barrett has regularly appeared as an extra in several feature films, the most notable being his major featured appearance as the "Table Monster" in the kitschKitsch
Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
horror film 'Bloody New Year' (aka Horror Hotel (UK), aka Time Warp Terror (US)) directed by cult film-maker Norman J.Warren. Barrett was also featured in the rock 'n' roll movie Blue Suede Shoes and appeared in the 1987 TV drama mini-series Sins that starred Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
.
Author
During the 1980s Barrett collaborated with Hilary Heywood in writing the book "Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets" published by Star Books and W.H. Allen (London). ISBN 0-352-31274-2. Barrett originally wanted to call the book "Rocky Road Blues - The Story of a Rock 'n' Roll Band". However the book was subsequently renamed and heavily promoted as a pop biography, becoming a short-lived best seller. Barrett's book was more a humorous 'warts and all' tale of many behind-the-spotlights events during the band's history and quite different to the several other official biographies.Personal life
Barrett had been a committed socialist and communist through most of his formative years and studied Marxist, Leninist and TrotskyistTrotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
doctrines. A later supporter of the "pre-New Labour" Labour Party he met and married fellow socialist Lorraine Barrett
Lorraine Barrett
Lorraine Barrett is a former Welsh Labour & Co-operative Member of the National Assembly for Wales for Cardiff South and Penarth and an Assembly Commissioner since 2007...
(née Booth, born 18 March 1950) in 1972 and they have two children, a son, Lincoln Barrett
High Contrast
Lincoln Barrett, better known by the stage name High Contrast , is a Welsh drum and bass DJ and producer.-History:...
, also known as drum and bass DJ High Contrast and a daughter, Shelley Miranda, who has appeared in many television programmes and starred as 'Mandy' in BBC Wales
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
cult comedy series 'Satellite City'. Shelley is married to the former Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n actor Richard Norton. Barratt's wife Lorraine is the former Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Co-operative
Labour Co-operative
Labour and Co-operative describes those candidates in British elections standing on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party, based on a national agreement between the two parties....
Member of the Welsh Assembly for Cardiff South and Penarth
Cardiff South and Penarth (Assembly constituency)
Cardiff South and Penarth is a constituency of the National Assembly for Wales. It elects one Assembly Member by the first past the post electoral system...
from 1999 to 2011 and an Assembly Commission
Assembly Commission
The National Assembly for Wales Commission is the corporate body for the National Assembly for Wales. The Commission is responsible for ensuring the property, staff and services are provided for the Assembly...
er from 2007 to 2011.
The "Rock 'n' Roll Corner" in Penarth's Windsor Arms pub has been dedicated to Barrett and features photographs and memorabilia from his long and varied career.
Albums
- A Legend (1970, Parlophone)
- I'm No J.D. (1971, CBS)
- Rockin' And Shakin' (1972, Contour)
- Shakin' Stevens & Sunsets (1973, Pink Elephant/Emerald Gem) (Awarded a UK Gold Record)
- Manhattan Melodrama (1975, Pink Elephant) (Decca's Emerald Gem Label in the UK)
- C'mon Memphis (1977, Dynamite) (not issued in UK)
See also
- Shakin' StevensShakin' StevensShakin' Stevens, also known as "Shaky" is a platinum selling Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter who holds the distinction of being the UK's biggest-selling singles artist of the 1980s . His recording and performing career began in the late 1960s, although it was not until 1980 that he saw...
- Shakin' Stevens and the SunsetsShakin' Stevens and the SunsetsShakin' Stevens and the Sunsets were a rock and roll group formed in Cardiff, Wales in 1969. Although most notable now for their lead singer Shakin' Stevens, who went on to become one of the UK's most popular artists of the 1980s, the band released several records and toured extensively throughout...
- List of people associated with Penarth
- Lorraine BarrettLorraine BarrettLorraine Barrett is a former Welsh Labour & Co-operative Member of the National Assembly for Wales for Cardiff South and Penarth and an Assembly Commissioner since 2007...
- High ContrastHigh ContrastLincoln Barrett, better known by the stage name High Contrast , is a Welsh drum and bass DJ and producer.-History:...