| Barry Robbins |  Barry on stage in a recent production, arguing with a co-star |
Barry
joined Radio Guy's in 1981 following a phone call from his old school chum Ross
Patterson. Ross and Barry had dabbled with pirate radio at their boarding
school in Kent the year before, and probably had their biggest (captive)
audience ever. They broadcast (as ‘Radio Acorn’) very dodgy, mostly pre-recorded shows
on a tiny Ross-made transmitter (on 108 Mhz) with some suitably naff home-made
jingles in between. The audience were given strict instructions after
morning assembly by the school Prefects, to listen at the given hour, or
else…!
After
leaving School, Ross made the call to Guy's and went to check the place out,
inviting Barry up soon after. Those were the days! Mike Smith; Colum
Ryan; Ron McGeary (did he ever finish builing that vocoder?), Dave Beard, Paul
Houslop (evenin’ all), Ray Button, Alan Pleasants, Geoff Coe, Sian (mine’s a
cappucino) Roberts, the late, great John Spencer (“If
you like country music on your radio…”) Alison Craig (“in
your ear ’oles now”), Terry Taylor (“with
music just for YOU!”), John Atkinson, Richard Young, John Pennell, Paula
Kerr (pronounced ‘CAR’), Dave Parker, Danny Pietroni etc. (‘…and anyone
else who knows me’).
For
Barry, this place was heaven. A great team of talented jocks and some
really inspiring techy-types who knew how to work wonders with the desk and who
were able to make glorious sounds from a reel of TDK, some lengths of sticky
tape, a razor blade, some yellow leader tape and a microphone. All that
professional gear and REAL jingle machines playing proper cartridges! And
what a music collection!
It
wasn’t long before Barry and Ross (having taken the ‘knowledge’ - the
obligatory Houslop Certificate of Competence) were allowed to play (sorry,
operate) the fabulous new equipment. Some to-die-for TEAC 4 track machines
and those superb Technics record decks (with washing machine-like instant start
motors), soon had us spending literally hours (no, make that DAYS) tinkering
with Michael Jackson Mega-Mixes (Ross) and 12 part harmony, 10 minute jingle
masterpieces (Barry). For several years in the early 1980’s Barry (and
Ross) lived and breathed Radio Guys. Barry was involved in a number of
interesting shows – “Reporting Guys” (with Ross and Barry bravely doing
daring Vox Pop interviews each week at Piccadilly Circus on the burning topic of
the day, racing back to the studio and editing it all together ready for the 30
minute slot at 7pm); the Radio Guys chart countdown (of course it wasn’t
fixed!); a classical music show (Classic-FM stole my format, the buggers);
“Prize Guys” (Cue Jingle: “There
comes a time on a Thursday evening, your chance to win a prize, Ross,
Mike and Barry they have the questions, that’s why they’re called the Prize
Guys” - with Ross and Barry worrying the patients up on Braxton Hicks and
poor Mike Smith doing a sterling job as an anchor (I said ‘anchor’) in the
studio… There were other shows too, so memorable, he’s forgotten them.
Then
there was a series of ‘celebrity’ interviews arranged by Paula, which
included a wonderful opportunity to meet Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) at
his home near Camberwell. Danny Pietroni arranged it (his dad was
Terry’s GP) and good old Paula did the research for Barry.
Having
exchanged pre-interview pleasantries with Terry and started his Marrantz
reporter’s tape-recorder, Barry got down to the opening question and looked
down at Paula’s carefully prepared notes which referred to various activities
at his University.
“So”,
Barry says confidently, “what was it like being in the Cambridge Footlights
then?”
Deathly
silence from Terry (with sound of Paula shuffling uncomfortably in the
background).
Terry
breaks the silence with a rather brief response: “I went to Oxford.”
Further
deathly silence, this time from Barry (sound of Paula shuffling even more
uncomfortably in the background). “We can edit that out,” says Barry,
who takes control of the situation and blunders ahead with the interview
discarding the reams of research notes, “tell me about you new film…”.
Another
interview with Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman at Capital’s Euston Tower had him
arrive there with a really splitting headache. Not to worry, says Fluff,
who proceeds to give Barry a full neck, shoulder and scalp massage (I think
he enjoyed it much more than I did! - Barry).
A
mortgage in 1984, marriage to Caroline in 1986 and the arrival of the first of 3
children in 1987, meant that priorities were changing, and Barry wanted to spend
more time with his family. Consequently, the all-night mixing and editing
tailed off, especially as his responsibilities at work increased along with the
hours. Then at the end of the 80’s Barry’s job relocated to the South
Coast and he moved the family to a town on the edge of the New Forest. He
works for JPMorgan Chase, the American Bank, in ‘financial messaging’
(don’t ask) as an operations manager in their global technology &
operations centre in Bournemouth.
Nowadays,
the outlet for his creativity and show-offishness is the stage. He’s
chairman of Fordingbridge’s amateur dramatic society, The Victoria Players,
and enjoys acting. He’s still potty about music, sound and radio and his
one big regret about living where he does, is the relative lack of
good radio stations in the area. He’s recently been forced to
admit that he listens to Radio 2 a fair bit and is even vaguely familiar with
the story line of ‘The Archers’… (surely not?)
He lives in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, on the western edge of the New Forest, with Caroline, Hannah (16), Katharine (14) and Oliver (11), their Springer Spaniel (Judy) and Hamster (Dottie); and would welcome contact from any other ex-Radio Guy's folk who plan to visit the area.
October 2002