Birthday Barry

Happy birthday to Barry Andrews, born 12th September 1956.

 

Not a name that would have struck a chord with me in my teens and early 20s but, as I dove deeper into the minutiae of song writers, band members and post-band projects, I'd unearth artists who kept popping up again and again. Barry was one, from early XTC to Shriekback to solo recordings, who has been a wonderful discovery.

 

So, here's a smattering of tunes to celebrate.

To begin, a performance by XTC at Viewpoint Studios in Swindon on 10th December 1978. The trio of songs were respectively written and with lead vocals by Andy Partridge, Barry Andrews and Colin Moulding (do you see what they did there?). Barry's song is Super-Tuff.

 

Next up is I Snub You, which Barry wrote for Iggy Pop's 1980 album Soldier, playing alongside Glen Matlock, Ivan Kral, Klaus Krüger and Steve New.

 

I didn't really start exploring Shriekback until the mid-1990s. Given that Barry co-founded the band with Dave Allen (Gang Of Four) and Carl Marsh in 1981, that was really rather tardy of me. Especially when they hit the ground running with songs like the superb My Spine Is The Bassline.

 

My introduction to Shriekback came via a remix they did of Fluke's 1995 single Tosh - brilliantly titled Shriekbackwash - which I loved. What I've only just discovered in writing this post is that Fluke and Shriekback performed this version live. Great stuff.

I subsequently came to Barry Andrews' solo album Haunted Box Of Switches, a dozen songs, essentially Barry and his piano, which I was surprised to find is now twenty years ago. I missed it at the time but my digging around has revealed that Haunted Box Of Switches Vol. 2 was released in 2020 so I will be checking that out too. From the first volume, here's Faded Flowers.

Music continues to flow from Barry; Shriekback's 17th album Bowlahoola came out last year and the official website store is bursting with product across a range of media.

 

If most of this is new to you, then prepare for a deep dive, you won't regret it.

Have a good one, Barry!