Barry Clayman loves his family, Tottenham Hotspur, Frank Sinatra, Algarve beachside restaurants, a decent Douro Valley red, and War films. The latter came from growing up in London’s East End during WWll, when the thing you needed most was escapism, and Barry found that in music.

The family garment business on Commercial Road was never going suit an inquisitive and energetic boy like Barry, and while his parents showed him the value of hard work in building their business, and his brother Arnold used his considerable numerical ability to become a chartered accountant, Barry’s wide horizons took him to New York aged 19. It was while he was in Manhattan, working with his cousin in the early 1950’s that the music business went from making movie soundtracks to Rocking Around The Clock for new teenage audiences, and Barry was onto it fast.

Back in London Barry began promoting ‘Show-Business Audition Nights’, a Saturday night sell-out at Barnet Assembly Rooms, but the kids wanted the real thing. By 1960, Barry was promoting shows by US legends Little Richard, Gene Vincent and their British counterparts Lonnie Donegan, Tommy Steele, plus new boys Cliff Richards & The Shadows, with whom he still tours today.

From there it was all about ‘guitar groups’ and Barry managed to get on a call with a very polite young man from Liverpool called Brian Epstein, which resulted in Barry being the promoter of The Beatles first ever show in London at the Pigalle Club, Piccadilly on April 4th 1963.

After partnering with Welsh songwriter/manager Gordon Mills, Barry was there on the day that Tommy Woodward became Tom Jones, and so began a working friendship that is now in its seventh decade. Shortly after that life-changing event, Barry was invited to an afternoon rehearsal at Ready Steady Go where he met three boys from California called The Walker Brothers, and this time Barry became the promoter AND the manager.

Scott Walker scalping some tickets from Barry in 1967

All of Barry’s acts were having monster hits and in ‘The Biz’ he got a reputation as the man who never had an unsold ticket. Consequently, over the next 50 years his company Barry Clayman Concerts promoted exclusive shows for an astounding range of artists including (get ready for this…) The Beatles, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, The Walker Brothers, Englebert Humperdinck, The Moody Blues, John Denver, Shirley MacLaine, The Carpenters, Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, Bob Dylan, Liza Minelli, Prince, Michael Jackson (including a record breaking 7 nights at Wembley Stadium), Riverdance, War Of The Worlds, Westlife… OK I’m stopping before I run out of ink.

In 2005 Barry was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth ll for services to charity, but his best ever signing came in 1969 when he married a beautiful young actress called Linda Levy in Las Vegas, and together they raised two wonderful daughters Lisa and Sarah. In 2001 Barry and Linda left rainy London to live permanently in Val de Lobo where aged 90, Barry refuses to retire, goes to the gym every day, and continues to promote some of the great names above (but only in between Spurs matches).

Barry Clayman OBE… truly, a living legend.