223 Goodbye Barry Ryan - Can't Let You Go

Chart   entered :  15  January  1972

Chart  peak : 32

The  third  departee  of  the  week  was  the  former  teen  idol, perhaps  no  longer  needed  with  the  advent  of  Cassidy  though  he  wasn't  much  older  than  the  American.

When  we  first  met  Barry  of  course  he  was  part  of  a  duo  with  his  twin  brother  Paul  but   half  way  through  1967  Paul  had  some  sort  of  breakdown  and  couldn't  handle  being  in  the   public  eye  anymore. Instead  he  would  write  the  songs  for  Barry  to  perform  as  a  solo  act. His first  solo  single  "Goodbye "  wasn't  written  by  Paul  and  flopped  but  the  next  one  was  Paul's "Eloise"  which  far  outstripped  anything  they'd  recorded  as  a  duo   by  reaching  number  2  in  October  1968. After  that  the  previous  pattern  reasserted  itself  with  the  singles  toiling  in  the  lower  half  of  the  charts  and  the  previous  one  "It  Is  Written"  had  missed  out  altogether.

"Can't  Let  You  Go"  was  written  by  Russ  Ballard  and  is  a  pleasant  enough  ditty  on  the  lighter  side  of  glam,  sounding  like  Alvin  Stardust  a  couple  of  years  early  except   for  Barry's  lightweight  vocal  which  doesn't  do  much  to  sell  the  song. It's  passable  but  there  were  much  better  singles  around  than  this.

Barry  stuck  with  Ballard  for  the  next  one  "From  My  Head  To  My  Toe"  in  June  1972, produced  by  future  Rubettes  mastermind  Wayne  Bickerton. This  one  has  more  of  a  Northern  Soul  feel  and   Bickerton  teases  out  a  much  better  vocal  performance  from  Barry  but  it  wasn't  enough  to  do  the  trick.

Paul  wrote  his  next  one  "I'm  Sorry  Susan"  which  is  a  nice  breezy  Albert  Hammond  -style  pop  song  with  some  lovely  string  parts  from  Bickerton. It  was  accompanied  by  a  promo  film  of  Barry  riding  a  motorbike  around  the  motorways  near  London   which  is  now  a  wonderful  evocation  of  the  period  but  might  just  have  been  perceived  as  slightly  boring  at  the  time.

After  that  there  was  a  long  silence  as  Barry  recovered  from  a  publicity  stunt  gone  wrong  in  Germany  where  he  received  facial  burns  and  was  hospitalised  for  three  months. In  the  meantime   he  was  dropped  by  Polydor  and  found  it  difficult  to  find  a  new  label. In  March  1975  he  re-emerged  with "Do That", a  glam  stomper  somewhere  between  Mott  the  Hoople  and  Quo   with  a  wispy insinuating  vocal  that  reminds  me  of  Alessi   and  some  loud  early  synthesiser  parts. It  sounds like  a  potential  hit  but  was  only  on  the  small  Dawn  label.

Barry  wrote  his  last  few   singles  himself  .  "Judy"  was  released  on  Bell  in  February  1976   and  sounds  like  an  exercise  in  how  to  cram  as  many  Beatles  references  into  one  song  as possible. Barry  does  a  credible  John  Lennon  impersonation  but  it's  impossible  to  concentrate on  the  song  while  you're  trying  to  identify  the  source  of  each  sound  or  phrase. By  August he'd  moved  on  to  Private  Stock  for  "Where  Were You" . Also  written  by  Barry  it  begins  with  a  wobbly  pyschedelic  verse  before  mutating  into  a  disco  workout  so  vacuous  it  makes  KC  and  the  Sunshine  Band  sound  like  the  Beatles.

His  last  single  "Brother " came  out  in  February  1977  produced  by  former  Marmalade  man  Junior  Campbell. It's  a  pretty  hopeless  attempt  at  a  soul/gospel  epic  with  Barry  sounding  desperately  amateurish  among  the  wailing  backing  vocalists  and   ( presumably )  Campbell's  portentous  Hammond  chords. It  was  quite  a  relief  when  it  finished.

In  1978  he  married  the  youngest  daughter  of  the  Sultan  of  Johor  ( Malaysia )   and   started  a  new  career  as  a  fashion  photographer . He dropped  out  of  the  public  eye  until  1986  when  The  Damned  scored  their  biggest  hit  with  a  not  particularly  imaginative  cover  of  "Eloise"  and  he  appeared  on  Good  Morning  Britain  with  Dave  Vanian  to  promote  it.

Three  years  later  Paul  wrote  a  follow-up  song  to  "Eloise"  called  "Turn  Away"  and  persuaded  Barry to  sing  it.  It  sounds  like  Lou  Gramm  of  Foreigner  singing  with  the  Pet  Shop  Boys  but  it's  overblown  and  tuneless. I'm  not  sure  it  was  even  released  in  the  UK. In  1990  came "Light  In  Your  Heart "  which  sounds  like  a  charity  single  because  Barry  seems  to  be  trying  a  different  voice  on  every  line. The  song  itself  sounds  like  a  Mike  and  the  Mechanics  B-side.

In  1992  Paul  Ryan  died  of  cancer  which  I  think  means  Barry  won't  be  returning  to  the  studio  again. He  has  occasionally  gone  on  the  road  since  then  taking  part  in  the  Solid  Silver  60s  Tour  in  2003  but  his  bread  and  butter  is  still  photography.