13. John Barry‘Theme From “The Persuaders”‘ / ‘The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair’
When we were recording with The Mambas at Trident Studios, we were working late nights because it was cheap time. John Barry was in before us with Rita Coolidge, they were recording for Octopussy. His wife was in the little room outside the studio, and literally just slagged of John Williams the whole time. ‘The other John,’ she kept calling him. It was really weird, there must have been a lot of jealousy going around at the time. Eventually John Barry came out and I shook his hand. It was one of those ‘I’m never washing my hand again’ moments.
John Barry was so massive to me. Ennio Morricone’s an equal, but John Barry was the first. ‘Walk Don’t Run’ and ‘I’m Moving On’ by the John Barry Seven was the first contact, but I also watched The Persuaders with glee. I adored it, and I loved Roger Moore. I was just the right age for it, the theme was amazing. The other side was ‘The Girl With The Sun In Her’ which was for an advert for Sunsilk or something, but the theme was gorgeous. John Barry’s soundtracks were amazing, Midnight Cowboy is probably my favourite, and Frances, about Frances Farmer, the actress who was a communist and had a lobotomy. At one point my mum was running a shop and we used to go to a place where you get in all the stock, and they had Music For Pleasure Records for 50p, so I got so many TV and film themes and John Barry was on a lot of them. If I had to pick my biggest influence, I’d say it was him.
