Barry Clayman
“[Barbra Streisand] didn’t mind after the show if there were 20 or 30 people there – she was enjoying herself. I found her just charming. Lovely person.” because we became great friends, and not long after that, we formed MAM – Management, Agency and Music.” The Walker Brothers were Barry’s biggest stars at the height of the 1960s, and were the headliners at the Finsbury Park Astoria the night Jimi Hendrix put in place a crucial piece of his legend. “I remember there was a bit of a kerfuffle backstage, the manager Chas Chandler put a bit of petrol or something on Jimi’s guitar, and when the lights went down, he lit it. All hell went loose, the compere got his hand burnt, and it was headlines in all the papers the next day.” Even at 50 years’ distance, Barry’s memories remain fresh, and so, you sense, do his occasional regrets. After all this time, he remains frustrated at the way The Walker Brothers fizzled out. “They were probably the first big act I got involved with promoting,” says Barry. “At the time, they were second only to The Beatles in their ability to sell tickets. They were on the way up in America too. But The Beatles had done Shea Stadium, and Scott Walker in particular said: ‘I’m not going to America until we can do Shea Stadium.’ Barry and Linda at their Las Vegas wedding in September 1969