Cry freedom for York's genius

Peter Stanhope has long been campaigning for York's Oscar-winning composer John Barry to be recognised by his home city. Nine years ago Peter suggested the city's new leisure venue should be called the 'John Barry Concert Hall and Leisure Centre'.

It was built only 100 yards from the old Rialto in Fishergate where Barry launched his career, after all. Alas, his suggestion fell on deaf ears and it was called the Barbican.

Undeterred, Mr Stanhope has come up with another idea: that the Honorary Freedom of the City is bestowed on a man who has already been honoured by the Queen (with an OBE) and by Hollywood (with five Oscars).

He first suggested this in a letter to the Evening Press two weeks ago, following a BBC Omnibus documentary in which John Barry traced his origins as a leading film composer to his dad's Fishergate movie house.

In his letter Mr Stanhope posed the question: "Isn't it high time that the city of York did something to honour and acknowledge the talents of this wonderful man of music?"

To which the answer has been an emphatic yes, judging by the number of people who have contacted Mr Stanhope since his question was published.

"It's been quite hectic," he said. "We've had everyone from relatives and family friends and neighbours to original fans of the John Barry Seven and even a guy who was in the Army with him and a man who was a roadie with him.

"A lot of people from York have followed his career with great interest. There's a whole other group who have found him simply through his music."

John Barry's early days in showbusiness were captured on film by Mr Stanhope. As a young apprentice photographer he managed to persuade Barry's dad, the impresario Jack Prendergast, to let him take behind-the-scenes pictures of the stars at one of his venues, the Rialto, Fishergate.

Among those he captured on camera were Count Basie, Marty Wilde, Buddy Holly and Danny La Rue.

Barry Prendergast, as John Barry was then known, was in charge of the Rialto sound system. When he decided to form a band, the John Barry Seven, Mr Stanhope was recruited as their photographer.

"I never realised he would get this big," said Mr Stanhope of a composer whose credits include the scores to several James Bond movies, Out of Africa, The Ipcress File and many others. "I had no idea he would become the genius he now is."

After the Omnibus documentary Mr Stanhope approached John Barry's sister June Lloyd-Jones, who still lives in York, about the Freedom of the City idea. She immediately phoned the composer at his home outside New York.

"I put it to him," Mrs Lloyd-Jones said. "He just said, 'I would be honoured to receive it'."

She said his York roots were still very important to him. "When he comes here, he usually stays at Middlethorpe.

"I hardly see him! We see him when he has dinner with us and he will spend the rest of his time going to Helmsley and all the other places we went to as children.

"He's still very enamoured of the area where he grew up. You don't ever lose that, do you?"

Mrs Lloyd-Jones says his talent started to emerge in his teens.

"He was very single-minded in what he did. He didn't like school, he didn't like teachers." But he did like music, bringing armfuls of records from Banks' music shop. "My father despaired at the number of records he bought." A big fan, she goes to all his films, although she has usually been sent the music beforehand. She certainly supports the proposal to grant him the Freedom of York.

"It would be wonderful. I think he's done a heck of a lot over the years for music generally.

"I think York can be backward in coming forward on this sort of thing to be honest."

Drummer Ken Golder, of Scarborough, was one of the original John Barry Seven. He remembers with fondness those early days rehearsing on Sunday mornings at the Rialto.

"His dad Jack Prendergast used to make us laugh. He would walk down the aisle and listen to us. If something triggered it, he would throw his hat into the air and jump up and down. We were falling about laughing."

As the band's name grew the touring did become a chore. "From London we would get on a train and ride up to Dundee.

"From Dundee the next morning we would go to Glasgow, then across to Edinburgh and then we would go down the other side of the country, maybe Blackpool...

"We would keep going round and round." It was the travelling that brought an end to the original John Barry Seven, said Mr Golder, who still drums in a concert band.

He was surprised and impressed by his former band leader's subsequent success. "I think most people are. He didn't write arrangements like that when we were first starting!"

The film music, he said, "is superb. Some of it is wonderful, like The Lion In Winter and Out Of Africa."

He is happy to support the Freedom of York campaign. "You never know, he might invite me for tea and a bun at the Guildhall," he says, with a wry laugh.

Mr Stanhope feels Barry's honour is well overdue. Such procrastination is typical, he says, of a city that is reluctant to honour its famous sons and daughters.

"Judi Dench is the only one really to have been acclaimed. I think Shed Seven have had more publicity than the people who have really made it because its the kind of thing we go for nowadays."

He would welcome more messages of support on email at pjstanhope@aol.com or by letter to Grange Close, Skelton, York.

It is not his intention to present a dossier of support to the council, which will decide on the Freedom of the City nomination. "I hope this thing will not get political and will not require a petition and all that kind of thing. I hope it will go through of its own accord," he said. And he is keen to see the honour bestowed sooner rather than later. John Barry celebrated his 67th birthday earlier this month.

"It would be much nicer to have acknowledged and honoured him in his lifetime than to stick a plaque somewhere afterwards."