Sidney Barnes - His Good times still rolling
From the Citizen Times - The Voice of the Mountains, a website bashed in Asheville North Carolina comes word of a lengthy article on Northern legend Sidney Barnes.
Back in the far off days of last century (1999) Sidney Barnes visited our shores, I can still remember spotting him in the Dome record room, where he seemed just a quiet unassuming man, dressed in normal street clothes and seemed a bit in awe of what was going on. Later on in the night, he easily shook of this "ordinariness" to give us a great PA on that North London stage. Following this great performance in 2000 he returned to London to give a great memorable live show at the 100 Club, along with another soul legend Hoagy Lands. By then his "ordinary" stage wear had been replaced by a gold style jacket and stetson. After the capitol he then went on to wow the Uk soul fans at Cleethorpes Weekender and other venues through out the Uk.
Well time has moved on and the article mentioned at the start, gives us the chance to catch up with just what Sidney is doing, in the year 2004 along with what has happened in his life since when he shook the Uk. From maybe a different angle than our usual "northern soul" view, but an interesting one at that and suppose it is the angle that matters to Sidney the most. Maybe surprisingly to some to find that hes still working as a hotel bell man in the USA, however as the rest of the article shows that hes still got the music in him A quick quote and link to the interesting article follows
ASHEVILLE - Life has taken some fantastic twisting turns for Sidney Barnes. In the 1960s, the singer and songwriter partied with Mick and Keith, toured with Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin, was invited to play Woodstock and was on the edge of stardom with the psychedelic rock and soul band Rotary Connection. Today, hes a bellman at the Renaissance Hotel Asheville, greeting customers with a warm smile and welcome before carrying away their bags.
The full article can be found at
more articles concerning Sidney Barnes be found at the following links
non working links removed
http://www.soulfulkindamusic.net/sbarnes.htm
a video of Sidneys PA at the dome is in the soul source archieves and can be dug out on request
note (now up in refosoul along with Jazz FM show)
