Chris Barber was introduced in the last article, when he was about to join Ken Colyer's band in 1953 but let's first take a look at the early life of Chris Barber.
Hettie and her husband Donald Barber were living in Welwyn, a village about 30 miles north of London. Hettie was working as a teacher at the King Alfred School in Golders Green, London. Later Hettie would be the head of the school. Donald was an economist and statistician and worked as a secretary of the Retail Distributors’ Association (RDA). Donald loved music and was always playing music when he was at home, he also played the violin. On April 17, 1930 their first child was born, they named him Chris Barber.
In 1933 the young family moved from Welwyn to Primrose Hill, London. Three years later Hettie and Donald built a house on the new estate Stanmore, London on 93 Weston Drive. Around this time (but I’m not sure about which year) Chris’ sister is born: Audrey. In Stanmore Chris goes to the Burleigh Road School but later moves to the King Alfred School, where his mother works.
When the Second World War broke out Hettie, and her two children, Chris and Audrey left London and went to a village called Upper Welland, in Worcestershire. Many Londoners would, temporarily, move to the countryside during the war to be safe from the German bombs. In Upper Welland Chris and Audrey are home schooled by their mother for a year before they can return to a school. In his autobiography Chris Barbers tells about the fact that he owned a radio since 1939, this is probably his dad’s radio. His dad loved playing music and I believe he gave the radio to Chris when they left London. Donald Carter stayed behind in London but moved-in with some friends first and later got his own apartment in Balham. Donald worked hard during the war because besides his job at the RDA he was asked to be a statistician for the Ministry of Supply, this unpaid job was created during the war because of the food shortage in England during the war. The family home was rented out to a naval officer to bring in some extra money and the house was too big for Donald alone.
Meanwhile after being home schooled for a year Chris can go to the Hanley Castle Grammar School, not far from their new home. In 1941 he briefly goes to a boarding school but is expelled very quickly and goes back to his mother, who is busy organising to reopen the school. Hettie succeeds in reopening the King Alfred School but now located near Royston, in Hertfordshire. He mother is teaching all day, so Chris and two other boys stay with one of the teachers, Mr. Morrish in Royston. Just before the move Chris sees his father, which rarely happened during the war and Donald gave Chris a violin, an instrument Donald also played. During his time in Royston Chris practised a lot on the violin because there wasn’t much else to do in this small village. Every week Chris goes by bus to Cambridge, which is 14 miles from Royston, and gets money from his parents for the busfare.
During the war Chris listens a lot to the radio his dad gave him at the start of the war. He listens to the news on the BBC but mostly listens to the American Forces Network. This radio station is meant for American troops stationed in Europe but a lot of young British teenagers also listen, including Chris Barber. Their appeal was that the American Forces Network played jazz music and the BBC never played any jazz and Chris loved jazz music.
In the recordshops of Cambridge he found some old jazz records but couldn’t afford them, then he realised that the busfare was the same amount as a record, so from then on he went to his violin lessons in Cambridge by bike instead of the bus.
Chris Barber, later in an interview: “I was at school near Cambridge and Cambridge had been of course a university town, and one of the seeds of jazz appreciation in Britain in the 30s, so the record shops in Cambridge had actually jazz records in stock, the ones that they’d bought hoping to sell them but nobody happened to buy them. So, there were still some old records in stock so I bought those and I bought books about it there. Cambridge was a good place to buy books about unusual subjects, being a university town. So I started reading about jazz musicians and collecting jazz records.”
By 1946 the war was over and Chris moved back with his mother Hettie and his sister Audrey in London, his father stayed in his apartment because Hettie and Donald had decided to divorce. Being away from each other for the most part of six years had done the relationship no good. Chris had by now collected about 80 records, not bad for a 15 year old, and he thought that he was the only person in Britain who liked these old jazz records and was surprised to see a poster announcing a concert by the George Webb Dixielanders, who played old trad jazz. He is an instant fan of the band, although the band members, according to Chris, are mediocre at best. That is until Humphrey Lyttelton, on trumpet, joined in 1947 and brought a lot of professionalism in the band. Chris already went to every concert of the Dixielanders he could attend, and be back home in time, but now with Humphrey Lyttelton in the band, Chris wants to attend every concert and sit on stage and watch Humphrey play.
Meanwhile Chris goes back to school but changes schools and now goes to the St. Paul School, instead of The King Alfred School. At St. Paul’s he can study maths, something the King Alfred School could not offer. Like his father Chris was very good at maths and liked numbers, so he wanted to study maths. In 1948 he got his Higher School Certificate at St. Paul’s and was ready to go to the university until someone from the Life Offices’ Association told him he could work and study to be an actuarist. An actuarist calculates the risk for an insurance company. Chris then works two days, studies for three days and needs to take an exam every year. Chris decides to join and from then on works for Clerical medical Life Assurance Society at St. James Square, London. Spending all the money had earned on more jazz records and books but also money for the bus to see the George Webb Dixielanders, by now Humphrey had taken over and had changed their name in the Humphrey Lyttelton Band. Chris got fired from his job, in early 1951, because he failed his exam in 1949 and again in 1950. Without a job and with no money Chris had to think about his future. During one of the concerts of the Dixielanders Chris had bought a trombone from the trombone player, it was a very old instrument but Chris practised a lot on the instrument. He also had his own amateur band since 1948 (but more on that next time). Maybe there was a future for him in music?