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David Gilmour. The Beatles developed from John Lennon's skiffle group The Quarrymen. Barber
provided an audience for Donegan and later, for Alexis Korner, making him a significant figure in

the British rhythm and blues and "beat boom" of the 1960s. But more was to come.

The late 1950s and early 1960s saw Barber as the principal organiser of the first UK tours of blues
artists Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and Muddy Waters with Otis Spann. This,
with the encouragement of local enthusiasts such as Alexis Korner and John Mayall, sparked young
musicians such as Peter Green, Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones into playing blues music for
themselves. Barber was instrumental in introducing to British audiences, Brother John Sellars,

Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller), Howling Wolf with Hubert Sumlin
and Jesse Fuller.

Barber took British jazz and blues—in the form of Ottilie Patterson's remarkable ‘authentic’
delivery—to the USA, wowing audiences at Muddy Waters’ club in Chicago and appearing on the Ed
Sullivan Show.

With Harold Pendleton of the National Jazz Federation, Chris Barber was the founder of The
Marquee in London, one of the leading music venues in the country. He continued to play
regularly in the Big Chris Barber Band until well into his eighties. Over the years he amassed a
prodigious collection of original 78 rpm blues and jazz records.

On December 2, 2015, at the Concorde Club in Eastleigh near Southampton, Ian McKenzie (Editor
of BiTS), on behalf of the committee of the British Blues Awards, presented Chris Barber with a

trophy recognising his achievements in bringing blues music to Britain, with the accolade ‘British
Blues Great’. Barber’s autobiography is titled “Jazz Me Blues’.

Ian K McKenzie