In this part of the website you'll find lots of rare archive material related to tours and concerts by the Barber Band over its fifty-year history -- programmes, posters, flyers, and so on. You can also view tour programmes on Andreas Wandfluh's website.

Updated February 24, 2011

Thanks to Alan Grubb, we now have scans of a four-page programme from a very early concert -- December 1950 -- by the Crane River Jazz Band and Chris Barber and his New Orleans Jazz Band.
As well as Chris Barber and his New Orleans Jazz Band, this 1952 concert in north London featured several other bands, including the Crane River Jazz Band, Charlie Galbraith, Cy Laurie, Eric Silk, and the Christie Brothers.
Here is one of the oldest and rarest items on the entire Chris Barber website: a three-page programme for a concert at Birmingham University in 1952. Note in particular the description of Chris and the band, giving us new insight into the very earliest days of the almost sixty years' history of the Chris Barber Band.
Another very old (1952) concert programme.
Composite page showing two of the oldest programmes in the archive: concerts in Manchester and Newcastle, October 1954.
Programme from a concert in Sheffield, April 1955.
Wembley concert programme, 1955.
Programme from a concert at the Pavilion Theatre, Liverpool, on January 15, 1956.
Programme from "Rhythm With The Stars", a 6-day package tour of Northern England in March, 1956.
Programme from the band's first solo concert at the Royal Festival Hall, 28th April, 1956.
Programme from a concert in Brighton, August 1956.
Nixa Cavalcade of Jazz, 1956.
Reminiscences of a concert in London in December 1956 that was recorded and released as the first in the series of Chris Barber In Concert LP records.
Programme for the concert on December 15, 1956 (see record cover, above).
Concert Programme: Brighton, Friday, 25th January, 1957.
Concert Programme: "The Chris Barber Show 1957"
Concert Programme: "The Chris Barber Show 1957"
Tour Programme: Jazz Scene 1957.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe 1957 Tour Programme.

Thanks to Chrissie Napier, this page now includes scans of autographs by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Russell Morrison (Sister's husband and manager), Eddie Smith, Ottilie Patterson, and Monty Sunshine, as well as a ticket from the Swansea concert.

Programme from The Chris Barber Jazz Show Featuring Ottilie Patterson, Royal Festival Hall, London, April 27, 1957.
Programme from a concert in Brighton, July 1957.
Programme from a concert in Birmingham Town Hall, Friday 20th September, 1957.
Programme from a concert in Guildford, 1957
Programme from a concert in Windsor, 1957
Programme from a tour of Germany in 1958.
Programme from a tour of Denmark in 1958.
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee 1958 Tour Programme.
Programme from the Floating Festival of Jazz, 1958.
Programme from a Royal Festival Hall Concert by Chris Barber's Jazz Band and the Dutch Swing College Band, 1958.
Programme from the 1958 tour with Muddy Waters.
"Jazz at the Marquee" programme, 1958.
Concert programme from the 1950s.
Jazzshows 1958 souvenir programme
Programme from a BBC Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, 1958
Concert programme from 1958 or 1959.
Programme from a 1959 British tour by the George Lewis New Orleans Band.
Publicity booklet and programme for the first US tour.
Programme from the 11th Annual Jazz Concert, New Orleans, October 26, 1959.
On the day of the concert shown in the previous item, Chris Barber was presented with a certificate designating him as an Honorary Citizen of New Orleans.....
..... and the New Orleans jazz magazine, The Second Line, featured the Chris Barber Band in the September-October 1959 edition.
Programme from a concert in Leicester, 1959
1959 concert programme.
Programme from a British tour in the late 1950s.
Pat Halcox wrote this account of the band's third North American tour in October and November of 1960, and we have added a few extra items.
Programme from a tour of the UK with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, April 1960.
Programme from a concert in Toronto, Canada, on October 12, 1960.
This is a publicity flyer for one of the last concerts that Monty Sunshine played with the Chris Barber Band before leaving to start his own unit at the end of 1960.
Programme from a 1960 Dutch tour.
Programme from a tour of Switzerland in 1960.
Tour Programme from the Early 1960s
Programme from the Beaulieu Jazz Festival, 1961
Programme from a Concert in Glasgow, 1961
Concert Programme from a Tour of West Germany in 1961
Concert Flyer from a Tour of Switzerland in 1962 (Scanned by Roland Wildi of Liechtenstein ).
Publicity flyer for a concert in Leicester, 1962
Programme from a tour of Germany in 1962 with American clarinettist Ed Hall.
(Includes links to other parts of the website covering the recordings the band made with Edmond Hall.)
Programme from the 1962 tour with Louis Jordan.
(Includes links to other parts of the website covering the recordings the band made with Louis Jordan.)
Programme from the 1962 Richmond Jazz Festival.
Programme from a British tour in 1964.
Programme from a 1964 tour with Howling Wolf.
Programme from a tour of East Germany in 1965.
Programme from a tour of Switzerland, 1965.
Programme from a tour of Switzerland, 1966.
This is a particularly interesting -- albeit short -- 1966 tour programme, because the text, written by Chris Barber, is all about New Orleans brass bands and the Eagle Brass Band featured on the tour. The photographs on pages 2 and 3 were taken a few years earlier, and were part of a set, twenty-four of which are reproduced elsewhere in this website: go to Photographs page 5 and scroll down to Photographs from a Street Parade in Washington, DC.
Programme from a tour of Switzerland, 1967.
Programme from a tour of Switzerland in 1968
Posters and a Programme from Sweden in the 1960s (Thanks to Kjell Wiklund).
Programme from a 1971-1972 tour: This booklet is interesting because it is longer than most, contains photos and short essays about each band member, and has the text in three languages -- English, Frech, and German.
Publicity Flyer for a 1972 Concert.
Thanks to Jürgen Stoever, a gallery of photos from a concert by The Chris Barber Band in Krefeld, 1973, is now posted on the website. These photographs were among the first to be taken after Johnny McCallum joined the band.
. Souvenir booklet from 1976 or 1977: This is one of the longest and most comprehensive of the tour booklets produced up until the mid-1970s. It includes photographies and short biographies of each band member at the time (Chris Barber, Pat Halcox, John Crocker, Johnny McCallum, Pete York, John Slaughter, and Jackie Flavelle), plus a discography and a list of band personnel changes beginning in 1949.
Tour programme, probably 1978. This is a rare programme from a tour featuring the relatively short-lived line-up of the band after Sammy Rimington joined but before John Slaughter left. The programme includes a contribution in both English and German by Humphrey Lyttelton.
Concert programme, Theatre Royal, Winchester, 27 August 1979.
The Chris Barber Band: Tour Programme, 1979 or Early 1980s. This is a 28-page full-colour programme, with photographs plus text by Miles Kington and Humphtey Lyttelton, in both English and German.
Four pages from the programme for a concert at the Barbican, London, on 20 April 1982. The programme includes a short essay by Humphrey Lyttelton. The concert was recorded for the double-LP, Barbican Blues.
Take Me Back To New Orleans -- Souvenir programme with text in English and German.
Programme from the 30 Years Tour in 1985, featuring Ken Colyer and Monty Sunshine. The text is in both English and German.
Programme from a tour of "The Three Bs" -- Ball, Barber and Bilk, in 1985.
Programme from a late-1980s tour -- lots of colour photographs and information about the 1986-1988 lineup of the Chris Barber Jazz and Blues Band.
The 1954-1994 Reunion Tour: Souvenir booklet and concert programme. This is a nicely illustrated 32-page booklet with numerous photographs in colour and black-&-white, and with text in both English and German.
Publicity leaflet from the Reunion Tour of 1994.
Here's one for our Danish friends: Programme from the 1994 reunion tour, featuring the original 1954 Chris Barber's Jazz Band and the then-current Chris Barber Jazz and Blues Band. The programme includes several photographs from the band's visit to Copenhagen in 1954.
Another Danish item, this one a programme from a 1997 concert of the Chris Barber Jazz & Blues Band plus symphony orchestra.

Programme from the Down Under 2000 Tour with Kenny Ball's Jazzmen.

Ray Green of New Zealand has written a short article about the Down Under 2000 Tour.

Pamphlet from a concert by the Big Chris Barber Band in Chichester Cathedral, July 11, 2002.
VIPs of Jazz concert poster, 2002.
Sweet Papa Lowdown with Chris Barber:
In 2000 and 2002 Chris Barber travelled to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to perform and record with the Vancouver band Sweet Papa Lowdown. These sessions culminated in the excellent CD, One Of Your Smiles. On this page Jeff Shucard, leader of Sweet Papa Lowdown, tells how the collaboration came about.
50th anniversary tour concert poster.
50th Anniversary Tour Concert Review ~ The Anvil, Basingstoke, June 11, 2003, by Julian Purser.
Ball, Barber and Bilk concert poster, 2003.
50th Anniversary Tour Concert Review ~ Swindon and Yeovil, February 23 & 24, 2004, by Julian Purser.
Van Morrison concerts, April and May 2004: Photographs and text by Julian Purser.
Programme from the Lonnie Donegan Tribute Concert, 2004.
Julian Purser reports on the Lonnie Donegan Tribute Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on Monday 21 June, 2004.
The Water Rats Ball, November 2004.
The Big Chris Barber Band
Orwell Park School, Nr. Ipswich, Suffolk, U.K.
Friday 3rd December, 2004

Reviewed by Jerry Brown.


The Big Chris Barber Band in Denmark, January 2005: Andreas Wandfluh's account of his eventful trip to Denmark to see the band perform with Sjællands Symfoniorkester.
Chris Barber's 75th Birthday Concert, Liverpool, 6 July 2005, featuring Van Morrison, Andy Fairweather Low, Bill Wyman, and "Big Bill" Morganfield.
Two photographs of Andy Fairweather-Low on tour with the Big Chris Barber Band, December 2005.


THE BIG CHRIS BARBER BAND CLIMBS MOUNTAINS! -- A diary of the road crew battling snow and ice to get to the next gig, by Julian Purser.

Chris was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Music by Durham University on 28 June 2006.
Photo, article, and a short introduction by Chris about a New Orleans Jazz Parade in Covent Garden, June 2006.
Miscellaneous tour and concert posters from the 1990s and 2000s.
On Thursday 30th August, 2007, the Big Chris Barber Band filmed a live concert at Shepperton Studios. Click here to view a copy of Julian Purser's invitation to this exclusive event, plus a set of photographs provided by Ben Williams of Classic T Studio, the company which is re-issuing the band's recent CD, Can't Stop Now.
Excerpt from the programme for the Gillingham Festival, at which Pat Halcox played his last concert before retiring.
Following the departure of Pat Halcox and Tony Carter from the Band on 16 July 2008, their replacements were Peter Rudeforth on trumpet and vocals and Zoltan Sagi on reeds. Peter and Zoltan played their first date with the band on Wednesday 23 July in Macclesfield, and their second on Friday 25 July at the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh -- the band's concert to lead off the 2008 Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival. Two members of the Chris Barber website and archives team (Julian Purser and Ed Jackson) were in Edinburgh for the gig, and have updated the site and added new material to reflect the new personnel changes -- most notably a page entitled The Big Chris Barber Band in Edinburgh: Live at the 30th Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, 25 July 2008.
Andreas Wandfluh, who is one of the three members of the Barber website and archive team, is an avid collector of memorabilia about the band. Here are three of his most recent acquisitions, associated with performances in November 2008.
Andreas Wandfluh attended two Barber concerts in Switzerland in early November. He has created two photo galleries from the hundreds of photos he took on those occasions. Click here to view Andreas's photo gallery from Aarberg.
Andreas's second photo gallery comes from a concert in Schaan.
Richard Exall: NOT with the Big Chris Barber Band -- a tongue-in-cheek pair of photos about one band member's activities when not on the road.
On the 19th of January 2009, Chris unveiled a stone in the pavement in the centre of Enkhuizen - a real jazz town in the Netherlands - on the Jazz Walk of Fame.
(March 4, 2009): Chris will soon be appearing on Rick Wakeman's Face To Face, a new television interview series due to be broadcast on television stations around the world and on the World Wide Web.
Sennheiser donates microphones to the Big Chris Barber Band.
Chris Barber Face To Face With Rick Wakeman
Chris Barber's appearance on Rick Wakeman's new television series, Face To Face With Rick Wakeman, is now available for purchase download at RockOnDigital.com.
On The Road In Switzerland: Video and photos by Mike Henry.
In Memory of Julian Purser: A page to commemorate Julian Purser, who was Chris Barber's archivist and discographer, and, from the beginning of 2004, one-third of the Chris Barber Website & Archives Team, which manages this site.
Boaters, Bowlers, and Bowties:
Chris Barber, Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk reunite for the first live performance in 10 years; Live at the indigO2 at the O2, July 23rd, 2009.
JazzAscona 2009: Andreas Wandfluh writes about the three days he recently spent at the 25th annual JazzAscona Festival in Switzerland.
Mike Henry's photos from JazzAscona 2009.
Impressions of JazzAscona 2009:
Using photographs taken by himself and Bas Meijer, Andreas Wandfluh has compiled an excellent gallery of close to 100 images of JazzAscona 2009. The pictures can be viewed in gallery format as well as in a slide show.
The Big Chris Barber Band 2009 in Israel:
On June 20th, 2009 the Big Chris Barber Band flew in to Israel for a concert at the Caesarea Jazz Festival. Bas Meijer, light engineer of the Big Chris Barber Band, took very interesting pictures not only from the Jazz event, but also from a short trip to Jerusalem.
John Crocker with the Ken Colyer Legacy Band, July 11, 2009.
  Chris Barber 2010 souvenir programme, distributed to the audience in Schaan/Liechtenstein, on Feb. 13th, 2010

It is a PDF-file, adjust your settings to 150% and you can easily read the content
Woomy Schmidt, a german producer and TV presentator, has written an article at the occasion of Chris Barber's 80th birthday. This article had been published by the German Jazz Magazine "Jazz Podium" in their May 2010 issue

We are happy to get Woomy Schmidts permission as author to present this article as well as the pictures here on the website.

This file is a large PDF file of a size of 1 MB 
Chris Barber in Berlin - 1959

This is one of THE classic albums of the Chris Barber Jazz & Blues Band.

We have been contacted by a German jazz musician and collector, Peter Kazubski, who informed us that he made fotos at the great concert in Berlin on May 23, 1959 at the Deutschlandhalle. So 51 years after that event we are proud and happy to present exclusively these pictures here on the website.
Chris Barber in Berlin - 1961

Peter Kazubski sent us more photos, this time from the Berlin 1961 concert at the Deutschlandhalle. See the pictures here.
Chris Barber - while on US tour 1959 - writes for the Melody Maker

This is an excerpt from Gerard Bielderman's Scrap Book. Very interesting to read!
Chris Barber in East Germany - Berlin 1965

 This is part one of a small serie "Chris Barber in East Germany", giving information about the Concert at the Friedrichstadt-Palast in East Berlin, November 28, 1965. It includes an excerpt of the GDR TV recording of 1965.
Chris Barber in East Germany - Berlin 1968

 These Chris Barber Concerts in East Berlin on November 25-27, 1968 at the Friedrichstadt-Palast had been recorded by the East German audio company AMIGA. Later on, the West German Polydor Group under its label Intercord released a double album of this concert. But the AMIGA 2 LP set and the INTERCORD double LP are not identical. Read more about these recordings and the great evenings in Berlin here.

 
From the Melody Maker, November 14, 1959

Gerard Bielderman, the Dutch collector and discographer, has sent us another printout from the music paper Melody Maker, dated November 14, 1959. You can read this very interesting article, written by Tony Brown, reflecting the success of the Barber Band and the unfair critics of that time

 
Chris Barber in East Germany - Berlin 1973

We are happy to present to you the original flyer from the March 1973 concerts at the Friedrichstadt Palast in East Berlin.

 
 
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