A rogue session bassist with his own agenda!

“�when I was a child, the local barber would always ask if you wanted a Beatles or a Rolling Stones (cut). It didn’t matter though, you always came out with a short back and sides� Growing up in the faded but attitudinal Essex seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea, I realised that music was a passport out to the rest of the world�”

Bass player, guitarist and songwriter. Barry Payne was a founder member of the proto-punk band, ‘The Johnny 7 Combo’ while still at High school.

By the end of 1977 (and at just 17) he became a full time member of Wreckless Eric’s band (playing bass on Eric’s seminal first LP for Stiff Records) then at 20 with San Francisco’s Pearl Harbour (& the Explosions) working and touring extensively with groups such as The Clash, The Talking Heads and The B52′s. Over subsequent years he has worked and toured with a diverse collection of artists ranging from Madness, The Eurythmics and Steve Marriott to Chris Jagger and The Alabama 3, recording two critically acclaimed albums for Rough Trade with ‘Eileen Rose’, and working with assorted alt. country noir, such as ‘Viarosa’ and The Willard Grant Conspiracy’s ‘Simon J. Alpin’ as well as recording and touring with The Bex Marshall Band and Kathleen Haskard.