The story of Barrington Davis (so far)

Barrington Davis listed in the Who’s Who of Australian Rock, commenced his singing career around the cafés and clubs in Sydney Australia, such as Suzie Wong’s and The El Morocco at the tender age of 12. At the time he was just a young kid doing cover versions of songs recorded by such artists as Ben E King, Gene Pitney, Frank Sinatra and Roy Orbison. He then went on to make appearances on local television shows whilst performing live at local teen venues.

During this time he also commenced drama classes with Ellis Irving and Sophie Stewart who were associated with NLT productions and appeared in the ABC production of Wall to Wall” with Gwen Plumb and played Mamillius in Shakespeare’s “The Winters Tale” at the Cell Block Theatre in Darlinghurst.

At the age of 15 Barrington left school and joined Sydney guitar band, The Beethoven Sounds with guitarist and brother-in-law, Earle Englert. The Beethoven Sounds had originally been a “Shadows” guitar cover band but after Barrington joined them, they soon started doing covers of bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Them and others.

After working with the Beethoven sounds for some months, Barrington then signed a managerial contract with Eileen Harrigan and commenced touring NSW as a solo artist with top recording and performing acts such as Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Ray Brown and the Whispers and Chris Hall and the Torquay’s.

Barrington then joined Sydney R&B band the Roadrunners which became resident band at Surf City in Kings Cross as well as playing every School of Arts and Police Boys Club in NSW.

At the age of 16, he recorded and released his first single, Dear Lady/Complicated Riddle, written and produced by Nat Kipner and Ozzie Byrne at the then famous St Clair Recording Studios in Hurstville, NSW where the Bee Gees recorded much of their earlier work including Spics and Specs. He followed up this single with extensive touring and appearances on national television shows such as Saturday Date and Be Our Guest.

In 1967 Barrington released his second single “Raining Teardrops/As Fast As I Can” which was written by Maurice Gibb and Nat Kipner. Contrary to many websites and compilations which include these songs, Barrington did not join Powerpact until some months later and therefore the name of Barrington Davis Powerpact is incorrectly attributed to this record.

After again touring as a solo artist and working with a number of backing bands Barrington joined Powerpact with Dennis Wilson on guitar and Brian Boness on drums. After a few months, Bob Daisly joined the band as the new bass player and the band subsequently changed its name to MECCA. Brian Boness left the band sometime in 1968 and was replaced by Robin Lewis. The band then went on to become a popular Sydney band playing both numerous small gigs and also large pop concerts in Hyde Park and the Trocadero.

In April 1969 after completing his final gig at the Down Under Club in Kings Cross, he left the band and Australia in order to further his ambitions in the UK. Soon after arriving in London, Barrington joined up with Michael Rushton, the former drummer with UK band Steamhammer. Michael and Barrington were joined by two guitarists from France and a bass player from Liverpool Alan Jones, and they left the UK to tour Brussels and France.

The band played a number of gigs in Paris at the Rock and Roll Circus before disbanding. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus was a club frequented by the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison of the Doors. Barrington recalls some really incredible jam sessions with who ever were around at the time, these included Ainsley Dunbar Retaliation and Champion Jack Dupree. After spending two months in Paris, Barrington spent another four months touring the North of France playing in small bars.

In December 1969, following a serious motor vehicle accident which wrote off a Mercedes Benz, Barrington returned to London. After two years of gigging with various bands Barrington then recorded what he is best remembered for around Europe, his first album “Tracks of Mind” on the Montague label owned by Milton Samuels. The album was produced by Tyrone Patterson who had previously had a massive hit in the UK with reggae band “The Cats”. (A reggae version of Swan Lake).

“Tracks of Mind” is listed in the 1001 Record Collector Dreams and copies can still be tracked down.

In 1972 a single was released off the album “Strange Days” with “My Songs and My Whiskey and Me”. Barrington then worked gigs around London to promote his album and single, from pubs to a short stint with Ken Macintosh and his Orchestra at the Hammersmith Pallais.

In 1973 Barrington recorded a Strong/Penzabene/Whitfield song “I wish It Would Rain” which was previously recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips and later by Rod Stewart.

The following year Barrington returned to Australia and in1975 joined the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar in the role of “Annas” touring Australia and New Zealand, performing with Jon English and Trevor White. After 18 months of touring and the subsequent climax of the show in Sydney, Barrington travelled back to London.

In 1977 Barrington returned to Australia to join the cast of “Reg Livermore’s Ned Kelly, The Electric Music Show which opened in Adelaide and finished in Sydney.

Then in 1978, he joined Sydney rock band Geeza after the departure of singer Terry Halliday. The band recorded 8 new tracks which were never released as the band broke up soon after recording.

Barrington remained in Australia until 1984. In that time he continued writing and recording new material including a music video for “Oh So Hard” and a short film that did the rounds of art-house movie theatres called “A Travellers Tale”. This was written and directed by the very talented Michael Bates.

At the completion of the film, Barrington took off to LA, New York and then London for two years to promote his new material.

Returning to Australia in 1986 Barrington continued to write, record and gig around Sydney.

In an effort to supplement the vagaries of finance in the music industry and help fund future endeavours, in 1997 Barrington took himself off to university. Barrington studied psychology at Sydney University and went onto complete a masters in sport/performance psychology in 2003. With these new skills, Barrington works directly with performance artists in enhancing performance and assists others to reach their optimal performance level, as well as continuing to write, record and perform his own material.

Barrington’s most recent music project is his CD, “Picking Up The Pieces”. It is an album of stories from the people he has known over the years and from his own experiences. The songs are about failure and triumph, disappointment and love.
It is the stories of the mistakes we make and how we “pick up the pieces”.

Barrington had envisioned doing some live performances locally after moving to the Northern Beaches in 2018 but COVID has been interrupting plans.

Currently writing new material with intentions of further recording in 2022.