The Music Rhino

A little history......then a lot moreBarry Marshall-Everitt born 1947, a free form radio presenter, promoter/booker, tour/road manager, touring/house live sound engineer, journalist, record label owner, European agent, MC & Arsenal supporter....started his early music career after winning an Essex blues band competition whilst at school in 1963 and again in 1964, opening up for the likes of Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Hownin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker on their UK tours when he was barely old enough to get away with ordering a pint of ale (a tall 16 year old). Not a bad start and coupled with that love of roots music, he was dragged off to Ronnie Scots club in Soho to hear this 'jazz' man called John Coltrane, watched open mouthed and open eared to this beautiful music three shows in a row and a lifelong love for jazz was born.Rhino holding Arsenals favourite cup at the FA headquarters........go gunners from the age of 8 a regular supporter and passionate love of the team try to get to as many games as possible in the new Emerates StadiumAfter a period of local paper writing and some motor sport hackery Barry eventually fell in with the wrong company, let his hair grow, dropped out and got involved with free form radio.His early radio career started at Radio Geronimo in 1970 with co-presenter Hugh Nolan( www.radiogeronimo.com ) owned by 'Stones' producer Jimmy Miller and 'Move & T-Rex' manager Tony Secunda. This anarchistic hippy loveallmusic station mixed Mozart with Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix with ease, was the only station playing album cuts not singles, refused advertising, strawberry jammed the BBC for jamming their signal, did Europe's first live, 'everybody involved on the same acid' show, hired a small plane and bombed The Isle of White Jimi Handrix festival 1970 with Geronimo leaflets after the festival owners wanted far to much money to pass them out and came 7th in the 1970 Melody Maker March radio poll after 2 months on the air. Nothing like it then and still nothing like now.Geronimo was gazumped by a commerical station when renewal's came up a year later and that sadly was that but Geronimo owner Tony Secunda who managed T.Rex offered Barry the job of tour managing the “Ride A White Swan” Tour for six T-Rextasy mad months.Revelation Records was a project that came out of lack of radio frustrations, off the air in 1971, Barry was called to New York, after T-Rex, by Larry Yurdin to help launch NBC's new station WPLJ, after a few weeks it was noticed that Barry was very light on paper work for the USA and he flew home and teamed up with John Coleman (the Glastonbury festival booker) and Janey Clout (hippy with love & money), gathered the old Geronimo crew together and recorded, and distributed the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre triple set, the hook was a 6 hour radio special of the festival and giving 50% of the profits to build a perminent main stage. The record designed by Barney Bubbles, had track donations from The Grateful Dead, Mark Bolin, David Bowie & Pete Townsend + live from the festival music from Mighty Baby, David Allen & Gong, Edgar Broughton, Hawkwind, Skin Alley, Brinsley Schwartz & The Pink Fairies, this triple vinyl set documented the first official Glastonbury free festival. The label also recorded the first Chill Willi & The Red Hot Peppers album, 'Bongo's Over Balham' a now historic Americana roots album from 1973.After Glastonbury Barry worked on the Mia Migo pirate radio ship with Radio Seagull/ Radio Caroline. Fellow Geronimo presenter Hugh Nolan and Barry were asked by Roland O'Riley to do a peace,love & understanding 6 hours a night on his pirate radio station, this they happily did, Barry also did a two hour Jazz show following the understanding.Larry Yurdin, now Barry's US radio mentor, called offering work on another new project, KSML, a small station in Lake Tahoe planning to broadcast through cable to California and syndicate special programmes around the world. Barry again was looking for radio work after the Marine Offences Act forced the pirates off the air, packed a bag and headed for Lake Tahoe. To find a collection of free form crazed DJ's, actors, production guys and the largest vinyl music libary he had ever seen. Dis-organised chaos resulted on a daily basis but somehow after 6 months Barry found himself music director for a free form station, a job that sobered him up enough to take the new position seriously, he called every label he could find and ordered everything all the time and reported to the trades the most off the wall airplay list ever. Nothing that good lasts and once the closing down signs were posted he was offered by Dwight the KSML owner a shot at his other station KDKB in Pheonix. Leaving California also meant leaving KFAT, he's occasional weekend session. From then on Barry wandered the free form radio trail, an old Ford Galaxie 500 with a U-Haul full of albums in tow he ended up in Los Angeles, again after a Larry Yurdin phone call, producing and co-hosting with Dusty Street, Rock Around The World weekly syndicated to over 300 stations, one hour radio magazine. This went on for nearly two years before London called and he was forced by family needs to return to Blighty in 1981Finding no radio stations in London able to understand the radio Barry had been doing for the past 6 years he again fell in with more wrong'ens and became house sound engineer and DJ at Dingwalls in Camden Town through the 80's, working with the likes of The Stray Cats, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, The Pirates, Curtis Mayfield, Ian Dury, The Smiths , Zydaco bands, reggae, Sunday afternoon jazz and on and.....his skills improved and met up with the worlds loudest sound engineer 'Nobby' at a fateful all dayer concert and they soon formed Noise Productions and started touring.In between time Barry had always been writing, during the Dingwalls period he was reporting to Randam Notes at Rolling Stone Magazine, writing UFO stories for the US magazine The National Enquirer and music gossip for the Daily Mirror. The 80's turned into the 90's, Dingwalls was long gone and Barry was now road managing and sound engineering the likes of The Blue Aeroplanes, The Cramps, Steve Wynn, The La's, Green On Red, Chuck Prophet, Love Hate, The Beyond, The Wedding Present and 100's more, was house engineer at The Marquee, The Astoria and The Borderline till the year 2000 came over the horizon. Time to unpack and take on a new challenge. On arrival at The Borderline as full time promoter on January 3rd 2000 Barry had inherited a room loosing money, threatened with closure in six months but with history. The first thing Barry did was to cancel all the tired Brit Pop shows booked into the club and get on the phone to America, talk to friends and agents and start bringing over Americana music still his first love. In came Buddy Miller, Gary Allen, Dale Watson, Hubert Sumlin, John Hammond, Eliza Gilkyson and so on and on. He also went back to radio, staring Borderline Radio on the clubs web site, promoting these alt-country acts with a mixture of free form non-programming. After his first full year of promotion the corner was well turned and with the help of the London agents and his US contacts a stream of Americana music flooded into London. .....That first year he introduced a Blues Festival in November, a Singer Songwriter Festival in January and a consistent flow of Alt-country artists who packed the room with music hungry Londoners. Time Out acknowledged his work by awarding the club for the first time in then it's 12 year history, Time Out venue of the year and to cap it all the Time Out Readers poll voted Barry promoter of the year. Not a bad years work. .... The next year brought The Borderline and The Barbican together with London's first Alt-country americana festival ‘Beyond Nashville', the event spread over two weeks proved a massive success and was repeated again the next year with The Barbican. That year Barry's Singer Songwriter festival aired such talents as Damien Rice, Thea Gilmore and James Blunt, to Londoners for the first time. 2002 was even more successful than 2001, a change in owners didn't hamper Barry's work or passion for the music, with profits high the new owners supported Barry and allowed him the independence to promote bigger shows around London, there started a series of sold out shows at The Union Chapel in Islington, Shepherds Bush Empire, The Forum and The Scala. 2003 found The Borderline with yet another new owner, although this time Barry had worked for six months trying to buy the venue with a consortium of old managers and like minded investors. Vince Power of the Mean Fiddler Group became the new owner and Barry's dreams of opening a new seated concert/dinner venue above The Borderline were finally buried and for the third time the promoters office moved to another location, this time the Astoria just up the road.2004 Barry booked the second stage at The Fleagh, the openers on the main stage and was acknowledged by his peers to have booked the most successful 2nd stage in the history of the event. ..... 2005 looked to be another great year but six months into it Vince Power bowed out of the music business (for a year) and sold to Clear Channel / Live Nation/ Dennis Desmond. 2006 started well, Green On Red played their first show in 18 years to a near sell out Astoria in January, Dan Penn played at St James Church, Alejandro Escovedo played his first shows since Barry had brought him over in 2002. But, Barry and Clear Channel never realy saw eye to eye on the function of The Borderline, although the club sold out shows regulary Barry always insisting on letting the developing artists have their share of stage time, building in these loss making shows into the sell out acts like Sparkle Horse, The Be Good Tanya's, Damian Rice, Ed Harcourt, Johnny Dowd, Rainer, Joe Bonamassa, Slobberbone, Hayseed Dixie, The Crooked Jades, The Bottle Rockets, Faith Hill, Mary Gauthier, Alejandro Escovedo, John Dee Graham, Giant Sand, Kerian Kane, Anne McCue, Corb Lund, Chris Whitley, Tandy, Buddy Miller, Iron & Wine, Richmond Fontaine, Cracker, Yonder Mountain String Band, Chatham Country Line, Hot Club Of Cowtown, Stacey Earle, The Waifs, Ryan Adams and many many more all got their start at the club. Barry and the Borderline owners Live Nation parted company officially in February 2007.Now away from the Borderline, health not at all good from 7 years of 12+ hour days, it was time for some medical attention, this curtailed most of Barry's energy, except radio. The House of Mercy Ltd was formed as a blanket company for radio/label/agency/tour production/promotion. He had built a studio in his house and could manage to record a three hour show a week. www.totalrock.com let his show air every Saturday night at midnight till 3am and still does, now syndicated onto www.radioseagul.com on Sunday nights based in Holland and soon on his old friend from KSML, Bob Rogers new freeform station www.taintradio.org In the mean time 2008 is back to full health. House of Mercy records has released his wife's latest record ' Kitchen Table' by Bex Marshall, he is tour managing Joan Armatrading and promoting old friends again in london when time allows.Barry Marshall-Everitt House of Mercy Ltd P O Box 49684 London N8 7YHwww.myspace.com/barryrhino www.myspace.com/bexmarshall www.sonicbids.com/bexmarshall www.houseofmercy.netListen NOW to Kitchen Table Release date June 1st 2008 on our myspace pagesHouse of Mercy music in many forumsHouse of Mercy radio presented by Barry Marshall-Everitt every Saturday night midnight - 3am GMT www.totalrock.com every Sunday night midnight -3am GMT Holland and N/E England Radio Seagull 1602 am/mw www.radioseagull.com Taint radio North Carolina coming soon www.taintradio.org radio free Pheonix radio free TexasThe best of Americana/roots/country/blues/rock Latest releases, tour dates, news a live session at 1am www.maverick-country.com www.netrhythms.com www.americana-uk.com1970's free form radio station then & now www.radiogeronimo.co.uk