DEAR GARY BARBER — Spike Wells

left to right SPIKE WELLS ELLIE GARY BARBER PAUL DUTNALL (Gary’s co-producer and diector)

My friend and collaborator GARY died yesterday. He had been suffering from cancer for some time. May he rest in peace and may his wife DEBBIE and daughter GRACE be comforted in their loss.

I first met Gary when he was working on a short film called “A SHORT CUT” about an eccentric barber (no pun intended) and Brighton legend MR.COOPER who had a little shop in Baker Street called “COOPER’S FOR CUTTING”. He charged £1 (yes ONE POUND!) for a hair cut and you got what you paid for. A brusque 6 minute short back and sides in very untidy and rather grubby surroundings. Gary found this a fascinating subject to film and as a result subjected himself to the “treatment”. Now the elderly Mr.Cooper used to attend the 8.am Holy Communion service at St.Peter’s church (before it was taken over by HTB) and I was serving as a Curate there at the time. The Curate was by custom the Vicar’s dogsbody so I was the one who usually had to do the 8 o’clock. I therefore got to know Mr.Cooper as a regular communicant and GARY wanted to interview me in my office in the crypt of the church about my impressions of him. I don’t think I was able to contribute much but it was a lovely little film and it triumphantly ended with a very audible burb by Mr.Cooper…………….

Gary discovered during this filming that I had been a professional jazz musician all my life and had only recently been ordained. He then became interested in MY story as a subject for a film which he put together with his wife Debbie doing interviews and small film crew.. The result was a 30 minute documentary entitled “A LOVE SUPREME”

When the Herts Jazz Festival run by Clark Tracey expressed an interest in screening the film (which had had limited exposure) some twenty years later, GARY decided it should be updated and expanded to 60 minutes running time. His colleague Paul Dutnall came on board as co-director and producer.

Meanwhile, GARY and Paul had embarked, with the help of Bobby, his wife Isabella and his daughter Fiona, on what was in my opinion GARY’S greatest achievement - his salute to the life and work of the great tenor saxophonist BOBBY WELLINS called (after one of Bobby’s most famous compositions) “DREAMS ARE FREE” Gary and Paul managed to get Bobby to unwind and talk with great honesty about the ups and downs of his life and the interviews with him are powerfully moving.

Poster for a Scottish screening. Strange cartoon! He did wear that hat and shades during the opening sequence but it doesn’t look much like him……………………………….

DREAMS ARE FREE and A LOVE SUPREME have been shown at Jazz Festivals, jazz clubs and cinemas, notably the amazing DEPOT cinema in Lewes and the Chichester film festival. The latest double bill was at the Attenborough centre in Leicester. Bobby’s daughter Fiona has come on board to help promote the films and, with Paul Dutnall’s help, we hope to keep GARY’s reputation as a skilled and sensitive director alive.

GARY BARBER was not only a film maker. He was for some years creative director of the Brighton Film School and a keen movie buff with whom I shared many tastes. Gary. Paul and I would assemble from time to time in my basement with a projector and white-painted wall to watch films noir and Italian social dramas. His other passion was for cars. He seemed to accumulate an extraordinary number of beaten-up old Jaguars. When he finally sold the Brighton Film School, he was at last able to indulge his fantasy of owning, securely garaging, and occasionally driving an Aston Martin.

He was such a friendly, generous, helpful and humorous guy to be around. With the occasional small brandy in hand, he would converse warmly and wittily. I am thankful for Debbie’s assurance that he died peacefully and out of pain and I shall miss him terribly..