Writing and/or production credits include:-

• Complete Halloween Party Album
  NEW chart album 2007
• We Love Grease
  Chart album 2007
• You Got Me Dancing
  Featured in the multi award winning film 'Little Miss Sunshine' 2006
• Football Crazy
  Top Ten Album for the World Cup 2006
• Cheeky Flamenco
  Top 30 hit with the Cheeky Girls
• Ot-Air
  John Otway album
• Once Around The Sun
  Shane Richie's latest album
• Stompin
  Top 20 hit with Fast Food Rockers 2003
• Bunsen Burner
  Top ten hit with John Otway - Oct 2002
• Steps Gold
  Number 1 Greatest Hits Album
• 5,6,7,8
  Top twenty hit with STEPS
• Step One
  Top ten album with STEPS
• Only Fools Never Fall In Love
  Top ten hit with SONIA
• Lions & Tigers & Me
  Will & Grace - US Sitcom
• Syncopated Rhythm & The Next Step
  Chart hits with SCOOTCH
• Oh When The Saints .......
  Southampton, Southampton
  Saints Supporters feat. M C Le Tiss
• I’m Still Falling
  No.1 Line Dancing Album compilation chart hit
• No-one Can Stop Us Now
  Top thirty hit with CHELSEA F.C.
• Dollar’s Greatest Hits
  DOLLAR
• A Fistfull Of Dollar
  DJ Hot Dog with David Van Day
• Theme from ‘The Shane Richie Experience’ GRANADA T.V.
• You Look So Good......
  Dad Savage / Universal Films
• Wait For Love
  International hit with LINDY LAYTON & Norman Cook
• Krazy House
  International dance hit - a.k.a. Barry himself
• Lightning Flash
  Chart hit with BROTHERHOOD OF MAN
• BHM
  Brotherhood of Man - Album
• I’m In The Mood For Dancing ‘89
  International hit with the NOLANS
• Glad All Over
  Chart hit with CRYSTAL PALACE F.C.
• Film and Library music
  Bruton Music - used in various films etc.
• BBC South Today
  News strands
• Everybody Loves Somebody
  Commercial for MILLER LITE

Plus production work and releases with artistes as diverse as Dean Friedman, Wilson Pickett, Frankie Vaughan, Frances Ruffelle, The Tweets and The Barron Knights.

Barry is celebrating 30 years of releases with a "Greatest Hits" Double CD. Brief Biog ...... I've often been described as a ‘pop tart' by various acquaintances and after compiling this album I can see what they mean. Over the past 30 years, by positively taking on just about any project that has been thrown my way, I've had the great pleasure of working with an extremely diverse list of talented artistes in a wide contrast of music styles summed up by this collection which includes nearly all my hits, most of my major releases and a few feature film inclusions. As a child I was weaned on the Beatles, Motown and the innovative late music of the late sixties which I still rate as my favourite. My first ‘gig' was at the age of eleven miming to a ‘Barron Knights' record at a Boys Brigade display. I got the bug and after doing the rounds of local pubs and clubs during my late teens, I turned pro with my band ‘Silver City' in September '75 and spent the next few years constantly touring around Denmark, Norway, Germany and Italy with the odd gig in the UK as well as a spell in Jersey. My recording career started in 1977 with that same band when we recorded an album to sell primarily in Scandinavia where after a couple of years of long visits, we had become quite popular. By the Summer of '78 and after having ‘too much fun', I wanted to get a bit more serious with my music so I joined a resident ‘Mecca' band in a South Wales nightclub who had just acquired a recording deal resulting in my first UK single release as a writer / performer. However the album we'd expensively recorded never saw the light of day and I started searching for new avenues with which to exploit my music ideas. After a chance meeting in a London studio, I was then headhunted by Eurovision winners ‘Brotherhood Of Man' who I joined as a frontline member earning me my first UK chart hit. During my time with them, I was mentored by the band's manager / producer, multi Ivor Novello award winning songwriter Tony Hiller, developing my writing skills, learning how to arrange music and studio production techniques. The most invaluable advice he gave me was how to ‘create your own luck' in the music business by working hard at it. After a few enjoyable years with ‘Brotherhood' as a touring headlining concert act, including performing in front of the Pope, reaching the ‘Song For Europe' finals and an album release on EMI, I spread my wings in the mid 80s diversifying into dance music and became the resident DJ at the ‘Hammersmith Palais' in London. After the extreme ‘middle of the roadness' of Brotherhood, becoming ‘hip' was a real challenge. However, I somehow managed to achieve some credibility in the dance market and ex ‘Radio Luxembourg' legend Tony Prince then signed me as a solo artiste to his new label via Arista records. DMC was the hippest DJ / Re-mixer label at that time resulting in plenty of production work offers which kept me going right into the early 90s. I also secured my first album release in the States and had many UK and international dance hits. During this period I also got to work with and produce some acts that I had bought records of when I was a child such as The Barron Knights and Frankie Vaughan (sadly my favourite Beatles, were no longer available). In 1990, on one of my many jaunts to the ‘Midem' music trade fair in Cannes, I met a fledgling A&R man by the name of Simon Cowell who was very interested in a couple of my productions. He gave me my first major publishing deal, which enabled me to purchase my own top quality recording studio, and one year later, a UK top ten pop hit on his new label at BMG. Hit releases that followed included one of my songs produced by Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) and with FA Cup finalists Crystal Palace (recorded at Abbey Road). When tuneless ‘rave' music became fashionable in the early 90s, I did an about turn and gave up my DJ activities in top nightclubs in favour of my new found passion, playing tuneful Country Rock music live. This resulted in songwriting trips to Nashville USA and the production of an album full of my new American country style tunes although I was still keeping my dance and pop music hats on producing and writing with acts such as ‘Hazell Dean' and ‘Dollar'. I also had a spell as musical director for ‘Bucks Fizz' and another FA Cup Final hit, this time with Chelsea FC. The country rock album led me to the line dancing scene which was the new craze of ‘96/'97 and together with the help of line dance expert Steve Crosby, who was running the national UK championships, I auditioned and created the poptabulous ‘Steps', and wrote ‘5-6-7-8' which eventually became a worldwide hit, subsequently a party pop standard. After nearly every major label turned us and ‘Steps' down (they thought a boy / girl act was not fashionable anymore), Pete Waterman jumped in, signed the act up and on they went to legendary status. In late ‘97, I now had a surplus of New Country Rock songs written and recorded partly in the States and so I released another solo album, this time with a line dance theme (unashamedly titled 5-6-7-8, The Album) resulting in a couple of ‘Country Music Television' video hits on TV and an inclusion in the top selling UK line dance compilation alongside Dire Straits and many top performers from the USA. I subsequently got the chance to appear in a feature film with Patrick Stewart, singing and playing one of my own songs. After a couple of years of trying to re-create the success of ‘Steps' with various young ‘wannabes' who hadn't the necessary work ethic (although I came very close on a couple of occasions, e.g. ‘Waikiki', the worlds first all female surf band), I turned to producing and writing with seasoned professionals such as long term friend ‘Shane Richie' and punk icon lunatic ‘John Otway' of whom I had been a real fan for many years. It was with great pleasure that I helped John realize his dream of having a top ten hit on the very week of his 50 th birthday in '02 by producing the track which resulted in us both appearing on Top Of The Pops and at The London Palladium in the same week. We followed that success up with a co-written album which I also produced including my first ever Rock anthem and riff, the song becoming an Otway fans' live classic. After that followed hits in '03 with another FA Cup final song, this time for Southampton, then in '04 with ‘The Cheeky Girls' and my own current live band (under the name of ‘HotPantz'), the latter becoming my first Christmas single success. During the last couple of years I've achieved chart status with some World Cup related songs ('06) and an updated re-record of the classic ‘Grease' album ('07) plus a song inclusion in the Oscar winning film ‘Little Miss Sunshine' ('07). As I write these notes during summer 2007, I look back over my 30 years of record releases and can say with all sincerity that I'm proud of all the tracks on this compilation whether ‘cheesy' or ‘credible' and although it may be unfashionable in some quarters, I'm deliriously happy to be a ‘pop tart'. Barry Upton Below is a selection of my single & album covers over the years ! To obtain a copy of this greatest hits album, email barry@cordellamusic.co.uk

Barry's latest production release is the hit album 'The Complete Halloween Party Album'. This follows other recent hits on GUT Records, "We Love Grease" & Football Crazy"

Currently on sale is an album co-written with Shane Richie called Once Around The Sun on Shake Records a division of Barry's company Cordella Music Limited.

One of Barry's most recent successes is with former rock/punk icon (now a disco king) John Otway with whom he had a number 9 hit called Bunsen Burner in Oct 2002

An ardent fan of Otway for many years, Barry co-wrote and produced a series of tracks for the army of Otway fans to choose from. They picked Bunsen Burner and helped put John back in the charts after a 25 year run of flops, ending his "one hit wonder" status and resulting in John, with Barry on keyboards, appearing on Top Of The Pops.

Barry’s greatest success is the million selling popsters STEPS for whom he co-wrote, co- produced and arranged. He also created the fab five from the original conception through to the placing of the ad. in THE STAGE and the auditioning. With help from Steve Crosby, Pete Waterman and Tim Byrne, he then created the look, dance and scenario which enabled the band to become one of the worlds biggest pop acts.

Barry wrote ‘5,6,7,8' which was the party dance hit of Xmas ‘97 and after 17 weeks in the UK chart, climbed all over Europe and the Far East topping the Australian chart at No.1. It’s now a party standard and has subsequently appeared on nearly every party compilation released including the current hit "I Love 2 Party"

The follow up singles ‘Last Thing On My Mind’, ‘One For Sorrow’, Heartbeat/Tragedy’ and ‘Better Best Forgotten’ have all been big hits worldwide including a 30 week stay in the UK chart for Heartbeat/Tragedy peaking at No.1. The album ‘Step One’ has gone 4 times platinum in the UK and has sold over 2.5 million worldwide, plus gained success in the US Billboard chart. Steps Gold has now sold 1.5 Million in the UK alone.

Apart from the many gold and platinum awards for STEPS, Barry also received a silver disc for the hot selling NO.1 LINE DANCING DANCING ALBUM (Polygram TV) with himself, together with Wild At Heart, performing his own song ‘I’m Still Falling’. His self produced and directed video of this song was a Hot Shot on CMT Europe.

In the early eighties, Barry was a frontline member of the multi-hit, chart topping act Brotherhood Of Man, appearing in concert with them internationally. Although not an original Eurovision winner, he was the musical arranger and co-wrote a lot of their material during his time with them.

Since then, Barry has fronted his own bands, currently the highly successful WILD AT HEART and HOT PANTS A GO GO

He has also appeared as a personality DJ including a year as the main presenter at London’s ‘Hammersmith Palais’. During his time at the ‘Palais’, he played the part of a DJ in the feature film ‘Foreign Body’ (Orion Films), and was an artist with DMC/Arista Records.

Although Barry’s production work has taken him into many top studios in London, such as PWL, EMI ‘Abbey Road’, across Europe (including Paris and Barcelona) and Nashville (USA), he works mainly in his own state of the art studio which has spawned many of his recent successes.

In 1998 Barry appeared in a ‘Polygram International’ film called ‘DAD SAVAGE’. With his band , Wild At Heart, Barry performed 2 of his own songs while the star of the film, Patrick Stewart (Star Trek), danced.

Barry had a video of him performing his self penned song ‘Hey! You On The Radio’ regularly playing on CMT Europe during 1997. The track is originally from the self produced CD ‘Barry Upton - Wild At Heart’.

Although not politically motivated, during the summer of ‘95 he was asked to provide and musically direct his band for the Labour Party (and the Daily Mirror), on their high profile ‘Rolling Rose’ tour of the UK.  Hilariously for Barry, this included TV appearances on current affairs programmes (Panorama, On The Record, News At Ten etc.), with Tony Blair, John Prescott and various other members of the then, shadow cabinet.

T.V. and radio appearances include many international appearances with "Brotherhood of Man", "Jameson Tonight","The Big Breakfast", "VH1", "The James Whale Show", "Johnny Walker (Radio 2)", "Top Of The Pops" and various other promotional interviews, videos and musical items.

In July of ‘94, he took his act to Bosnia with comic Jim Davidson for a successful CSE tour of military installations. During March of the same year, Barry interviewed many top New Country artistes in Nashville, Tennessee for a radio series which he also produced.

For information:

Telephone: Barry Upton ~ 08450 616616 (local call rate)
Mobile: 07831 456348
Email: Barry@barryupton.co.uk

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and check out some of my artistes

¦ Wild at Heart ¦ Hot Pants a Go Go ¦ In Production ¦

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