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A Night At The John Barry Tribute
CBn Forum member 'Jaelle' relays her personal experience...
Written by Guest Writer on 28 May, 2004
John Barry’s 70th birthday tribute was hosted by Dalton in New York on May 25th at Carnegie Hall (original report). CBn forum members Jaelle Nicholas (Jaelle) and Tom Stroud (trs007) had the pleasure of attending. Tom was able to capture a priceless portrait of John Barry to share with us and Jaelle has graciously agreed to share her experiences from the night…
Written by Jaelle Nicholas
Seeing how this event involved the very great John Barry in person, whose presence was even more important than that of Timothy Dalton’s for any James Bond fan. 
For me, there are two men who are the most responsible for the powerful, indelible, enduring iconic mythos of the cinematic James Bond: Sean Connery and John Barry. I think John Barry is just as important as Sean Connery to the cinematic Bond. So while I certainly went to see Timothy Dalton, I would’ve gone to this event if it had been just John Barry up there. To see one of the best film composers EVER in person, the guy who composed so much wonderful James Bond music, to get to see him up close answering questions? Me miss that? I don’t think so!
Even apart from his 007 work, he’s responsible for some of my favorite film scores. The Lion In Winter is definitely one of them. I’ve had the vinyl LP soundtrack for years. I would love this film with or without Timothy as I love the cast, the subject matter, the screenplay, the film’ style, look and direction; and the music. God, that music! The experience of sitting there (and we had excellent seats) so close to the orchestra watching the film clips go by on the giant screen, with the music so powerfully present, so crystal clear… I had goose bumps! Carnegie Hall is famous for its incredible acoustics; every time I go to a concert there, I come out of it wishing I could bottle that sound up and release it into my apt. whenever I chose; of course my landlord would probably evict me…
The Evening’s Proceedings
- 7:00 pm: A moderated Q&A session with Timothy Dalton and John Barry; the audience for this was smaller than the audience for the concert at 8:00. You could choose your own seats for the Q&A.
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8:00 pm: The Collegiate Chorale and an orchestra perform the score to The Lion In Winter accompanied by relevant clips from the film on a big screen overhead. (trivia: Barry did the score for three of Dalton’s films: The Lion In Winter —for which he won the Academy Award—, The Living Daylights, and Mary Queen of Scots.
The Q & A
We were sitting very close to the stage for the Q&A. It felt very intimate. John Barry came out and I was struck at how thin and frail he looks. It was his 70th birthday. Nonetheless, he spoke with energy, alertness and enthusiasm. Tim came out looking fantastic, he’s really taken care of himself in the last year. He was dressed in his usual black suit and looked very cool.
Before opening it up the audience, the moderator first had a discussion with both of them. Here are some of the more memorable items…
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When questions were opened up for the audience, the first person chosen was a guy who directed his comments to Timothy Dalton. He wanted to tell Dalton how much he appreciated his portrayal of Bond. He said something like “when I saw that first sight of you in the pre-credits, it all became crystal clear, it was Ian Fleming…” He then said (paraphrasing) that “both you gentlemen” have been so important “to me.” Dalton graciously thanked him but immediately brought the attention back to John Barry by pointing to John and saying something like “he had such an important impact on the film and this is his evening.”
One guy got up and asked about John Barry’s score for Somewhere In Time. He said that it had one of the saddest pieces of music on any film score that he’d ever heard and wondered what was going on in John’s personal life at the time. John smiled, a little confused at the question and said (laughing) “mind your own business!” He then said he didn’t remember but it was obviously not good.
That’s all I can remember about the Q&A for the moment. It only went on for about a half hour. I liked how easy both Dalton and Barry interacted with each other, it was obvious they both get along and respect each other very much.
When the Q&A finished, John Barry and the moderator left first and Dalton was the last to walk off. As he walked off the stage, several audience members (many of whom were Bond fans and Timothy Dalton fans) went up to him to greet him, possibly ask for autographs and take photos. One girl did manage to get a photo of him. I think he signed one or two autographs, that’s all. One young woman from India with a great sense of humor said “Dude, you rock!” – which made him laugh.
The Concert
Later on, when it came time for Timothy Dalton to introduce the concert, we were just bowled over by the graciousness of his presentation. His powerful booming voice came over the mike and folks around us who’d never seen him said stuff like “wow, what a voice!” It was great to hear Dalton’s UK accent back in full force too. Living in the US so many years had weakened it. In his introduction he said how it was 36 years ago that he first came to “this great city” for the premiere of The Lion In Winter and how young and uncertain he was about the whole experience. He eloquently described the power of Barry’s score for the film and told us all to “have a wonderful evening.”
It was a fantastic evening!
