I’m sad to say that Barry Riddington passed away on March 7. Barry (with Malcolm Holmes and a third partner) was the driving force behind HTD Records in the 90s, which morphed into Talking Elephant Records – a happy home for many old-school British folk and rock musicians making new music, along with licensed in reissues of music in that vein.
Barry and Malcolm were like the Blues Brothers of the Home Counties: well-mannered grammar school boys in leather jackets and cowboy hats, happy to sign up morris dancers and people who used to be in Caravan, or Fairport, or that sort of thing. They were on a mission from God – to save 70s rock.
Barry was as self-deprecating as the day is long, and he and Malcolm had sort of bumbled into the music game and made mistakes along the way, but Barry was no fool – more than once he picked himself and his label off the floor and turned it around. More importantly, he was a wonderful human being – he was a generous man and a great friend to anyone who knew him, and the world is a poorer place without him. He’d been » Continue Reading.