Paul Barrett

Paul "Legs" Barrett
Paul 'Legs' Barrett in his office
Background information
Birth name	Paul Franklyn Barrett
Born	(1940-12-14) 14 December 1940 (age 76)
Origin	Blackwood, Wales
Occupation(s)	Rock and roll music manager and agent, author
Years active	1958 – present date
Associated acts	Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets, Dave Edmunds, Wee Willie Harris, Bill Haley and the Comets, The Jets, Matchbox, Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Linda Gail Lewis.
Website	rockabillyhall.com

Paul Franklyn "Legs" Barrett (born 14 December 1940) is a UK agent and manager of 1950s style Rock and Roll artistes, an author and previously a singer, songwriter and film actor. Barrett is the discoverer, mentor and first manager of the singer now known as Shakin' Stevens during the 1960s and 1970s, but has also represented and promoted many more of the genre's greats during a long and varied career.

Barrett was born in Blackwood, Monmouthshire, in 1940 but moved to Penarth near Cardiff, at an early age, where he has lived ever since. His father was a brass moulder and his mother was a housewife and author. His parents named him Paul after Paul Robeson the black American Marxist Communist and Francis after Sir Francis Drake. However Barrett always disliked his middle name and formally changed it in 1961 to Franklyn because he preferred the name and admired Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

He was educated at Cogan School, King's College, Cardiff and Victoria Road School, Penarth. On leaving secondary school Barrett had several mundane jobs including photographer's assistant, market barrow-boy, door-to-door salesman, council labourer, brewery worker, warehouseman, plastics-moulder, potato-packer, railway-signalman, shop assistant, grassmower, hospital porter and hotel receptionist.

During the 1950s he developed a passion for American rock and roll music. In his spare time he started acting as agent and manager for Penarth's first rock group, the Backbeats. He began promoting teenage dances at the local venue, the Paget Rooms, that would continue until the early 1980s. Barrett was active in promoting events during the annual Penarth Holiday Fortnight each July.

A supporter of American Rock and Roll DJ Alan Freed, Barrett also organised film nights at the Paget Rooms. He also opened a specialist rock and roll record shop on Glebe Street.

To cash in on the 1960s psychedelic movement in British music the Backbeats briefly shifted to performing as the 'flower power'-style "Earl Fuggle and the Electric Poets". Barrett himself took the persona of Earl Fuggle on lead vocals. The idea developed into a performance group named "The 98% mother and Apple Pie West Coast Rock and Roll Band".