From Jamaica to Glastonbury: Barrington Chambers on Resilience, Music, and Inclusive Innovation

In the vibrant world of music, where melody knows no boundaries, Barrington Chambers is an inspiring figure. In our latest edition of "Gear Gadgets and Gizmos," we had the privilege to interview Barrington, a remarkable Afro Caribbean musician whose journey is nothing short of extraordinary.

A short time after coming to the UK from Jamaica in 1999 Barrington's life took an unexpected turn when he became blind . But instead of letting this challenge define him, he embraced it and embarked on a musical odyssey that continues to entertain audiences worldwide.

This talented musician is a multi-instrumentalist, mastering the bass guitar, drums, saxophone, harmonica, and more. His passion for music led him to co-found the Bristol Reggae Orchestra, a musical ensemble that blends diverse talents to create reggae music.  Accompanied by the Windrush choir, they have graced the stage at prestigious events, including the iconic Glastonbury Festival in 2023.

Beyond the musical stage, Barrington's commitment to fostering young musical talent is truly commendable. He and several other musicians are actively involved in teaching music to young enthusiasts in the Bristol and south west area, nurturing the next generation of musical prodigies. 

On top of all this  Barrington's  dedicates  time to working with Bristol Council on access issues and is a valued member of the RIDC Consumer Panel and regularly test products and services to ensure they are accessible and inclusive. 

Transcript

Phil: Hello, everybody it's Phil Friend here and welcome to the latest edition of the Gear, Gadgets and Gizmos show, a podcast, which I do usually with guests who talk about the things they use to overcome the disabilities they have or the barriers that their disabilities put in their way. And today I've got a very unusual guest. Actually, it's first time I've ever had on the show, a musical guest. I don't mean he's going to kind of. Do stuff immediately, but Barrington Chambers, as you'll find out is a very talented musician and we're going to find out a bit about him and what he does and how he does it. Hello, Barrington. Welcome. How are you? 

Barrington: Good afternoon, Phil. I'm doing well today.  

Phil: Good, good, good, good. So Barrington, I I've teased the listeners a little bit by saying you're a, I didn't say musical genius, but I'm sure you are. But Barrington, tell me a little bit about, I'm going to start right back in the beginning because you were born in Jamaica, Jamaica, I believe, weren't you? 

Barrington: Yes, I was born in St. James, Montego Bay, Jamaica. 

Phil: Very nice to better weather than we ever get over here. That's for sure. And how you grew up in Jamaica, did you Barrington and then came to the UK? How did that story work? 

Barrington: Yes, I grew up in Jamaica, became an engineer from high school days into college, then worked in the tourist industry for many years. And then ended up with my family, like aunties, cousins ended up in England here, and then ended up living 

Phil: sort of year was that, Barrington? When did you come over? 

Barrington: I came to England the first time in 2000, 1999, 2000 millennium. Then as we call it 

Phil: Right, okay. And so, okay, so now I think most of us, those of us of any kind of musical taste, know that Jamaica, the West Indies, are famous for certain kinds of music. Obviously, reggae being one, and I, I used to love reggae and ska music when I was younger. How did your interest in music begin? 

Barrington: As a child growing up, I would say most of my cousins. around me were um, singers then, not even instrumentalists, but singers. My granddad died before I was born, but I remember in the house there was a saxophone and there was a harmonica. And I used to say to my mom, whose instruments are those? You know, cause nobody was playing them. They were like growing dust and everything. And she used to say, Oh, your granddad was a musician. And I thought, Oh, so then I used to mess around the harmonica. And everything started there. Music was, I don't know. And then around us, there was lots of sound systems, like in like a one square mile, there was four sound system, just in a short, you can walk from place to place. And there was a sound system there. And my aim was to be a selector to play the records. I used to love that as a little boy, they used to put me on the record box to stand in front of the turntable and spin the records. And that's where I  started in music. 

Phil: And I understand that you've got a sight impairment, Barrington. So, when did that begin? Were you born, or did you, as a child, did you have your sight impairment play a part of your life? Or has this come much later on? 

Barrington: Well, that came much later on in, while I was in England, I worked as an engineer, as I used to do in Jamaica. And then I realised that my left eye was like getting dark and in the midst of all of that, I could see good at night, but my eyes were dark in the daytime. I could still drive at night, but I hardly could drive in the daytime. And then I went for a test and everything started there. And then. I remember I met with a professor from the, the, the eye hospital in Bristol here, and then they did so much tests and I, I just couldn't understand what they were doing, but they were like astonished to say at your age. Your eyes shouldn't be like this, and they run all these tests, and then when they found out what was  wrong, they said immediate surgery, immediate, not even a week or two after, immediate surgery.  

Phil: hmm.  

Barrington: And that's where everything started to, you know, to get worse then. 

Phil: And has your sight got worse over the years then, Barrington, or did the surgery kind of arrest it? 

Barrington: Yes, it got worse over the years, but then the surgery kind of helped me to protect, you know, a little bit. Because I can see light perception, but like to identify people's face or sometimes it's really dark and then sometimes it's grey, you know, so it's in different conditions at different times. Yes. 

Phil: Yeah. So, okay. So that's, that's helpful. We get a kind of sense of how your, your life changed when that happened. So going back to the music, cause this is the thing that you're passionate about. I know you went from learning how to play instruments by just hearing other people and then playing them yourself, the harmonica, the saxophone and stuff? You come over to the UK, your sight gets worse. How did you adjust from being a sighted musician to being a blind musician? How did that, were there real issues for you there or was it easy? How did that work? 

Barrington: Yes. There was um, say big issues, but you know, 'cause if you were doing it from the beginning and you understand certain things you can make, do, you know with what you have around you and all of that. But I try to adapt in certain ways. Certain places listen more, more attentive. And I got one of my friend. He said to me, if you, if you could do it before now, you can still do it. And then he, he referred to um, Stevie He said, look at Stevie Wonder, he can do it. So why can't you do it? And then I started to do keyboard lessons with him. You know, we just practice, practice. And at the time there was a place in Bristol called Institute for the Blind Royal National Institute for the Blind. 

And every Friday we used to do keyboard lessons there, you know, just mess around, practice, and then learn by ear. And then after that. I decided I want to do the drums because I did drums in Jamaica before as a child in school. And then I tried to do it, but it was like, Oh, I'm not accurate enough because I know what I could do before. And then practicing, practicing, practicing. I ended up buying a drum kit for myself. And as I said, the rest is history. 

Phil: So you play a number of instruments, don't you? So your drums, your keyboards, your harmonica, your saxophone. Do you, which instrument do you prefer? Which is your favourite? 

Barrington: love bass, guitar, and drums. Those are my two favorite um,  

Phil: And you didn't mention bass guitar before. So presumably you learned that, I don't know, fairly recently. Did you, or has that always been  

Barrington: No, I learned that in Jamaica because for example, now There's a lot of recording studios in Jamaica. So as a child, when we're coming from school, we could stop at the recording studio or on a  Friday or Saturday evening when, you know, like the musicians having a break, we would sit there and watch them through the glass doing what they're doing. 

And then when they're having a break, we could go and take up the instrument. And if you're a nice little child and they like you, in favour, you know, sometimes they'll say, no, put on the instrument, you know, it's expensive. Don't touch it. What is sometimes they would say. No, I would say to them, Oh, I heard you play that rhythm there, or that baseline, can I practice it? And I said, yeah. And then they would say, start on A or B or C or G. Those are the main chords or chords notes on the bass guitar. And then I would sit there and they said, we're not going to tell you what to play, but listen to what we just play and see if you can listen to it and replicate the same thing then. And that's how I started on the bass guitar. 

Phil: And do you read music?  

Barrington: No, I can't read music no.  

Phil: Right. So this is all done by ear. You're just listening to the tunes and then playing them back and practice, practice, practice. Okay, so now what the listeners don't know, but I do know because you shared it with me, is that you've played at Glastonbury. 

Barrington: Yes, I did. 
 

Phil: And I think this this year, was it 2023? 

Barrington: Yes. Um, 2023. Before, before I get into Glastonbury, if I tell you something about the musical background, in 2009, people who knew that I did music over the years. We were like sitting in front of my gate, there was a park and there were some benches. So we were sitting there one day and there was a reggae band called Black Roots Reggae Band from the 70s, 80s. So I was sitting there with some of the older, I would say grandfathers, you know, gentlemen. I was just chatting about music and one of the guys was the lead singer then he said to me. You're, you're a young Barrington and we are older. You guys should still keep the reggae going. And while we were chatting, somebody came on and said um, center, which is the library down in St Paul's, there are some flyers saying that they want to start a music group just like that. You know, we were just sitting, chatting the day. It was a nice summer's day. And somebody went for one of the flyer, read it to me. And they said, we want to want to get some musicians and start a reggae orchestra. Not a, not a um, band or anything, specifically a reggae orchestra. And I thought, Oh, where are we going to find so much musicians? And then the guy said to me, you have to be involved in this, Barrington. So that was and then by Christmas, January 2010, they put out some more serious plans and said, please come and join us at the learning center on, you know, they gave the date. And then on that night, there was about 25 people turn up. I turned up, but I didn't take anything with me, you know, just to see what they were going to do. And the Bristol Reggae Orchestra was born right there. So I'm a part of the Bristol Reggae Orchestra ever since 2010. We grew from there. 

Phil: are the musicians, are they disabled musicians or are they just disabled and non-disabled musicians? I mean, how do 

Barrington: Yes. There there's, I'm the only disabled person I would say in it,  

Phil: but,  

Barrington: but, there are all people who have slight disability, you know, not. serious disability like to say, you that's  

Phil: So this, this is remarkable. So from a park bench, having a chat with some older people, we suddenly go to a reggae orchestra playing at Glastonbury. Do we, how, how, how did the, I mean, presumably you had to find somewhere to practice. And when you say orchestra, do you mean violins and things like that? Or is it, is it mainly wind instruments like trumpets and trombones and that kind of stuff? How does that work? The orchestra? 

Barrington: All right, let's go. Let's go at the instruments. It's a full orchestra. We have trombones, saxophone, violin base drums, rhythm and lead guitar. Um, it, a percussion, all type of percussion. It's a full, 

Phil: And, and the people are all what, largely amateurs? 

Barrington: oh no, there are lots of professional people there. There's only a few amateurs who learned, you know, came in and learned, but everybody's like, has studied music some in some form, you know, like classical or, you know, anything like that. Yeah. 

Phil: Right. And how was it decided that it would be reggae? 

Barrington: Because of the area that the orchestra was formed, it's the St. Paul's is the place that most Jamaicans lived in the forties after the war. And so what they call the Windrush people, when they came to Bristol, then. it. That's the area that they lived in 

Phil: Yes, because famously, St. Paul's is where there was a lot of trouble, wasn't there, in the 70s and  

Barrington: the 80s. Yes. Yeah,  

Phil: because of deprivation and so on and so forth. So yes, I think we probably heard of St. Paul's for the wrong reasons. But actually, it was a very vibrant Afro Caribbean community. And out of this comes the Reggae Orchestra. Fantastic, unbelievably brilliant idea. And so, you find yourself going from a park bench... To Glastonbury, I guess. It wasn't quite as quick as that, but how did the invitation to to Glastonbury come about? 

Barrington: Um, said, I mean, loads of concerts from like London, right down to Cardiff everywhere. so We are well known in, you know, in the south and the southwest. And people who know about us said, you guys should, you should go further, you know? So over the years, we did a CD sometime for charity then, not to sell it. Or even if we sell them, you know, the money goes to charity. And then people keep hearing the music and they said, Oh, you guys should do this, you do that. And then last year um, year is the 75th year of the Windrush. to Britain. . Glastonbury decided they want to have something cultural. And in January this year, we had an email from Michael Eaves office, the, the guy who runs Glastonbury, to say, They want to do something about the Windrush, and we heard that you guys was doing something about Windrush. From last year, we got some people together and started the Windrush Choir last year, and they sang alongside the orchestra  

Phil: Ah, right. 

Barrington: Glastonbury heard about it, and they sent us an email, but we didn't take it serious. We thought somebody was pulling our legs. anyway... A few of us in the committee got together and said, all right, let's reply to the email and see if it's true. And then we had another reply from them again to say, yes, we want you to play. And also Elton John is playing the same day and he wanted some cultural music to open the stage for him. And then the rest, as I said, is history. 

Phil: so you were, you introduced in a sense Elton John's set. 

Barrington: Yes. Yeah. We, we played first. We opened the stage. That's the main stage, which is called a pyramid stage. 

Phil: Yes. Yeah. Famous. Absolutely famous. Not many people been on the Pyramid  stage, but you're one of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And how did that go? Did it, was it an absolute, you know, did you thoroughly enjoy? Was it very, were you very stressed? Did you get very nervous? 

Barrington: no, I can't tell you. I never get stressed when it comes to music. Music is like adrenaline for me. As soon as I hit the stage. I'm ready to go. So I always tell people, whenever you think you're thinking about music, do not get stressed over music. Just go and play music, practice, practice, practice, play, play, play. When you get on stage, you should smile. Enjoy what you're doing. That's how I learned it in Jamaica. I've played alongside very famous people in Jamaica, like Reggae Sunsplash. In the, in the 80s, 90s, I played on concerts like, you know, just what we call, there's a thing in Jamaica we call bandstand. So in like towns and cities, you have a stage where you can go and play your music or your instrument on a Saturday afternoon. 

Phil: Yeah. Now, okay. So this is, this is brilliant. But you're a blind man. Let's focus for a minute or two on how you manage that because obviously you practice you have to get to rehearsals You have to do all sorts of stuff with colleagues that you don't see You have to walk on to the Pyramid stage, you know There's all all sorts of things that sighted people of course would take very much for granted But how do you manage? That musical life, because you're touring around the country or obviously playing different instruments at different gigs. How do you manage your sight impairment? Are there things that perhaps you do that a non-disabled person wouldn't think of doing in order to be able to do what you do? 

Barrington: Yes, what I do, for example, when I'm going to rehearsal, I walk to rehearsal from my house. 'cause I know exactly where the place is. It's not too far from my house. Then I would get somebody, 'cause I've got a key for the store room where, where we store all the drums and all the equipment. So I'll get somebody to help me to take out, we put a piece of carpet on the floor to put the drums on, you know, 'cause the drum, the, the legs of the drum can rip the, the floor apart. So things like those, we get our drums ready. I would set up the drums. I know how I like the drums. I know what sound the drum should make. So you can tune the drums or, you know, you can, if it's proper winter and they are cold, you can just get a lighter and warm the drum, the skin of the drums. So there are so many things, techniques, you know, that I would use. And then people would come in. I would tell the guitar where to stay. I would tell the bass player where to stay. Because I like the bass player to be on my left hand. 

Phil: Mm 

Barrington: The guitarist on the right. For example, the bass player must be playing and watching my hand. So you know where the bridge comes in. So when you hear the bridge, the doom, doom, doom, doom, the bass player must realise where I'm playing. So he's playing and the bass player is a right handed person. you know,  

Phil: So so you're positioning people where you want them to be so that you don't have to look for them You know where they are. You can sense and hear them. Yeah.  

Barrington: Yeah. I can turn to the left and I'm talking to bass player. He's not the guitarist over to the left. You know, so things like those. Yeah. So because as a fully sighted person in Jamaica, that's how they do it in in regular music. So if somebody is performing, say you're playing for a singer and. They are, they are singing and conducting or DJing and conducting at the same time. And they say, mix me, you know, exactly that you're saying they need like a one drop beat like doom, doom, doom, doom, doom. We call a clave beat in, in, in, in music. So the bass, the bass player must see when you raise your stick and which drum you're going to play on. So they know the bridge is going to start right there. 

Phil: What about some of the logistics of getting from place to place, town to town? How does that work for you? Hotels? I'm guessing you stay overnight sometimes in places. How do you manage that side of things? But obviously you say you walk from your house to the rehearsal rooms and so on, you know where everything is. But when you go on a tour, when you go and play in another town, how do you manage that? 

Barrington: Generally, the other musicians around would help me or, for example, when we went to Glastonbury, I specifically asked for, for me to take a guide with me because, you know, it's a massive crowd, a hundred and a thousand people, 200, 000 to get through. So I took somebody directly with me instead of me sitting and waiting for somebody to come and walk with me through the crowd. I had somebody with me at every moment then. 

Phil: Right. Did you camp? Were you in a little tent?  

Barrington: No, I didn't. I didn't want to do that because I wasn't sure if it's going to rain and all these things and I thought I don't want to be living in that mud.  

Phil: too sensible, aren't you? Yeah, you're a bit too sensible. 

Barrington: Yes. 
 

Phil: Yeah. A blind man in a mud bath.  That wouldn't be much fun, would it? But okay, so, so you use a person as your gadget. The person helps you through the crowds and does all of that stuff. What about other, other things? Do you have to adapt any of your instruments for your use or is there anything that you do that a sighted person wouldn't have to do  

Barrington: yes. For example, my personal bass guitar on the back of it, I marked the third fret, the sixth fret, and the eighth. 

Phil: And when you say marked it, what have you used to mark it  

Barrington: So I get like for example a hacksaw but not, not to say cut the guitar, but I'd put a specific mark. It's like a Braille mark. It's like a Braille mark, but it's faint, but I can feel it easy. 

Phil: Okay. And that helps you position your fingers.  

Barrington: So for example, if say I was playing some music alongside you and you said, all right, we're going to start um, G  I can immediately, I just move my finger on top of the neck of the bass guitar. And right there, the first mark is G right there. 

Phil: Right. 

Barrington: So I don't have to look, I don't have to look on the guitar to say, Oh, where's on the bass guitar to say, where is G. So I just slide my hand down and then right there is G. 

Phil: Yeah. So a very simple thing like that. I mean, I think we often think that gadgets have to be all, all the things we use have to be expensive and technical and, but here you are just leaving a little mark in a certain place on the back of the guitar. And you know exactly where your, where your fingers should go to start. It's very simple, isn't it? So obvious, but yeah, works for you. What about the future then? Barrington, I mean. You've had a, I mean, Glastonbury must have been an absolutely amazing event. I mean, I don't know. You tell me how that felt. Yeah. 

Barrington: Glastonbury was top of the top you know, it's, it's the best, the largest crowd. The most  relaxing crowd because we're well fed, you know, everything, you know, we had um, just next to um, Elton We had other artists, famous pop stars, you know, we're just there sharing, taking photographs with us and all of that. So, you know, they loved it. People are saying, Oh, we need to work with you guys. We'd love, you know, the sound quality we're hearing today. Yeah. So Sophie, Alice Baxter, she. Came over and give me a hug. And she said, you know what? I think I need to work with you guys. I love the sound. So I said, watch this space. I don't know what's going to happen soon. 

Phil: Well, I was going to ask you, you know, that must have, as you said, you did clearly, you met some great musicians, some very famous people that you know, travel all over the world and so on. And if they like what you were doing and they invite you to go on tour. So are there, what are your plans for the future with the orchestra? Do you have anything set up or you're just going to see whether Elton John gives you a call? 

Barrington: No, serious. I know we're going to get called because we have, we have had calls over the  years to do um, um, sessions people or. You know, it's, it's, people just want to come and chill out, you know, relax and watch us capture some videos and then take it back and see to say to their management and all of that, what you're thinking. 

So there's a lot of things in the pipeline. And also on top of the orchestra, I do teach music in schools also a small group of  

Phil: that's your kind of day job  

Barrington: Yes, so there's a small group, about eight of us from the orchestra that goes into school right across Bristol, South Gloucestershire and do music in schools with kids like, you know, we do like a four hours per day and all of that. So drums, bass, guitar, keyboard. Trombone, saxophone, you know, clarinet, flute, 

Phil: And does, and, and your sight impairment, does that get in the way of that or do they just, it just gets organised? 

Barrington: just get organised, but nothing stops me. As I said, nothing  

Phil: that's, clear.  

Barrington: and I've got that type of attitude. Even people said, Oh, you can't do that. I said, watch me go through mate or watch me do that. 

Phil: Yes. Well, you went to Glastonbury and survived the mud. So you've got to be a miracle man. No question about that. So the future is looking quite bright then because obviously Glastonbury. People, I mean, 100, 000 people saw you, but also you, you were rubbing shoulders with some of the, the great musicians in the world at the time. 
 

So the phone is bound to ring. What about you personally in terms of music? Do you write your own music? Barrington or? 

Barrington: I've written, I've ghostwritten songs. I've written songs for myself. Yes. So yes, I've done that over the years. Yeah, 

Phil: Yeah. You mentioned your work with the youngsters, the children in schools and so on. How do you spend? So is that a paid job? Do you get paid for doing the  

Barrington: not really paid. What we do is um, for example, it's city council or different charities will put money in for us. Like, you know, lunch transportation. 

Phil: Yes.  

Barrington: Yeah. All those things. Yes.  So  

Phil: Yeah. So it's kind of the expenses rather than a paid.  

Barrington: Yeah.  it's something that I love and I find the time to do it. So I said, let's do it then. 

Phil: Yeah. So do you have regular work other than that or you, that's what you mainly do? 

Barrington: Oh no, I do um, accessibility for, um, disabled people also. So like, um, business places, um, you name it, entertainment places, all of that. Um, how new houses being built and all of that. So there's a team that I work with all disabled people, visually impaired wheelchair access, and um, what we do is. The city council or different organisation, when they have blueprints or changes being done at certain places, they would send us the job request and everything, and then we would go there and do the measurement um, anything in access, even colour coordination and all of that, floor colour and all of those things, wheelchair access, bathroom size, doors. It's everything. So it's all accessibility. 

Phil: Right, so, and I know that one of the reasons you and I are talking to each other is because you're a panel member of the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers, you're one of our panel members, and that's, you test products and help us make sure that these units Things are inclusive that people can use them. 

So on top of that, you do your access work. On top of that, you do your teaching with youngsters. And on top of that, you chill out with 47 different instruments that you play with an orchestra. I mean, what more is there to life? It sounds to me like you've got it sorted. 

Barrington: Exactly. You know, for example, you know, as a, as a fully sighted person, then I know I'm visually impaired. People do say to me sometimes, what keeps you going? And I said, I don't know. People said to me, Barrington, you're always smiling. You know what? Sometimes I wake up in the morning, I can't, I catch myself singing songs. 

Believe me. It's just, I'm that type of person. I don't let. I don't say nothing. I don't let things keep me down or get me down. As I said, there's too much to life, especially nowadays. To be politically correct or doing things and it just miserable. No, no, no. I'm not into that. I  just want to be happy, cheerful. So music keeps me going all the time. 

Phil: So. My kind of final question, really, I was going to ask you, but it seems to me, I know the answer already, but I'll ask, which is, so when you're not doing all these things you know, teaching and doing access audits and those kinds of things and working for the panel how do you relax? How do you sort of just chill? I know, I know what the answer is going to be, but I'm still going to ask. What's the answer? 

Barrington: Believe me, music and more music and more music. I've got a little studio in my house. I've got a drum kit. I've got a bass amp and everything, but it's just right next door to my garden. So sometimes I sit in my garden and do a little weeding or, you know, just weed up some shrubs or anything. I just keep my garden clean and have some music. 

I've got my Bluetooth speaker in the garden playing. That's how I relax. 

Phil: Amazing. Amazing. I knew that would be the  answer, but I just thought I had to ask it. So I mean, there's this stereotype, isn't there, about blind black people and music, that they're all Stevie Wonder. I mean, you know, there's much more to you than just that. I bet Stevie Wonder, I mean, Stevie Wonder's a brilliant musician, of course he is, but I wonder if he can play all the instruments that you can play. 
 

I'll have to get him on the show and ask him. 

Barrington: he's brilliant because he's a keyboard player, saxophone player, harmonica, and he plays drums also. So he plays a lot of instruments also. 

Phil: Oh, blow. What a shame. I thought you were going to be better than, you know, him. Well, look, Barrington, this has been a joy. It's been brilliant talking to you and I wish you well. I hope the phone does ring and that famous people start using you. And I, I see you on TV on the Jules Holland show or something like that. Doing your stuff, but thank you for giving me your time today. And and also for sharing some of the other things that you're doing, which are really interesting. I mean, you're not just playing music, but you're also trying to help a younger generation become musical too, and ensuring that buildings and so on are accessible to all of us.  

So lovely to meet you, Barrington. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to play out with a piece of your music. So stand by everyone. This is Barrington at his finest.