Edward Barton

[Barney Sloane]

The other day, whilst perusing a pile of CDs that I've meant to listen to for ages, I found a clip from the Radcliffe / Lard Graveyard Shift featuring Edward Barton doing a belly-slapping masterclass, which took me back to my misspent youth watching "The Tube", and seeing EB thrashing the shit out of an acoustic guitar and squawking his way through heartfelt litanies such as "I Haven't Got A Chicken But I've Got Five Wooden Chairs" while the audience either jeered loudly or looked completely confused.  I also remember being reminded of him when I first saw Charlie Chuck (pre-Smell Of R&M, probably on James Whale or something).  My question is this: does anyone have any info about him?  What he's doing now, any comedians who cited him as an influence / underappreciated talent, that sort of thing.


Ta in advance, wherever applicable.

[Rats]

That was him! That was the song that jutl put up. I don't know anything about him but have been listening to an album for the last month and it's very good, hillarious and shit your pants scary in equal measures.

http://www.zen26454.zen.co.uk/02%20-%20Edward%20Barton%20-%20Track%20%202.mp3

[jutl]

I don't know that much about him, but he has put up a website:

http://www.edwardbarton.com/

He also had a brief period of fame in 1992 when Opus III did a dancey cover version of his song 'It's a Fine Day'. (video here). Googling a bit reveals that this was originally released back in 1983 by Jane & Barton on Cherry Red Records. Anyone got any more information on this?

I've got one album by him called 'Here Is My Spoon' - that's the one Rats is referring to and he's described it better than I can.