Paul Barrett

Paul Franklyn "Legs" Barrett (14 December 1940 – 20 January 2019) was a UK agent and manager of 1950s style rock and roll artists, 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. Early years 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 singer, actor and radical activist, 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.