Published in Pop Weekly Annual, 1970

Barry Ryan Goes It Alone | Twins are still comparatively rare in pop music. The Bee Gees have one set, in Robin and Maurice Gibb, and there have been a few others who made a reasonable impact on the scene. One pair that should have been up there at the top were Paul and Barry Ryan. Should have been? Well, they had enormous advantages when they left school and set out for a career in show-business.

They had a famous mother, Marion Ryan. They had the influential backing of Harold Davison, one of the top agents in the world of ten per cent and whacking great cigars. But things went wrong. They went wrong because, show-business being a bit of a bitchy business, there was strong resentment that these comparative newcomers apparently had no diffi-culty in getting on to the top television shows. That is fair enough . . . an anticipated drawback.

Yet there was something else. And that lay in the basic differences between the two identical twins. They looked the same, but deep down inside they were very different. There was Paul, who worried, rather resented being in the lime-light, a likeable lad who worried himself into a nervous breakdown as a result of the pressures put upon him. They had hits, yes. But there was too much mickey-taking and too much strain for him. Abruptly, he decided to split from his brother and quit the business altogether.

Which left Barry to go it alone. Rather a tougher character, full of North Country grit and determination, Barry made a vow to himself that he could be a solo star . . . and prove all the knockers to be wrong. It took time. And planning. And patience. But he finally made it in a very big way with “Eloise”, a tremendous pop song which earned Barry a great deal of money. But the ironic thing was that it also earned money for Paul . . . because the unhappy twin had written the song.

Though still adamant that he didn’t want a singing career, Paul relented enough in his dislike of pop music and started writing songs—and working as a plugger, a promotion man, for about fifteen quid a week in a publisher’s office. So these twins made it in the end, but in completely different directions. And nobody was more proud of their efforts than their mum, the curvy and vivacious Marion Ryan.

Yet the spotlight is now firmly on Barry. He still looks exactly the same as his brother, but the requests for information come in only for Barry. Strange are the ways of pop music. . . . And Barry owns up that he is one of the arch-looners of the business.

Barry Ryan Goes It Alone

“I’ll go out most nights until 3 a.m. I believe in a good time and I believe in having it now. I guess this could stem from a basic insecurity, but I don’t really see it that way. I’d much rather live for the moment than know when it’s going to rain and then worry about it.”

He worked, for a while, in a hairdresser’s salon, and there found that he had quite an effect on the ladies. Now he has the reputation of having left a trail of broken hearts right across the jet-set circles of London. He lives in a plush flat, has plenty of money and enjoys a drink.

“I just don’t want to settle down for years yet,” he said. “Getting tied to one person worries me, and I suppose that means that I’m frightened of responsibility. Marriage is never so important to a man as to a woman. Women need to feel security. I’d get married simply to have kids, yes. That’s the way society is right now, but I believe fervently that in twenty years marriage as an institution will be hopelessly out of date.

“The only thing about this loon-around life is that it takes a lot of know-how to find out whether a chick is going out with me because she likes ME or because I’m a pop star, and therefore have money to throw around. But I’m learning, brother, I’m learning.”

And those few quotes iron out, once and for all, an image which did little to help the Ryan twins in their early days in the business. Because journalists constantly harped on the fact that they had a well-known mum they became known as mummy’s boys . . . something far from the truth, as those of us who’ve really KNOWN them can testify. But it was there, and that, plus the cracks about “the only television show the Ryans haven’t sung on is the Epilogue”, tended to keep them back.

And, additionally, the time really wasn’t right for a singing duo . . . for the Everly Brother throne had not really been vacated at that time. I know the Ryans were often in the depths of despair.

Yet Barry says now: “When Paul had that breakdown it looked like the end of the road. But it’s amazing in this life how things can look black yet still work out in the end. He’s as happy now as a songwriter and backroom boy as he ever was. And I feel confident, serene almost, that I can cope with a life-long career as a solo singer.

“One day, though, I want to break into films as a straight actor. Problem is to avoid being typecast.”

Not much danger of that. Not just as long as he avoids the play-boy roles. That WOULD be getting rather too near to real-life to give any real evidence of his abilities as an actor!