Barry Blue was born Barry Ian Green in December 1950 in London. He made his TV debut, aged 13, with school band The Dark Knights, who won Granada’s Stubby Kaye’s Silver Star Show – a sort of Opportunity Knocks for kids – six weeks running.
By 1967 he was the bass player in Spice, most of whom went on to become Uriah Heep.
Then, the young prodigy embarked on his durable writing career, delivering for the likes of Gene Pitney before forming a fruitful partnership with Lynsey De Paul.
He was already a successful writer/producer when, at the age of 23, he adopted the ‘Blue’ persona.
He signed to Bell Records in the early 70s and had a number of hit singles including Do You Wanna Dance? (1973), School Love (1974), and the smash hit Dancin’ (On A Saturday Night) (1973), which he co-wrote with Lynsey De Paul.
His final Top 40 hit in the UK was Hot Shot in October 1974 – another song co-penned with De Paul.
He went on to global and highly credible triumphs as the maestro behind disco kings Heatwave, writer of the first record ever played at Studio 54, a pioneer of Britfunk, and a collaborator with everyone from The Jacksons to Five Star, Toto Cuelo and The Saturdays.
