Adrian Barber

English musician, producer and sound engineer.
Born in Ilkley, Yorkshire, England, UK, 13 November 1938, died 8 August 2020 in Otley, Yorkshire.

At the age of 16 he worked as a sailor for four years. During that time he learned to play the guitar. At twenty Adrian moved to Liverpool, where, initially as a member of ‘Cass and the Casanovas’ (that subsequently became ), he stood out in clubs as a technician, alongside such bands as and , building amplifiers for the Liverpool groups.
Thanks to his talent with equipment, he became ’ sound technician, first in Hamburg and then on ‘ first US tour. In 1964 Adrian went to live in the US, where, after working with , joined as an engineer and producer as well. Adrian was also involved in management as a partner in ABBT Music Company, which he formed with . Whilst a student in Liverpool in the early 1960s, Barber smashed up a sculpture at an exhibition by the then well-known working-class artist Arthur Dooley. It later transpired that the artist himself (Dooley), had coaxed Barber into doing it as a press stunt.

Barber identified his stereo cuttings at Atlantic by adding three dots above and one dot below a “W” in the runouts (see images).
The 3 dots were sometimes triangular (∴) and other times horizontal (···)
The mono cuttings show a single dot (.) under the W
(The “W” indicates that the blank lacquer disc was an Audiodisc made by and is not related to Barber per se).