Barry Whitwam

Jan Barry “Bean” Whitwam (born 21 July 1946 in Prestbury, England) is an English musician and actor.

Biography

He started drumming at the age of 12 years whilst still at school. On leaving school at 15 to take up a career as a ladies hairdresser, he filled in the weekend nights playing with local band “Danny and the Demons”. Soon the pressure of trying to do both jobs resulted in the decision to leave the salon and concentrate on the drums though only on condition that he practiced for 8 hours a day – a promise made to his father.

In April 1964 he joined “Herman and the Hermits” and the group’s name was immediately changed to “Herman’s Hermits” and featured Peter Noone as the singer. The rest of the line-up was Barry on drums, Derek “Lek” Leckenby on lead guitar, Karl Green on bass guitar and vocals and Keith Hopwood on rhythm guitar and vocals, He has been with Herman’s Hermits non-stop since 1964, touring the USA alone more than 150 times. One of the high points of his career was meeting Elvis Presley in Hawaii in the 60’s.

He has several nicknames due to his reputation as a joker but is usually known as “Bean”.

References



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