compiled by Mal Graetz

September 2024

 

Richard Charles Barclay BERRY was born in Adelaide, South Australia on the 21st June 1948 at McBride Hospital, Medinde.

 

His parents were Leslie and Eleanor Berry. Leslie Charles Berry was born on 2 July 1917 in Kilkenny, South Australia. Eleanor (nee Price) was born in Wingate, County of Durham, England in 1919. Leslie and Eleanor married in 1942 and lived in Woodville Park. During Richard’s lifetime, the Berry family lived at 443 Torrens Road, just opposite the Arndale Shopping Centre.

 

Richard attended Challa Gardens Primary School which was close to their home and then went on to Woodville High School.

 

From a young age, Richard had some involvement with Salvation Army banding, mainly in the percussion section connected with the Woodville Gardens Corps. At five years old he was a Salvation Army drummer-boy. He was the only son of his parents who were envoys, and grandson of grandparents who were also envoys. He was steeped in the traditions of ‘Salvationism’.

 

When he was 15, Richard began his involvement with performing Christian music by means of a different medium. He was part of a ‘Seekers-style’ foursome group called “The Messengers”. The group then became a duo with Roslyn Pearson and Richard performing at youth groups, coffee shops and youth crushes all over Adelaide and beyond from 1967 to 1971. They also performed in various institutions.

 

His admiration for William Booth led him to get heavily involved with the less privileged sector of the community. He was for five years the president of the Phoenix Society Handicapped Workshop ‘Younger Set’ - a group that provided social outings for handicapped people. Richard was also involved with Adelaide Central Mission as a Goodwill Public Relations officer.

 

For four years he visited patients at the Salvation Army’s McBride Hospital. At that time, the hospital provided accommodation and maternity services for single mothers and their babies, as well as public maternity patients.

 

In an interview*, Richard repeatedly returned to the personality of William Booth: “If I had my time over again I would choose to live in William Booth’s time- if for no other reason than to see a man of his standing put his words into action. If he were here today I’m sure that he would go along with rock’n’roll music and would be heard preaching in Kings Cross.”

On the question of the Salvation Army uniform, Richard was proud of his, though he believed that there were definitely times to leave the uniform off and times to leave it on.

 

Richard worked for Embank Insurance Brokers in Franklin street who were agents for Swan Insurance in a sales and product advisory role. Selling insurance gave him insight into handling life’s ‘paperwork’, second on his list of priorities. ‘People’ were top of his list even while dealing with ‘paperwork’. He admitted it was sometimes hard getting the balance right.

 

For 8 years Richard was president of the ‘Gospel Singers Association of South Australia’ and had been in close contact with many Christian musicians across the state. Some 40 musicians were active during this time conveying the gospel of Jesus Christ within churches and also in public places, including seaside resorts and camping areas. These musicians banded together to stage a number of larger productions including “Gospel Festival 67” and “National Gospel Music Festival 69”, the later was in association with the Adelaide Festival of Arts.

 

Richard was the key vocalist in a group called ‘Young World’ which formed in 1973. The gospel singing quartet also featured Sturt football star Keith Chessel, 5KA announcer Des Jay and Bill Mouthaan. A news clipping from the ‘Hills Gazette’ on 4 July 1973 reported Richard Berry saying, “We hope to get the message of Christianity across to young people in a way they could understand. Churches are filled with age-old tradition. Young people want something new with which they can identify”. The idea of the gospel group emerged following a tremendous response to Des Jay’s Sunday evening programme on 5KA which featured modern ‘message’ songs. The Young World team were involved with all denominations and promoted budding gospel groups.

 

On the 1st November 1974, Richard, (age 26) and Andreas Weiler (aged 23), registered Solsound Promotions of SA as a business name. Their intention was to promote gospel music and theatre in South Australia. Solsound’s first venture was at Apollo Stadium on the 8 March 1975. The singing trio from Brisbane, FAMILY and Franci Chamings, a regular Channel 7 TV personality performed at this concert.

 

The aim of Solsound was to present high quality concerts which people from all churches could enjoy, and where Christians and non-Christians alike could experience Gospel artists of a high standard.

 

Overseas guest artists included Noel Paul Stookey, Barry McGuire, Larry Norman, Phoenix Sunshine, Karen Lafferty, Randy Stonehill, Resurrection Band, Randy Matthews, The 2nd Chapter of Acts, Cliff Richard and Chuck Girard. 

 

Australian Christian artists were often the support acts to these ‘imports’ from the USA and the UK - Kindekrist, Country Gospel Bluegrass Band, Band of Milk and Honey, Brothers, Strike-a-Light, Salty, One Man’s Band (Rod Boucher), Francis Butler, Rob Timbs, Revelation, The Three Buskerteers, Chris Foley etc

 

The Australian singing trio FAMILY visited South Australia as the headline act multiple times at the invitation of Solsound. See the Solsound Promotions Concerts book (PDF) for a more comprehensive list of concerts in South Australia from 1975-1982.

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In 1979, Solsound set up an office and ‘Musicentre’ at 526 Torrens Road, Woodville, on the corner of Woodville Road. This enabled Richard to accommodate other volunteer staff to assist in running Solsound Promotions. “All of the 43 leading American and English artists who have visited this country since 1975 have been presented by Solsound in Adelaide”, says Richard**. The Musicentre was able to stock the latest Christian albums, some Mens Wear and all brands of musical accessories. The attached house was renovated early 1980 to accommodate youth group music nights, nurture groups, and host prayer meetings for local musicians. The place was named SOLACE, meaning ‘shelter’ or ‘refuge’. Youth groups were able to utilise a snooker table, play chess and checkers, view videos of Christian artists, play music and make use of BBQ facilities.

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Richard started work at 5KA Radio Station in the late 1970s. The station was based at Maughan Church, on the corner of Franklin and Pitt Streets, Adelaide CBD. He ran a 30 minute “Contemporary Gospel Music Show” on Sunday nights. The segment rated well and was extended to a full hour programme. He also did some Saturday night shifts and filled in on some weekends. He also ran a documentary type programme called FOCUS on a Sunday afternoon dealing with topical issues.

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Richard also became the “Community Affairs Director”, which showed he had skills to involve the wider community. Through Solsound, he was able to arrange for the popular singing trio FAMILY to perform at the “5KA Life Festival” at the Adelaide Festival Centre. Their concert was on Sunday, 9th October 1977 at ‘The Space’.

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Richard was dismissed after some controversial decisions by management to move on about 20 staff members in 1983. Richard, who was then the midnight-to-dawn announcer took legal action against the station alleging he was unjustly and unfairly dismissed in August 1993. The dispute was settled out of court. Richard reported to ‘The Advertiser’ on 21 Nov. 1983, “I did not want it to appear I had 'sold out' on the principles involved in the case… the blemish the case had cast on my reputation could not be compensated for in monetary terms.”

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Later, Richard was involved with 107.9 Life FM Christian Radio, formerly Alta Mira Radio. For about 8 years from around 1993, he came on board with weekend and some evening shifts as a volunteer announcer. Richard's 5KA experience with 'mainstream' music and his connection with Christian artists was valued by staff. He was keen to put forward new ideas and to be relevant to the radio audience. Richard was known to quote, "We are all to bloom where we are planted."

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Richard spent a great deal of time speaking in churches, Sunday-schools and youth groups about the contemporary style of Christian music and was able to hi-light some of the dangers in listening to everything one hears on the radio. In an interview***  Richard said, “In the 1980’s the Christian music industry, like the church, is in danger of becoming insular, largely due to economic reasons, or because of just being musically inadequate to place our craft in the professional field.” When confronted with the notion that rock music is of the world and should be avoided, Richard disagreed. “Some Christians walk around with one eye closed… the one that is focussed on the world. There is a definite danger of the Christian living in a ‘Christian world’ and being subsequently, quite removed from what people are doing.” He finished his interview, “I don’t think that the showbiz image is a big deal. It’s just a business. If I could tell God what I wanted to do rather than Him tell me, I could honestly look you in the eye and say I would rather work with alcoholics. But I accept that is not my calling”.

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In the 1990’s Richard found himself involved with the Central District Football Club (CDFC) based at Elizabeth. Richard had formerly been a supporter of the Woodville SANFL Football Club. The story goes that Richard was doing some filming with the Salvation Army in the Elizabeth area through Channel 9 in the early 1990’s, when a certain Russell Ainsworth invited Richard to have a tour of the Centrals Football Club facilities on Goodman Road. Soon after the tour, Richard found himself involved as a fundraising official in 1993 and then as an Oval Announcer from 1994 to 2014. This included the period from 2000-2011 when the Central District League team won 9 out of the 12 Grand Final games played. Richard also spent other time on the Fundraising and Marketing Committees. Richard was MC at various Central’s functions including the Melbourne Cup luncheons, guest sporting greats speakers, fundraising events and Awards Nights.

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In 2016, the Uniting Church minister Rev. Peter Riggs approached the Centrals Club to see if there could be some sort of ‘spiritual’ input into the Good Friday football game at Elizabeth Oval. The Club suggested that Peter do a blessing for the game and players. Hand outs were given to people as they entered the Elizabeth football ground to help them see the significance of Good Friday and the Easter season. Free hot cross buns were given out and activities for the kids. Richard was concerned about the Good Friday games especially related to his own faith and Church practice. But he came on board and supported Peter Riggs and local church groups that assisted in having a Christian presence at the Good Friday games. Richard even organised some Christian music groups on occasions to perform during the players breaks.

Richard compèred a ‘Carols by Candlelight’ programme at Mellor Park Reserve in Lockleys, an Adelaide western suburb for several decades. He had the ability to engage the crowd, embrace all age demographics and include the ‘sacred’ with the ‘secular’.

In 1994, Richard was presented with an “Australia Day Citizen Award” from the National Australia Day Council for his community service over many years in the northern suburbs of Adelaide.

Richard’s Dad Leslie Berry passed away at the age of 75 in 1993. His Mum Eleanor died at the age of 85 in 2004. They were both buried at Cheltenham Cemetery. Richard was buried next to them on the 1st August 2024 after his passing on the 17th July 2024. Both parents were very supportive of Richard and the music in which he was so involved.

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*      "The Musician" - Salvation Army article  26 Jan1985

**    "Revival Magazine"  February 1980

***  "The Musician" of the Salvation Army in Australia  26 January 1985