Tony Barrell (broadcaster)

Tony Barrell
Born	Template:Birth date Cheshire, England
Died	March 31, 2011(2011-03-31) (aged 70)
Occupation(s)	Author, broadcaster
Years active	1960s–2008
Known for	Radio and television documentaries, especially on Asian topics and Japan

Anthony Barrell (7 May 1940 – 31 March 2011) was a British author and broadcaster who lived in Sydney, Australia. He created acclaimed radio and television documentaries for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the BBC World Service, with a particular emphasis on Asian topics, especially Japan.

Early life

Born in Cheshire, England, in 1940, Barrell's family hailed from the Suffolk town of Stowmarket. He grew up in Mold, Flintshire, and attended The King's School, Chester beginning in 1951. Between 1958 and 1961, he studied economics at Liverpool University. During his university years, he contributed as a student journalist and served as editor of the literary magazine Sphinx, featuring cover art by Bill Harry, who later became editor of Mersey Beat. Through connections including pop poet Royston Ellis, Barrell encountered notable personalities such as George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe, an early member of the Beatles who passed away in 1962.

London years

In 1961, Barrell relocated to London and shared accommodation with author Roger Deakin in Bayswater. From 1965 through 1969, he was employed as a writer and researcher for Pathé Films, undertaking assignments in Morocco, Bermuda, Florida, New York, and Hong Kong for Pathe Pictorial productions. It was in 1967 that he met film designer Jane Norris; together they began visiting Lesbos. Norris established the design boutique Ace Notions in Camden Town, which was later co-located with the fashion label Swanky Modes. Barrell collaborated with illustrator Bill Stair to co-author the adult comic book Superslave, published by Penguin Books in 1972. Additionally, he wrote a profile on Captain Beefheart for Zig Zag magazine during the artist’s UK tour in 1973.

Move to Sydney

Following the birth of their daughter Klio and amidst the 1974 IRA bombing campaign, Barrell and Norris moved to Sydney, settling in Balmain. In 1975, Barrell joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to help develop programming for youth station 2JJ (which later became Triple J). Together with Graeme Bartlett, he was instrumental in creating "cut up" radio programs such as Sunday Afternoon at the Movies and Watching the Radio with the TV Off. These shows combined music, soundtracks, comedy, and pop culture to craft innovative storytelling techniques—a format later revived by ABC Radio National's Night Air, to which Barrell contributed towards the end of his career. His interviews on Triple J featured figures like Brian Eno, Hunter S. Thompson, Johnny Rotten, John Cale, as well as members of Madness, Wire, and Cabaret Voltaire.

Barrell partnered with Rick Tanaka on The Nippi Rock Shop, a long-running program spanning 13 years that delved into Japanese pop culture and politics. Their guests included members of Yellow Magic Orchestra—Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi—as well as Sandii & the Sunsetz’s Sandii and Makoto among others. Together they produced the pioneering radio documentary series Japan's Other Voices for ABC Radio National’s Background Briefing in 1984. They also contributed written pieces to Australian editions of Rolling Stone, Kyoto Journal, and served as Sydney correspondents for Tokyo Insider.

The 1980s

In 1987, Barrell created a four-part UK radio documentary series focusing on Liverpool’s industrial decline alongside political influence exerted by the Militant tendency. Two episodes—Welcome to the Post-Industrial Museum and Militants on Merseyside—addressed these issues directly; while the remaining two—The Wapping Truth and Nothing Left to Read—investigated media bias following News International’s relocation from Fleet Street to Wapping under Margaret Thatcher’s administration. Interviewees featured author Linda Melvern, MP Tony Benn, and New Statesman editor John Lloyd.

During Ronald Reagan’s final year in office in 1988, Barrell toured across the United States producing a five-part series titled Choice of America. The program covered cities including Los Angeles, Houston, New Orleans, Boston, Washington D.C., and New York City. Among those interviewed were economist John Kenneth Galbraith; attorney Jim Garrison—known from Oliver Stone's film JFK; and former New York City mayor John Lindsay. The episode named What Happened to Houston received an award at the New York Festival.

Barrell earned an Australian Writers' Guild (AWGIE) award in 1989 for his radio drama Lost at Sea, which explored themes surrounding American poet Hart Crane and Japanese kabuki actor Danzō Ichikawa VII—both infamous for their ferry boat suicides. The play examined synchronicity alongside differing cultural interpretations regarding timing of death.

Also in 1989, Barrell took on the role of associate producer for ABC-KCET’s four-part television documentary series Power in the Pacific. The series investigated legacies of the Pacific War and Cold War across Japan, China, South Korea, the Philippines, Marianas (Saipan), and Papua New Guinea. His directed episode "Japan Comes First" was honored with a New York Festival medal in 1990; this series was broadcast on Japan’s NHK 2 channel.

The 1990s

In 1993, Barrell created a radio documentary titled Cheers, which focused on the Sydney Swans football club, a team he avidly followed.

Following the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Barrell served as field producer for ABC's Foreign Correspondent, working alongside reporter Peter George on location in Rwanda.

In 1995, he conducted interviews in Tokyo for a feature marking the 9–10 March 1945 bombing, noted as one of the earliest strategic uses of napalm against civilian populations. The resulting program, Tokyo's Burning, aired on ABC Radio National's Radio Eye and received the RAI special prize at the Prix Italia. That same year, Barrell produced Don't Forget Nagasaki, a piece about the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, which earned a United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Prize. These projects informed the book Higher than Heaven (Private Guy International), co-written with Rick Tanaka.

In 1996, Barrell and Tanaka developed an innovative radio show highlighting cities with tram or light rail networks. Residents from Tallinn, New Orleans, Nagasaki, and Mainz contributed cassette recordings of their local tram journeys, which were broadcast on Radio Eye. This initiative was supported by Trammit!, a dedicated website created by Tanaka and Eddy Jokovich from ARMEDIA, representing one of Australia's pioneering examples of radio content paired with an online platform. That year also saw them travel to Okinawa to produce additional ABC radio programs and gather material for their 1997 publication, Okinawa Dreams OK.

In 1997, Barrell reported from Maki, a northern Japanese town that made history by voting against hosting a genpatsu (nuclear power station)—the first referendum to successfully prevent such a facility. This story was broadcast on ABC Radio National's Indian Pacific.

2000 onwards

In 2000, Tony Barrell collaborated with sound engineer Russell Stapleton and researcher Rick Tanaka to produce an extensive audio exploration of montage and collage techniques, which was aired on the ABC's Listening Room. The ABC website hosts Must You See the Joins?, an illustrated article discussing prominent collagists including Japanese artist Kimura Tsuneihisa.

That year, Barrell was engaged to create a report for ABC TV's current affairs program Four Corners, investigating the expansion of service industries in Australia. The segment titled "The Business of Change" featured footage shot in Sydney at the now-defunct One.Tel telecommunications company and covered emerging occupations such as life coaches and dog walkers.

In 2002, drawing upon his expertise in Japanese culture, Barrell presented a six-part radio documentary series co-produced by BBC World Service and ABC in anticipation of the 2002 FIFA World Cup hosted by South Korea and Japan. His episode What Tokyo was awarded the 2004 Prix Marulic at Croatia’s annual festival for drama and documentary.

During 2003, Barrell traveled through Singapore, Vietnam, and Okinawa as part of a BBC-ABC series examining Chinese and Confucian cultural influences across Asia. The Okinawa installment, titled Live Slow Live Long, showcased local longevity traditions focusing on diet and lifestyle. In 2004, he produced a third series exploring the Russian Far East, visiting locations such as Sakhalin Island, Vladivostok, and Khabarovsk. His book The Real Far East was published in 2005 by Melbourne-based Scribe. In 2006, Barrell presented Rice Bowl Tales, a fourth series centered on Asian rice cultures for both BBC and Radio National.

Prior to retiring from full-time work at ABC in May 2008, Barrell collaborated with his wife on a DVD film and accompanying book documenting their visits to Molivos, Lesbos. He intended to finalize his autobiography, Your Island My Island, in 2009 but tragically died on 31 March 2011 due to an apparent heart attack.

In tribute, Australian musician Paul Gough (also known as Pimmon) dedicated his album The Oansome Orbit to Tony Barrell in 2011.

Bibliography

• Barrell, Tony; illustrated by Bill Stair, Superslave, Penguin Books, 1972
• Barrell, Tony & Tanaka, Rick, Higher Than Heaven, Private Guy International, Sydney, 1995
• Barrell, Tony & Tanaka, Rick, Okinawa Dreams OK, Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin, 1996
• Barrell, Tony, "How many miles?", Griffith Review, vol. 27, Autumn 2010, pp. 86–88

External links

• Tony Barrell Archive – A compilation of his radio productions