Prof Barry Fantoni
Barry in Calais 2015
Fiona Green
Scenes You Seldom See
Self Portrait 1959
Barry Fantoni
jazz musician.artist
By Fiona Green
Prof Barry Ernest Fantoni (born 28 February 1940) is a cartoonist,author and jazz musician of Italian and Jewish descent, most famous for his work with the magazine Private Eye, famously based in Soho. He has also published books on Chinese astrology. Fantoni hosted a mid 1960s BBC TV show called "A Whole Scene Going" which won him the title of Male TV Personality of the Year.
Chair for a time, of the Chelsea Arts Club.
I first met Barry in the 1960’s when he & my husband played for the creative Battersea Park football team, which included other luminaries like Karl Miller, editor of the Spectator & Sir Nick Monck. Now Barry lives between London, Calais & Turin. “I regard Soho as my home”, he says, “I first went there, aged 11,autograph hunting from my family home in The Cut,Waterloo &never looked back”. He also played in the famous Ronnie Scots Jazz Club.
Witty & erudite,Barry still plays jazz each day at home with his lovely wife,Katie, & is working on exciting new jazz projects & brilliant sculptures made of found objects.