I apologise for my remarks on the "Where are you now, Barret?"
slant. I still feel he made himself extraordinarily public in the
80's - a fact that even now brings us much enjoyment. He is now
opting for privacy, and we should respect that. But yes -- I too
would be pleased to know that he was OK, and thrilled if we heard
from the man himself.

To do my bit in tracking news of him, I have trawled through all the
Group mentions of his name since 1985 (release of DARYL). Questions
about his whereabouts began in 1994, and have continued ever since.
There are absolutely no hard facts. There is rumour of 'serious
personal and family problems', and of connections with scientology (?
as editor of their celebrity magazine?). Someone once claimed that
he knew a guy who'd been hired by Barret's family to act as his
companion. Another report says he is working with his father and
doing well, and is living in Studio City, Ca. There are wilder
stories (like that he's dead) which we all hope are silly rumours.
I'm now convinced there is nothing/nobody on WWW that will help us.
If we assume his present friends are loyal, only Barret himself can
clarify the issue. Let's hope.

But another fact emerged from this trawl. From earliest records to
the present day, it is clear that Barret has always attracted
enormous admiration and loyalty -- even adulation. There is only
praise and affection for him in two billion pages of WWW, and not a
word of criticism. I'd like to think he could draw strength from
that fact, wherever he is.

I'll post separately on BBMs soon....cheers, DUOBOLETI.