{"id":134534,"date":"2026-01-28T05:31:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T05:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134534\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T05:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T05:31:06","slug":"longtime-local-musician-impacs-founder-bobby-barnes-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134534\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime local musician, Impacs founder Bobby Barnes dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Bobby Barnes. Screenshot, 2013.<\/p>\n

In the days before the British Invasion changed America\u2019s rock \u2018n\u2019 roll landscape forever, the Impacs were the biggest band in Tampa Bay. And drummer Bobby Barnes laid down the beat for the electric guitar combo, from the first gigs in 1960 to the final show, in December 2024.<\/p>\n

Barnes, 83, died Jan. 24 at Morton Plant Hospital, after surgery for throat cancer, the last surviving member from the Impacs\u2019 golden era.<\/p>\n

After winning a bay area battle of the bands at Joyland in 1961, the Impacs were the first rock \u2018n\u2019 roll group invited to perform at the St. Petersburg Coliseum.<\/p>\n

For six more years, they barely stopped. Clubs, theaters, dances, wherever there was a paying audience.<\/p>\n

Members came and went, but Bobby Barnes was always the backbone.<\/p>\n

\"\"Although the Impacs performed all over Florida and the Southeast in the early 1960s, even backing Roy Orbison and Brenda Lee on a \u201cDick Clark Cavalcade of Stars\u201d tour, they were the quintessential Florida band that almost made it.<\/p>\n

The band had a unique sound, a blend of rhythm n\u2019 blues and surf guitar music. A bit of rockabilly, the Ventures and the Bo Diddley beat. Barnes\u2019 kinetic drumming was a big part of the dance appeal.<\/p>\n

They could also deliver a teen-dream ballad when it was called for (1961\u2019s \u201cForever and a Day,\u201d on Largo-based \u201cImpac Records\u201d).<\/p>\n

The raucous, Ray Charles-like \u201cI\u2019m Gonna Make You Cry\u201d (Parkway Records, 1963) allegedly sold more than 200,000 copies. (The B-side, \u201cTears in My Heart,\u201d was a 180-degree turn into post doo-wop American Graffiti music).<\/p>\n

Between 1964 and \u201965 the Impacs made five singles and two albums for Miami\u2019s King Records.<\/p>\n

In his book Florida\u2019s Famous and Forgotten, author Kurt Curtis called the Impacs \u201cOne of the all-time great Florida rock bands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Impacs\u2019 popularity waned after the mid \u201860s, usurped by Tampa\u2019s Tropics and Clearwater\u2019s Roemans, according to Curtis.<\/p>\n

Merging with a Virginia rock outfit called the Spinners, the Impacs \u2013 whose lead singer, by this time, was a shouting showman called Vic Waters \u2013 became a 12-piece, all-white \u201csoul revue.\u201d The high-energy band\u2019s name was soon changed to Vic Waters and the Entertainers.<\/p>\n

After becoming a top draw on the nightclub circuit, the group was disbanded as Waters left for greener pastures in the early 1970s.<\/p>\n

It was 1983 when Barnes, fellow founding member Jay Lee Angello and other one-time players (including Waters) began putting on Impacs reunion concerts.<\/p>\n

\u201cBobby was just a joy to sit with and talk about the old days, when they were really popular,\u201d said Don Wilson, a guitarist who joined the Impacs in 2010. \u201cHe was quite a wild guy when he was younger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes\u2019 declining health brought about the end of the group, Wilson said.<\/p>\n

One of Barnes\u2019 last performances was at the St. Petersburg Coliseum, on the occasion of its 100th anniversary in November, 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople ask me all the time, why are you still playing?\u201d he\u2019d said in a 2013 promotional video. \u201cAnd the only reason is, because it\u2019s still fun. And as long as it\u2019s fun, and I can still make music and people like listening to it, I\u2019m gonna keep playing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bobby Barnes. Screenshot, 2013. In the days before the British Invasion changed America\u2019s rock \u2018n\u2019 roll landscape forever,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-134534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}