June's Music Track at billyfury.com

The online Sounds Special feature at http://www.billyfury.com has changed a couple of days early this month as the site administrator is taking a well-earned break!

Our track for June is from our 2003 "Kites" album and is an updated version of Del Shannon's "Runaway". Expect a touch of fuzz from my guitar! No more fuzz than usual from David's voice though...!

The web site commemorates 1960s British pop idol, Billy Fury. Every month the site features the work of artists from both the UK and further afield in its "Sounds Special" feature. Fans of Billy Fury will also find lots of original sound and video files available to download as well as a thriving community of fans and enthusiasts of all ages.

Many thanks to the good people at http://www.billyfury.com for continuing to allow us to contribute!

Busy Month Ahead

The album may have to take a back seat during June as we go into overdrive, starting with a couple of gigs on the first weekend.

Saturday the 2nd sees us at Heskin Old Hall at a Steam Fair during the evening where we'll be playing in a marquee.

Sunday the 3rd will see us for our 6th consecutive year at the Myerscough Open Day at Myerscough College. The college is a land-based college - agriculture, horticulture, animal care, sports etc. so there will be plenty to see and do besides listening to us.

Accoustic Track

The closest on stage we get to being an accoustic band is when I'm playing the keyboard live and Bob is playing either accoustic guitar or mandolin. Even then they are plugged into the PA instead of being microphoned - that's a lot of hassle and usually gives us feedback problems.

But on our albums there's normally at least one track where instruments are recorded the good old way.

This afternoon I've laid down no less than 5 accoustic guitar tracks for the Beatles song "I've Just Seen a Face". We do it live but I'd be playing the Strat and Bob his bass. So - something a little bit different on the way!

I've been incredibly busy at work - the album is taking a long time! But it will be a good one folks, or if not then it won't be through lack of effort!

Witton Park Gig Report

Well the weather forecast was anything but good, but in the event it was quite kind to us!

We took up our usual spot in one of the outbuildings around the courtyard at Witton and were soon joined by an enthusiastic crowd of people as we went through a country set, then folk and Irish before moving onto a few 1960s numbers.

Lunchtime came and it was still fine and most of the crowd stayed put whilst we took a break and came back to let Bob play his mandolin to John's keyboard to get everyone tapping their feet to "Bluebell Polka".

We went back to do a few more country hits then started on the 1960s with the bit between our teeth. "The Young Ones" (our signature tune for obvious reasons!) then "Halfway to Paradise", "I'm a Believer", "The Wonder of You" (gives the audience a chance to go "Whoa-oh-oh-ohhh!"), "Please Please Me", "When You Walk In The Room" and onwards through the afternoon to "The Wanderer", "Johnny B Goode", "That'll Be The Day" before finishing with "The Night Has 1000 Eyes".

Fran and Jeannie were kept busy giving out cards and seling the odd CD although Jeannie found time to wrap a couple of snakes around her neck, perhaps getting a little mixed up? No dear - it was a "feather boa" you were after!

If you were there, then thanks for the support - the rain caught up with us later on in the afternoon but it wasn't going to deter the hardy folk who were sitting listening to us and umbrellas came out, hoods went up and feet kept tapping!

Thanks also to the organisers, to Blackburn Council and Myerscough College, who were instrumental (sorry about the pun!) in getting us there and who were showing some of the animals and other resources used by them in their courses that are held at Witton.

Our next public appearance is another Myerscough Open Day on Sunday 3 June from 10:30 to around 4:00pm, this time at their main campus at Myerscough Hall, St Michael's Road, Bilsborrow, just north of Preston.

Bye Bye Cassettes!

Ah, what memories these conjure up for a generation of people who wooed their partners with a well chosen selection of songs on a personal cassette!

The news has just announced that cassettes are no longer to be made. This is probably good news for the countryside, as one thing about cassettes I don't miss is the miles and miles of cassette tape wrapped around hedgerows and flapping in the breeze!

The band's music has been recorded and mixed on computer but in the 1990s I bought two identical hi-fi cassette decks so that I could record on one, play it back and record on the other, building up tracks (and background noise). Many units had two decks anyway but normally you could only record on one and it invariably ran at a slightly different speed than the other!

No such problems for me as I put the album together. Yes, I know it's taking a while but I'm still doing bits every now and then, honest!

It struck me the other week that the Yamaha keyboard is 9 years old and I won't be able to replace it easily if (when?) it dies. So I've been recording onto the PC all the backing tracks I've recorded on the keyboard so that hopefully I could think of a way of coverting them to a more modern keyboard if needs be. At the very least we could use them on mini-disk or CD for a gig or two. But that's not necessary yet!

You can see us next weekend at Witton Park, Blackburn - Sunday 13 May in the courtyard from 11:30am to 4:00pm. Come and say hello!

John's Solo Track at Billy Fury Website

This month the track at http://www.billyfury.com is a solo instrumental by John - the Beatles track, "Fool on the Hill". Available for download only during May.

Don't forget to join us in the courtyard at Witton Park, Blackburn during the afternoon of Sunday 13 May! We'll be playing a full range of music from folk, through Country, to 1960s and rock and roll!