Gold Award at Billy Fury Site

It's only a bit of fun but also nice for us! Dave Jay, one of the brilliant artists who contribute to the Sounds Special feature on BillyFury.com gives his verdict on the other artists in the form of a gold award every month.

We seem to have picked it up for the last two months. Last month I had an instrumental up there - which probably won for its novelty value as most tracks are from vocalists. This month's track was our version of Del Shannon's "Runaway" from our 2003 album "Kites". You have a few days left to hear it on the site!

Dave, no mean artist himself, said, "I don't really like to give my award to the same artist the following month, but if it's deserved then I can only be true to myself, so again the gold medal goes to John Burke's Creeping Bentgrass. This is just a wonderful version of Runaway, so different to the original and I actually think, better!!!"

Ah, Mr Jay, flattery will get you anywhere!

The artists who contribute a song every month are definitely worth listening to. Some are professionals but many are guys like the three of us, who do it for the love of it or who do the odd gig here and there. You can download the Sounds Special music tracks for free off the Billy Fury site and also hear many tracks from the great man himself.

Regular contributors include (in no particular order) Dave Jay, Mike Chambers (can you tell him from Elvis?), Johnny Storme, Rob Dee, Roger Sea, Andrew Tween, Russ Dee, Geoff Howlett, Bruce Seaton and Des O'Reilly.

You can also buy the brand new DVD of Billy's life story - which I must get round to ordering myself!

New Public Date in Garstang

We have accepted a booking to appear at the Garstang Festival on Market Day, Thursday 23 August 2007.

We appeared there last year and had a whale of a time, gathering quite a crowd around us, on the pavement, across the road and on far pavements. They came to see what the fuss was about and stayed to listen and support us.

The photo shows us with Shelagh Cooney, who joined us to sing "Fields of Athenry" last year. You'll be able to find us outide the council offices at the entrance to the pay and display car park.

A Very Special Wedding Gig

We played a very special wedding reception last night - John's daughter, Gillian, became Mrs Edward Statham.

The happy couple are seen taking their first dance as a married couple to the band's version of Westlife's "The Rose".

The day could not have gone any better - band members David and Bob were at the wedding ceremony with wives Jeannie and Mary and David gave one of the two readings.

John, of course, had to give a speech as Father of the Bride and then had to keep a tight grip on the emotions in order to sing throughout the evening, which was one of the best gigs we could have hoped for. The dance floor filled with guests immediately following the bride and groom's first dance and only emptied at midnight when the band turned back into three old blokes!

Congratulations and lots of love to Gill and Eddie!

Larbreck Hall Caravan Park

Last night David and I played at Larbreck Hall Caravan Park. Bob had a prior engagement with The Old School Band but we gave them a good night of music and they got up and filled the dance floor!

We have played there several years - the first one at Larbreck was for the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002 - and we usually do an outdoor gig. The weather looked a little suspect yesterday so we were inside a huge barn and with a few pallets, boarded over for a stage and a couple of caravans as a backdrop, we added a few lights and it made for a good atmosphere!

We had the barn to ourselves for a while before the gig and worked out a version of Ronan Keating's "When You Say Nothing At All".

Myerscough College Open Day

Ah... a brilliant day! The weather held off for us as we played our hearts out at Myerscough today. The rain hit with a vengeance as we were halfway home - now that's what I call a result!

We were feeling a bit fragile at first after last night - it was 2:00am when we got back and we were onsite at Myerscough for 9:00am! But once we started we were just on a roll!

We had lots of favourable comments, sold a few CDs, gave autographs and there may be a chance of a booking or two!

We had a guest slot as Peter and Shelagh Cooney joined us - Shelagh sings and plays penny whistle for us on "Fields of Athenry" on our "Kites" album and I joined them on guitar as they sang 3 or 4 songs early in the afternoon. Thoroughly enjoyed it too!

We worked out at one point that of the immediately past 20 hours we had played for 10 of them... We eventually had to stop when my fingers were so indented even despite all the layers of corn, that I was worried I might cause the hard skin to split! We finished with a blistering version of Johnnie B Goode and a chorus of shouts for more.

Many thanks if you stayed to listen, hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! A weekend off next week and then we have one a week for the next 4 weeks or so!

Steam Fair for Rainbow House

Last night we played at Heskin Hall in Chorley for a Steam Fair in aid of the charity Rainbow House.

An excellent night despite the power pack for my guitar effects pedal packing up! I keep batteries in it so thankfully they just took over.

So now I have a spare pack of batteries for today but am hoping I don't need them as if I remove the batteries to change them I might lose all my settings which would be interesting! No chance of buying a replacement power pack before the gig as we have to be onsite by 9:00am!

Anyway, the marquee was packed last night and lots of folk came over to say how much they had enjoyed themselves. One chap came over to help sing Elvis's "The Wonder of You" - didn't make a bad job of it either!

Our next gig for the Steam Fair crowd is the first Saturday in August - glad you "reminded" us of it Jack, because we had the September one down but not that one!

Ok, we were in by 2:00am so it must be time now to get off to Myerscough College where we are appearing today from around 11:00am. Come and say hello and help keep us awake! Ageing rockers, eh? Any chance for a moment's rest and they're fast asleep...

A 2-Gig Weekend!

June is normally a busy month for the band and this one gets off to a hectic start with a gig tonight at a Steam Fair. We've done it a few times before, strange affair - as we play the audience gather round a collection of kettles to watch the steam... oh wait, no, it's one of those traction engine things isn't it?

The organiser, Jack, puts up a couple of marquees joined together. One holds a bar and seating and the other houses us and a dance floor and it's normally a belting night! Last year it had rained incessantly all day and as we drove onto the field the car was going every which way and a spray of mud covered the entire car, the roof, the bystanders, the marquee and anything within 50 metres... Sun shining at the moment so fingers crossed...

Tomorrow you can see us at Myerscough College's Open Day. The college is an agricultural college and will have lots of things for visitors to see and do. There's normally sheep shearing, cows being milked, horse riding displays, tractors, racing cars, arboriculturalists (tree looker afterers - they hate "tree surgeons") making carvings out of (dead) tree trunks with chainsaws, all kinds of flowers shrubs trees in the Plant Centre and just by the side of it will be us, Creeping Bentgrass, playing from around 11:00 until about 4:00. Admission is £8 per car - cram those people in!