Garden Party

Sounds like a Rick Nelson song...

No, what I really mean was that we've done a garden party this afternoon and early evening for our good friends Chris and Brian Chappell.

I call it a garden, but it's really more like a wonderland of terraces, fish pond, lawns, pathways and chicken coops. We had a bit of competition from the rooster but everyone seemed to have a good time!

There was a lone line dancer... David wondered whether that made her a "dot" dancer...???

Thanks Chris and Brian for your wonderful hospitality as always (did I mention the food?) I will now be on a diet for the forseeable future! And not before time...

Bob's in France on holiday - you're missing out, mate!

New Album Release Close

I've been doing some work on the album over the last couple of weeks and last night David and Jeannie came round so whilst the ladies went off to a craft fair, David and I put some vocals down and we now have all 16 songs for the album.

We now need to get Bob over to put bass on several tracks and then think of a name and get some design work done for the album cover, take photos and - hey hey!

I know there have been people asking about this for ages (years...!) and we're finally getting there.

I think we are going to start immediately on the next one too, to try to ensure we can have one to come out a year after this!

A lot of people ask where we record, as the quality of the recording surprises some people. But it's all done in my front room on the computer, as seen here.

Junior School Prom

Do you want to know what real fear is?

We played Croxteth one year when 12,000 came through the gates, but that was nothing!

Real fear is the build up to a Junior School Prom! Knowing that there will be a room full of hyper 11-year-olds expecting the equivalent of the Pussycat Dolls or McFly and getting two guys old enough to be their grandads!

But the truth is, those worries were all for nothing and what a brilliant night we had. And we were home for 10 o'clock!

The main thing is that both the prom-goers and the teaching staff thought it a good night! It was hot, it was lively, they were indeed hyper! It was absolutely great!

Wet One at Croxteth

Rain did not stop play until 4:15 but it was a dryer day for us than it was for the audience.

Our 6th year at Croxteth Park Open Day was the quietest so far as the weather kept people indoors.

A hardy few came out to play - we were never without an audience and sometimes it got into double figures... Compare that with the 12,000 who turned up one year and it certainly was a quiet one!

The fairground hadn't set up due to the wet ground so we were without any real competition for the noise stakes and you could hear us quite a way away.

Look at that marquee! Croxteth were certainly making sure we were kept dry and the weather kept changing its mind about what to do but by 4:15 it seemed to have set in to rain hard for a while and the marquee was starting to drip so we called it a day.

John's old school chum Jackie turned up with a few props - her school beret and the old school tie plus the now infamous french dictionary whose frontspiece we ripped out in the 6th form to make a fag from dog ends when we had all run out of fags. It was ghastly... It wasn't even in english of course!

She even brought a photo of Larry the Lamb... ahh...

What do you mean; you haven't a clue what I'm going on about? Check out my nostalgia pages - most of these reference are on the readers memories page.

Old Gigs, New Pix

For most gigs Fran takes some photos on a digital whilst Jeannie takes photos on film.

I've just got round to scanning Jeannie's last photos and there's a couple of them here.

How about this for a tent?

This is the marquee hired for the steam fair gig which was in aid of the charity Rainbow House, on 3 June. (See the original report here)

We've done these gigs, two a year for the past 3 years now and they are always a good night.

The second pic is of me filling in with Shelagh and Peter Cooney, our guest artists at the Myerscough College Open Day, the following day.

We thought it may be as well to give ourselves a break from singing after a full night and, indeed, we had a late night combined with an early morning which meant that over one 20 hour period we had been playing for 10 hours!

Shelagh, you may remember, contributed the haunting harmonies and penny whistle on "Fields of Athenry" on our 2004 "Kites" album.

July Track at Billy Fury Web Site

Once again we have a track online at http://www.billyfury.com

This month it is a track from our first album, "Keeping On...", released in 2002. The track is that classic from the pen of Mike D'Abo; "Handbags and Gladrags", made famous by some chap called Rod Stewart so I believe!

We had the privilege of watching Mike sing it himself a couple of years ago and he gave David and I the thumbs up for the harmonies we were belting out from the front row of the audience!

We have competition indeed this month - I'm by no means confident of winning the hat trick! (see previous post)

Visit http://www.billyfury.com for some great memories of Billy Fury and some great sounds from the 1950s to today.

Retirement 'Do' at Claughton

An excellent night last night!

We were out at Claughton Village Hall, booked to play for a retirement party and it went particularly well.

We had a brief break whilst guests finished off their refreshments and we had a guest spot, as a singer and two guitarists, one of whom was the host of the party, came on to do "Fields of Gold", then we joined them on stage to do a rip-roaring version of "Mustang Sally".

We have a weekend off next week, which will give my finger ends a chance to pull themselves together! They've had a bit of punishment these last few weeks!

You can see us next at Croxteth Park, Liverpool on Sunday the 15th of July, from around 11 and in Garstang town centre on Thursday 23 August at their music festival.