Saturday 30 March 2013

Remembering Sunnyside 2013 Part One

Friday 22 March 2013. The Billy Fury weekend has moved from the Sunnyside in Northampton to the Hind Hotel in Wellingborough and is a quieter affair aimed at the regulars on the forum rather than being open to the public.

The weather is a little different to last year... Last year we walked from the hotel to the venue with no jackets on but this year as we halt for a breakfast break on the motorway there's snow on the ground.

Inside though, this collection of folks in fancy dress seems to auger well for a 1960s themed weekend!

We arrive in Wellingborough and do a couple of tours of the one-way system before finding the way into the Hind. It's a gorgeously old hotel and has loads of atmosphere whilst being very comfortable.

We lug all the gear into the concert room upstairs and folks start to arrive for the weekend. It's time to renew old friendships and make a few new ones!

There are lots of artists and Dave Jay and I are kept busy making sure they can all be heard and that their backing tracks are coming through. We cater for a mix of mp3, CD and mini-disk users. We get a chance to do our thing as well!

A motley collection of singers at the end of the night, belting out Billy Fury's best known hit, Halfway to Paradise!

Billy's friend and one-person Fury evangelist Moya had come over from New Zealand with the express purpose of ensuring I had a lipstick design on my head... Just because I'd washed off the one she left in 2009...

Ok! We're gathered and the Friday night was a success! Join us next for a look round Wellingborough and another night of music!

Sunday 3 March 2013

Creeping Bentgrass are not Pineapple Jack...

A few slightly surreal conversations over the past few months where people have come up to either David or myself and said, "We saw you the other night in the Winter Gardens!"

Well we do go there occasionally, but not usually at night... Then it became obvious they were talking about us as a band...

We think this is quite funny really, but, just to make it quite clear - and in case the two gents who make up the cabaret act from the Winter Gardens bar are plagued with the same sort of thing "Hey we saw you out at Blackburn / Garstang / Ormskirk / Bolton the other night..."

David and myself play in a duo called Creeping Bentgrass - not Pineapple Jack. However we seriously do need to get ourselves one of these handy photo cutout things!

The world would surely not be ready for four such handsome guys in one band...