Remembering Sunnyside 2015 - Billy Fury Weekend Part 2

A bit of a photo-fest this entry! The second night of the Billy Fury weekend held in Wellingborough over 27-28 March 2015.

The ladies are settled in their seats, we must be ready to go... Actually, one of these ladies is on first - come on Shelagh, stir yourself!

Dave Jay is again acting as compère for the night and announces Peter and Shelagh Cooney whilst fondly imagining that he is dodging the camera...

Peter always describes their act as having "stripped songs back to the bare bones". This is how many, if not most, songs are composed. With either a single acoustic guitar or perhaps a piano. Stripping off all other instruments can sometimes reveal the simplicity and beauty of the melody.

A corner of the room and a section of the audience.

Phil Jennings takes to the mic and reprises his song from last year - Bobby Darin's Things, inviting our table to butt in with all the chorus parts! "Yeh! Yeh!"

A smile from Cathy, the local, but the two canny northerners Jean and Russ are wondering how much to charge for being photographed...

John and Diane have travelled up from the Isle of Wight and in just a short moment John will shrug off his mild persona and transform into...

...heartthrob Johnny Storme, pouring emotion from every pore and melting the hearts of all the women in the room.

"Why do they not scream like that for me?" wonders Peter...

Steve Sinclair, provides a great set, winning the prize for the night's longest-held high finishing note!

Wait a moment... the ladies are sitting up again and waving their hands about!

And here's why - it's that smoothie from Macclesfield, Dave Jay getting the feet tapping with his own set as he transforms from compère to singer.

He has a roving mic and he's not afraid to use it! Working the floor...

It must be working, there's some happy faces there!

Miss Jeannie gets the personal treatment - not for the only time that evening as we shall see!

Oh and he's got us all waving in time again!

Russ Dee from Leeds was one of the first Billy Fury tributes on the road and shares some memories of those early days.

How do you keep a white jacket white like that? I'd have had half a meal down it if I tried wearing white...!

An accomplished club artist, Russ gives us a great set.

There's time to fill before the raffle and we are asked to step in. I do a solo spot to sing my version of Cilla Black's You're My World. (Photo credit: Michael Roche)

A couple of Billy Fury numbers and a couple of crowd pleasers (no: the songs, not us!) and it's raffle time!

Cathy is announcing the raffle numbers but then bursts into impromptu snatch of song!

Our table seem to be mopping up the prizes one after another...

"Mine! All mine!" chortles Peter.

Roger Sea. His musical career goes way back to the 60s. He was once in a band that played support to Shane Fenton - the late Alvin Stardust. And I want that jacket please when you've done with it Roger...

Ah yes, the hallmark of an all-round entertainer! Brilliant reworking of a song to include a ukulele.

All the artists for the night. This was in the middle of Roger's act too - takes it all in his stride, hats off to that man! Second on the left of the back row, Michael Roche gave us a couple of songs but I'm afraid I have no photos of his singing. Sorry Mike!

Steve Reynolds plays Shadows style. Last year Steve was on Britain's Got Talent and has been playing theatres with a couple of Shadows tribute bands.

The human dynamo otherwise known as Snowy takes the stage. "Photo opportunity!" he cries and strikes a pose. What can you say? Mr Entertainment... ...must be somewhere around surely...? Snowy, we love ya!

Miss Jeannie again - that perfume was certainly working... Though Snowy looks a bit as though he's set a death threat to music...

And then those two old geezers went on again to finish the night. Or, as David said, to empty the room... For the first time ever we played a full Billy Fury set. A whole set with just songs from one artist. But, of course, that was what the night was all about. There's a handful of songs from this set at our YouTube site.

Thanks must go to all the artists who appeared over the two days and to Cathy for organising the venue and Dave for his work compèring and handling the sound and backing for the singers. Thanks to the audience who turned up to listen and cheer us on and to the Hind Hotel in Wellingborough for hosting the event. We hope to see everyone again next year!

Billy Fury Weekend

Cor - and there it was, gone...! Another totally brilliant Billy Fury weekend.

We set up our gear at Sunley and ran through a couple of numbers. We had only gone on to warm up, but then the room filled and despite several offers to allow others up, the audience kept us working for an hour or so - slave drivers or what?!? We threw a bit of Abba and Take That into the proceedings in an attempt to get them to eject us but no...

Then one by one the other artists came to show us how it should be done and what a fabulous night! Phil Jennings told us over and over and over again my friend... A chap called Hetherington spun round three times in a quiet corner and in a flash returned as Johnny Storme. The feeling and emotion coming through Johnny's music never fail to move me - magical. Alan Wilcox made a very impressive debut. We had a great spot from Dean and Jane singing together, shiveringly good!

Johnny Storme

There were no bad performances of course. Dave Jay, Paul Wilcox, and the Grand Master Rob Dee, who asked if we'd finish the night.... What?!? You want us to go back on?!? Reluctantly we drag ourselves back up to the microphone. It may have looked as though we couldn't wait...

Anyway we are always immensely grateful for the reception we get from the Billy crowd - no matter what provocation we give, no one has ever thrown anything... A brilliant, even BILLYant, night full of friendship and good fun. Apologies to any singers I've missed, we loved you all.

Saturday. Sunley do a purty good breakfast! Then we dragged ouselves into Northampton so the girls could look round the shops and David and I went up and down the mall on the ground floor and then on the upper floor and then gave up and went to sit in a Costa with a bucket of coffee each and waited for the Misses Franny and Jeannie to come in laden with bags.

Then the main event of the weekend - Sunnyside. It is the pub where Billy Fury played his last gig before his untimely passing in 1983.

Dave Jay got the ball rolling with a cracking set and the time just flew by. Steve reprised his Secret Agent Man from Friday night - what a cracking song! We went and did our spot - Somebody Else's Girl, I Can Hear Music, The Young Ones (for Moya!), Tulsa, The Single Girl, Love Hurts, Lost Without You and You've Lost That Loving Feeling. Then the long hook came out from stage left and we were dragged off...

Thanks to all those who asked when we were going back on - no that was just the Friday night...! Gluttons for punishment some folks... Great to meet up again with a few day trippers - Snowy (all that hair and at such an advanced age - has the man no feelings for the follicly challenged?), Russ Dee came in his white coat - and left with it still white - I'm sure I couldn't have managed that... Laura and Emily, gorgeous as ever and a great great set, Roger Sea, Rob Dee... it's just such a wonderful event.

Rob Dee

Again a series of excellent performances, culminating in Johnny Red's tribute to Billy and all of us up to sing HTP and then it was all over. We packed up the gear, headed back to the Sunley and opened a bottle of bubbly in David and Miss Jeannie's room before Miss Franny and I slunk quietly back down to our room tripping up, banging against doors, giggling and setting fire alarms off etc... Hey rock and roll!

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!