New Sample Track Uploaded

I've uploaded a new 40 second sample of the band to the website.

Seeing as the finished version of "Somebody Else's Girl" is now available on the Billy Fury site, it didn't make much sense to leave the half-finished version up our our own site!

The latest sample is of the final track from the 2004 album "Kites" and is our cover of Robbie Williams' "Angels".

Download available at Billy Fury Website

During the month of April, one of our songs can be downloaded in its entirety from the Billy Fury Website: http://www.billyfury.com

In the late 1950s and early 1960s Billy Fury was billed as England's answer to Elvis. Born Ronald Wycherley on 17 April 1940 in Liverpool, he became one of the Larry Parnes stable of artists, appearing on TV shows such as "Oh Boy". During the 1960s he had 24 chart entries, clocking up an impressive 258 weeks on the Top 50.

He is most remembered for his hit singles "Halfway to Paradise" and "Last Night Was Made For Love", but his 1960 hit "A Wondrous Place" gained much new interest recently, being used as the soundtrack to a TV Advert for the Toyota Yaris.

The website keeps Billy's name and music alive through an excellent collection of sound and video resources, interactive forums and the monthly "Sounds Special" feature which contains an free album's worth of music recorded by artists from all around the world. A must for Billy Fury fans and we hope that our fans will have a listen to all the songs not just our own. There is a facility to comment on the "Sounds Special" without having to register and login. We have contributed our version of Billy's hit "Somebody Else's Girl".

Mr Bassman

This afternoon Bob came round to run through some of our newer stuff as a rehearsal and also to put a bass track on a couple of the album tracks.

We all find it difficult to earmark time to get together other than at weekends and at the moment even weekends are a bit busy!

Bob also introduced us to a couple of new jig instrumentals as we've been playing "Bluebell Polka" for our instrumental spot for the last few years and it's time for a change.

St Patrick's Night Gig

Last night's gig for Garstang Light Opera Group (GLOG) was a brilliant night! David and I are pictured in silly mode at the start of the night. David needed the huge Guinness as he had had to cope with a flat tyre on the way to Cabus Village Hall!

It was a night interspersed with many guest artists who either sang and played on their own or who joined us for a song or two.

We tried out a few of our new songs but the night went so quickly that we still had plenty of stuff left unplayed at midnight when my ballgown started to turn back into rags!

Thanks as always to the stalwarts of GLOG for helping make the night so memorable!

Preparation for a Gig

Tonight is a St Patrick's Night event as a fund-raiser for the Garstang Light Opera Group. Bob is busy playing a ceilidh somewhere with his other band, The Old School Band, so this one will be just David and myself.

However that's not the end of the story because as you can imagine, a light opera society will have its own fair share of talented people and many of them will "do a turn" tonight. Peter and Shelagh Cooney will join us on stage and perhaps do a couple of songs on their own. Shelagh features on our "Kites" album singing and playing penny whistle on "Fields of Athenry" and the harmonies always make the hairs on the back of my neck tingle even as I'm helping sing them!

Another close harmony group are "Cantabile", made up of four members of GLOG (as Garstang Light Opera Group call themselves).

David and I have a lot of new material that we are trying out tonight - I'm sure it will go down well and we have a full set of Irish music before the dance and rock and roll stuff inevitably takes over towards the end of the night!

I've spent the morning putting new strings on the guitars and breaking them in - brand new strings go out of tune for fun until they've been played for a bit. I've also finished off "Somebody Else's Girl" (see previous entry in the blog) and that's gone off to http://www.billyfury.com to be included (hopefully) in the April online album. You can play this month's album until the 31st and it includes one of my solo tracks, "Blue Bayou".

I'll post a report of the gig in a day or two!

Ten Tracks Ready

Yes it's been another day of singing to ourselves trying to get the album ready. We are about halfway there now - ten tracks waiting for Bob to put bass on.

We also had a bash at another Billy Fury track - Somebody Else's Girl has been done from start to finish this weekend! Well almost... The idiot producer failed to save the guitar track so now that's going to have to wait until next week. You can hear a 40 second sample of the results without guitar by clicking the link to the left. So who is this idiot producer with the slapdash method of recording music then? Er... that'd be me...

Album Work Continues

It's been a busy Sunday, as I've been preparing a few more tracks for the album. Fran has been at work so I had a clear run at being able to play the same thing over and over without getting on her nerves!

I start off with keyboard tracks - backing, drums and basic chord backing. Then any other keyboard tracks that may be required. That can include strings, brass, synthesizer, choirs or almost any other instrument.

Then I add guitar parts. Normally I add strummed guitars one to either side of the stereo image at the extreme edge, neither guitar audible through the opposite speaker. That creates quite a full sound. Then I might add other guitars closer to the centre with any lead or solo parts coming centre stage. I play both electric (Fender Stratocasters) or accoustic. If playing the accoustic I mic that up and have to turn off the fan on the central heating to ensure no background noise!

At this stage the track is ready for David to add his vocals after which I'll add any harmony parts. Finally Bob will add the bass and possibly extra accoustic guitar or mandolin parts.

Today "You're My Best Friend" has had an electric guitar part added and is now ready for Bob, whilst "Picture of You", "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" and "My Life" have been started from scratch and are ready for vocals to be added.

I was at a party last night and several people came up to say they had heard and enjoyed the band. Thanks for all the kind comments - we hope to firm up some more dates for public gigs soon - keep an eye on our home page.

The Green Fields of France

One of the few totally serious spots in a Creeping Bentgrass gig will be when we play The Green Fields of France, a beautiful and very moving song about a visitor to a World War One cemetary talking to a young long-dead soldier.

We have included this track on the forthcoming album and I spent some time on it today putting my vocal parts on it. I only sing harmonies on the final chorus but we put a speaking part over the chorus which adds to the solemnity and raises the audience emotions a little bit.

We always have to sing something cheerful afterwards but I'm sure it will be one you remember when the album is released!

John's Solo Album

An email has flooded in wanting to know the track list of my solo album. Rash fool... Anyway, with apologies to David and Bob for the blatant self promotion here it is!

Track List

The Tracks of My Tears
Stormy Down
Blue Bayou
Diesel On My Tail
Sixteen Tons
Good Morning Sun
Blame It On Your Heart
Flower of Magarallio
Poor Me
The First Cut Is The Deepest
Johnny B. Goode
Lay Down Sally
The Voice Within
Louisiana Lady
Reason To Believe

Yes, quite a mixture there! From "Tennessee" Ernie Ford to Christina Aguillera! The album is simply called "John Burke" and is available from this page.

And yes, I know "Johnny B. Goode" appears on the new CBG album (see previous post) but we started playing it with the band after I'd recorded it on this album.

New Albums - Sound and Vision!

There's a new album of photos of the band available at Picasa. If you fancy a spot of laughing at us without the torture of an actual gig, then that's the place to go!

I've done a bit more work on the third album. Guitars have been added to a couple of tracks and backing tracks for a couple of others are now waiting for vocals to be added. Only one song (my solo effort) is finished as yet but there are a few now only waiting for Bob to add a bass track.

It's going to be a mix of styles again - we've more or less agreed all the tracks now but apart from opening with "Last Night Was Made for Love" to be followed by Joe Brown's "Picture of You" and knowing it will build up to a raucous finish with "Johnny B. Goode" the running order may change a bit!

Track List:

Last Night Was Made For Love
Picture of You
I've Just Seen A Face
You're My Best Friend
The Rose
Constantly
My Life
The Green Fields of France
Dirty Old Town
Whisky In The Jar
Help Me Rhonda (or California Girls)
It Doesn't Matter Anymore
I Try To Think About Elvis
The Night I Called The Old Man Out
Johnny B. Goode

Which in all makes 15 tracks. We haven't yet decided whether to add an instrumental to this album.