Steam Fair Gig at Heskin Hall

Last night we did the Steam Fair at Heskin Hall, Chorley - our 5th year at this event.

This year Jack, the organiser, had wanted to try something a bit different to keep people on the grounds longer and we started playing around 5:30pm, finishing at 8:00pm to be followed by another band.

With another gig today at Myerscough College's Open Day this fitted well with us as we were home by 11:00pm instead of the usual 2:00am and have to be onsite at Myerscough before 9:00am this morning!

But bright-eyed and bushy-tailed of course with only a slightly sore throat - I think I've been swallowing my tonsils all night from the feel of it!

Oh yes, for all you steam fans out there, here's Little Dorothy. A picture of Big Dorothy some other day for all you fans of big dorothy's...

Witton Country Park Gig

Ooh, ahh, agh my back! Sigh, it was a long afternoon and now I've carted all the equipment back into the house from the car I'm ready to flop!

True there was a bit of rain, but actually it didn't put the audience off at all and they sat through it without any complaint.

The sun came out at intervals, the space in front of us stayed full all day and David was sporting a Billy Fury T-shirt.

It's been a bit of an autograph day as well for us. We don't get too many of those but sometimes when one person asks it can start a chain reaction going. So there's a few people in around 5 years time will be wondering who on earth it was that signed that bit of paper they found in a book or on a shelf or in a drawer!

News for those who normally travel to see us at Garstang Music and Arts Festival in August. This year we are unable to make the usual Thursday spot but the festival has been extended to the Bank Holiday Monday and we will be appearing, probably in our usual spot on Bank Holiday Monday 31 August 2009. Confirmation of the exact place and times later!

Rehearsal Time

I know...! Us?!? Rehearse?!? But once again we found ourselves trying out new stuff.

Last week we finally got round to going out for a "band meal", that is all three band members with wives. We had a wonderful meal at the Italian Orchard in Broughton, near the M6 motorway bridge on the Longridge Road and whilst we were merrily ruminating (or whatever we were doing) Bob suggested we ought to do The Hollies number Just One Look.

So on Saturday I got the keyboard out and had a listen to the original and dashed off a backing onto the keyboard. Dashed a bit too quick actually as I left a verse out... darn it! But it wasn't all a waste as I'd also had a go at another great hit from the same group, I'm Alive and that proved an instant hit with the other guys once David discovered he really could sing that low!

We'll be trying it out in a few weeks at our annual spot in the courtyard at Blackburn's Witton Park (see column at left for full details of public gigs).

Album Number Four

David and Jeannie were round yesterday and we did a bit more work on the band's fourth album somewhat creatively given the working title Four.

It's going faster than we've ever got on with an album before but that may be because we have added so much new material to the repertoire since the last album that we have a huge amount of stuff competing for space. That's a mix of the new stuff competing with older songs we don't play as often these days.

Anyway, though most of the 16 tracks recorded so far are waiting for a bassline to be recorded, there is one that we recorded for the Billy Fury site and I added a bassline from the keyboard. King For Tonight was the B side to Last Night Was Made For Love which appeared on the third album, Right On The Line.

Yesterday we added a couple of tracks: Wild Mountain Thyme and Living Next Door To Alice (without swearing...)

Listen to: King For Tonight, Last Night Was Made For Love

Sunnyside - The Event!

What a FABULOUS weekend!!! The Billy Fury weekend went in a blaze of meetings, hugs, laughs, highs and great, great music!

We went down to an Innkeeper's Lodge hotel in Northampton that was more-or-less just filled with Billy fans including the wonderful Moya, a close personal friend of Billy's who had come all the way from her adopted home in New Zealand. Moya's a pint-sized person with a tanker-sized personality and was such a lot of fun!

Friday afternoon we played a set in the meeting room of the hotel to a small but enthusiastic audience and then Friday night was the first main gig - an informal gathering in a packed room with many of the great artists who have sung on the Sounds Special monthly feature on Billy Fury web site. We met up with all the artists and the other regulars from the site's forum and it was a great night with music from (in totally random order)Rob Dee, Bruce Seaton, Johnny Storme, Jewel, Dean Hubert, Angus, Steve Sinclair, Jane, Pat James, Paul Staines, Snowy, Phil Jennings plus David and myself.

Paul and Johnny, dubbed The Fury Boys by the female members of the forum, (The Fury Girls...) did a fantastic duet together and set hearts fluttering all round the room judging by the reactions!

Then it was the turn of The Fury Girls themselves at the end of the night to gather to sing Fans of Billy Fury to the tune of Land of Hope & Glory, whilst I desperately tried to keep up accompaniment on the keyboards! We ended with all the singers up for a rousing rendition of Billy's most famous hit Halfway To Paradise.

After such a great night there wasn't much chance of sleep until we had wound down a bit and a bottle of wine in the room with David and Jeannie brought the night to a close and David and Jeannie went back to their own room and we collapsed like a light switched off.

Saturday was the main event at the Sunnyside club where Billy had given his last stage performance. The singers were joined by Jett Scream, Geoff Howlett and Andrew Tween.

Out of 14 acts we were chuffed to find ourselves only 4th from the top of the bill, which was topped by Billy's ex-flatmate Vince Eager with his band Rockola.

With three hours of music before we were due to go on, there was plenty of time for a few butterflies in the stomach and I was unbelievably nervous as the MC, disc jockey Pierre Petrou from London's Radio Northwick Park introduced us. But the roar that followed us as we walked onto the stage banished the nerves and I quickly made sure the guitar was still in tune and then promptly cocked up the intro to I'm a Believer! Not to worry, we gave what seemed like a good set of six songs and we hadn't gone all that far before the floor filled with dancers which is always a good sign!

Lots of people made very kind comments afterwards but we found it quite strange and having spoken to some of the other singers we knew we weren't alone. You grow into a gig and we felt that we had only just got going and then our 6 songs were up and we had to come off. But enough people said how much they had enjoyed it to make up for any regrets about only having a 20 minute slot and the whole night was a buzz with some really great acts!

I was grabbed to dance with Babs and then Jean and Marie and then once more all the singers joined Vince on stage to sing "HTP" and a really great night ended on a high.

We left on Sunday morning after doing a final round of goodbyes and reflected on lots of new friends made and meetings with people from the forum who I've felt I've known for so long. The proudest moment? Probably when someone from one of the two fan clubs came to say how much he had enjoyed my arrangement of Billy's King For Tonight which he described as "rocked up"!

Unfortunately Fran's camera died but David (the Click-Monster) took loads of photos of the other artists so I'll borrow them to add to my memories of a BILLYANT night!

Northampton Weekend

We're just getting ready to load the car with keyboards and guitars and head off down to Northampton for this event.

If you haven't got tickets already there's now no chance of getting any I'm afraid (for "afraid" read "glad to say"!) The event is sold out and the Sunnyside club it was reported had to turn down another 50 applications for tickets the day after it sold out!

Tonight is a chance to meet all the great people from the http://www.billyfury.com forums and I'm anticipating a great night tonight also!

Reports to come...!

Setting Up

Went out for a Chinese last night with David and Jeannie and they gave me some photos of the last gig which included some rare set-up shots.

We don't often get photos of all the work involved in setting up the stage, arranging cables into a loom so we don't trip up and tuning instruments and so on, so I thought I'd include a few here. Looks like I'm doing most of the work too! Sigh...

We are looking forward immensely to the Billy Fury gig in Northampton in 3 weeks. We are sharing the stage with lots of other artists but hope to do a set of 6 songs at the Sunnyside Club, the last venue Billy played. Saturday 20 March.

First Gig for 2009

Last night the band gave a performance to an invited audience of some 80 friends and family members at Staining Village Hall.

It was great to see so many people there, especially as some of them we don't see all that often. Old school friends had come from the Rochdale area, some family had come from the Chester area and Fran's brother and his wife drove up from Swindon to spend the night with us.

There were, of course lots of friends, family and colleagues from Blackpool, Cleveleys and Garstang to swell the numbers.

It was only the second time we had arranged a season-starter for ourselevs and this time any excess funds will be going to Cat Rescue (Blackpool, Wyre & Fylde.

Each member of the band shares their house with 2 cats and so it's a charity close to our hearts.

We had fun with some of Fran's friends last night who were calling for some Abba songs. Abba don't normally feature strongly in our act, though John did his best and included a snatch of Waterloo in the keyboard instrumental in the middle of Hi Ho Silver Lining!

Large versions of the photos: view from the hall, close view

Christmas Music

Happy Christmas everybody from David, John and Bob.

Three Christmas songs from the band for you to enjoy.

Good King Wencelas
A Winters Tale
I Believe In Father Christmas

Large version of the photo: Christmas store

Christmas Performance

On Tuesday we were invited to perform for a staff party and turned up early to set up whilst the party-goers were enjoying a festive meal.

We were provided with our very own buffet and what an excellent start to the session that was for us. The food was excellent and given that the kitchen staff were serving up a couple of hundred full Christmas dinners, was a tribute to them. Wonderful!

The staff came back from the meal and we started off with a new instrumental by Bob and myself; Foot Tapper. Then on came David and we played a few country songs, a couple of Irish charmers and then launched into the dancy numbers.

Lots of compliments, lots of dancing and even a couple of guest singers! Christmas has started - bring it on!

Large version of the photo: creeping bentgrass