Ancient Vinyl Loveliness

This weekend there's a craft fair on in Blackpool Winter Gardens. I spent yesterday afternoon helping out on the stall where Miss Franny and daughter Gill sell their handmade jewellery and cloth bags, aprons and so on whilst next to them Miss Jeannie sells her hand-made greetings cards. Both Miss Jeannie and Gill were unavoidably absent yesterday which explains my attendance. But this morning I was free to wander round the other stalls. And thus I ended up spending money.

Now this stall had loads of boxes of old 45s. Not only that, but they all looked in good condition. You can look at a 78 rpm record and know how likely it is to play or jump and the odd scratch doesn't necessarily cause great offence. But with 45s I've come to realise that even the ones that look pristine can jump because the grooves are so close together it's impossible to see some damage with the naked eye. But I took the chance. At seven records for a fiver you can't go all that wrong... This is Billy Fury's 13th Top 40 hit and his sixth Top Ten hit. Once Upon A Dream entered the charts in July 1962 and reached No.7, spending a total of 13 weeks in the charts. Sadly this one was in a plain white sleeve rather than Decca's orange with diagonal stripes.

Regardless that it may be "before your time" most people will have heard this one. Rawhide sung by Frankie Laine was the theme tune to the TV western series that featured a young Clint Eastwood as the character Rowdy Yates. It entered the charts in November 1959, the 30th and 31st (it re-entered after dropping out of the charts) of 32 chart entries for Frankie. So whilst it came towards the end of his career it got to No.6 and became the song he's probably best known for. Probably more people can remember this record than can remember that he had four No.1 hits with: I Believe in 1953 (the song reached No.2 eleven years later for The Bachelors); Hey Joe, also 1953 (sadly not the same song Jimi Hendrix had a hit with); Answer Me which entered the charts only a fortnight after Hey Joe (Nat "King" Cole also recorded it but never had a hit with it. A lot of people would recognise that version though). His final No.1 hit was A Woman In Love in 1956 (sadly not the same song that Barbra Streisand topped the charts with in 1980 - a shame as it would have been quite hilarious to hear Frankie belt out "I am a....")

Friday On My Mind is one of the 1960s' great ear worms of a song. It reached No.6 as a debut hit for The Easybeats who only charted one more time. Their follow up hit reached No.20 and was called Hello How Are You. No... me neither...

The McCoys were a similar case really. Hang On Sloopy got to No.5 after entering the charts week ending 2 September 1965 and almost anyone who was buying records at the time could accurately sing the chorus line. Their only other hit came three months later, a cover of Fever which only managed No.44.

We Got Love was one of Alma Cogan's later hits, just failing to get into the Top Twenty. It entered the charts week ending 18 December 1959 thus being in competition with any Christmas records at the time, though the Christmas No.1 spot was shared (this was the last time this happened to a No.1 slot) by two records sharing the same first few words - What Do You Want by Adam Faith and What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For by Emile Ford and The Checkmates.

Ragamuffin Man brought the run of hits of 1960s band Manfred Mann to a close. It reached No.8 in 1969, their last hit before - as Manfred Mann's Earthband - they started another (but shorter) run of hits in the 1970s. In the 1960s they had 17 hits, only four of which failed to hit the Top Ten and of those four, two of them stopped inconveniently at No.11. They had three No.1s and the other two that failed to reach the Top Ten both reached the same spot - No.36.

Ray Charles' only No.1 was I Can't Stop Loving You. I dismissed it as music for older people at age 8 when it came out in 1962 but now - as a member of the older people demographic - I love it...

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! You might recognise him from his appearances as an extra in Eastenders!

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 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!

Remembering Sunnyside 2015 - Billy Fury Weekend

Friday 27 March 2015, I was up early, loading musical instruments and gear into the car for our annual trip to Northamptonshire to play at the Billy Fury weekend held at the Hind Hotel in Wellingborough.

The journey down there was remarkably easy this year. Two years ago it snowed all weekend and we set off in a blizzard even in Blackpool. We usually stop off at the services on the M6 toll road, Norton Canes. It sounds like the name of a 1930s Hollywood star really: starring Norton Canes, with Charnock Richard and introducing new starlet Hilton Park in....

We had to tramp through snow in the car park two years ago and then last year they were having building work done and the open doorway was letting a freezing wind in so we beat a hasty retreat! This year we ate, drank and carried on down the M6 to junction 15 of the M1.

Friday night at the event is always a relaxed occasion. It's an opportunity for experiments and for occasional singers to get up and have a go. Here Dave Savage joined us and Shelagh Cooney to sing Fields of Athenry. Shelagh sings with her husband Peter at the event and can be heard on our second CD, Kites, singing and playing penny whistle on the song we are singing here.

Dave Jay, singer and once member of The Revivers from the Macclesfield area, not only delivered his own brilliant set but acted as compère for both nights of the event.

Not always an easy task... Snowy is a well-known face to those around this part of Northampton, he sings in most pubs whether or not they want him to and has sung with several iconic bands before their security managed to pull him away. Truthfully you won't find a nicer, funnier, more OTT guy in the world. These events just wouldn't be the same without him.

We'd had a bit of banter on Facebook and I had threatened to tie his shoe laces together when he came to dance to one of his Freddie and The Dreamers songs. So he dragged me up to dance along... It's a week since - I'm almost over the heart attack now...

Johnny Storme: the ladies go wild over him and he puts lots of emotion into his singing. We played our first Billy Fury weekend in 2009 and I have to say that one of the highlights for me was to meet and play a song standing alongside of this gentleman.

Apologies to others who I don't have photos for, this was a good night warming up for the main event on Saturday night when the audience would be a little larger too. Meanwhile, for the second year running Fran and I found ourselves in the Bridal Suite... No rest for the wicked... ha ha ha!

See us play House of The Rising Sun.

Remembering Sunnyside 2014

It's that time of year again! So often this weekend marks our first gig of the year and so it was for 2014. We set off down to Wellingborough in Northamptonshire early Friday morning 21 March.

Our destination was the Hind Hotel, the venue for this private weekend for the regulars and friends who were originally drawn together on the forums at billyfury.com. Although the weekend is held in remembrance of Billy Fury, it is just a Sixties music based weekend - the theme is Billy Fury and his time rather than just the man himself. Of course a rather disproportionate number of his songs may be heard during the weekend...!

Creeping Bentgrass started things off on Friday night. We had several acts and some occasional singers and more were due to arrive on Saturday for the main night.

We don't have any facilities to play recorded backing tracks so apart from all our gear, our good friend and fellow entertainer, Dave Jay from Macclesfield had brought his own PA and means of playing CDs, mini disks and mp3s on memory sticks.

We invited Chris Eley up to sing Johnny B. Goode with us. A bit of a groovy mover is our Chris on the dance floor and you'll find his name against a few album notes if you look. I think he enjoyed himself here!

Saturday came and we went out for a breather of fresh air. We were joined by Peter and Shelagh from Garstang who we have known for years and who were going to do a couple of numbers with us in addition to their own set on Saturday night. For some reason the girls managed to spend ages at a button stall on the market. We weren't sure quite how they managed this, but their excuse seemed to be that the button stall was huge... Still confusion reigned in our male minds. Is there a rule that you have to look at every button? Is it like a collection thing - "Hey look I haven't got this one!" - or what?

We went off to have a look at the second-hand book stall (but without peering intently at every book). However there was one somewhat untidy gent who was certainly old enough to know better who was peering very intently at every picture in a book of 1970s pin-ups... We thought of forming a queue behind him...

Saturday night got started. A couple of acts had had to give backword and we stepped in with an impromptu set, bringing up Shelagh and Dave Savage to help out on The Fields of Athenry and performing a set of mainly ballads, a couple of Bee Gees classics and our tribute to our favourite woman - When You Say Nothing At All... We played a few "Billys" to get the audience in the right mood.

Steve Reynolds played a set of instrumentals in the classic Shadows style, which he applied not only to Shadows tunes but to more modern stuff too. He played the Westlife hit Wind Beneath My Wings which he said he had recently played to Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden at the Britain's Got Talent auditions. It takes nerve to go in front of that sort of panel so every respect to you Steve!

Certainly he had the ladies lining up to do The Shadows' Walk... Thankfully injuries were kept to a minimum and a couple of times they nearly got it right...

I've not got photos of everyone I'm afraid. Roger Sea gave a fabulous set and Phil Jennings had our table enthusiastically belting out the backing vocals to his version of Bobby Darin's Things (like a walk in the park...) which I think he appreciated. He looked in danger of bursting out laughing at one point though... Sorreeee!

Local lad Snowy is always up for a raucous and energetic set and this year was no exception - even though only a fortnight before he had been undergoing an operation to have two stents fitted... We watched aghast as he launched himself wholeheartedly (sorry!) into voice, leg and arm contortions and I wondered where we would be able to get an oxygen tank at such a late hour... A brilliant showman!

Dave Jay's own set was mind bogglingly good. I think his adrenaline was kicking in - looking after a stream of singers is no easy task. They do not always think to arrange their songs on a CD in the order they want to sing them and it can be a nightmare for the techie looking after them. Whatever it was, I've never heard a better set from Dave - well done that man!

Peter and Shelagh did their own set and brought us on for the last two - Nancy Whiskey's Freight Train and The Beatles' All My Loving. Peter plays guitar and in his own description "strips back" songs to their basic tune with a simple arrangement. They went down well.

We stayed on to play our main set - Little Sister, I'd Never Find Another You, It's Now Or Never, Lost Without You, Suddenly You Love Me, House Of The Rising Sun. On The Tremeloes song we had the audience belting out "Zie zie zie zie!" and everyone looked as though they were having fun! We certainly were!

The night was brought to a close by this chap - the one and only Johnny Storme, all the way from the Isle of Wight. Something of a legend to the Billy Fury forum regulars and certainly as far as the ladies are concerned, something of a heart-throb! I usually settle for a manly hand shake myself, but you couldn't hope to meet a nicer guy than Johnny and after last year's absence he was back in excellent form with a great set.

And then all too soon it was the end of the night and as dictated by tradition, all the singers gathered to the floor to sing Billy Fury's greatest hit Halfway To Paradise with the audience up on their feet, forming a ring to sing along with us. A great night and some great comments. Dave Jay thanked us publicly over the mic, saying we had made it a great weekend. Well... we made our bits good... But thanks to all who gave us some very kind comments and compliments. And of course we all agreed to come back next year and do it all over again!