A production that labels Billy Fury "the British Elvis" starts a two-week run in Liverpool on April.

Staged at the Lantern Theatre, Blundell Street, from April 23-May 5, it tells the Billy Fury story from birth to the statue, says the artistic director, Edward D'Arcy Hatton. Tickets (call 0151 703 0000) cost £15, or £13 to concessions.

Tony Cain, who has appeared as Billy in other productions, takes the title role in front of a professional cast.

Mr D'Arcy Hatton says the show is being backed by the In Thoughts Of You fan club, and that Billy's mother, Mrs Jean Wycherley, will attend one night. - 9 February 12

New Brighton show

Michael Parkinson is bringing his Billy Fury show to the Floral Pavilion, New Brighton, on April 1.

He writes: 

In the news

When BBC 1's main news of the day wanted an interview with a Liverpool solicitor on August 24, he was called in to the city studios.

Was the director or the cameraman a Billy Fury fan?  It certainly seems that way - check the top left of the picture below. A certain Liverpool hero was kept well in focus throughout the interview. The interview can be seen on the BBC iplayer for a couple of weeks- 25 August 2011

Cutting from The Times. 5 August 2011

Billy Fury Way report moved to its own page.

EXPOSURE ON BBC RADIO 2

Tracks from two of our CDs, the highly successful Billy Fury: The Complete Parlophone Singles, and The Complete Dickie Pride, were played on BBC Radio 2's Sounds Of The Sixties on Saturday 23 October 2010.

The track is archived on the Radio page, and for convenience here. - 23 October 2010. 

EVESHAM ROCKS

The annual Billy Fury tribute show at Evesham Workingmen's Club, run by Pat Young and Rob and Chris Dee drew a sell-out crowd of 150 on Saturday.

Red Alert, fronted by Lee Davidge, proved to be a superb live band, Lee leaving everyone exhausted simply from witnessing his athletic Shakin' Stevens tribute.

Rob Dee provided a brilliant Fury tribute, with many of the numbers backed by Red Alert, before Rob swapped his gold jacket for an Elvis (errrm, Wotsisname?) jump suit, climaxing a brief spot with Dixie.  

Normal Fury service was resumed at the end, with a reprise of Halfway To Paradise. 

The show raised £1,235, of which £100 is being donated towards the upkeep of Billy's grave at Mill Hill, with the balance split between the local air ambulance service and Alder Hey Hospital.

(Pics below supplied by Barbara Hughes.)

Message board reports can be found here.  - 18 October 2010.

SUMMER SHOW AT THE FARM

A summer show will be held at the Welsh farm where Billy Fury spent happy years in the 1970s.

Now owned by Jenny Warwick - a leading light of the BFITOY fan club - Rhos Farm, Crugybar, SA19 8UD, will be the venue for an open-air event  from 4pm-11pm on Saturday June 25 2011.

Colin Paul will sing and be MC, and guests and a DJ are being booked.  Tribute singers are invited to contact Jenny at jenny.warwick1@virgin.net if they are interested in appearing.

Tickets will cost £12.50 to members of BFITOY and £14 to non-members. There will be stalls, and admission to Jenny's Billy Fury museum will be free.

Proceeds will be donated to Animals In Need, which supports Welsh animal charities.

Jenny has space for campers, or a caravan site and many B&Bs are in the area.

EDDIE COCHRAN'S DEATH MARKED

While many Fury fans will be marking the 70th anniversary of Billy Fury's birth this weekend - the SoF and BFITOY events in Liverpool/Mill Hill are mentioned on the fan club page, and there is also a commercial event in Liverpool - Saturday is also exactly 50 years since the death of Eddie Cochran. 

The American singer/songwriter/guitarist was killed in a car crash accident on the A4 near Chippenham, Wiltshire on his way back to Heathrow airport after a gig at the Bristol Hippodrome.  His taxi driver was later gaoled. 

Eddie had just completed a winter-long concert tour of Britain , along with his rock ’n’ roll buddy G ene Vincent, which had climaxed with a final week at The Bristol Hippodrome from Monday 11-16 April 1960.

 Fifty years on, the memory of Eddie Cochran will be celebrated with a tribute from the hit rock ‘n’ roll musical Dreamboats and Petticoats, which – coincidentally – is completing its run at the Bristol Hippodrome on Saturday.

 Bill Kenwright, whose production company Bill Kenwright Ltd. is behind the show said:

‘’In my mind, Eddie Cochran was one of the five greatest rock 'n' roll influences of all time. We are doing a special segment at the end of Dreamboats and Petticoats this weekend as a tribute to Eddie, which will be performed on stage at the Bristol Hippodrome in exactly the position where he sang his last song before he got into that fateful taxi.’’

The tribute will take place at performances on Friday and Saturday at both the Bristol Hippodrome and at the London Playhouse, where the West End show is based.

On the BBC Radio 2 programme Sounds of the 60s, Brian Matthew will include an Eddie Cochran special from 9am-10am on Saturday. - April 10, 2010

LISA VOICE WEBSITE

Many thanks to Hayley Mansell for drawing my attention to the new website set up by Billy's long-term partner, Lisa Voice.  Because of the way it's been programmed, it can take quite a long time to load before you can view the content, so be warned.

THANKSGIVING SERVICE

A thanksgiving service to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Billy Fury's last day with us will be held in Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral at 3pm on Sunday April 13.  The ceremony, organised at the initiative of the BFITOY Club is, of course, open to all.  Light refreshments will be available after the service, allowing everyone to get together in friendship and remembrance. 

Meet at Billy's statue beside the Mersey from 1pm onwards.  If the weather is good, bring a picnic, otherwise it's to the Pump House for a snack.  There will be refreshments and a get-together in the cathedral restaurant afterwards.- 16 March 08.

TV SPECIAL CD PLANNED

In 2007, the Marty Wilde greatest hits CD, Born To Rock 'n' Roll, was issued with terrific TV exposure, and it sold so well that it entered the charts.

Several people remarked on the message board:  Couldn't they PLEASE do that for Billy?

Well, I happen to know that within the last couple of weeks, Decca have held meetings to plan exactly that - to issue a TV-promoted Billy Fury CD, to mark our 25th year without him.

If it doesn't come off, it will be a terrible shame, but I promise you, the meetings really have taken place. - 21 November 07.

HARD CHEESE - BUT I THINK THEY'RE WRONG

This Press release will be appearing in the newspapers tomorrow.

BLUE VEINED SHOES

Elvis found in the veins of a Stilton cheese

Long Clawson Dairy in Leicestershire has discovered that The King is indeed still alive and living in the veins of a Stilton cheese.
 
Kelly Branston, a packing operative from Long Clawson Dairy, discovered the image of Elvis Presley during the packaging process, when she cut the cheese to unveil the image that appears uncannily like the 'The King of the Blues'.

Kelly comments: "I couldn't believe it when I saw it. We often see little patterns in the veins of the cheese but this is uncanny."

 The veining process begins at about six weeks of age when each cheese is pierced with stainless steel needles to allow air to enter the body of the cheese. In turn this activates the blue cheese mould and so commences the magical and completely random veining process.

 Secretary of the Stilton Cheese Makers' Association Nigel White comments: "We've had slight celebrity resemblances appear before from time to time but we've never seen anything as clear as this before. We were all stunned when Kelly first sent me the pictures: it's fitting for the King of the Blues to be found in the King of Cheese."

Well, I think they're wrong, and here's the evidence:

I've told the Stilton PR people: 

I'd just like to point out that cheesy as Elvis might have been, this very British product does, in fact, feature a very British image - not Elvis, who was always into Swiss cheese - but Billy Fury.

The proof is in the pudding, or rather, the cheese.

It could hardly be much clearer, could it?

Furthermore, I should point out that one of Billy Fury's most successful EPs was called Am I Blue.

Spooky, or what? - 14 August 07

DVD LAUNCH

The launch of Odeon Entertainments' DVD of His Wondrous Story was held in London on 12 June 2007.

This is a very professional product, which benefits particularly from very rewarding interviews with Billy's mother, Mrs Jean Wycherley, and brother, Albie.

Billy never achieved a million sales of a single record, but as Decca's biggest artist in the 1960s, he more than made up for that with his aggregate sales.

Decca marked the achievement by presenting Jean with a gold disc.

Dave Vanian, who provides the commentary on the DVD, is pictured on the left of the bottom right picture.

YOUR NUMBER 1:  FORGET HIM

Forget Him was the narrow winner of a visitors' poll that attracted 639 votes in August 2006, beating In Thoughts Of You by just three votes.

In third place was It's Only Make-Believe with 89, but the surprise was the showing of I Must Be Dreaming, Billy's unreleased single that features on our Without You and Dreaming CDs.

The full result is

Forget Him 110
In Thoughts Of You 107
It's Only Make-Believe 89
I Must Be Dreaming 75
Halfway To Paradise 73
A Thousand Stars 66
I Will 61
Be Mine Tonight 30
Sleepless Nights 20
Cross My Heart 8

EVESHAM TRIBUTE SHOW

SITE RECORD

The number of visitors to billyfury.com has always astounded me, but in March 2006, we seem to have hit another gear.

We had 21,550 visits in the month.  That's the number of different people who visit the site - anyone who comes back within an hour isn't counted.  They read 179,810 pages.

The reason this is so remarkable is that this is an increase of more than 26% on the previous record, in October 2005 - to a site dedicated to someone who hasn't been around for more than 20 years.

Also in May, we had our half-millionth visitor since the site was launched.

You'll sometimes see or hear people referring to "hits", which refers to the number of files viewed. For the record, billyfury.com had about 900,000 hits in March. - 3 April 06.

RAY ON AIR

Our good friend Ray Shenton headlined in a sell-out tribute show in Preston on 17 November 2004.  He was interviewed before the show on Radio Lancashire - catch his interview here - it includes two first class numbers from Ray.

SUNSHINE COACH DINNER

A dinner was held by the Variety Club of Great Britain at the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, on Monday 15 November 2005, to raise money for a Sunshine Coach for Capenhurst School, Wirral.  Full details.

FAN CLUB APPOINTMENTS

This is intended to be a bare statement of fact, in response to inquiries from many people. 

At the Mill Hill gathering on Sunday October 17, Billy's mother, Mrs Jean Wycherley, accepted an invitation from the fan club, the Sound Of Fury, to become honorary president.

Mrs Lisa Voice had previously accepted an invitation from the club to become its patron, as Billy's former long-term partner and head of the Billy Fury Estate and Billy Fury Memorial Fund. No public announcement had been made of this.

Each lady received a statuette of Billy, at a reported cost to the club of £1,000 each.

On Wednesday, October 20, Billy's brother, Mr Albie Wycherley, announced that Mrs Wycherley had resigned as president.

Many people have their own feelings about rights, wrongs, justifications, explanations and motivations.  The statement above is not intended to represent any of those.

I intend this site to be a reliable record.   If anyone feels that the statement of facts is incorrect in any respect, I invite them to e-mail me and I will correct it if necessary. - 24 October 04

RALPH IN LIVERPOOL

Canadian poet and singer Ralph Alfonso, who was booked for Fury Fest 04, will appear at the Cavern Club, Liverpool, on the evening of Sunday October 24.

Ralph will perform his revised Billy Fury tribute, and will be backed by Kimberley Rew (guitar), Lee Cave-Berry (bass) and Alex Cooper (drums). Kimberley and Alex are from Katrina and the Waves. 

Sounds like a great night out.

The night featured below is now sold out.

Albie in action: Billy's brother Albie, who recorded with Joe Meek as Jason Eddie, and his new band will be performing a set of Billy Fury songs on Saturday March 6, 2004 at the Official Fury Family Show at Rivington Barn, Rivington, near Bolton.

Billy's mum, Mrs Jean Wycherley, will also attend.

The show starts at 8pm and includes supper - there is a vegetarian option.

There will also be a new, limited edition Billy Fury CD album available on the night, exclusively to those who have booked tickets through the promoter, Billy Fury Ltd/Ozit Records.  This features rarities and some previously unreleased material.

The version sold at the show, which could be limited to one per ticket-holder, will have 23 tracks - 22 rarities and unreleased items by Billy, and one by Albie.

A couple of months later, a retail version will be marketed through shops.  This will have only 18 of the Fury tracks, plus the track by Albie.  Both versions will include a detailed booklet.

For information about the CD, send three first class stamps to Recordrange at the address below.

Tickets for the gig are £19.50, plus £1.90 booking fee, which includes a seat at a table, supper and the show.  Call 01565 734066 or 07970 219701, or book by post (cheques payable to Recordrange) to PO Box 116, Northwich, Cheshire.  CW9 5UG - 22 October 03. Updated 23 February 04.

Music award:  The Billy Fury Music Award was launched at an event at the Ace Café in London in October 2003. 

The aim is to raise money to provide grants to help two students with their education.  The event raised £1,000.

One student will be chosen from those attending the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts, and one from those attending a university in London.

Applications are being handled by the Sound Of Fury fan club. - 19 October 03.

Blue Plaque: A blue plaque, marking Billy's residence in St John's Wood, London, was unveiled on Sunday, September 28.

A full report is available.

The event was being organised by The Heritage Foundation, which raises money for a long list of charities.

The organiser, David Graham,  co-operated closely with Billy's long-time girlfriend, Lisa Rosen, who is one of The Heritage Foundation's patrons.

Lisa Voice video interview. An excellent two-part interview with Lisa Voice was added to chatshow.net during 2001. You will need Windows Media Player 7 (which does not work with WIndows 95) or Quicktime to watch it. Although I have e-mailed the site to ask if the interview will be permanently archived, theyhave not yet replied, so I have ensured that it is preserved.It can be seen in Real Video format on this site's Video page while I am waiting for chatshow.net to clarify the position.

Farewell to Mick. Mick Hill, one of the founders of the Billy Fury fan club, the Sound Of Fury, died in July, 2001.

Get Seti. Join the search for intelligent life in space - and sign up to the Billy Fury search group. Click here for details.

Biography published. Marion Cave has published a biography of Billy, and is donating profits to the Bronze Fund. It's probably best to regard it as an excellent personal testament about Billy's life, rather than a fully detailed biography. Marion became a committed fan after Billy visited her in hospital at the age of 7. The 19 pages of text make fascinating reading. It costs £4 including UK post from The Sound Of Fury, PO Box 60, Biggleswade, SG18 0SR, UK. Make cheques payable to M. Cave.

Record Collector. A seven-page feature on Billy appeared in the April 2001 edition of the British Record Collector magazine. I believe this is the first time the magazine has covered him in any depth since 1987. Unfortunately, the author destroys his credibility by getting Billy's birthday wrong. There are other errors, but it's a reasonable read. There is also an interview with a dealer who, understandably, is trying to talk up prices. I think many people have noticed that, in fact, prices at auction have been falling for a few months and many dealers are happy to move stock by taking big reductions on asking prices.

Lisa interview. The Daily Mail's Weekend magazine carried a nicely-illustrated interview with Billy's long-time companion, Lisa Voice, on 27 January 2001. I bought a few extra copies, so if you missed it, they are available for £3 including post, which includes a donation of about £2 to the Bronze Fund. E-mail me for details, please.

E-mail received from Freddy Cannon.

I also had rheumatic fever, but I survived.

I worked with Billy when I came over in 1959. I toured with Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.

Now I'm coming back after 40 years to tour with Bobby Vee all over England from October 11 to December 3, 2000.

I'll be rocking.

(Click here for a photograph of the tour party.)

Tribute performers. Click here for the gen.

Tribute weekend. Billy Fury tribute weekends were are held regularly at the Carousel Hotel, 663-671 New South Promenade, Blackpool, FY4 1RN, telephone 01253 402642. For a report of the weekends held at the hotel in November 2000, and November 2001, click here.

Stars In Their Eyes. This UK television show, in which amateur performers impersonate personalities, featured Guy Clover, of St Mawes, Cornwall, who sang Wondrous Place, on November 11, 2000. Click here for my interview with Guy.

Saturday sounds. Few people probably need reminding of Brian Matthew's Sounds Of The Sixties at 8.05am-10am on Radio 2 every Saturday.

On air. BBC Three Counties Radio's The Club had a 40-minute segment on Billy in the early hours of June 11, 2000, when I dipped my toe into broadcasting waters for the first time, as I had the pleasure of chatting about Billy's life to presenter Ernie Almond.

Billy Fury mailing list. Donna Neil runs a Billy Fury internet mailing list. To subscribe, follow this link to http://www.onelist.com, then search for the group "BillyFury" (no space between "Billy" and "Fury". Contact Donna at donna@rainbowsparkle.freeserve.co.uk.