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Moya Gleave has sent me a copy of the poster for the fan club's next bash, on January 25 2008.
I've also heard from Moya of the New Zealand Billy Fury Fan Club, which is extraordinarily active. She tells me... The Billy Fury Fan Club is a group of fans and friends of Billy’s who join together for three
reasons: to have fun, to keep Billy’s memory alive and to raise funds for various causes which
help people less fortunate than ourselves. Everyone turned up dressed for the occasion in pyjamas, dressing gowns and slippers and had a lot of fun dancing, participating
in silly games and watching yet another crazy cabaret in keeping with the theme. Individuals have benefited with wheelchairs etc. They have also sent me their National Fanthem, sung to the tune of Land Of Hope and Glory...
Fans of Billy Fury, ever more we'll be,
He will live forever, in our memory.
In our hearts we'll treasure, time will not
erase
The memory of our Billy - who found a wondrous
place.
We'll remember Billy, in a wondrous place.
(Click here for a
midi file.)
...and on
December 2, 2002, I heard of more antipodean antics...
AROUND THE WORLD ON Billyair Flight 62.
Our trip of a lifetime Around The World on
BILLYair Flight 62 was amazing.
The venue resembled the inside of an aircraft - passengers had to "board" the aircraft after proceeding with their tickets, passports and sik-saks through check-in, passport control via the sniffer dog on duty. Bags were placed on the security conveyor belt. With seat belts fastened passengers were taken on a four-hour trip by way of our show with acts and stars from around the world. We made a stop-over at The Pearly Gates to meet Our Billy. Another success for The Billy Fury Fan Club and our chosen charity benefited from our generous donation. And on September 30 2003, I received this report from Moya.. September 03 saw The Billy Fury Fan Club spring into action with another Billy ‘do’ This time in the form of a Quizz Night. Billy ‘do’s normally take place in the middle of 2 weeks school holidays, giving me the week before to set up & decorate the hall and the week after to clean up, dot the I’s & cross the T’s. There was no possiBILLYty of this happening so it was all a bit of a mad rush – but WE MADE IT! ½ hr of Billy music played as 30 teams of 6 – each team dressed as a theme for their team, made their way to their tables and there were some beauts:
The night started with Moya’s ‘Yoo Hoo’ announcements. Stating firstly that Our hall had become a smoke-free zone, but there would be regular fag breaks - so non smokers would just have to talk amongst themselves for a couple of minutes while the smokers went outside to satisfy their craving. During the 3 fag breaks music played – Smokin’ In The Boys Room/Motley Crew ~ Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette ~ Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. Candy Ciggies were placed on each table. Anyone who has the sudden urge to ‘pass wind’ should raise their hand and ask permission to leave the room, they will be granted permission and the rest of us would wait while they went outside to pollute the atmosphere! During the course of the night 3 people got fined $1 for the Hospice for passing wind without asking permission! More about the fines as you read on. A blow up doll was seated at a team who were a member short. The judges were introduced on stage – dressed appropriately to Here Come The Judge. The runners (dressed as Nuns) to Dominique. Our Marker – dressed in Cap’n’Gown to D.In Love. Our QuizzaBILLYty Master – dressed as Convict No. 19041940 to Marty’s Bad Boy…….and battle commenced. There were 10 rounds of 20 questions with supper (and Billy music playing) in between and lotz of laffing. Silly answers were read out during the course of the evening. $50 raised in fines alone was presented to the Hospice. Moya never missed an opportunity – each time the blow up doll was spotted at a different table (usually with some silly object – like a flag or a stick of Blackpool Rock - protruding from some part of its anatomy) each team member of the whole table was fined $1 for having an extra team member. Our Scott (dressed as Elvis/Dead Celeb) went to the loo while a Billy song was being played – on his return he was fined $1 coz Elvis Whatsisname ‘left the building’ while Billy was singing – How Rude! Sue’s daughter Donelle – dressed in the shortest gymslip, pink thong, stockings & suspenders was fined $1 for distracting a male team member on the next table! The female bunny with large pink ears was caught on camera coming out of the boys toilet. Billy Bunter was fined $1 as he had been banned previously from any further Billy ‘do’s and managed to get back in! The organizer (moya) even got fined $1 for inserting the same question in 2 different rounds – must have been having a senior moment when I wrote the questions. Everyone who had mobile phones were asked to switch them on and dial the numbers 0 – 2 – 1 – 1 – 0 – 0 – 7 – 3 – 1…….then choose a number and press send ~ the first one to get thru won a Billy C.D. The winner got thru to my mobile which was hooked up to a microphone and played Halfway To Paradise which is my ring tone. We had a Feddie Mercury Wannabee competition, which was hilarious – the winner took away 2 tickets to the F.M. Tribute Show. (By the way – the show was fantastic – the winner couldn’t go as he was on camp with the kidz and his wife invited me)!!! We did Bob’s stand-up/sit-down Bingo ~ someone cheated and got fined $1. At 1 a.m. the night finally came to an end with the first 3 teams choosing a prize (in order of first, second & third) from the 18 prizes on the prize table ~ one of which was one of those male shaped decorative bottles filled with Chilli’s – which I’d labelled a Chilli Billy! The dunces table each got a pill bottle with sweeties in with a label – Billy’s Brain Boosters! The hall was quickly cleaned up as I’d put rubbish bags on each table and asked each team to take their rubbish home as I had no way of disposing of it before the hall was being used the following night – no one minded in the least (I’ll do that again) and everyone left saying what a great night and "WHEN’S THE NEXT ONE"?
. 17th April 2004.
As usual the show was booked out for months prior to the event and in hindsight should’ve done 2 nites and left space for dancing as Robbie, Brian (Elvis W), the music & atmoshphere got everyone wanting to dance and dance they did – in what little space they could find – even on tables! Sound check out of the way – all a.o.k. the doors opened and it was like a New Year’s Day sale at Harrods – even tho tables had been numbered and printed on the tickets. Re-wind here – when Robbie & Brian were doing the sound check I was checking the video camera before David arrived to take over. The boyz had just got to the line in ‘I Believe’ which goes – ‘Someone will come – to show the way’ and in walked David – carrying a white supermarket bag with his booze in & blowing his nose. Captured on video. Made me laff anyway! I just felt sorry for all the people who couldn’t get tickets coz Robbie’s show is B®ILLYant. Everyone laffed & sang all nite. I started the nite with my usual ‘YOO HOO" speech – why we were here – thanked everyone for their support – dedicated the nite to Our Brian who lost his battle with cancer – proceeds to The Hospice – our next Billy event – N.Y. Eve when we’ll have my Little Ray Of Sunshine to entertain us with his tribute to Billy (I can’t wait)! Finally (says Robbie) I introduced Robbie to the stage, giving him the biggest build up I could muster – Billy Fury Fan Club member 19041940, the one who’s wife uses his prestigeous award as a doorstop ROBBIE ROBSON. Well, little did I know Robbie had a 3 minute lead in of music prior to him appearing on stage. I thought he’d dun a runner! Panic was setting in when….. DA-DA ~ TILL THE MOON DESERTS THE SKY – TILL ALL THE SEAS RUN DRY – MY DARLING (Billy) I’LL ADORE YOU……… Robbie has the most amazing powerful voice (Don’t tell him I said that – it might go to his his head and expect us all to worship him)! He did 4 spots with some great songs and his prowess as a comedian had everyone in fits of laffter. I bet Billy was singing along – coz HE WAS THERE! The boys got a treat in the shape of Robbie’s Follies in all their feathered glory (Rhymes with Fury) and their sexy dance routine Hanky Panky. Robbie’s rendition of the story of Cinderella projected spoonerism style which became Rindercella was hilarious. Time for a fag break (another one) and after a few wines with fag in hand siddled up our Principal and announced I was not going out of the school grounds to have this fag – so ner! He answered back – Well, Christ All Mucking Fighty – Gust Jo then! With then the Chairman of the Board Of Trustees stood up with his fags and said – In that case – I’m tumming coo! Te He! We had regular ‘fag breaks’ – the non smokers had to talk amongst thenselves while the ‘sociable’ ones went outside to satisfy our cravings. Back to our seats (this is the first Billy ‘do’ I’ve actually been able to sit and watch without having to be up on stage making a fool of myself) and into Robbie’s tribute(s) spot to Neil Diamond, Roy Orbison, Cliff Richard and of course OUR BILLY. Upon asking had he left anyone out and thrusting his pelvis (hint hint), the smoke appeared and so did Elvis Wotsisname looking so real you’d swear it was the real thing. Girls clamouring for XXX’s and scarves as he sang his way thru 15 songs on stage and amongst the audience. Fella’s chucking their undies at him, Moya removing her ‘Billy Fury’ G String and handing it to him with a tag attached – Return To Sender (!) to the embarrassment of My Rachel. That’s wot Mothers are for innit! Although I did spot her (along with every other bugger in the venue) singing that naughty word in ‘Alice’ after Robbie had distinctly told everyone to sing ‘Who The HECK is Alice!!!!! Robbie finished the nite filling his lungs with helium from the balloons, sounding like a cross between Joe Pasquali & a chipmonk singing ‘My Way’ ~ then all up waving arms to our song to Billy – You’ll Never Walk Alone…….and as long as I have breath in my body – HE WON’T. The show was over all too soon. I went outside to say Ta-Ra to everyone who said ‘What a great nite ~ another success for The Billy Fury Fan Club – WHEN’S THE NEXT ONE? |
Tom
Murphy, the sculptor who created the statue of Billy that now stands
in the courtyard of the Museum of Liverpool Life, also made some
smaller bronze versions. They are still available through 
At
4 pm 120 invited fans and friends arrived, all wearing their Billy
badges to meet ’n’ greet with Billy’s voice coming through the
speakers as he sang some of his most popular songs. 
Our
Robbie Robson then did a sincere and BILLYant job of speaking about
The Life and Times of Billy during which we listened to a recorded
interview with Billy in his own words - just to hear his voice among
us was awesome. We then watched and listened to Billy sing on the big
screen in glorious black and white. It was "Like He’d Never Been
Gone’. 
He
enthralled us with Billy’s unreleased I Must Be Dreaming.
Jackie
spoke about how privileged she was to have been at The Essoldo,
Birkenhead in 1958 when she went to see Marty Wilde and this shy guy
made his first public appearance and stole the show. Jackie is excited
about her forthcoming trip "back home" in April when she will be
visiting "Billy’ in Albert Dock. 
What
a fantastic nite we had – with only 3 things going wrong ~ we’ll get
those out of the way first.