January 28 2008 will be the 25th anniversary of Billy's last day with us.
I know of two significant productions that will mark this event.
For one, those who met Billy can make their contributions now.
Odeon Entertainments, who issued The Wondrous Story DVD this year, will be bring out a commemorative edition, with extra material. There will also be four more pages in the accompanying booklet, for which they want individual memories of Billy.
They will be printed in the form of direct quotes, with your name and home town after them.
Please email them as soon as possible to wayne@odeonent.co.uk
As for the other production, I'm bursting to tell, but I've promised to keep quiet for the time being, as meetings are still being held. - 8 November 07.
The June edition of the Billy Fury In Thoughts Of You magazine arrived a couple of days ago, and as usual, it's packed with tasty features. It's free if you stump up just a few pounds for club membership, so get the cheque books out. Subscription details are here.
There are 32 A4 pages. Mrs Jean Wycherley's 86th birthday is recorded - and as everyone who has seen the new video will have been able to confirm for themselves, she is a very remarkable lady.
There are appeal forms asking for Billy to be elevated to the UK Hall of Fame, 60s magazine interviews and reports with the lad himself, a report of the DVD launch, pages of photographs, lots of tasty memorabilia, and reports of various events.
There are even seven generous lines recording the wonderful turnout by 17 artists at the Sunnyside. I know they'll appreciate it as much as I do. - 23 July 07.
The latest copies of the two fan clubs' magazines, BFITOY no 6, and Sound Of Fury no 30 (the 10th anniversary issue) have been issued this month, and are well up to the usual high standards. The Sound Of Fury team have taken the opportunity to detail their first ten years. - 12 April 07.
THE HILTON - ROOM FOR RIP-OFFS
For the third year, we are meeting at the Sunnyside in Northampton to mark Billy Fury's last public appearance.
And for the third year, I brought it to everyone's attention that the Hilton Hotel ran a spring offer dea.
In 2006, this resulted in 14 rooms being booked there, and I have no reason to doubt that all things being equal, at least the same number would be booked in 2007.
Following advice from this site, several people booked for the weekend at £119 - "don't miss out, book early to get the best rates" and "the earlier you book, the more you'll save".
They were then very aggrieved when others found that the rate had fallen to £99.
When I queried this with Hilton, I received a
message from the manager of the Hilton Hotel in Northampton, telling me: "Our
rates are reviewed daily depending on demand with a similar strategy to airlines
and the
pricing is adjusted with demand."
How, I asked him, could " the earlier you book, the more you'll save" and "the pricing is adjusted with demand" both be true?
I have not received even the courtesy of an acknowledgement.
600 people a day visit billyfury.com, and this page will soon be indexed by Google and other search engines, so given time, more and more people will discover Hilton's contempt for the truth and their customers. - 28 January 07.
First of all, I followed my practice of the past three years of not sending Christmas cards, but of making a donation to our charity appeal of £1 for every one I received from my Billy Fury community friends - that makes £28 this year. Many thanks! I think perhaps next year, I shall have a billyfury.com card again, as there hasn't been one since 2003.
On the message board, thanks once again to Pauline, our wonderful competitions editor, and to Sheila, our gig guide editor. I have now linked the What's On panel on the front page directly to the page on the message board, which saves me updating a separate page every month.
Thanks to everyone who supported Sunnyside 06 - I hope Sunnyside 07 will be even more fun - and to those who helped with this year's projects, the Dreaming album, and the trolley tokens.
Thanks to Pierre, Harry's Angels and Johnny for their excellent work as forum moderators, and to Pauline, Lou and now Richy for keeping an eye on the board when I'm not around, and to all of the folk who have stayed friends on the message board for another year, proving that Fury fans are, quite simply, the nicest people you'll ever meet.
Finally, thanks to everyone who has kept billyfury.com on the road simply by visiting the site -- once again, we shall record a record number of visitors this year. - 24 December 06.
The
BFITOY Club sent an unexpected pair of presents, which arrived this week: a card
that included a CD of My Christmas Prayer (do I detect Mags' hand in this?) and
a useful laminated calendar. - 23 December 06.
A
very welcome issue in Christmas week from the Sound of Fury team, in top form
once more.
Contents include: October Mill Hill report; Hal Carter family christening photograph showing Billy and Judith Hall during their brief marriage; October Evesham show report; Tommy Bruce biography review; latest CD reviews; very generous four-page review of the Dreaming CD. - 23 December 06
The
latest edition came through the letterbox this week, produced to the high
standard we've come to expect.
The 32 A4 pages include reminiscences of Bryan Nicholls, who attended Billy's final appearance, at a private function at the Holiday Inn, Leicester, for Polydor Records employees.
There are also reflections on Billy's appearance in pantomime in Oxford in 1965. (Incidentally, I have a copy of the programme that was produced after he left the cast, and it seems strange that there's no mention that he had ever been associated with it. The lady who later married a member of The Gamblers also appeared in the show, and it would be interesting to discover if Billy's appearance brought them together.)
Jenny Warwick brings up to date the story of her purchase of Rhos Farm.
There are many other fascinating features, which help to make club membership such a bargain. Details of the clubs can be found here. - 8 November 06.
JOE BROWN FEATURE, SUNDAY EXPRESS
The following feature from the Sunday Express, published on October 15 2006, has kindly been supplied by Tina Pontin.
