Back To The Sunnyside

Back To The Sunnyside
The pictures below are all by Marie, Dave, Pat, Rob, Bruce or Mags.

Please click here to see final financial statement

180 present, more than £1,400 raised for Alder Hey, and it was stupendiferous.

The performers were on fire. They could never have sounded better.

We had local people telling me: "I wish I'd known that things like this were on here. I'm coming again." I just didn't have the heart to tell them that they were attending something unique.

I know I'm prejudiced, but I thought the whole experience was amazing.

Mags Cummings reports

The night started with Daniel as DJ and later excellent compere.

Harry introduced the show saying that Billy’s last public at Sunnyside back in December 1982 . It is now a pub but when Billy played there it was a nightclub.

The first artiste to appear was Geoff Howlett who we were sitting with. Geoff got up to go to the stage and squeeze past my chair; I tried to help and squashed his foot with my chair leg! Like the trooper he is, Geoff didn’t let this affect his fine performance; he opened with ‘Poetry In Motion’ followed by ‘Like I’ve Never Been Gone’ which he dedicated to Jean and Albie. Playing guitar he went on to sing ‘Fools Errand’, ‘Rave On’ a great audience foot tapper and ‘Have I The Right’ to end with ‘Please Please Me’ and ‘Here Comes Summer’ which my hubby John said to Marie and Jean reminded him of his first girlfriend Elsie Brearley! Great set Geoff.

The big lad from Leeds, Russ Dee was next wearing his trademark white jacket.

He opened with ‘Welcome To My World’ followed by ‘Unchained Melody’, ‘You’re Swell’ and ‘Don’t Turn Around’ which brought a big audience reaction. To the Anagrammers on the Message Board he dedicated ‘That’s Love’ and closed his set with a big favourite, ‘Cross My Heart’. There was a huge round of applause, well deserved for a smashing guy.

The auction came next with Chris Eley doing the honours. All the money raised from the evening was for the heart fund at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, the official charity of the Billy Fury website. The items are listed below:

1 A cushion and shopping bag made and donated by Pauline Swindells £10

Billy picture in a black and silver frame £26

Line drawing of Billy signed by all the artistes taking part £65

Painting by Dave Wateley from an October 82 photo of Billy taken in Burton on Trent £40

4/12/82 Picture of Billy taken by Chris Eley at Sunnyside £100 bought by Rob Dee

Dave Michael in his black leather outfit with open fronted shirt was next to perform starting with a Billy fav ‘Like I’ve Never Been Gone’, ‘It’s Only Make Believe’ and audience pleaser ‘A Fool Such As I’. More Elvis, ‘Loving You’, ‘One Night With You’ and ‘American Trilogy’ finished off a very popular set. Sophie was photographed with Dave to much audience applause.

Johnny Storme in his leather suit was next up to much cheering from the ladies present……….especially Jean and Marie! He did look very brooding and sexy sitting on a high stool with subdued lighting. He started with ‘Angel’, ‘I Must Be Dreaming’ the song that Billy recorded but never released. ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ was next as requested by Kat who asked that it be dedicated to all the ‘Message Boarders’, thanks Kat. For Moya in New Zealand ‘I Will’, ‘Be Mine Tonight’ to a good reception and ‘Love Me Tender’ receiving cries of ‘more’ and fantastic applause. Thanks Johnny, you’re a star.

Harry announced that Vince Eager had arrived and was going to do the raffle after

Roger Sea and Trackback who were next up starting with the instrumental ‘Foottapper’ joined by Roger for Marty’s ‘Teenager In Love’and ‘Do You Want To Dance’, which got everyone onto the dance floor. ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘I Gotta Woman’ ‘Nothin Shaking’, lots of applause for that. ‘Johnny B Goode’, ‘Please Don’t Tease’, ‘Everyday’ finishing with ‘A Thousand Stars’. What a stonking set boys; brill.

Daniel announced a roll call and photo opportunity of all the acts so far to huge applause and cheers.

Vince was presented by Harry to perform the raffle and joined by Sophie age eight, Billy Fury’s youngest fan at the gig to draw out the tickets, she looked really lovely in her white top and skirt with long white boots. The first ticket out of the hat was to receive the top prize of £50 of M & S vouchers and bless Sophie, she drew my ticket! I was surprised and delighted as I don’t usually do very well with raffles. There were 40 prizes, too many to mention and as well as me, Jean, Marie and Judy all won prizes. John and I were sitting with Jean, Marie, Babs and Colin, Cathy and her lovely daughter as well as Geoff and Judy which I mentioned previously. Jean and I were reminiscing about our ‘Billy experiences’ back in the 50’s and 60’s and feeling just like teenagers again. We had such a smashing time with all our mates from the website.

Laura commenced the closing half of the evening with her powerful rangy voice and personality and tremendous presence accompanied by Nick McNulty on guitar.

She opened with her disco beat intro of ‘When Will You Say I Love You?’ followed by ‘I’m So In Love With You’? help Kevin!. ‘Forget Him’, Laura’s favourite Billy song then she was joined by her thirteen year old sister Emily for a superb ‘Collette’ with great harmonies. Nick then left and they continued with a medley ‘Locomotion’, ‘Baby Love’, Lipstick On Your Collar’and ‘Da Do Ron Ron’ which brought the house down.

Kevin Summerfield, Laura’s manager then asked Harry to come forward for a presentation of an original painting of Billy by Dave Whateley, presented by Sophie and Cathy who had made the collection suggested by DR for all the time and effort that Harry puts into this fabulous website. This brought huge applause from the audience, well deserved Harry, thank you so very much. Maureen, Harry’s wife was presented with a bouquet for all her patience in allowing Harry to dedicate so much time to all our benefit. Harry said that the site started almost seven years with a couple of pages and had somehow grown to be the site that it now is. He mentioned that there wasn’t a nasty person amongst all the folk who frequent the site and this was received with cheers.

Laura continued her fine set with ‘I Love How You Love Me’, ‘Let Me Go Lover’, and he raunchy ‘I’m So Blue(over you)’. Next was the ‘Sunnyside Girls Choir’, all the ladies from the message board joined hands and stood in a semi-circle around Laura to sing ‘Legends Never Die’. Sophie joined Laura at the microphone and sang like a little trooper, fabulous!

There were more thanks from Harry and then Rob Dee and The Fury Sound were announced to the ‘Juke Box Jury’ tune played by the band. As Rob made his entrance in a white jacket black shirt, white tie and black leather trousers to do his all Billy Fury Set.

‘I’ll Never Find Another You’, ‘A Thousand Stars’, ‘Maybe Tomorrow’, Cross My Heart’, ‘Like I’ve Never Been Gone’, ‘Once Upon A Dream’, Devil or Angel’, Running Around’, ‘Wedding Bells’, Forget Him’and ‘It’s Only Make Believe’. The Fury Sound then played ‘Telstar’ after which Rob reappeared wearing all black with no tie. ‘Fools Errand’, Moya Gleave dedication of ‘Iwill’, ‘When Will You Say I Love You?’, Don’t Knock Upon My Door’, Nothin Shaking’, ‘That’s Alright Mama’,

‘Gonna Type A Letter’, ‘Johnny B Goode’ and ‘In Thoughts of You’. Everyone was cheering for more so Rob did the honours with the perennial ‘Halfway To Paradise’ followed by an accapella version of ‘Nobody’s Child’ to which everyone sang along. Great stuff Rob!

What a fantastic night thanks to the efforts of Harry and all the artistes involved. When’s the next one Harry?

At the hop

The dinner at the Hilton on Friday night.

Rob in action

Maureen, old mardy, Louise and Paul

TONKA WRITES: Daniel and myself arrived at the Hilton about 4pm and settled into our room then decided to head into town for a few drinks (good job too cos the prices in the hotel bar were abit extortionate!!!) While waiting for our taxi in the foyer we met Marie and Jean, the first of many wonderful people that I hope I can now call friends. After a quick wander and a few drinks around town we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
On the way down the corridor we met Johnny Storme and his lovely wife, and proceeded to the bar and met up with the rest of our dinner companions. (Harry and family, Linda and husband, Marie, Jean, Pauline, Henry, Celia, Rob and Chris, Cathy, Pat). It was abit daunting trying to put a name to everyones face but they were all so friendly and welcoming that I felt right at home straight away. We all sat down to dinner and despite not saying much I loved every bit of it, listening to the various stories being told, seeing Harry's precious watch and Rob's ring. After dinner (having been thrown out of the restaurant as they wanted to set up for breakfast) most of us retired to the bar for more drinks and chatter - Daniel sneeked his cd player in for abit of background music, thought we might get told off but they staff didn't mention anything tho!!! Slowly everyone drifted off to bed having I hope had as lovely a night as I did.

Awoke early Saturday to the smell of bacon eggs etc and headed down for breakfast where myself and Daniel met up with Linda and her husband - think we were the only early risers?? Had a delicious leisurely breakfast, until Daniel was suddenly struck down by extruciating tooth pain - he was only eating a yoghurt at the time so don't know what happened but it led to a rather hectic morning of telephone calls to local dentist to no avail. Despite several pain killers he was still in agony and looked very unwell so he decided to head off to the local hospital to see if they could do anything to help. I waited at the hotel and explained to as many people as possible what was happening. Several hours later he returned having been told that there was nothing they could do, so he just had to dose up on pain-killers all day.
We headed off into town for a wander around the market and local shopping precinct, then onto a pub near Sunnyside for a late lunch and then onto Sunnyside where we met up with more of the gang who were setting up the venue and the artist preparing to perform. Must admit that I never knew how much work went into preparing for this sort of thing - setting up equipment, sound checks etc etc - I'm in awe of all of you for the hard work everyone put into it.
Gradually the room began to fill up and lots more faces appeared that I had only seen in the pictures on here before. Thank you to everyone who came and introduced themselves it was fantastic to meet you all. The night kicked off with Daniel introducing all the wonderful acts from Geoff, followed by Russ, Dave, Johnny, Roger, Track back, Laura and her sister then Rob Dee and band. In between acts Daniel kept everyone going with his disco, there was a fantastic auction of Billy pictures etc and the raffle drawn by Vince Eager. There were so many highlights its hard to just pick 1 but I must mention the "girls choir" with Laura, Sophie singing (she was a star and worked hard helping me tear up the hundreds of raffle tickets - as did Harry's family), think my favourite bit of the evening tho was everyone up holding hands singing at the end that was such a brilliant thing to be part of too. All too soon it was the end of a fantastic and mesmerising night of wonderful entertainment. Sorry for the lack of detail or if I've missed anything out but all the performers were so overwhelmingly good that I was lost in my own little world, engrossed in the music and atmosphere.

So to end I must once again thank everyone for making me feel such a part of it and so welcome. LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT ONE!!

See Calvin Bassant's photos on http://cbassant.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Sunnyside/Sunnyside.html

KEVIN SUMMERFIELD WRITES What a night - what an atmosphere - what a show that every artist put on!
On behalf of Laura & Emily, it was an absolute pleasure to be involved.
You have no idea how proud I was to see so many fans (aged 8 to over 21) join forces with Laura to perform our song in memory of Billy - "Legends Never Die". It was quite touching. Thank you all.
How good it was to see Chris Eley and his Sound of Fury compatriates joining forces with Harry to further the good work in the name of Billy Fury for such a worthy charitable cause.
During the week I did manage to mention the name of every artist involved on BBC Radio Northampton - they deserve to be given their own show now!
Congratulations also to the sound engineers for a superb job. For the benefit of the uninitiated, the sound guys are always either unsung hero's or public villians. In this instance they were definately hero's. There is an awful lt of hard work and sweat involved for these guys and they deserve a mention when things go well.
A lot of photo's were taken and there were one or two video camera's around as well. As per usual, I didn't get chance to take any myself and so if anyone has any of Laura & Emily then please get in touch - I would love to see them.
A note of thanks to Nick McNulty for Laura's acoustic set - absolutely superb mate and your work on "Your Words/Do My Best For You" was well appreciated by Chris Eley.
The evening was brought to an end by Rob Dee & The Fury Sound and they deserve every accolade bestowed upon them. This is the most genuine, honest and sincere Billy Fury tribute band in the country.
So - Geoff Howlett, Johnny Storme, Dave Michael, Russ Dee, Track Back, Laura (& Emily), Rob Dee & The Fury Sound, take yet another bow - you deserve it!
Well done Harry - yet another success.
Finally, my thoughts are with all that couldn't be with us on this very special night.
In the words of the late Dave Allen - "may your God go with you".

Diane and I set off and met Pauline and Henry at the Car Ferry at 9.30 Friday Morning. A big thank you to you both for being our guides for the entire weekend. Without you we'd have been still travelling the motorways!! Friday night's dinner was a great time to meet everyone who had booked into the Hilton, what a great crowd of people!! Swapped my watch with Harry's watch, which had once belonged to Billy, but he rumbled me in seconds.... Daniel gave us a demonstration of his magical talent... what a guy!! Superb.
At the dinner we met Marie and Jean, Cathy, Tonka, Linda C and others who's names escape me for the moment (put it down to old age!!)Great Evening, that carried on into the early hours of Saturday.
Saturday Evening
Geoff, Russ Dave, myself, Roger Sea and Track Back supplied the entertainment for the first half, compared by Daniel and his disco. I can tell you that each and every one of them were superb!! I won't go into detail, as this will probably come from members of the audience, but what a great start to a "Tribute to Billy" evening!!!.
As for my part, I sat ready to start my set, and the lights went out!! The music started and without visual aids I managed to do my set... with only a few mistakes..... Should have worn white as the only thing that probably could be seen were the whites of my eyes!!
Vince Eager was called upon to do the raffle, sorry I didn't get to speak to you Vince! I met Chris Eley and other members from The Sound of Fury Fan Club. What great work they do. The Auction was amazing and everyone helped raise lots of money for Alder Hey.
Laura & Emily started the second half and were FANtastic!! Both will go a long way in the music business. "Collette" was brilliant!! Kevin and their parents should be really proud of them. Sophie.... what a little Star! She sang every word of "Legends Never Die", along with "The Sunnyside Singers"!! It was great to see so many of the ladies joining in!
Rob Dee and The Fury Sound.....
What can I say, the stage area was plunged into darkness during their set for the second time that evening but they carried on with a continuous stream of superb Billy songs, Rob looking Fantastic in his stage wear and.... was that "blond" hair Rob!! !!
The evening closed with almost everyone on the dance floor singing along with Rob, "Nobody's Child"
Henry guided us back to the Hilton, and we chatted along with Pauline, Henry, Babs and Col, Marie and Jean for a while before retiring to our room.
A GREAT weekend.............................. when's the next one?????

Roger Sea writes: Being hard-up musicians and living fairly local’ish we didn’t stay on the Friday night so

therefore missed out on the festivities at the Hilton…Maybe Tomorrow…well next year!
We arrived in three separate cars, it just isn’t the fact that we have lots of gear, it’s ‘cause
we don’t normally talk to each other!

Anyway the first people we met were Harry and Kevin, who told us to go inside a get a
drink before Russ Dee, Johnny S, Dave M, Geoff H and the rest of them drank the place
dry. We were just shutting the car doors (it’s a custom where we come from) when up
drove Rob Dee with a much younger looking woman….hi Chris. Rob was sporting his 60’s
style ‘shades’, no wonder his car is full of dents and scratches, he can’t see a thing in those
sunglasses. His eyesight is not the good at the best of times. We shook hands but my electric
shock machine failed to have any affect whatsoever on Rob (will we ever top the bill).

When we got into the bar there they all were sat in a big circle like cowboys being attacked
by Indians. I swear Johnny Storme was still drinking the same cup of tea as he had at FF03.
Now Johnny comes from overseas and told me that he had a terrible journey getting there,
he was shipped wrecked twice, lost all his jewels to pirates and had to sell his hairpiece to
buy back his song sheets! He came the long way ‘round, via the cape of good luck, or
something like that. He followed Pauline and Henry who started their journey to Sunnyside
on New Years Day.

We couldn’t stop for a drink (not that anyone offered us one) we had to get the gear in.
Now it was my Dad’s birthday on the following Monday, a very young 80. Dad’s been
carrying my gear off & on for the past 35 years, so as it was his birthday I said he could
have the following week off and handed him the heaviest case I could find. I have a bad leg
and had to sit down and watch Dad and the Track Back lads (I use the word very loosely)
carry the gear into the concert room.

People came and went and we were busy getting the gear hocked-up. Rob Dee and his
merry men worked hard to get things right. The noise cheques were complete and it started
to get dark. Now I had visited the venue before, but that was in the light, had we known that
there was a shortage of electricity in that area we would have put more candles in the lights.
Alternatively we would have told the audience to wear miner’s lamps.

Harry got to the mic first and introduced the show. Daniel (I thought he was a bit quiet)

introduced the acts. First up was Geoff, a genuine nice guy who we keep intouch with by
email, good voice, good act but lives in Hull. My wife’s from Grimsby, so you’ll have to ask
Geoff what that means!

Next up the big man from Leeds (no not Jacky Charlton)… Russ Dee, he actually made it
this time. Russ sometimes has problems getting places!! What a powerful voice and a really
authentic Fury sound. Of course coming from Leeds, Sunnyside was all new to Russ…
electric lights, central heating, carpets. (he knows I’m joking)

Then came Dave Michael looking very Elvis’y in his black leather gear. He said my wife
could borrow it if she wanted, it’ll go well with her whip and handcuffs! Dave did an
excellent job as usual, long may he continue. (I’ll bring the leathers back next week Dave…
they’re at the cleaners at present)

The lights dimmed (the fuse blow) and there he sat (‘cause he has great difficulty standing at

his age) the great Johnny Storme. The last time I saw Johnny he was hiding back stage at
Newark (probably from the tax man…or is the IOW a tax haven?) to surprise Harry. What
a performer, what a performance, well done Johnny mate. We’re coming to the Island soon;
maybe you’ll come and see us. The warden will let you in and we’ll tell you when visiting
time is!! We did a similar club a while ago, funny name for a club….Strangways.

What a great surprise to see Vince Eager who did the raffle and bunged one down to the
misses for the old times. Must ask Vince how he knows the misses. Anyway, while Vince

was raffling, Track Back needed to get their gear ready. Then Daniel shouted
something…sounded like…. “oh you bloody tooth” and the lads were away with the shads
“Foot Tapper”. Then the girls started screaming, so did the PA (from fear…not excitement)
and I was on with “Teenager in Love” …….why must I be a teenager in love…. nowadays
I sing…why can’t I be a teenager in love… Anyway we did our 30’odd minutes and just
hope that we did something for everyone. The lads, Dave and Doug, are great musician and
fab people, they’re a lot older than me of course and do take some looking after, that’s why
they had to leave before the second half….they had to get back to the “home” before
matron locked them out…again. I, of course stayed to the end…I had some of the gear to
take back and as Dad was still sober, he carried it to the car.

I hadn’t met Chris Eley before, what a clever guy…can count as well. Next time I’ll bring
my old Boy Scout uniform and see if he can makes a bob or two on that. Nice to have met
you Chris.

Laura and her lovely sister were great. I’ve seen Laura before but not with her sister. They
harmonise beautifully together, anyone would think they’re related (silly boy)
Very impressed with Laura who is maturing into a real class act. Well done to you Laura
and to Kevin, and also to Nick McNulty for some great acoustic guitar backing.

Then it was Rob’s turn, out goes his Zimmer frame, on comes the make-up (he buys it
wholesale you know) Being serious for a moment (what me) Rob and his Fury Sound are a
truly great act and they do Billy’s music proud. Despite recent changes to the line-up, the
Fury Sound, lead by a really good keyboard player (and a nice person), kept it tight and
clean. Very well done Rob and the lads.

Then all to soon it was time to go. Dad struggled carrying the remaining gear to the car,
however, he enjoyed the run home but said he would have been more comfortable inside the
car…sorry Dad you filled it up with equipment!!

I met many of the MB people for the first time, including my nearest Billy fan Linda C from
Peterboro, Tonka, Babs, the Southend on Sea Fury fans, Mags, Chris, Cathy, Pauline,
Henry and many many more. What lovely people you really are. Last but by no means least,
thanks to Harry and everyone who made it happen. Here’s to the next time.