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# Hey, baby | 0:00:07 | 0:00:09 | |
# Whoa-whoa whoa-whoa | 0:00:09 | 0:00:11 | |
# I love you | 0:00:11 | 0:00:12 | |
# Yeah-yeah yeah-yeah | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
# I want you | 0:00:14 | 0:00:16 | |
# Whoa-whoa whoa-whoa | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
# Need your love... # | 0:00:18 | 0:00:20 | |
Billy stood out. He was a star. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
He had 29 hit singles. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:27 | |
Everybody wanted to look like him. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:29 | |
There's still people paying homage to Billy Fury. He was fantastic. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:36 | |
A nice guy who pretty well did what was suggested to him. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:43 | |
# Just give me one sweet chance... # | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
His songs were fantastic, his voice was beautiful, | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
charisma oozing out of every pore in his body. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
Billy had it all and although he rocked like the clappers onstage, | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
he would collapse afterwards. | 0:00:57 | 0:00:58 | |
His light had gone out around him. I knew he was on his way. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:04 | |
# Maybe tomorrow | 0:01:04 | 0:01:05 | |
# Whoa-whoa whoa-whoa | 0:01:05 | 0:01:07 | |
# There'll be no sorrow | 0:01:07 | 0:01:09 | |
# Yeah-yeah yeah-yeah... # | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
# One kiss goodbye | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
# Last kiss, it meant goodbye... # | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
Liverpool was a pretty bleak place, bleak and lonely. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:49 | |
The black buildings and soot | 0:01:49 | 0:01:54 | |
and very melancholy in a way. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
It was kind of biblical bleak. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:00 | |
I mean, the storms and the light shafts cutting through | 0:02:00 | 0:02:04 | |
and the sea hitting up against that sea wall. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:09 | |
Before rock and roll and before that sort of mid-'50s, late '50s period, | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
it was dull. It was grey. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
It was monochrome in music, in films, in everything. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:19 | |
There were no sort of British heroes. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:21 | |
Billy Fury was perfectly placed chronologically to be | 0:02:21 | 0:02:25 | |
a rock and roll baby and he was also geographically placed. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
When he was first born in Smithdown Road Hospital, | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
I had the name of Kenneth. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:33 | |
I couldn't remember a boy's name, | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
and he was going to be Kenneth, | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
and me husband came home on leave. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
This nurse said to him, "Do you want to see the Wycherley baby?" | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
When he came back, he said to me, "Where did you get Kenneth from?" | 0:02:44 | 0:02:48 | |
I said, "Oh, you can change it." | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
He said, "It's going to be Ronnie" but it could have been Kenneth Fury. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:55 | |
He was just like any other kid, you know, he was the older brother. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
He done the same as any other kids do. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:00 | |
Well, what they were like was two devils. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:04 | |
Just general things that kids do, | 0:03:04 | 0:03:05 | |
you know, get in a bit of mischief, obviously, because you did. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:09 | |
But they were mateys. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
I think I was maybe six or seven. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
I remember a sudden absence of him in the house | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
and where he was was actually in hospital. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
Both my boys... Both had rheumatic fever as children, both of them, | 0:03:20 | 0:03:27 | |
and it leaves them with a weak heart and kidney trouble. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
Which I didn't understand, cos I was only a kid, | 0:03:30 | 0:03:32 | |
but I just thought, "Great, I've got this bedroom to meself." | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
Well, when he was 11, he went to piano lessons | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
and he wanted to play the quick stuff on the piano, and the teacher | 0:03:39 | 0:03:45 | |
slapped him on the wrists with the rule and said, "You can't do that." | 0:03:45 | 0:03:51 | |
And his first piece of music was Oh Mein Papa. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:55 | |
# Oh, mein Papa... # | 0:03:55 | 0:03:59 | |
This is where we grew up all around here. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:02 | |
I don't think many people know | 0:04:02 | 0:04:03 | |
that Billy Fury went to that school, to be truthful. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:06 | |
That's when he bought a guitar and he started playing the guitar. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:10 | |
Mostly he done a lot of learning the guitar in the bedroom, | 0:04:10 | 0:04:15 | |
things like that, and he managed to have a piano. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:18 | |
Sometimes he'd get his father when he was on leave. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
My dad used to say, "That's getting on my nerves, that," | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
you know, he says, "that twanging thing going all the time." | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
Any piece of paper he'd pick up and he'd write so many words on it, | 0:04:27 | 0:04:34 | |
so he was thinking of songwriting even at 11. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:38 | |
In the 1950s, it was very difficult | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
to get American rhythm and blues records, and blues records. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:45 | |
The word "teenager" really wasn't | 0:04:45 | 0:04:47 | |
coined until about 1950. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
If you were a person of 17, 18, you were a young version of your father. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:53 | |
The first sports jacket that I bought was something similar | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
to what my father had because you wanted to look like him. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
Liverpool rock and roll fans were very lucky because they had | 0:04:59 | 0:05:03 | |
the services of the Cunard Yanks. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:05 | |
That was the name given to the men who worked on the boats that | 0:05:05 | 0:05:10 | |
went back and forth between Liverpool and New York. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
A lot of Liverpool boys would get jobs in the merchant navy, | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
and they would bring back records from America, | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
so they'd hear them first. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:21 | |
And this is how people in the Liverpool area got to hear | 0:05:21 | 0:05:24 | |
the Chuck Berry records and other blues records and R&B records. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:29 | |
It wasn't like today. You had to really search this stuff out. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:34 | |
Now you can just go on the internet and source it, | 0:05:34 | 0:05:37 | |
but in those days it was like a pilgrimage | 0:05:37 | 0:05:39 | |
and it was a wonderful journey. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:41 | |
Ken Colyer goes over to New Orleans, he'd jump ship, | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
he's working with the merchant navy | 0:05:52 | 0:05:54 | |
and when he's there he hears all this music | 0:05:54 | 0:05:56 | |
which is called spasm music, which is basically | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
people playing in houses with tin pans and with washboards. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:03 | |
When he comes back and he's working with Chris Barber, | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
he tells them about this form of music that he's heard about. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
They said, "What's it called?" He says, "It's called spasm music." | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
Everybody says, "You can't call it spasm music, it sounds really rude," | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
and somebody, it may have been Lonnie Donegan, maybe Chris Barber, | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
somebody comes up with the name skiffle. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
# I'm blowin' down this old dusty road, dusty road | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
# I'm a-blowin' down this old dusty road | 0:06:23 | 0:06:27 | |
# I'm a-blowin' down this old dusty road, Lord, Lord... # | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
Skiffle was the first real exciting music that we could go and see. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:37 | |
We'd been big-banded up to then. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
Skiffle is the beginning of the British rock and roll revolution, | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
so if you look at people we think of as being the classic innovators, | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
if we look at Tommy Steele, | 0:06:46 | 0:06:48 | |
he's thought of as the first rock and roll star. Actually, | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
he comes out of something which is sort of proto-rock and roll. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
At the same time you've got Lonnie Donegan as well. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
# I may be right, I may be wrong | 0:06:56 | 0:06:58 | |
# I know you're going to miss me when I'm gone | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
# Now, the Rock Island Line is a mighty good road... # | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
Skiffle music is a music that could be very cheaply made. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:08 | |
Cheap acoustic guitars, | 0:07:08 | 0:07:09 | |
you could go to the chandler and get a washboard, for example, | 0:07:09 | 0:07:13 | |
which you played with thimbles. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:15 | |
You could get a dustbin and put a pole in it and have a bass, | 0:07:15 | 0:07:20 | |
so it was a group that you could get together for just a few pounds. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:24 | |
He wanted to go to sea. The tugs was the nearest thing for him. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
Dad had a friend of his who worked on the tugs and basically | 0:07:28 | 0:07:33 | |
it was me dad who got him the job on the boats, who put a word in. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:36 | |
When I went on the tug boats, I learnt a few Lonnie Donegan numbers | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
and we used to play these when we had nothing to do, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
in between tides or something. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
# Well, the Cumberland Gap, the Cumberland Gap | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
# 15 miles on the Cumberland Gap | 0:07:47 | 0:07:48 | |
# The Cumberland Gap, the Cumberland Gap | 0:07:48 | 0:07:50 | |
# 15 miles on the Cumberland Gap. # | 0:07:50 | 0:07:54 | |
It looked sort of playable, what he was doing, | 0:07:54 | 0:07:58 | |
and it captured the imagination of so many young people, | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
young people barely in their teens at that time, | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
to want to sort of play or pick up a guitar, | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
have a connection with it, to have a connection with the music. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:11 | |
And very, very quickly, skiffle becomes rock and roll. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
# Yeah! | 0:08:18 | 0:08:19 | |
# Well, I think I'll start a layabout trade union | 0:08:24 | 0:08:28 | |
# So we can stand together for our rights | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
# Hey! | 0:08:31 | 0:08:33 | |
# And if they never give us satisfaction | 0:08:33 | 0:08:36 | |
# There'll be nothing left for us to do but strike. # | 0:08:36 | 0:08:40 | |
As a rock and roller, I really have never sort of discovered | 0:08:40 | 0:08:46 | |
what rock and roll is, because you get so many variations on it. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:51 | |
I mean, in a way, you could say some of the skiffle was rock and roll, | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
which I first started playing. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:56 | |
You could say Johnnie Ray's stuff is rock and roll | 0:08:56 | 0:08:58 | |
because he's done stuff that in the meantime Elvis has done, | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
like Such A Night, for example. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:03 | |
# The moon was bright, ooh, how bright | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
# It really was such a night... # | 0:09:05 | 0:09:07 | |
I've never thought, "Well, I'm not doing skiffle now, I'm doing rock and roll." | 0:09:07 | 0:09:11 | |
It's just, "I'm doing a different type of music." | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
In hindsight, all these years later, | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
Johnnie Ray was the one who first influenced me | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
about doing a different type of music to that which I was used to, | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
which was being a chorister in a church choir. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
The whole thing about rock and roll was that when it came out it | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
was told wrongly, it was told by the tabloids as being this | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
outrageous thing where teenagers went mad and were uncontrolled. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:31 | |
It was all bollocks. It wasn't like that. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
Most of us were at school. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:35 | |
Why did she protest? | 0:09:35 | 0:09:36 | |
She said that it was causing an obstruction | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
and the children were acting like hooligans. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
-ARCHIVE NARRATOR: -Bill Haley and his Comets on a personal appearance tour | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
had whipped up the enthusiasm of their German fans into a frenzy. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:50 | |
# Shake, rattle and roll | 0:09:50 | 0:09:51 | |
# I said shake, rattle and roll | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
# Well, you'll never do nothing to save your doggone soul | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
# Wearin' those dresses, your hair done up so nice | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
# Whole lot of shakin' goin' on | 0:10:07 | 0:10:10 | |
# Yeah, come along, baby, baby, you can't go wrong... # | 0:10:10 | 0:10:15 | |
I was there really from the birth of rock and roll. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:18 | |
I was born in 1944, so | 0:10:18 | 0:10:20 | |
middle '50s I was still at school, | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
13, 14, and Jerry Lee, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, the Everly Brothers, | 0:10:23 | 0:10:30 | |
Buddy Holly, Presley, these were 100% our heroes. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:35 | |
Shake it one time for Jerry Lee Lewis! Yeah! | 0:10:35 | 0:10:39 | |
# Come on over, baby, we got the bull by the horns | 0:10:39 | 0:10:44 | |
# Yeah, ain't fakin' | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
# A whole lot of shakin' goin' on... # | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
# Well, Johnny is a joker | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
# He's a bird | 0:10:53 | 0:10:54 | |
# A very funny joker | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
# He's a bird | 0:10:56 | 0:10:57 | |
# But when he jokes my honey | 0:10:57 | 0:10:59 | |
# He's a dog | 0:10:59 | 0:11:00 | |
# His joking ain't so funny | 0:11:00 | 0:11:02 | |
# What a dog | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
# Johnny is a joker that's a-trying to steal my baby | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
# He's a bird dog. # | 0:11:07 | 0:11:08 | |
# I'm gonna tell this world that you're mine, mine, mine, mine | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
# I chew my nails, I twiddle my thumbs | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
# I'm getting nervous but it sure is fun | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
# Come on, baby, driving me crazy | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
# Goodness gracious, great balls of fire. # | 0:11:19 | 0:11:24 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:11:24 | 0:11:25 | |
It was on the radio. It was probably Radio Luxembourg. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
It would have been, cos the BBC wouldn't play it. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
I was doing my homework, so I was probably just 16... | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
15, 16, and doing my homework | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
and she said, "This next record has been requested by..." blah-blah-blah | 0:11:35 | 0:11:38 | |
"..and it's by this man who sounds as though he's singing | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
"from the bottom of a well and his name is E...Elvis Presley." | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
And Heartbreak Hotel came on. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
# Well, since my baby left me | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
# I found a new place to dwell | 0:11:49 | 0:11:51 | |
# Well, it's down at the end of Lonely Street | 0:11:51 | 0:11:54 | |
# At Heartbreak Hotel... # | 0:11:54 | 0:11:57 | |
It was like something that had come down from the moon. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:00 | |
It was so totally unlike anything I had ever heard before. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
Dylan, Lennon, Ringo, Paul, they all heard Elvis | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
and thought, "This is different, this is what we are." | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
I put down my pen and I was never the same again. I was not | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
going to go and work in a bank or an insurance company. That was it. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
# ..There in the gloom... # | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
Until Elvis, I wasn't in love. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:20 | |
Then I was totally obsessed. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:22 | |
We went to see a film which had just come out. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
It was called The Girl Can't Help It | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
with Little Richard, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
# She can't help it, the girl can't help it | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
# If she wink an eye the bread slices turn to toast | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
# She can't help it, the girl can't help it | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
# If she got a lot of what they call the most | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
# She can't help it, the girl can't help it | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
# The girl can't help it if she was born to please | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
# She can't help it, the girl can't help it... # | 0:12:45 | 0:12:47 | |
# When I climb one, two flight, three flight more | 0:12:47 | 0:12:49 | |
# Five, six, seven, flight, eight flight more... # | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
Eddie Cochran came on and a few of the fellas said, | 0:12:52 | 0:12:54 | |
"Wow, you really look like Eddie Cochran." I was rather flattered | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
as I liked the kind of things that Eddie Cochran was doing. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:00 | |
It was Twenty-Flight Rock, I think, so I started to grow sideboards | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
and do my hair like Eddie Cochran. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
At the same time I was also influenced by Elvis Presley, | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
James Dean, and of course Gene Vincent. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
# And she's the woman that loves me so, say | 0:13:11 | 0:13:16 | |
# Be-bop-a-lula, she's my baby | 0:13:16 | 0:13:20 | |
# Be-bop-a-lula, I don't mean maybe | 0:13:20 | 0:13:26 | |
# Be-bop-a-lula, she-he-he's my baby doll | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
# My baby doll, my baby doll... # | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
Let me hear you! | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
When rock and roll arrived | 0:13:36 | 0:13:38 | |
he started changing into the teddy boy style. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
Me dad wouldn't let us dress with teddy boy tight trousers on, | 0:13:42 | 0:13:46 | |
tight jeans on and all that sort of stuff. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:48 | |
And he used to go out and get his rock and roll stuff on. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:54 | |
Me dad was like, pretty strict, me dad. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:56 | |
And his father come and found him one day and he got a thrashing. | 0:13:56 | 0:14:01 | |
As far as Billy Fury is concerned, | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
you didn't really have rock and roll stars at that point. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
You didn't have what we now think of as a pop star. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:08 | |
In a very strange way, until Elvis comes along, | 0:14:08 | 0:14:12 | |
the idea of the proper full-on 360-degree star | 0:14:12 | 0:14:16 | |
who does nothing but be a rock star is really a little bit alien. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:20 | |
Intelligent people didn't like rock and roll, you know, | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
people like me, grammar school boys who went to university - | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
"God, how could you like rock and roll? It's for morons!" | 0:14:26 | 0:14:29 | |
When I was at the LSE, the university I went to, | 0:14:29 | 0:14:32 | |
I would hide the NME inside the Guardian | 0:14:32 | 0:14:34 | |
because I was so embarrassed to be seen reading it. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
On 20th March 1958, Buddy Holly and the Crickets | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
are playing the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool | 0:14:39 | 0:14:42 | |
and you find that so many of the people who later played | 0:14:42 | 0:14:46 | |
in Mersey beat groups went along to the Philharmonic Hall, to that show, | 0:14:46 | 0:14:50 | |
and they saw Buddy Holly with a Fender Stratocaster guitar. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:54 | |
Nobody in Britain had seen a Fender Stratocaster guitar | 0:14:54 | 0:14:58 | |
and it just looked wonderful, and so they came out | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
and they walked down the hill thinking, "We want to go electric." | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
I went there with two mates of mine who played guitars at the time. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:08 | |
We came out and they said, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:10 | |
"Let's form a rock and roll group." | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
I said, "All right, fine. What do I play?" | 0:15:12 | 0:15:14 | |
They said, "You play drums", so that was it. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:16 | |
As soon as Elvis took off, it was in the papers a lot, you know? | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
We felt in Britain, or some people felt, we had to have our own star. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:24 | |
# Old-time cave dweller lived in a cave | 0:15:24 | 0:15:26 | |
# Here's what he did when he wanted a rave | 0:15:26 | 0:15:28 | |
# He took a stick and he drew on the wall | 0:15:28 | 0:15:30 | |
# Man, I've heard he had himself a ball | 0:15:30 | 0:15:32 | |
# Rock with the caveman... # | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
Tommy Steele was the one who was chosen - by God knows who. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:39 | |
Rock With The Caveman may have been the worst record ever made. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:43 | |
# Writers never lie, it's where they got the saying "starry-eyed" | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
# Rock with the caveman... # | 0:15:46 | 0:15:48 | |
Tommy Steele got four weeks at the Astor Green, | 0:15:48 | 0:15:51 | |
which was owned by Bertie Green in London, | 0:15:51 | 0:15:53 | |
and all the photos in the newspaper showed you this rock and roller | 0:15:53 | 0:15:57 | |
surrounded by people... Women in cocktail dresses | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
and guys with big cigars and the dickie bows and tuxedos, | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
and he was there for a month. He absolutely tore it apart. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
They loved him. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:07 | |
# Shake with the caveman... # | 0:16:07 | 0:16:09 | |
British rock and roll, generally speaking, | 0:16:09 | 0:16:11 | |
very early on, it wasn't good. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:12 | |
We didn't get it right and we didn't understand it. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
The silly part about it is that the Americans thought we were great, | 0:16:15 | 0:16:19 | |
our rock and roll was great. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
The only really great rock and roll came from Memphis or New Orleans | 0:16:21 | 0:16:26 | |
or maybe the doo-wop people from New York, | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
and I wouldn't listen to the English rock and roll. I didn't like it. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:33 | |
I thought, "We can't do this, it's got to be American!" | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
And then Cliff Richard came along. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:38 | |
MUSIC: Nine Times Out of Ten by Cliff Richard | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
# Well, nine times out of ten, baby, I told you | 0:16:42 | 0:16:47 | |
# And I aim to tell you just nine times again | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
# Hey, just how much I aim to hold you | 0:16:51 | 0:16:56 | |
# Again and again and again | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
# Little girl, it's nine times out of ten you have refused me | 0:17:00 | 0:17:05 | |
# And say that you refuse me nine times again | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
# But I won't stop until you choose me | 0:17:10 | 0:17:14 | |
# Again and again and again. # | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
Poor Cliff has been sort of laughed at for 30, 40 years in a way, | 0:17:18 | 0:17:23 | |
for not being a real rock and roller, and I heard Move It. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:26 | |
That was a great record. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:27 | |
# Come on, pretty baby, let's move it and groove it | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
# Well, a-shake a-baby shake, well, honey, please don't lose it... # | 0:17:32 | 0:17:36 | |
And there's a lead guitar played by Ernie Shaw on that, | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
and it was fantastic. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
It was a kind of duet between the singer and the lead guitarist, | 0:17:41 | 0:17:45 | |
and that, to me, was rock and roll. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
It wasn't Tommy Steele. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:49 | |
MUSIC: Slippin' and Slidin' by Little Richard | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
# Slippin' and a-slidin' Peepin' and a-hidin' | 0:17:56 | 0:17:59 | |
# Been told a long time ago | 0:17:59 | 0:18:02 | |
# Slippin' and a-slidin' Peepin' and a-hidin' | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
# Been told a long time ago | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
# I've been told, baby, you've been bold | 0:18:08 | 0:18:10 | |
# I won't be your fool no more... # | 0:18:10 | 0:18:12 | |
# Well, she comes from Tallahassee | 0:18:32 | 0:18:36 | |
# She's got a hi-fi chassis | 0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | |
# Maybe looks a little sassy | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
# But to me she's real classy | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
# Yeah, my Tallahassee lassie down in F-L-A | 0:18:45 | 0:18:51 | |
# Well, she's romping to the Drag | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
# The Cha-cha, Rag-a-mop | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
# Stomping to the Shag | 0:18:55 | 0:18:56 | |
# Rock the Bunny Hop... # | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
And then of course it was then the Billy Furies | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
and the Vince Eagers and people like that came along | 0:19:01 | 0:19:03 | |
and Larry Parnes, I suppose, really, | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
was sort of the main protagonist, if you like, for putting | 0:19:06 | 0:19:10 | |
these rock and roll shows on. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
Larry Parnes at the time had signed up Tommy Steele, | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
Marty Wilde and Vince Eager | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
and he was looking to build his so-called stable of stars. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:23 | |
I started with Tommy Steele. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:25 | |
Tommy was my first artist when I went into management | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
and everything progressed from there on. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
After Tommy Steele, I signed Marty Wilde. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
# Deceiving me, grieving me | 0:19:36 | 0:19:40 | |
# Leaving me blue | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
# Jezebel, it was you | 0:19:43 | 0:19:49 | |
# Well, if ever the devil's plan was made to torment man | 0:19:49 | 0:19:56 | |
# It was you | 0:19:56 | 0:19:57 | |
# Jezebel, it was you | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
# Twould be better had I never known a lover such as you | 0:20:03 | 0:20:11 | |
# Forsaking dreams and all | 0:20:13 | 0:20:17 | |
# For the siren call of your arms | 0:20:17 | 0:20:24 | |
# Jezebel... # | 0:20:24 | 0:20:31 | |
Early in 1958, Billy decided | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
he wanted to make a demonstration record of his songs, | 0:20:33 | 0:20:37 | |
and he went to Percy Phillips' studio in Kensington | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
and this is about a mile outside the city centre. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
What is particularly interesting is that a couple of weeks later, | 0:20:44 | 0:20:47 | |
John Lennon and Paul McCartney with The Quarrymen go there as well, | 0:20:47 | 0:20:50 | |
so within a couple of weeks, Percy Phillips recorded both the Beatles | 0:20:50 | 0:20:55 | |
and Billy Fury, which is an extraordinary coincidence, | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
and Billy Fury recorded six songs. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
It's just incredible, really, what Billy did, especially in the '50s, | 0:21:01 | 0:21:06 | |
because he wasn't looking back on the Beatles or looking back | 0:21:06 | 0:21:10 | |
on this one or that one, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:11 | |
and the records in the charts were pretty rubbish then. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
It was, you know, How Much Is That Doggie In The Window? | 0:21:14 | 0:21:16 | |
He makes this record and wants to do something with it, | 0:21:16 | 0:21:22 | |
and his mother writes to Larry Parnes and says, | 0:21:22 | 0:21:26 | |
"My son is very good. He'd like to make a record for you." | 0:21:26 | 0:21:31 | |
I decided to go across and try to sell some of these songs | 0:21:31 | 0:21:36 | |
I'd been writing, to Marty Wilde. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:38 | |
I loved the fact that Billy believed in his songs. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
I loved the fact that he was... | 0:21:41 | 0:21:43 | |
not trying to sell himself. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
He was trying to sell his songs. He wanted them songs to be heard. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
Now, that's the story, from Billy, because he was so self-effacing, | 0:21:48 | 0:21:54 | |
but in a letter that I once had from Margo, who worked with Billy, | 0:21:54 | 0:22:00 | |
she said that he practised his moves with her, with a guitar, | 0:22:00 | 0:22:05 | |
and that she had got him gigs in and around working men's clubs | 0:22:05 | 0:22:10 | |
in Wavertree and other places in Liverpool. Now, | 0:22:10 | 0:22:14 | |
those are not the actions of someone who wants his songs recorded. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
They're the actions of a guy who knows he looks cool, | 0:22:17 | 0:22:20 | |
knows he looks great, and who really wants to be a rock and roller. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:23 | |
Unlike the Beatles, who had done hundreds of gigs | 0:22:23 | 0:22:26 | |
before they made a record, Billy Fury had hardly done any. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
It was a horrible day. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:31 | |
It was really dank and there was this drizzle you can't see, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:35 | |
really horrible day, and this lad comes up to me. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
He's got his collar turned up. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:39 | |
I said I was looking for Marty Wilde. He asked my reason. I said, | 0:22:39 | 0:22:43 | |
"Well, I have some songs which he might be interested in recording." | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
Well, when I saw him I thought, "Wow, he's good-looking." | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
He reminded me of a cross between... | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
He was a mixture of Elvis, Eddie Cochran and James Dean. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:56 | |
He looked like a pop star, to be honest. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
I tell Larry, I said, "There's a guy outside, he's written some songs, | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
"he's sent them to you. His name's Ronnie Wycherley. He wants to know if you heard them." | 0:23:01 | 0:23:05 | |
He said, "Oh... Oh, fetch him in." | 0:23:05 | 0:23:08 | |
So I went out and I said, "Mr Parnes will see you", so I took him in | 0:23:08 | 0:23:12 | |
and you could see Larry's eyes light up, as did Marty's. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
I mean, Marty will tell you now, there was an aura about him. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
He came in very humble, very meek, very mild, beautiful lad, | 0:23:20 | 0:23:23 | |
lovely nature, and he said, "I've written these songs" | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
and so Larry said, "Well, let me hear the songs", so really, | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
he hadn't come as a singer. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
He'd come to play Larry the songs he had written | 0:23:31 | 0:23:34 | |
and the first one he sang was Maybe Tomorrow. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:36 | |
# I love you, baby | 0:23:36 | 0:23:39 | |
# I really care | 0:23:40 | 0:23:42 | |
# I need your loving | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
# So hear my prayer | 0:23:47 | 0:23:56 | |
# Maybe tomorrow... # | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
We're stood there, we're going, "Wow!" | 0:24:00 | 0:24:04 | |
I mean, we looked at each other and he just looks the part. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
You think, "Where's he been?" | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
And there were some girls there that were going crazy, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
banging on the window and going crazy. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
So that's when Larry Parnes said, | 0:24:15 | 0:24:16 | |
"Well, you should go on the stage now and sing." | 0:24:16 | 0:24:18 | |
And he said, "I'll do it." | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
It's great, isn't it? Sink or swim! | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
But that's what you need! | 0:24:23 | 0:24:25 | |
You've got to have gall, you know, how are you going to survive? | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
As I started to sing, I was so nervous that my knees were shaking | 0:24:28 | 0:24:32 | |
and everyone thought, "Wow, who's this guy with the shaking knees?" | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
-And he just absolutely stole the show. -The girls went wild for him. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:39 | |
I think he did one of his own songs, | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
maybe an Elvis song, something like that. He did a couple of songs | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
and that's when Larry Parnes said, "This kid is going to be big." | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
Larry Parnes asked me if I would like to join the show, | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
rehearse with one of the bands and carry on with the tour. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:56 | |
I can remember him coming home that night. | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
I can remember him saying, "Dad, let me go, let me go. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:01 | |
"Please let me go." | 0:25:01 | 0:25:02 | |
Anyway, they said, "You know, you'll have to take care of yourself." | 0:25:02 | 0:25:06 | |
He said, "Well, I've got to try, I've got to try, let me go." | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
So, erm, they let him go. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:13 | |
We picked him up outside a pub at about 11 o'clock in the morning. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:18 | |
He came to Stretford, did the show at Stretford. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:22 | |
We did the show that night. Again, he stole the show. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
And when we got back to London, it wasn't five minutes | 0:25:24 | 0:25:27 | |
before Larry had got him a contract with Decca. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
Ronnie Wycherley went off and the next time I saw him - | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
he was Billy Fury. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:35 | |
There's Ron Wycherley, 17, known to his fans as Billy Fury. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:47 | |
Roy Taylor, 18, alias Vince Eager. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
John Askew or Johnny Gentle, 22, from Merseyside. | 0:25:54 | 0:26:00 | |
And Duffy Power, real name Raymond Howard, 17. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:05 | |
Pride, Gentle, Fury, Eager, why do you choose names like that? | 0:26:05 | 0:26:09 | |
Well, this means something, you see? | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
For example, with Fury, Billy is nice and friendly | 0:26:11 | 0:26:13 | |
and Fury is a little bit ferocious, so it gives him the mean streak. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:17 | |
And Johnny Gentle is...? | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
Johnny's a quiet one, that's why he's Johnny Gentle. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
And Vince is always ready to give a very good show | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
and that's why he's Eager, that's Vince Eager. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:28 | |
It didn't happen overnight. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
I mean, he did well on Oh! Boy. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:32 | |
Maybe Tomorrow got into the top 20. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
Margo did OK. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
Colette was the first single that got into the top 10. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:40 | |
# Don't forget we have a date, Colette | 0:26:40 | 0:26:45 | |
# How I love you, Colette... # | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
Larry tried to work it like the Six-Five Specials were | 0:26:49 | 0:26:54 | |
and those sort of shows, where the artists one after another | 0:26:54 | 0:26:58 | |
came on the stage. | 0:26:58 | 0:27:00 | |
You know, one guy would come on and do two numbers | 0:27:00 | 0:27:02 | |
then he'd go off and someone else would come on and do two numbers. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
That's the way he worked it. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:06 | |
He had an eye for that. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
I mean, Dickie Pride could rock like there's no tomorrow. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
Particularly with Slippin' And Slidin'. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
Billy and Dickie were great mates | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
and Vince Eager was also a great rock and roller. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:19 | |
And it was a bit of a treadmill. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
The whole thing with us was we wanted to play. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:25 | |
That's what we wanted to do, I wanted to play drums | 0:27:25 | 0:27:27 | |
and the guys wanted... We wanted to be musicians. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:30 | |
And we had to go through the crap to do it, you know. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:33 | |
# Angel face, angel face, angel face | 0:27:33 | 0:27:38 | |
# Darling, I love you... # | 0:27:38 | 0:27:42 | |
The gigs or the appearances would be organised in such a way | 0:27:42 | 0:27:47 | |
that it was, to you and I today, illogical. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:50 | |
There was one instance where we actually were in Edinburgh | 0:27:50 | 0:27:54 | |
one night and the Isle of Wight the next. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:56 | |
So we were actually travelling overnight in the coach. | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
And we got... | 0:27:59 | 0:28:01 | |
We actually got to the show half an hour before the opening. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
You know, by the time we got there and I was actually onstage playing | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
and eating sausage and chips out of a bag off the side of the drums. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:12 | |
Between numbers, having a quick bite of the sausage and chips. | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
That's the way it was. We never really travelled with Billy. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
We were in, as we used to call it, the vomit box which was the coach. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
You know, but he used to travel by car. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:25 | |
Obviously had his own roadie who used to drive him about. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
# Of another | 0:28:28 | 0:28:31 | |
# Christmas Day | 0:28:31 | 0:28:35 | |
# Oh, Lord | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
# Will you please help me? # | 0:28:38 | 0:28:42 | |
He wasn't a diva, if you like. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:44 | |
He was down to earth. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:46 | |
The same as Marty was the same. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:47 | |
Most of the guys in those days were the same. You never... | 0:28:47 | 0:28:50 | |
They weren't allowed to be, to be honest. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:52 | |
# Well, darling, I love you | 0:29:04 | 0:29:07 | |
# Baby, yeah, I care | 0:29:07 | 0:29:10 | |
# I really need your loving, baby | 0:29:10 | 0:29:13 | |
# Babe, I want you near | 0:29:13 | 0:29:14 | |
# Oh, yeah, indeed | 0:29:14 | 0:29:17 | |
# It's you I need... # | 0:29:17 | 0:29:19 | |
He has some, you know, rock hits | 0:29:19 | 0:29:21 | |
and of course he records one of the most famous albums of all time. | 0:29:21 | 0:29:25 | |
Sound Of Fury? | 0:29:25 | 0:29:27 | |
Great LP. | 0:29:27 | 0:29:29 | |
Wrote every song. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:30 | |
It's a ten inch record, five songs on each side. | 0:29:30 | 0:29:33 | |
I remember getting it, my father gave it me for Christmas | 0:29:33 | 0:29:37 | |
and it cost 22 shillings. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:39 | |
Well, The Sound Of Fury is a classic album. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:41 | |
If you're into rock and roll, you must have this album. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:45 | |
Otherwise you're a liar! | 0:29:45 | 0:29:47 | |
He fused country with blues, rockabilly and rock and roll. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:52 | |
No-one else was doing that. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:54 | |
Marty was writing his own stuff, like Bad Boy. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:56 | |
Johnny Kidd was writing some great stuff. | 0:29:56 | 0:29:59 | |
More or less rock and roll or pop, | 0:29:59 | 0:30:01 | |
but Billy had the ability to draw on all of those areas of music | 0:30:01 | 0:30:05 | |
and make something definitive and make something really special. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:09 | |
He was a modest guy and he didn't want to appear big headed | 0:30:09 | 0:30:11 | |
and didn't want to look... | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
He didn't want it to look as though he'd written all ten songs, | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
so some of the songs are written under the name Wilbur Wilberforce, | 0:30:16 | 0:30:20 | |
but Billy wrote all ten songs on the album. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:22 | |
At the time, I thought, oh, so he's written his own songs. Fine! | 0:30:22 | 0:30:25 | |
We didn't realise what a special thing that was. | 0:30:25 | 0:30:29 | |
Sort of made a precedent then for bands to write their own songs. | 0:30:29 | 0:30:32 | |
Rather than to rely on the Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the time. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:36 | |
# Baby, don't leave me this way | 0:30:37 | 0:30:43 | |
# Don't leave me this way | 0:30:43 | 0:30:45 | |
# Hold it, honey | 0:30:45 | 0:30:47 | |
# You promised me you'd never go astray | 0:30:47 | 0:30:51 | |
# Never go astray... # | 0:30:51 | 0:30:52 | |
I think it's a milestone in rock and roll. | 0:30:52 | 0:30:55 | |
The album is always considered a classic | 0:30:55 | 0:30:58 | |
and Joe Brown played guitar on it. | 0:30:58 | 0:31:00 | |
I went along with my guitar. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:02 | |
I listened to it and then I said, OK, let's take one. | 0:31:02 | 0:31:05 | |
I'll play it on the guitar here. | 0:31:05 | 0:31:07 | |
Played it and as we went through it, | 0:31:07 | 0:31:09 | |
I played it through and the guy says, that was great. | 0:31:09 | 0:31:12 | |
It wasn't like you went into the studio and created something. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:14 | |
You created something | 0:31:14 | 0:31:15 | |
and then a recording studio would record it for you. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
It was the sound of the actual album that was different. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:21 | |
It was the nearest you'd ever get to American rock and roll. | 0:31:21 | 0:31:24 | |
# Well, I gave you my advice | 0:31:24 | 0:31:26 | |
# But you don't care | 0:31:26 | 0:31:28 | |
# I told you not to fool around with me | 0:31:28 | 0:31:33 | |
# But you're as cold as ice and you don't care | 0:31:33 | 0:31:37 | |
# Go on, away with you, honey | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
# And don't come back to me... # | 0:31:40 | 0:31:43 | |
You could hear me learning it, as it were, as I went through it | 0:31:43 | 0:31:46 | |
and that way it got better and better as the track went through. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:51 | |
What Jack Good tried to do was recreate the sound | 0:31:51 | 0:31:55 | |
of Sam Phillips's studio making those rockabilly records in Memphis. | 0:31:55 | 0:31:59 | |
The Sound Of Fury as an album was raw. | 0:31:59 | 0:32:04 | |
It was before everyone got too conscious of trying to be clever | 0:32:04 | 0:32:07 | |
about what they were putting in the album. | 0:32:07 | 0:32:09 | |
It's all in the hands of the producer. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:11 | |
If he can maintain and retain that original thought, | 0:32:11 | 0:32:15 | |
then it's a good record. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:17 | |
There's nothing against doing it like they do it now, | 0:32:17 | 0:32:19 | |
but it's not really for me. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:20 | |
And that's what Jack did. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:22 | |
They did it in a day. | 0:32:22 | 0:32:23 | |
Ten-track album in a day! | 0:32:23 | 0:32:25 | |
They produced the best record ever, LP. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:27 | |
The idea that somebody could have recorded something | 0:32:27 | 0:32:30 | |
pretty much straight through is astonishing | 0:32:30 | 0:32:32 | |
and tells you just how well they were playing. | 0:32:32 | 0:32:34 | |
We went in the studio and played it once or maybe twice. | 0:32:34 | 0:32:38 | |
And then the guy said, "OK, we'll take one." | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
So they took one and then he says, "That's fine. That's good." | 0:32:41 | 0:32:46 | |
So I put my guitar in the case, I went into the control booth | 0:32:46 | 0:32:50 | |
and I said to the bloke, "Can we hear it?" | 0:32:50 | 0:32:52 | |
"Oh, no," he said. "We've taken this tape off now." | 0:32:52 | 0:32:55 | |
He took the tape of the machine, put it in the box, | 0:32:55 | 0:32:58 | |
wrote on the box and it was gone. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:00 | |
We never even heard it! | 0:33:00 | 0:33:01 | |
# Bye-bye, baby | 0:33:01 | 0:33:03 | |
# Bye-bye to you | 0:33:03 | 0:33:04 | |
# Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba | 0:33:04 | 0:33:06 | |
# Bye-bye, baby | 0:33:06 | 0:33:08 | |
# Guess what I'm gonna do | 0:33:08 | 0:33:09 | |
# I'm gonna swing around, honey | 0:33:09 | 0:33:11 | |
# Gonna turn my back on you... # | 0:33:11 | 0:33:13 | |
I love Turn My Back On You because it's a perfect example | 0:33:13 | 0:33:16 | |
of UK rockabilly, although the term wasn't coined at that time, | 0:33:16 | 0:33:20 | |
being the equal of virtually anything | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
that came out of the States. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:24 | |
I mean, how did he do that? It's incredible. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
Jack Good decided that the bass was very, very important there | 0:33:27 | 0:33:31 | |
and he thought, we are not going to be able perhaps to get this | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
American bass sound right, | 0:33:34 | 0:33:36 | |
so what he did was he got a stand-up bass player and he got | 0:33:36 | 0:33:40 | |
an electric bass player, so there's actually two basses on the record. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:44 | |
One of my favourite songs of all time. | 0:33:44 | 0:33:46 | |
I can't... | 0:33:46 | 0:33:48 | |
speak enough about it. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:50 | |
Bizarre, two basses on it. | 0:33:50 | 0:33:52 | |
One being slapped and one being played. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:55 | |
If you take that song, | 0:33:55 | 0:33:56 | |
the live rehearsals or the live version from the show was well, | 0:33:56 | 0:34:01 | |
and then you look at that classic picture of Billy rehearsing | 0:34:01 | 0:34:05 | |
for Boy Meets Girls with Joe Brown and they're rehearsing that number, | 0:34:05 | 0:34:09 | |
and in this picture, Billy's got the angular thrust of the pelvis, | 0:34:09 | 0:34:13 | |
he's got the collar turned up to his jacket, | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
he's got that quiff with just a few strands hanging... | 0:34:16 | 0:34:21 | |
and his lips are curled in virtually a feral snarl. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:26 | |
And he is the epitome of Elvis-style rock and roll. | 0:34:26 | 0:34:30 | |
I mean, it's blood red and he looks so cool on it. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:34 | |
It was, as Jack Good said, the soul, the musical soul of Billy Fury. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:38 | |
He sent his record. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:40 | |
The Sound Of Fury, and he said, don't give it to anybody else. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:45 | |
He must have been thinking he wasn't going to get another one. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:48 | |
The teenagers came along. | 0:34:56 | 0:34:57 | |
They wanted to have their own identity as such | 0:34:57 | 0:35:00 | |
and they had their own music, | 0:35:00 | 0:35:02 | |
they had their own film stars with Marlon Brando and James Dean... | 0:35:02 | 0:35:05 | |
Rock and roll came in at 1956 and there was a film | 0:35:05 | 0:35:09 | |
called It Came From Outer Space. | 0:35:09 | 0:35:11 | |
And someone like Little Richard seemed like that. | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
# I woke up this morning | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
# Lucille was not in sight | 0:35:27 | 0:35:28 | |
# I asked my friends about her | 0:35:28 | 0:35:30 | |
# But, no, all their lips were tight... # | 0:35:30 | 0:35:32 | |
It was a whole era of rock and roll films. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:36 | |
And of course, during those, you'd see somebody, | 0:35:36 | 0:35:39 | |
there'd be a bit of dancing going on, and then you'd look at it | 0:35:39 | 0:35:42 | |
and there used to be a girl, Mad Madeline I used to call her. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:45 | |
I used to get old Mad Mad in and we'd practise and I'd say, | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
"No, no, no, it went like this somehow." | 0:35:48 | 0:35:50 | |
And then you'd fiddle about. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:52 | |
I was working for an ad agency and all of a sudden, | 0:35:52 | 0:35:55 | |
people started using this weird phrase, | 0:35:55 | 0:35:57 | |
"teenagers having disposable income." | 0:35:57 | 0:35:59 | |
So although the disposable income of teenagers might not | 0:35:59 | 0:36:02 | |
be very much, the average household has no disposable income, ie, | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
the money was spent before it was earned. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:07 | |
So the fact that you had a quid in your pocket | 0:36:07 | 0:36:10 | |
or maybe two quid in your pocket | 0:36:10 | 0:36:13 | |
meant you were a desirable object for advertisers. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:16 | |
Five shillings a week pocket money. | 0:36:16 | 0:36:18 | |
Which went on records, of course. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:20 | |
American records. | 0:36:20 | 0:36:21 | |
All of a sudden, it wasn't just Radio Luxembourg, | 0:36:21 | 0:36:24 | |
Saturday morning was rock and roll pop music | 0:36:24 | 0:36:27 | |
and then Saturday evening on television became pop music. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
All of a sudden, the top of the bill wasn't Al Martino | 0:36:30 | 0:36:34 | |
or someone my parents loved, but was actually someone that I liked. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:38 | |
# Yeah, yeah | 0:36:38 | 0:36:41 | |
# No, no | 0:36:41 | 0:36:42 | |
# Yeah, yeah | 0:36:42 | 0:36:44 | |
# No, no | 0:36:44 | 0:36:46 | |
# Yeah, yeah... # | 0:36:46 | 0:36:47 | |
This was the heart of all the activities for us rock and rollers. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:52 | |
It was certainly a lively place and one that anybody who | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
was between the age of 15 and 22 wouldn't want to miss. | 0:36:56 | 0:37:00 | |
There was a coffee bar called The Freight Train | 0:37:00 | 0:37:02 | |
which was owned by Charles McDevitt. | 0:37:02 | 0:37:04 | |
That is where, in the cellar, Johnny Kidds' Shakin' All Over was written. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:08 | |
# Shakin' all over... | 0:37:08 | 0:37:11 | |
# Just the way that you say good night to me... # | 0:37:18 | 0:37:22 | |
# Rocking at the 2 I's | 0:37:25 | 0:37:29 | |
# We're rocking at the 2 I's... # | 0:37:29 | 0:37:31 | |
This place, the 2 I's coffee bar. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
You'd go through the coffee bar, at the back there was a little door | 0:37:33 | 0:37:36 | |
that led you downstairs to the cellar. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:38 | |
It was a small cellar which only held about 80 people | 0:37:38 | 0:37:41 | |
but I've seen as many as 110 in there and nobody could move. | 0:37:41 | 0:37:44 | |
Without this little coffee bar, | 0:37:44 | 0:37:46 | |
there possibly wouldn't be any rock and roll in Britain today. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:49 | |
It's where people like myself, Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard, | 0:37:49 | 0:37:52 | |
The Shadows, Hank and Bruce, Brian Bennett, Clem Cattini... | 0:37:52 | 0:37:56 | |
So many guys started in the 2 I's coffee bar. | 0:37:56 | 0:37:58 | |
I liked Marty Wilde and Billy, I really did like them. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:04 | |
I thought they had energy and they were important | 0:38:04 | 0:38:07 | |
because they were emblematic of my generation. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:09 | |
They were the same age as me. | 0:38:09 | 0:38:11 | |
I will never forget growing up with all those rock and rollers. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:16 | |
And it doesn't matter what era you come from, | 0:38:16 | 0:38:18 | |
you still love the music of your teens. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:22 | |
Things that get you when you're 15... | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
stay with you for life, and the records stay with you for life | 0:38:25 | 0:38:28 | |
because you can never again be that age | 0:38:28 | 0:38:29 | |
and you have the same feelings and the emotions and the romance | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
of it and the excitement of being young, just being young. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:36 | |
There was a programme called All That Jazz | 0:38:36 | 0:38:38 | |
and Billy was singing I'd Never Find Another You. | 0:38:38 | 0:38:40 | |
I looked at that and I'd had a mild interest in pop | 0:38:40 | 0:38:43 | |
because I'd heard various songs on the radio, | 0:38:43 | 0:38:45 | |
Billy and Elvis in particular, but when I saw that, | 0:38:45 | 0:38:47 | |
I just suddenly wanted to be Billy Fury. | 0:38:47 | 0:38:51 | |
# Don't ever worry that I'll leave you | 0:38:51 | 0:38:59 | |
# That's such a foolish thing to do | 0:38:59 | 0:39:03 | |
# How could I ever go | 0:39:06 | 0:39:10 | |
# When in my heart I know | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
# I'd never find another you? | 0:39:13 | 0:39:19 | |
# I might find other arms to hold me | 0:39:22 | 0:39:28 | |
# But they would only leave me blue | 0:39:29 | 0:39:34 | |
# The thrill of your embrace | 0:39:37 | 0:39:41 | |
# Is what is I can't replace | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
# I'd never find another you | 0:39:44 | 0:39:48 | |
# Though there are times when we may quarrel | 0:39:51 | 0:39:57 | |
# I can't stay mad at you for more | 0:39:59 | 0:40:03 | |
# Than just a minute or two, now | 0:40:03 | 0:40:07 | |
# I know I never want to leave you | 0:40:07 | 0:40:15 | |
# Cos if I search my whole life through | 0:40:15 | 0:40:22 | |
# I know there'd only be | 0:40:22 | 0:40:26 | |
# A second best for me | 0:40:26 | 0:40:30 | |
# I'd never find another you | 0:40:30 | 0:40:34 | |
# I know I never want to leave you | 0:40:37 | 0:40:45 | |
# Cos if I search my whole life through | 0:40:45 | 0:40:53 | |
# I know there'd only be | 0:40:53 | 0:40:57 | |
# A second best for me | 0:40:57 | 0:41:01 | |
# I'd never find another you | 0:41:01 | 0:41:06 | |
# I'd never find another you. # | 0:41:08 | 0:41:14 | |
PHONE RINGS | 0:41:26 | 0:41:28 | |
Hello, Larry Parnes speaking. | 0:41:29 | 0:41:31 | |
I think that Larry was one of the first to have an | 0:41:31 | 0:41:33 | |
eye on the future, to see that youngsters could make it. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:36 | |
He was also very good with press. | 0:41:36 | 0:41:39 | |
At one stage, Billy visited his father, | 0:41:39 | 0:41:41 | |
that's when he got bitten by the dog on the cheek. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:44 | |
Which Parnes then turned into this publicity about | 0:41:44 | 0:41:47 | |
a Liverpool gang stubbing a cigarette out on Billy's cheek. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:51 | |
Larry Parnes almost could have been a boxing promoter. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:54 | |
You know, the camel coat and everything else. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:56 | |
So Larry Parnes came out of the Jack Solomons boxing promoter school. | 0:41:56 | 0:41:59 | |
And instead of moving into boxing, moved into music. | 0:41:59 | 0:42:02 | |
I think if we can bring him along steadily, | 0:42:02 | 0:42:04 | |
he may be very big in the business in the future. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:06 | |
-'Thank you very much, Mr Parnes.' -Thank you. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:09 | |
To be honest, he didn't know much about music anyway. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:12 | |
So he left the music to the musicians to sort out ourselves, | 0:42:12 | 0:42:15 | |
and the singers. | 0:42:15 | 0:42:16 | |
In the pop world, you had Larry Parnes, you had Tito Burns, | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
you had Don Arden. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:21 | |
And they were really looking after their businesses first of all. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:25 | |
Not really paying the artists all that they should have done. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
And indeed, Cliff Richard walked away from Tito Burns | 0:42:28 | 0:42:32 | |
when Tito asked him to do a charity show, | 0:42:32 | 0:42:35 | |
and Cliff found out that actually Tito was being paid £500 | 0:42:35 | 0:42:40 | |
for this appearance. | 0:42:40 | 0:42:41 | |
But it wasn't really until you get the Beatles coming along, | 0:42:41 | 0:42:45 | |
with Brian Epstein, that you get a manager | 0:42:45 | 0:42:48 | |
who was truly for his artist. | 0:42:48 | 0:42:51 | |
At one point, Larry actually wanted to manage me. | 0:42:51 | 0:42:54 | |
And there were discussions going on between him and my manager. | 0:42:55 | 0:43:00 | |
And while the discussions were going on, | 0:43:00 | 0:43:02 | |
we turned up to the next gig, and my name, | 0:43:02 | 0:43:04 | |
instead of being down the bottom there, was two thirds of the way up. | 0:43:04 | 0:43:08 | |
I think he was trying to encourage us, | 0:43:08 | 0:43:10 | |
to show what would happen if he was managing me. I didn't go. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:13 | |
So the next gig we turned up, | 0:43:13 | 0:43:14 | |
the name had been put down the bottom of the poster again. | 0:43:14 | 0:43:16 | |
One night, I could be top of the bill. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:19 | |
It could be Vince Eager, underneath, Billy Fury, Dickie Pride, | 0:43:19 | 0:43:23 | |
or Terry Dene, or whoever. | 0:43:23 | 0:43:25 | |
Then the next night, it could be Billy Fury top of the bill, | 0:43:25 | 0:43:27 | |
and you right down at the bottom, no bigger than the admission prices. | 0:43:27 | 0:43:31 | |
I've got some sort of admiration for him in the fact of | 0:43:31 | 0:43:34 | |
the money that he ploughed back into the business. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:36 | |
Which I know he did, we had a lot of shows. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:38 | |
We did a lot of these tours around the country, | 0:43:38 | 0:43:41 | |
which cost money, obviously. | 0:43:41 | 0:43:43 | |
Larry was like a mother hen. | 0:43:43 | 0:43:47 | |
And he was very... He was a very clever guy. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:50 | |
He tried his damnedest at first to see me off. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:53 | |
I think he saw me as a threat. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:55 | |
Perhaps I was! | 0:43:55 | 0:43:56 | |
So we didn't get on at all. | 0:43:57 | 0:44:00 | |
But in the end, we used to go on holiday with him. | 0:44:00 | 0:44:04 | |
He took us all over the world. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:08 | |
It became a very nice situation. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
Larry was gay, and he must've had a lot of laughs | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
when he thought about Dickie Pride - I mean, what a name that is! | 0:44:14 | 0:44:18 | |
In fact, it's said that Larry chose these names | 0:44:18 | 0:44:21 | |
because it was what he thought they'd be like in bed. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:24 | |
I got the worst of the bunch, names-wise, without a doubt. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:27 | |
When you hear, "Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Billy Fury! | 0:44:27 | 0:44:30 | |
"Marty Wilde! Tommy Steele! | 0:44:30 | 0:44:33 | |
"And Vince Ea..." | 0:44:33 | 0:44:34 | |
And it rolls into one, so it wasn't a good name. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:37 | |
But he came up with these names, and I thought the names suited, | 0:44:37 | 0:44:40 | |
particularly Billy and Marty. I think they suited them brilliantly. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:43 | |
Because both guys, offstage, were such lovely, | 0:44:43 | 0:44:46 | |
boy-next-door type of characters. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:48 | |
On stage, they were dynamic. | 0:44:48 | 0:44:50 | |
Of all the English rock and roll innovators, Billy stood out. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:05 | |
He would walk onto the stage, and it was electrifying. Everything. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:10 | |
He was just incredible. He would walk on and stand there for a while. | 0:45:10 | 0:45:15 | |
And then suddenly... | 0:45:15 | 0:45:17 | |
become Billy. | 0:45:17 | 0:45:19 | |
# Well, just because you think you're so pretty | 0:45:19 | 0:45:23 | |
# And just because your momma thinks you're hot | 0:45:23 | 0:45:27 | |
# And just because you think you've got something | 0:45:27 | 0:45:31 | |
# That nobody else has got | 0:45:31 | 0:45:34 | |
# You caused me to lose all my money | 0:45:35 | 0:45:39 | |
# You left and called me old Santa Claus | 0:45:39 | 0:45:43 | |
# Well I'm telling you, baby, I'm through with you | 0:45:43 | 0:45:47 | |
# Because, well, just because | 0:45:47 | 0:45:50 | |
# Well, there will come a time when you could be lonesome | 0:45:51 | 0:45:55 | |
# And there's-a come a time when you'll be blue | 0:45:55 | 0:45:59 | |
# And there's-a come a time when old Santa | 0:45:59 | 0:46:03 | |
# He won't pay your bills for you | 0:46:03 | 0:46:07 | |
# You caused me to lose my money | 0:46:07 | 0:46:11 | |
# You left and called me old Santa Claus | 0:46:11 | 0:46:15 | |
# Well I'm telling you, baby, I'm through with you | 0:46:15 | 0:46:19 | |
# Because, well, just because. # | 0:46:19 | 0:46:22 | |
It was like somebody had just plugged an electric bolt into him. | 0:46:22 | 0:46:26 | |
It was such a difference. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:27 | |
I stood in the wings so many nights and watched him. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:30 | |
Because he was mesmerising. The energy was just beaming off him. | 0:46:30 | 0:46:33 | |
I made a point of trying to see him on stage, | 0:46:33 | 0:46:35 | |
every time he came to this area. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:37 | |
Because we hadn't really seen what Elvis Presley was like, | 0:46:37 | 0:46:40 | |
live on stage. You know, we'd only seen him in the movies. | 0:46:40 | 0:46:43 | |
But I'd seen Billy Fury on stage, that's entirely different. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:46 | |
He's generating something that Cliff, Marty, Adam | 0:46:46 | 0:46:48 | |
just couldn't generate. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:50 | |
And he always could generate some kind of real excitement. | 0:46:50 | 0:46:53 | |
I remember Joe Brown saying that he didn't realise how sensual | 0:46:53 | 0:46:57 | |
and charismatic Billy was. | 0:46:57 | 0:46:59 | |
Until one day he broke down on the way to the theatre. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:02 | |
And Billy had had to go on instead of me, to close the first half. | 0:47:02 | 0:47:06 | |
And I went into the theatre while he was on. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:09 | |
And I'd never felt such an electric atmosphere. | 0:47:09 | 0:47:12 | |
Because I'd never seen him. | 0:47:12 | 0:47:14 | |
I'd never seen Billy Fury from the front, ever. | 0:47:14 | 0:47:17 | |
The only time I'd ever seen him was either | 0:47:17 | 0:47:19 | |
playing in the band for him, or it was from the side of the stage. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:22 | |
He had this wonderful way of moving, which of course, Presley had. | 0:47:22 | 0:47:25 | |
And he had all sorts of idiosyncrasies. | 0:47:25 | 0:47:29 | |
Flicking hands here, and flicking hips there. | 0:47:29 | 0:47:33 | |
# Well, I just want to be in that number | 0:47:33 | 0:47:37 | |
# I said, when the saints go marching in. # | 0:47:37 | 0:47:40 | |
That look in his eye, that you'd see, | 0:47:43 | 0:47:45 | |
if you look at any of the old footage of him. | 0:47:45 | 0:47:48 | |
He had that confidence, | 0:47:48 | 0:47:51 | |
but yet... | 0:47:51 | 0:47:52 | |
Like a little, lost boy. | 0:47:52 | 0:47:54 | |
You wanted to just wrap him up and take him home. | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
And the girls, you know, the girls went crazy for him. | 0:47:57 | 0:48:00 | |
The guys wanted to be him, the girls wanted to be with him. | 0:48:00 | 0:48:03 | |
He loved the screams. | 0:48:03 | 0:48:04 | |
And when he heard those girls screaming, it drove him | 0:48:04 | 0:48:06 | |
to give everything for that particular number. | 0:48:06 | 0:48:08 | |
To see it on stage, and it's your brother... | 0:48:08 | 0:48:11 | |
It was just unreal. The feelings were unreal. | 0:48:11 | 0:48:13 | |
You don't know whether to laugh or cry or smile what. | 0:48:13 | 0:48:16 | |
As a rock and roll, live performer, | 0:48:16 | 0:48:20 | |
I would certainly put Billy Fury at the top. | 0:48:20 | 0:48:22 | |
There's a clip of Billy in Oh Boy!, doing Don't Knock Upon My Door. | 0:48:22 | 0:48:25 | |
And you can tell he means business. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:27 | |
This doesn't sound like some wimpish, British rock and roll star. | 0:48:27 | 0:48:31 | |
This sounds like the real deal. | 0:48:31 | 0:48:32 | |
And once Jack Good got a hold of him, | 0:48:32 | 0:48:34 | |
he was saying things to Billy like, | 0:48:34 | 0:48:36 | |
"Now, you've got to hit the deck here, like that." | 0:48:36 | 0:48:39 | |
And Billy would lie on the floor, grab hold of the microphone, | 0:48:39 | 0:48:44 | |
pretend he was making love to it. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:46 | |
We did the Theatre Royal, Dublin. | 0:48:46 | 0:48:49 | |
And it was... Billy was doing his movements, | 0:48:49 | 0:48:52 | |
and the guy comes, "Excuse me, sorry - | 0:48:52 | 0:48:54 | |
"if you wiggle your bottom once more, we'll pull the curtain down." | 0:48:54 | 0:48:58 | |
So the next night, Billy does that, and down comes the curtain. | 0:48:58 | 0:49:01 | |
His father was very annoyed with him about that. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:03 | |
But it helped to make him a great star. | 0:49:03 | 0:49:07 | |
And in Scotland, the same sort of thing happened. | 0:49:07 | 0:49:10 | |
Where this guy stood in front of him and says, | 0:49:10 | 0:49:14 | |
"If ye wiggle yer arse once more, I'll punch yer heid in." | 0:49:14 | 0:49:17 | |
His first really big hit was Halfway To Paradise. | 0:49:19 | 0:49:22 | |
# I want to be your lover | 0:49:30 | 0:49:37 | |
# But your friend is all I've stayed | 0:49:37 | 0:49:44 | |
# I'm only halfway to paradise | 0:49:44 | 0:49:52 | |
# So near, yet so far away. # | 0:49:52 | 0:50:00 | |
Shortly after Halfway To Paradise was a huge hit for Billy Fury, | 0:50:00 | 0:50:04 | |
Tony Orlando came to the UK as a support act on the Bobby Vee tour. | 0:50:04 | 0:50:09 | |
And I saw him at the Liverpool Empire. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:11 | |
Tony Orlando came on, and he said, | 0:50:11 | 0:50:13 | |
"I'm now going to do Halfway To Paradise," | 0:50:13 | 0:50:16 | |
which had been a big American hit for him, but had meant nothing here. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:20 | |
And the audience started booing him! | 0:50:20 | 0:50:22 | |
Which was highly unfair, | 0:50:22 | 0:50:24 | |
because Billy Fury had actually pinched Tony Orlando's song. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:29 | |
Billy knew that he couldn't write songs that were | 0:50:29 | 0:50:32 | |
up to the standards of those Carole King and Gerry Goffin songs. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:36 | |
But he did say later, "They got heavy with me, | 0:50:36 | 0:50:39 | |
"and they forced me into doing American covers." | 0:50:39 | 0:50:41 | |
And that was virtually his words. | 0:50:41 | 0:50:44 | |
And of course, that's where the success really came. | 0:50:44 | 0:50:46 | |
You know, 29 hit singles, and most of those were ballads. | 0:50:46 | 0:50:49 | |
# Away from harm, in my baby's arms | 0:50:49 | 0:50:53 | |
# A wondrous place. # | 0:50:55 | 0:50:56 | |
Jack Good saw Wondrous Place could be given | 0:50:56 | 0:50:59 | |
a treatment like Elvis Presley's Crawfish, from King Creole. | 0:50:59 | 0:51:03 | |
Really sultry and sexy. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:05 | |
And he said to Billy, "Less is more." | 0:51:05 | 0:51:09 | |
He said, "When you do this on stage, | 0:51:09 | 0:51:11 | |
"we'll just have a single spot on you, | 0:51:11 | 0:51:13 | |
"just shining up your face, and your hand with a cigarette." | 0:51:13 | 0:51:18 | |
And he said, "When you get to 'Ah, wondrous place,' | 0:51:18 | 0:51:22 | |
"you just flick a bit of ash on the floor." | 0:51:22 | 0:51:24 | |
# I want to stay and never go back... # | 0:51:24 | 0:51:27 | |
He'd knock ash off his ciggie... | 0:51:27 | 0:51:29 | |
# Wondrous place. # | 0:51:29 | 0:51:30 | |
..and then he'd sing "wondrous place". | 0:51:30 | 0:51:32 | |
The place used to be in an uproar. | 0:51:32 | 0:51:34 | |
My favourite tango - and I mean this - | 0:51:34 | 0:51:37 | |
my favourite tango, Jealousy. | 0:51:37 | 0:51:39 | |
HE HUMS THE TUNE | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
Oh, yes! I'm getting a tingle in my loins just thinking about it! | 0:51:43 | 0:51:47 | |
# Our hearts were broken. # | 0:51:47 | 0:51:50 | |
It would be A Thousand Stars, without any doubt at all. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:52 | |
I think it was an outstanding record. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:54 | |
It's also quite a big record. | 0:51:54 | 0:51:57 | |
It's got shades of Phil Spector in it. | 0:51:57 | 0:52:00 | |
# A thousand stars in the skies | 0:52:00 | 0:52:03 | |
# Make me realise. # | 0:52:03 | 0:52:07 | |
I love Last Night Was Made For Love. | 0:52:07 | 0:52:10 | |
I loved his version of I'll Save The Last Dance For You. | 0:52:10 | 0:52:14 | |
I like him doing a song called Last Kiss. | 0:52:14 | 0:52:17 | |
His B-sides were always good. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:19 | |
# Last night was made for love | 0:52:19 | 0:52:23 | |
# But where were you? # | 0:52:23 | 0:52:27 | |
I went all the way to see a show of his, I went by myself. | 0:52:29 | 0:52:33 | |
And when I got there, | 0:52:33 | 0:52:34 | |
I'd brought a programme. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:36 | |
And I went upstairs into the circle. | 0:52:36 | 0:52:39 | |
And I sat and watched the show right through. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:43 | |
And at the end, I was going like that with the programme. | 0:52:43 | 0:52:48 | |
So he'd see me. And he spotted me. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:51 | |
And I went downstairs to go backstage. | 0:52:51 | 0:52:55 | |
And this burly fella said to me, "Where you going?" | 0:52:55 | 0:53:01 | |
"You can't go in there." | 0:53:01 | 0:53:04 | |
So I said, "I'm his mother." | 0:53:04 | 0:53:06 | |
He said, "Oh, come off it." | 0:53:06 | 0:53:10 | |
He said, "We get all this stuff." | 0:53:10 | 0:53:12 | |
He said, "Billy Fury's mother, sister, auntie and this." | 0:53:12 | 0:53:19 | |
So a door opened, and Johnny Leyton - who was his manager then - | 0:53:20 | 0:53:25 | |
came and he said, "It's all right, Mum, I know it's you. Come on." | 0:53:25 | 0:53:31 | |
From the very off, when I started working for him, | 0:53:31 | 0:53:34 | |
I realised that Billy was a big star. | 0:53:34 | 0:53:37 | |
When we used to take Larry's car and go up to the West End, | 0:53:37 | 0:53:41 | |
at 1am and drive around, and have girls following us, | 0:53:41 | 0:53:45 | |
you go in to a cafe and they put you in a corner, and all of a sudden | 0:53:45 | 0:53:48 | |
it's full and everybody's watching you, | 0:53:48 | 0:53:50 | |
that's how you know you've made it. | 0:53:50 | 0:53:52 | |
I can only imagine that Billy and Vince and Joe going out. | 0:53:52 | 0:53:56 | |
They must have felt great going around, rolling into town | 0:53:56 | 0:54:01 | |
and thinking, "Yeah, we're going to knock their socks off." | 0:54:01 | 0:54:04 | |
I did a coming-out party for the Currys family, | 0:54:04 | 0:54:09 | |
the people that own Currys. | 0:54:09 | 0:54:11 | |
And I did this coming-out party. | 0:54:11 | 0:54:14 | |
And when I came off stage and went through, I went to my room - | 0:54:14 | 0:54:17 | |
they gave me one of the rooms. And there were two girls in bed. | 0:54:17 | 0:54:21 | |
And I said, "I've always liked my curries, let's go for it!" | 0:54:21 | 0:54:24 | |
That's the sort of thing that used to happen! | 0:54:24 | 0:54:27 | |
Larry gave me a good name when he said Eager. Because I was. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:30 | |
Girls trying to get into bedrooms and all sorts of strange goings-on. | 0:54:30 | 0:54:36 | |
And some you let in, and some you didn't. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
I went to my dustbin one day - | 0:54:39 | 0:54:44 | |
and we were in the middle of nowhere - | 0:54:44 | 0:54:47 | |
I took the lid off, and there was a girl in there. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:50 | |
And this was the first time really | 0:54:50 | 0:54:52 | |
England had really seen screaming kids like that. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:55 | |
It'd never been seen before. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:57 | |
It was a time you'd go into a cafe or restaurant, | 0:54:57 | 0:55:00 | |
and a crowd would develop and cause problems. | 0:55:00 | 0:55:04 | |
So we got to the theatres, and we'd stay in our dressing rooms. | 0:55:04 | 0:55:07 | |
We had to come out of the theatre, and we were going home. | 0:55:07 | 0:55:11 | |
And we were swamped by the girls. | 0:55:11 | 0:55:17 | |
And they really meant mischief. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:20 | |
I had never seen it before, it was quite frightening. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:23 | |
As soon as our car was spotted, | 0:55:23 | 0:55:25 | |
they'd all run from wherever they were. | 0:55:25 | 0:55:27 | |
I remember, one time, they were running down the street like this, | 0:55:27 | 0:55:31 | |
from round the corner, and he came out of this one exit. | 0:55:31 | 0:55:34 | |
And in the end, the girls grabbed him | 0:55:34 | 0:55:36 | |
and I undid his cardigan and in we got and ran again for it. | 0:55:36 | 0:55:41 | |
It was like living in a nightmare, really. It wasn't glamorous. | 0:55:41 | 0:55:46 | |
We had to move from the house that we were in, | 0:55:46 | 0:55:48 | |
because it just became unbearable. | 0:55:48 | 0:55:50 | |
Because every time he did the Empire, they'd all get on buses | 0:55:50 | 0:55:53 | |
and cars and taxis and the whole street would be full of girls. | 0:55:53 | 0:55:57 | |
I felt embarrassed about it, for the female race, quite frankly. | 0:55:57 | 0:56:01 | |
Because they were just ridiculous. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:04 | |
They just went mental. | 0:56:04 | 0:56:07 | |
Like they were on something. | 0:56:07 | 0:56:09 | |
It was one of the worst experiences of my life. | 0:56:09 | 0:56:12 | |
And he lived it all the time. | 0:56:12 | 0:56:14 | |
It could be quite a rough life on the road, | 0:56:14 | 0:56:16 | |
with jealous boyfriends and husbands. | 0:56:16 | 0:56:18 | |
Joe Brown was accepted by both the girls and by the fellas. | 0:56:18 | 0:56:21 | |
But Billy Fury was smouldering, really sexy, | 0:56:21 | 0:56:25 | |
and, therefore, some of the teddy boys didn't like the fact | 0:56:25 | 0:56:30 | |
that their girlfriends were screaming for him. | 0:56:30 | 0:56:33 | |
It wasn't a peaceful life at all. | 0:56:33 | 0:56:36 | |
Until we moved further and further and further out. | 0:56:36 | 0:56:39 | |
And finally, we were living in the middle of nowhere. | 0:56:39 | 0:56:41 | |
And, of course, America, for us, was fine, because nobody knew him. | 0:56:41 | 0:56:44 | |
Neither Billy Fury nor the Tornados went to America. | 0:56:44 | 0:56:47 | |
What is interesting is that, in 1962, | 0:56:47 | 0:56:50 | |
he had the Tornados as his backing group. | 0:56:50 | 0:56:53 | |
And the Tornados had an instrumental hit with Telstar. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:56 | |
It went to number one in America. | 0:57:01 | 0:57:04 | |
And they were going to go to America and do some dates there, | 0:57:04 | 0:57:07 | |
like the Ed Sullivan show. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:09 | |
And Larry Parnes said, "You can't go to America without Billy Fury. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:13 | |
"You've got to take Billy with you." | 0:57:13 | 0:57:15 | |
And the promoters and the like said, | 0:57:15 | 0:57:17 | |
"We don't want Billy Fury, we don't know who he is." | 0:57:17 | 0:57:19 | |
He wants one of the top British singers. | 0:57:19 | 0:57:21 | |
-Could you recommend somebody? -Yeah, that'd be Billy Fury. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:25 | |
-That'd be Billy who? -Billy Fury. | 0:57:25 | 0:57:28 | |
Billy Fury? You're kidding! | 0:57:28 | 0:57:31 | |
You mean there's a guy walking around with a name like that? | 0:57:31 | 0:57:33 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:57:33 | 0:57:36 | |
Well, I think he's the greatest. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:37 | |
"That's Love." | 0:57:37 | 0:57:39 | |
Well, now, that is a sensible title, That's Love. | 0:57:39 | 0:57:42 | |
You wouldn't, by any remote chance, happen to know how this song goes? | 0:57:42 | 0:57:47 | |
-Well, kind of. -Kind of? | 0:57:47 | 0:57:50 | |
Would you, by some remote chance, be able to sing a little of it for me? | 0:57:50 | 0:57:54 | |
-I'd like to hear it. -Sure, great. -Come on. | 0:57:54 | 0:57:57 | |
# Someday, somehow | 0:58:04 | 0:58:07 | |
# I know we'll make-a that vow | 0:58:07 | 0:58:10 | |
-# That's love -That's love | 0:58:10 | 0:58:13 | |
# Baby, I know that's love. # | 0:58:13 | 0:58:15 | |
He was so charismatic. Yet he was two people. | 0:58:24 | 0:58:27 | |
There was Billy Fury, the rock and roll legend, that is now an idol. | 0:58:27 | 0:58:32 | |
And there was Billy Fury, the human being. | 0:58:32 | 0:58:35 | |
They were two different people, two totally different people. | 0:58:35 | 0:58:39 | |
I hated talking to anyone, because I was even too shy to speak, | 0:58:39 | 0:58:43 | |
believe it or not. | 0:58:43 | 0:58:45 | |
He was very confident. Very confident. In the dressing room. | 0:58:45 | 0:58:49 | |
But as soon as people came in... When Hal was there, | 0:58:49 | 0:58:52 | |
Hal was like his right-hand man. He would be himself. | 0:58:52 | 0:58:56 | |
But when someone else came in the room, | 0:58:56 | 0:58:59 | |
this little-boy-lost act came on. | 0:58:59 | 0:59:02 | |
And people would run and get him things. | 0:59:02 | 0:59:05 | |
"I'll go and find you a bottle of lemonade." | 0:59:05 | 0:59:08 | |
And they'd go for miles to the nearest shop | 0:59:08 | 0:59:10 | |
to come back so Billy had a glass of lemonade. | 0:59:10 | 0:59:12 | |
He'd push the boundaries, and he would be controversial. | 0:59:12 | 0:59:16 | |
But then he would be shy and timid. | 0:59:16 | 0:59:18 | |
Of course, the girls loved that, it was the perfect combination. | 0:59:18 | 0:59:22 | |
It was just something he'd developed as a little boy. | 0:59:22 | 0:59:24 | |
He found out how to manipulate people to get what he wanted. | 0:59:24 | 0:59:28 | |
I didn't put him on this pedestal that a lot of people did, | 0:59:28 | 0:59:30 | |
because I spent more time with him off stage | 0:59:30 | 0:59:33 | |
than I did watching him on stage. | 0:59:33 | 0:59:34 | |
So I felt that I knew the real Billy Fury, | 0:59:34 | 0:59:38 | |
which was the fun-loving, giggly guy, | 0:59:38 | 0:59:41 | |
doing the daft stuff we used to do. | 0:59:41 | 0:59:43 | |
This woman came up to Billy and said, | 0:59:43 | 0:59:48 | |
"Didn't you used to be Billy Fury?" | 0:59:48 | 0:59:50 | |
He said, "No, love - Marty Wilde." | 0:59:50 | 0:59:52 | |
I thought that was so funny, you know! | 0:59:52 | 0:59:54 | |
He was a totally simple, working-class boy. | 0:59:54 | 0:59:58 | |
He was at home with music. That was his life. | 0:59:58 | 1:00:02 | |
The fact that all this other had come along, along the way, | 1:00:02 | 1:00:05 | |
had really got nothing to do with Billy at all. | 1:00:05 | 1:00:07 | |
Very quiet, very nice. Very polite. | 1:00:07 | 1:00:10 | |
I mean, really, really polite. But disconnected. | 1:00:10 | 1:00:13 | |
For example, don't remember him coming and having a meal with us. | 1:00:13 | 1:00:16 | |
He struck me as being very lonely and insecure. | 1:00:16 | 1:00:20 | |
The trouble is, being a star like he was, | 1:00:20 | 1:00:23 | |
and mobbed wherever he went, he became very, very introverted. | 1:00:23 | 1:00:28 | |
He cut himself off from everything. | 1:00:28 | 1:00:32 | |
There are many instances of him | 1:00:32 | 1:00:34 | |
not wanting to do more than one number instead of two. | 1:00:34 | 1:00:38 | |
Not turning up. | 1:00:38 | 1:00:39 | |
Billy Fury did have some problems with his health. | 1:00:39 | 1:00:42 | |
From time to time he did have to cancel appearances. | 1:00:42 | 1:00:45 | |
But he was also very much a person who | 1:00:45 | 1:00:48 | |
depended upon his own whims. | 1:00:48 | 1:00:51 | |
And if he didn't feel like performing that particular day, | 1:00:51 | 1:00:54 | |
then he wouldn't do it. | 1:00:54 | 1:00:55 | |
Don't think he ever thought in any way ahead, or thought | 1:00:55 | 1:00:57 | |
what his career was going to do. He just got through the days. | 1:00:57 | 1:01:01 | |
In July 1962, Billy Fury didn't do a particular show. | 1:01:01 | 1:01:06 | |
And Larry Parnes sent along Marty Wilde in his place. | 1:01:06 | 1:01:09 | |
But the BBC wasn't happy with that, | 1:01:09 | 1:01:11 | |
because they'd asked for Billy Fury. | 1:01:11 | 1:01:13 | |
And you'll see there's a note here from production that says | 1:01:13 | 1:01:17 | |
that neither Fury or Wilde are to be booked for six months. | 1:01:17 | 1:01:21 | |
And that seems, to me, to be very unfair on Marty Wilde. | 1:01:21 | 1:01:24 | |
# All the people down the street, whoever you meet | 1:01:24 | 1:01:27 | |
# Say I'm a bad boy | 1:01:27 | 1:01:29 | |
# Say I'm a bad boy | 1:01:31 | 1:01:33 | |
# Say I'm a bad boy. # | 1:01:35 | 1:01:37 | |
In my days, rock and roll became respected as part of show business. | 1:01:37 | 1:01:43 | |
It became professional music. | 1:01:43 | 1:01:46 | |
The artists in it became professional. | 1:01:46 | 1:01:49 | |
This is a memo sent from the light entertainment booking manager | 1:01:49 | 1:01:53 | |
to the assistant solicitor - so it's going up the chain, really - | 1:01:53 | 1:01:57 | |
complaining about Billy Fury. | 1:01:57 | 1:01:59 | |
And what has happened is that Larry Parnes has | 1:01:59 | 1:02:02 | |
come round to see Patrick Newman and brought a bottle of champagne | 1:02:02 | 1:02:06 | |
and said he's very sorry for Billy's behaviour. | 1:02:06 | 1:02:09 | |
And it says here, "Mr Parnes duly appeared yesterday | 1:02:09 | 1:02:12 | |
"and he told me of the simple country boy Billy Fury was. | 1:02:12 | 1:02:17 | |
"And he's really only interested in bird-watching - | 1:02:17 | 1:02:19 | |
"in the purest sense of the word - and goldfish and animals." | 1:02:19 | 1:02:24 | |
Always his animals. Always the animals. | 1:02:24 | 1:02:26 | |
The animals were always there. | 1:02:26 | 1:02:27 | |
I've Gotta Horse, to me, it was a bit of a laugh, really. | 1:02:27 | 1:02:31 | |
Because Billy Fury, the rock and roll fella, doing a song | 1:02:31 | 1:02:37 | |
# I like animals much more than human beings! # | 1:02:37 | 1:02:41 | |
I thought, that's funny, that. | 1:02:41 | 1:02:43 | |
Billy, what makes you want to be a Derby owner, then? | 1:02:43 | 1:02:46 | |
First of all, I wanted to really start in motor racing, | 1:02:46 | 1:02:49 | |
but Larry, my manager there, was so upset about the whole thing | 1:02:49 | 1:02:52 | |
that he suggested horse racing. So it's a racing of some kind. | 1:02:52 | 1:02:56 | |
Do you know anything about horse racing? | 1:02:56 | 1:02:57 | |
Not very much. I follow, but never back very much, you know. | 1:02:57 | 1:03:00 | |
-You ever seen this horse in action? -No, I haven't, no. | 1:03:00 | 1:03:03 | |
I'm told it's shortened in odds since you took it over. | 1:03:03 | 1:03:05 | |
Is this because your fan club are putting money on it? | 1:03:05 | 1:03:08 | |
I don't know, really! | 1:03:08 | 1:03:09 | |
-Do you advise us to back your horse? -Erm... | 1:03:09 | 1:03:13 | |
No, buy my records instead! | 1:03:13 | 1:03:14 | |
At 100/1, Anselmo - | 1:03:14 | 1:03:16 | |
bought the week before by pop singer Billy Fury for 8,500. | 1:03:16 | 1:03:20 | |
Billy was walking around with a holdall which was | 1:03:21 | 1:03:25 | |
full of a Chihuahua and all her puppies. | 1:03:25 | 1:03:30 | |
So there must have been at least eight dogs in the bag. | 1:03:30 | 1:03:33 | |
And Sheba, his stray Alsatian, and Rusty, his Great Dane. | 1:03:33 | 1:03:38 | |
When it came to animals, we were just ridiculous. We had so many. | 1:03:38 | 1:03:43 | |
God. | 1:03:43 | 1:03:44 | |
The whole place was full of birds anyway. | 1:03:45 | 1:03:48 | |
In aviaries and things like that. | 1:03:49 | 1:03:51 | |
I mean, he'd start feeding first thing in the morning. | 1:03:51 | 1:03:54 | |
Of course, when he was on tour, it would take me all day to feed them. | 1:03:54 | 1:03:57 | |
He had the affection for wildlife right from the start. | 1:03:57 | 1:04:01 | |
Even when they were living in a small, terraced house. | 1:04:01 | 1:04:05 | |
He was feeding birds and suchlike in the back garden. | 1:04:05 | 1:04:08 | |
And, as Hal Carter said, Billy was never happier than | 1:04:08 | 1:04:11 | |
sitting in a hide in the pouring rain with a pair of binoculars. | 1:04:11 | 1:04:14 | |
He was a complete ornithologist. | 1:04:14 | 1:04:16 | |
He used to go all over the place, just bird spotting. | 1:04:16 | 1:04:19 | |
We liked Jamaica. | 1:04:19 | 1:04:21 | |
We went to a hotel in Ocho Rios, which is right out of the way, | 1:04:21 | 1:04:24 | |
and got to know all the beach boys. | 1:04:24 | 1:04:26 | |
And they took us to their houses, that were like huts, really. | 1:04:26 | 1:04:30 | |
And I think that was our happiest time, | 1:04:30 | 1:04:33 | |
when we were in the West Indies. | 1:04:33 | 1:04:35 | |
You got lovely wacky baccy there. | 1:04:35 | 1:04:37 | |
I mean, the best you can get, in Jamaica. | 1:04:37 | 1:04:41 | |
Jamaica. | 1:04:41 | 1:04:42 | |
The marijuana came first, before everything. | 1:04:42 | 1:04:45 | |
And I think it was something that was literally | 1:04:45 | 1:04:49 | |
life-holding-onto for him. | 1:04:49 | 1:04:52 | |
He was taken ill in the studio, and the doctor said, | 1:04:52 | 1:04:55 | |
"Do you know that he smokes marijuana?" | 1:04:55 | 1:04:58 | |
And I went, "Hmm?" | 1:04:58 | 1:04:59 | |
Because you didn't know what to say in those days. | 1:04:59 | 1:05:01 | |
And I said, "Yes, yes." | 1:05:01 | 1:05:03 | |
And he said, "If he doesn't, and if he stops, he will die. | 1:05:03 | 1:05:08 | |
"It's keeping him alive." | 1:05:08 | 1:05:09 | |
I think he knew that that heart was doing funny things. So he smoked. | 1:05:09 | 1:05:13 | |
And he did smoke all the time. | 1:05:15 | 1:05:17 | |
Before he got out of bed, he would roll a joint. | 1:05:17 | 1:05:21 | |
And I'd get in the bath, and where you had the soap, | 1:05:21 | 1:05:25 | |
there'd be joint ends, dead, stubbed out in there, you know? | 1:05:25 | 1:05:30 | |
And he did propose to me, | 1:05:30 | 1:05:31 | |
and I thought, "I don't think I could live like this." | 1:05:31 | 1:05:35 | |
It was a bit surreal. | 1:05:35 | 1:05:38 | |
But I think that was to do with Billy smoking so much. | 1:05:38 | 1:05:42 | |
But he was not totally of this world. | 1:05:42 | 1:05:46 | |
# Last kiss, and then goodbye | 1:05:46 | 1:05:51 | |
# One kiss goodbye | 1:05:51 | 1:05:54 | |
# Last kiss, and then goodbye. # | 1:05:54 | 1:05:59 | |
He was a flirt, | 1:05:59 | 1:06:00 | |
but he wasn't one of these that would switch from one to the other. | 1:06:00 | 1:06:03 | |
He had more regular girlfriends than any of us. | 1:06:03 | 1:06:05 | |
He wasn't like some of us - including myself - wham, bam, thank you ma'am. | 1:06:05 | 1:06:09 | |
But he was very loyal, very respectful. | 1:06:09 | 1:06:10 | |
And he treated them like ladies. I admired him for that. | 1:06:10 | 1:06:13 | |
I never had an argument with Billy. | 1:06:13 | 1:06:16 | |
Not that I can remember, anyway. | 1:06:16 | 1:06:19 | |
I don't think Billy had the energy to have an argument. | 1:06:19 | 1:06:22 | |
He used to get fed up with things. | 1:06:22 | 1:06:24 | |
I think it probably happened with his women, at the time, | 1:06:24 | 1:06:26 | |
he got fed up with them. | 1:06:26 | 1:06:28 | |
You know, decided to change. | 1:06:28 | 1:06:29 | |
By the time, when he went - we're having a perfectly normal evening. | 1:06:29 | 1:06:34 | |
I think he'd gone to go and get some milk or something. | 1:06:34 | 1:06:37 | |
He just never came back! | 1:06:37 | 1:06:38 | |
He was such a strange creature. | 1:06:40 | 1:06:43 | |
But it kind of fitted that he'd have relationships that | 1:06:44 | 1:06:48 | |
I didn't even know about. | 1:06:48 | 1:06:50 | |
This one was now not going anywhere. | 1:06:50 | 1:06:53 | |
And maybe he did want to get married and settle down, I don't know. | 1:06:53 | 1:06:57 | |
You weren't in contact with a real person. | 1:06:57 | 1:07:00 | |
We had a very good life for quite a long time. | 1:07:00 | 1:07:04 | |
And then... | 1:07:04 | 1:07:05 | |
I think it was me that got fed up, really. | 1:07:08 | 1:07:10 | |
I think it was my fault, everything that broke me up. | 1:07:10 | 1:07:13 | |
Because I really got... | 1:07:13 | 1:07:15 | |
I wanted a life again. | 1:07:15 | 1:07:18 | |
# My baby, baby, baby | 1:07:18 | 1:07:19 | |
# She's-a gone from me | 1:07:19 | 1:07:21 | |
# My baby, baby, baby | 1:07:21 | 1:07:23 | |
# She's-a gone from me | 1:07:23 | 1:07:25 | |
# She left me here alone, alone and so blue | 1:07:25 | 1:07:29 | |
# It's just my baby, baby, baby, she was so untrue | 1:07:29 | 1:07:33 | |
# My baby, she's gone | 1:07:33 | 1:07:35 | |
# I don't know what to do | 1:07:35 | 1:07:37 | |
# What to do, what to do. # | 1:07:37 | 1:07:40 | |
All these young, aspiring kids in the rock and roll era, | 1:07:47 | 1:07:51 | |
they just wanted to perform. | 1:07:51 | 1:07:53 | |
And they would sign a contract, they didn't care. | 1:07:53 | 1:07:56 | |
If someone came along and said, we're going to put you on | 1:07:56 | 1:07:59 | |
Six-Five Special, or whatever, you'd sign your life away. | 1:07:59 | 1:08:02 | |
First one for Larry to sign was Tommy Steele. | 1:08:02 | 1:08:04 | |
Then he took on Tommy's brother Colin. Then he took Marty. | 1:08:04 | 1:08:08 | |
There he took myself, then Billy. | 1:08:08 | 1:08:10 | |
Then Dickie Pride, and then Duffy Power, | 1:08:10 | 1:08:12 | |
were on totally different contracts. | 1:08:12 | 1:08:14 | |
Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Colin Hicks | 1:08:14 | 1:08:17 | |
and myself were all on percentage. | 1:08:17 | 1:08:19 | |
When Billy started, it was Billy, Dickie, Duffy, Johnny Gentle. | 1:08:21 | 1:08:25 | |
The other guys - Joe Brown, even Joe was - they were on salaries. | 1:08:25 | 1:08:32 | |
I was managed by Robert Stigwood. And I was paid £1,000 a week. | 1:08:32 | 1:08:37 | |
Billy found out about it. | 1:08:37 | 1:08:39 | |
And I don't think he was too happy about that. | 1:08:39 | 1:08:41 | |
I don't know what Billy was on. | 1:08:41 | 1:08:42 | |
Knowing Larry Parnes, he was probably on about 50 quid a week! | 1:08:42 | 1:08:46 | |
Nothing like that. It was £20 a week, and that was it. | 1:08:46 | 1:08:49 | |
And pay your own expenses. | 1:08:49 | 1:08:51 | |
-VINCE: -Part of the contract, what it said was that Larry Parnes had | 1:08:51 | 1:08:55 | |
power of attorney over the said artist. | 1:08:55 | 1:08:58 | |
Billy, myself, Marty, whoever. | 1:08:58 | 1:09:01 | |
And what happened with me was | 1:09:01 | 1:09:02 | |
I'd made about four records that had sold well. | 1:09:02 | 1:09:04 | |
I hadn't had any major hits, but I'd done well. | 1:09:04 | 1:09:07 | |
And I said, "When I going to get some record royalties?" | 1:09:07 | 1:09:09 | |
He said, "You'll never get record royalties." I said, "Why?" | 1:09:09 | 1:09:12 | |
He said, "Because they're mine." | 1:09:12 | 1:09:13 | |
I said, "No, the contract said a penny or ha'penny a record." | 1:09:13 | 1:09:17 | |
He said, "No, you'll also notice on the contract, | 1:09:17 | 1:09:20 | |
"it states I have power of attorney. | 1:09:20 | 1:09:22 | |
"So I say you don't get record royalties." And we didn't. | 1:09:22 | 1:09:25 | |
In all those stories you heard about somebody picking up a kid | 1:09:25 | 1:09:28 | |
out of the street and manufacturing a rock and roll singer, | 1:09:28 | 1:09:32 | |
in a way, a lot of that was true. | 1:09:32 | 1:09:34 | |
# What do you want if you don't want money? | 1:09:34 | 1:09:37 | |
# What do you want if you don't want gold? | 1:09:37 | 1:09:40 | |
# Say what you want, and I'll give it you, darling | 1:09:40 | 1:09:44 | |
# Wish you wanted my love, baby. # | 1:09:44 | 1:09:46 | |
There were some stables that were really manipulated. | 1:09:46 | 1:09:50 | |
They were just paid a wage, | 1:09:50 | 1:09:53 | |
and they worked for 40 weeks of the year. | 1:09:53 | 1:09:58 | |
At, I don't know, 50 quid a week, or something. | 1:09:58 | 1:10:00 | |
And they really were manipulated. | 1:10:00 | 1:10:02 | |
Larry Parnes decided that he would pay people so much per week. | 1:10:02 | 1:10:06 | |
And with Billy, I think it was £20 a week to start with. | 1:10:06 | 1:10:10 | |
Which was more than he was getting on the tug boats. | 1:10:10 | 1:10:12 | |
But Billy was writing his own songs, | 1:10:12 | 1:10:15 | |
Billy was doing a lot of shows. | 1:10:15 | 1:10:17 | |
I came along, I was getting more money than him. | 1:10:17 | 1:10:19 | |
There he is, top of the bill, touring all over England, | 1:10:19 | 1:10:24 | |
and he was getting peanuts. | 1:10:24 | 1:10:26 | |
Larry Parnes didn't like people having days off. | 1:10:26 | 1:10:29 | |
If they were on tour, he liked them to work seven days a week. | 1:10:29 | 1:10:32 | |
Because if they were having a day off, they weren't earning anything. | 1:10:32 | 1:10:35 | |
Joe Brown did something like | 1:10:35 | 1:10:37 | |
14 months without a night off for £20 a week. | 1:10:37 | 1:10:41 | |
Joe Brown, who'd got a very strong constitution, | 1:10:42 | 1:10:46 | |
said he collapsed after three years, | 1:10:46 | 1:10:48 | |
because he'd been working day in, day out for Larry Parnes. | 1:10:48 | 1:10:51 | |
I mean, the money was absolute rubbish. | 1:10:51 | 1:10:52 | |
I was sleeping in the coach most nights. | 1:10:52 | 1:10:54 | |
Make the coach driver - which wasn't supposed to be - | 1:10:54 | 1:10:57 | |
he used to pick me up and drive me to local baths to have a wash. | 1:10:57 | 1:11:01 | |
Joe Brown, when he wanted some money once, he went on a Friday afternoon | 1:11:01 | 1:11:04 | |
to the office to get paid, and he couldn't get any money. | 1:11:04 | 1:11:07 | |
He used to ride up on a motorbike. And he had a crash helmet. | 1:11:07 | 1:11:11 | |
He put his crash helmet on, | 1:11:11 | 1:11:13 | |
and he started banging against the doors, going, | 1:11:13 | 1:11:15 | |
"Larry! Give me the bloody money!" | 1:11:15 | 1:11:18 | |
I was with a manager called Larry Parnes, | 1:11:18 | 1:11:20 | |
who had a reputation for being a bit tight. | 1:11:20 | 1:11:22 | |
I'll never forget when we recorded Picture Of You, | 1:11:22 | 1:11:25 | |
which went to number one in most charts, | 1:11:25 | 1:11:27 | |
and I never got given one, I had to buy one. | 1:11:27 | 1:11:29 | |
I mean...! | 1:11:29 | 1:11:32 | |
And I never got any royalties off of it either. | 1:11:32 | 1:11:35 | |
# But the only sight I want to view | 1:11:35 | 1:11:39 | |
# Is that wonderful picture of you | 1:11:39 | 1:11:43 | |
# On a streetcar or in the cafe | 1:11:46 | 1:11:50 | |
# All of the evening and most of the day | 1:11:50 | 1:11:55 | |
# My mind is in a maze, what can I do? | 1:11:55 | 1:12:00 | |
# I still see that picture of you. # | 1:12:00 | 1:12:05 | |
We were doing a show at the Liverpool Playhouse | 1:12:05 | 1:12:08 | |
called Be-Bop-A-Lula. | 1:12:08 | 1:12:09 | |
It was based on the 1960 British tour by Gene Vincent | 1:12:09 | 1:12:13 | |
and Eddie Cochran, of which Billy Fury was the third top. | 1:12:13 | 1:12:17 | |
Larry Parnes' partner rang me up and said, | 1:12:17 | 1:12:21 | |
"Larry's coming up for the opening night." | 1:12:21 | 1:12:23 | |
He said, "There isn't going to be anything in this show | 1:12:23 | 1:12:26 | |
"that will embarrass Larry, is there?" | 1:12:26 | 1:12:27 | |
I said, "No, the only thing that he mightn't like is that they | 1:12:27 | 1:12:32 | |
"do talk on tour about how little money they're getting." | 1:12:32 | 1:12:36 | |
Larry then rang me up and he said, "I don't mind that, | 1:12:36 | 1:12:39 | |
"it's just like schoolchildren having a go at the headmaster." | 1:12:39 | 1:12:43 | |
The Oh Boy! show was Marty's show. He was the headliner. | 1:12:43 | 1:12:46 | |
Until Larry had a fall out with Jack Good over Marty's wardrobe. | 1:12:46 | 1:12:51 | |
Marty was pulled from the show, and Cliff dropped into his slot, | 1:12:52 | 1:12:56 | |
and it became more of Cliff's show than it was before. | 1:12:56 | 1:12:58 | |
Larry absolutely screwed up Marty terribly by doing that. | 1:12:58 | 1:13:02 | |
Because it let Cliff in the door. | 1:13:02 | 1:13:04 | |
# Let the rumours come and go | 1:13:04 | 1:13:08 | |
# We'll prove to everyone | 1:13:08 | 1:13:12 | |
# We'll still carry on as though | 1:13:14 | 1:13:18 | |
# Our love affair has just begun. # | 1:13:18 | 1:13:24 | |
We used to nick money off Larry's dressing table, | 1:13:24 | 1:13:27 | |
because he hadn't give us any money. | 1:13:27 | 1:13:28 | |
If it hadn't have been for a little Italian restaurant | 1:13:28 | 1:13:31 | |
on the ground floor, they looked after us, gave us free spaghetti, | 1:13:31 | 1:13:33 | |
I think we might have starved to death. | 1:13:33 | 1:13:36 | |
He was mean in a lot of ways. | 1:13:36 | 1:13:38 | |
I think I must have blotted out all the horror. | 1:13:38 | 1:13:41 | |
Because in the last few years of his life, we were very, very close. | 1:13:41 | 1:13:47 | |
And I was devastated when he died, really. | 1:13:47 | 1:13:50 | |
So, when you search your soul, you know that you loved him, really. | 1:13:50 | 1:13:55 | |
Even though he was such a bastard. | 1:13:55 | 1:13:58 | |
We used to drive up to town in Larry's car without Larry knowing. | 1:13:58 | 1:14:01 | |
And we'd come round this part of London, or the West End, | 1:14:01 | 1:14:04 | |
and we would go up and down here. | 1:14:04 | 1:14:06 | |
And it was, on one occasion, | 1:14:06 | 1:14:10 | |
just around the corner where we were stopped by a policeman who said, | 1:14:10 | 1:14:14 | |
"You're going the wrong way down a one-way street." | 1:14:14 | 1:14:16 | |
And I said, "Well, I'll turn round." | 1:14:16 | 1:14:18 | |
But I couldn't find reverse, it was a column shift. | 1:14:18 | 1:14:21 | |
And Billy was saying, | 1:14:21 | 1:14:22 | |
"Come on, he's going to arrest us, he's going to arrest us!" | 1:14:22 | 1:14:25 | |
So I managed to get the car started. But we went straight ahead | 1:14:25 | 1:14:28 | |
and put the metal - what do they call it? - the pedal to the metal, | 1:14:28 | 1:14:31 | |
or whatever it is. Put our foot hard down, | 1:14:31 | 1:14:33 | |
and we got out the way, we didn't get in trouble. | 1:14:33 | 1:14:35 | |
But we'd just to get up to all sorts of things. | 1:14:35 | 1:14:37 | |
And this used to be, as I say, packed with cars, | 1:14:37 | 1:14:40 | |
and with girls, and with guys looking for girls. | 1:14:40 | 1:14:43 | |
How would I criticise myself? | 1:14:43 | 1:14:45 | |
Perhaps I should have been | 1:14:45 | 1:14:48 | |
a little more selfish towards my bank balance. | 1:14:48 | 1:14:54 | |
Later on, after the whole Billy Fury thing has blown up, | 1:14:54 | 1:14:57 | |
and he's been famous, and he's disappeared from the spotlight, | 1:14:57 | 1:15:01 | |
actually, the thing that then is the perfect vehicle for him | 1:15:01 | 1:15:04 | |
are films again. | 1:15:04 | 1:15:06 | |
In That'll Be The Day, playing a character | 1:15:06 | 1:15:08 | |
who is a rock and roll star, makes perfect sense. | 1:15:08 | 1:15:11 | |
We thought, we've got to get some people of the era | 1:15:11 | 1:15:14 | |
who can play those parts. | 1:15:14 | 1:15:16 | |
And the thing about using actors and things is, OK, you can | 1:15:16 | 1:15:20 | |
get an actor to do it. | 1:15:20 | 1:15:21 | |
But if you get the real thing, they're better. | 1:15:21 | 1:15:23 | |
Billy, at one point, felt maybe we were sending him up. | 1:15:23 | 1:15:26 | |
We weren't sending him up, what we were doing is depicting an era. | 1:15:26 | 1:15:29 | |
And I remember having a discussion with him. | 1:15:29 | 1:15:30 | |
I said, look, you've got to understand that from the perspective | 1:15:30 | 1:15:33 | |
of making the film - that was 1972 - what was going on at that point - | 1:15:33 | 1:15:37 | |
'56, '57 - does look weird. | 1:15:37 | 1:15:40 | |
It does look over the top, it does look strange. | 1:15:40 | 1:15:42 | |
The red coats and everything else. | 1:15:42 | 1:15:44 | |
We were down on the Isle of Wight, | 1:15:44 | 1:15:45 | |
we'd recorded the backing tracks, | 1:15:45 | 1:15:47 | |
and he had to sing something. | 1:15:47 | 1:15:48 | |
And he wouldn't do it in front of the band. | 1:15:48 | 1:15:51 | |
He wanted to do it by himself. | 1:15:51 | 1:15:53 | |
And I wondered whether that was | 1:15:53 | 1:15:54 | |
because he felt they were all very hip guys - Keith Moon | 1:15:54 | 1:15:57 | |
and all those sort of people - maybe he felt he was kind of old. | 1:15:57 | 1:16:01 | |
He did go into a bit of a... not so much a depression, | 1:16:02 | 1:16:04 | |
he just went very, very quiet. | 1:16:04 | 1:16:05 | |
And said, "I've got a nasty feeling I'm being sent up." | 1:16:05 | 1:16:08 | |
But there must be a great film to be made about these people, who were | 1:16:16 | 1:16:20 | |
so big, and suddenly the light went out and they were nothing. | 1:16:20 | 1:16:25 | |
And when you get up in the morning, you think, | 1:16:25 | 1:16:28 | |
"Last year, I was the biggest thing in the world. | 1:16:28 | 1:16:30 | |
"And now nobody wants me." | 1:16:30 | 1:16:32 | |
# Rise in the morning | 1:16:32 | 1:16:35 | |
# You're not around | 1:16:35 | 1:16:38 | |
# Searching all over | 1:16:38 | 1:16:42 | |
# You can't be found | 1:16:42 | 1:16:45 | |
# And then in the evening | 1:16:45 | 1:16:48 | |
# By the moonlight | 1:16:48 | 1:16:51 | |
# I'll hold you, darling | 1:16:51 | 1:16:55 | |
# I'll hold you tight. # | 1:16:55 | 1:17:01 | |
I met him in 1982, twice. | 1:17:01 | 1:17:03 | |
The first time, he was just so worn out. | 1:17:03 | 1:17:07 | |
And he'd just performed with the Mick Green Band. | 1:17:07 | 1:17:09 | |
It was a great show. | 1:17:09 | 1:17:11 | |
And he was absolutely drained and exhausted. | 1:17:11 | 1:17:13 | |
And he was standing there, | 1:17:13 | 1:17:15 | |
and the queue went all the way back through the nightclub. | 1:17:15 | 1:17:18 | |
And he was there signing autographs. | 1:17:18 | 1:17:20 | |
He really should have been sat down, and more care taken | 1:17:20 | 1:17:22 | |
of him on that night, to be honest, because he looked absolutely wiped. | 1:17:22 | 1:17:25 | |
It just didn't seem right for Billy Fury to be performing | 1:17:25 | 1:17:29 | |
in a little cabaret club with just a three-piece backing group. | 1:17:29 | 1:17:33 | |
He was bigger than that. | 1:17:33 | 1:17:35 | |
But he just had to work, and there was nothing he could do about it. | 1:17:35 | 1:17:38 | |
His light had gone out around him. You know? | 1:17:38 | 1:17:41 | |
I knew he was on his way. | 1:17:41 | 1:17:45 | |
I saw him once during that time. | 1:17:45 | 1:17:48 | |
I think it was a Baileys in Leicester or Watford | 1:17:48 | 1:17:51 | |
or one of those gigs. | 1:17:51 | 1:17:52 | |
And he was brilliant. | 1:17:52 | 1:17:54 | |
He was his old self, if not better. | 1:17:54 | 1:17:57 | |
I saw him again on December 4th, and it was to be his last public gig. | 1:17:57 | 1:18:01 | |
And he looked really good. He sounded good, hell of a performance. | 1:18:01 | 1:18:05 | |
He ended with Johnny B Goode. | 1:18:05 | 1:18:07 | |
I thought I'd died and gone to heaven - | 1:18:07 | 1:18:09 | |
there's Billy Fury with a guitar, singing Johnny B Goode, | 1:18:09 | 1:18:11 | |
and he was rocking out, and he looked great. And we were hopeful. | 1:18:11 | 1:18:14 | |
We knew he was unwell, and we thought, | 1:18:14 | 1:18:16 | |
hey, maybe things aren't so bad. | 1:18:16 | 1:18:18 | |
But with a heart condition, one day you're up, next day you're down. | 1:18:18 | 1:18:21 | |
And then, in the January, we lost him. | 1:18:21 | 1:18:24 | |
It was devastating for me when he died, really. | 1:18:24 | 1:18:27 | |
You don't ever stop loving somebody, do you? | 1:18:27 | 1:18:30 | |
# You don't know | 1:18:32 | 1:18:36 | |
# How I feel | 1:18:36 | 1:18:40 | |
# You don't know | 1:18:40 | 1:18:42 | |
# My love is real | 1:18:42 | 1:18:48 | |
# If I tell you | 1:18:48 | 1:18:51 | |
# You might say | 1:18:51 | 1:18:55 | |
# That I should not | 1:18:55 | 1:18:59 | |
# Feel this way. # | 1:18:59 | 1:19:03 | |
There was always something of the tragedy | 1:19:03 | 1:19:06 | |
hanging around Billy, actually. | 1:19:06 | 1:19:09 | |
There was just that air of something that you can't always pick... | 1:19:09 | 1:19:13 | |
You don't quite know what it is from someone. | 1:19:13 | 1:19:16 | |
It was sort of hovering in the air. | 1:19:16 | 1:19:18 | |
Because he was a bird-watcher, he would go out and get wet through. | 1:19:18 | 1:19:22 | |
And that's why he had the heart trouble, really. | 1:19:22 | 1:19:26 | |
He would stay out until he dried. | 1:19:26 | 1:19:29 | |
Which, of course, was fatal, really, in a way. | 1:19:29 | 1:19:32 | |
A seagull was hurt. | 1:19:32 | 1:19:33 | |
And he carried it the full length of the promenade to the RSPCA. | 1:19:35 | 1:19:39 | |
And all his suit down there was covered with yellow. | 1:19:41 | 1:19:47 | |
And I found the suit wringing wet when he came home. | 1:19:47 | 1:19:52 | |
And I said to him, "What have you been doing?" | 1:19:52 | 1:19:55 | |
And he never told me until after, | 1:19:55 | 1:19:58 | |
that he carried this seagull the full length of the promenade. | 1:19:58 | 1:20:02 | |
Because it was hurt. | 1:20:04 | 1:20:06 | |
# Maybe you don't care | 1:20:06 | 1:20:13 | |
# Baby, that's what I fear. # | 1:20:13 | 1:20:19 | |
He's left us with some great memories. | 1:20:21 | 1:20:24 | |
He's left us with some great songs. | 1:20:24 | 1:20:26 | |
And he's left us remembering, what I like to think, was just a great era. | 1:20:26 | 1:20:31 | |
It was a very, very exciting era. | 1:20:31 | 1:20:33 | |
I think his legacy is the records he made and the songs that he wrote. | 1:20:33 | 1:20:36 | |
And I honestly think, and I still say it to this day, | 1:20:36 | 1:20:40 | |
that if Billy had the management that Cliff had, | 1:20:40 | 1:20:43 | |
Billy would have been as big, if not bigger. | 1:20:43 | 1:20:46 | |
The guy from the Arctic Monkeys, Alex, with his quiff, his movements | 1:20:46 | 1:20:50 | |
and whatever - they're all little acknowledgements to Billy Fury. | 1:20:50 | 1:20:56 | |
This has to be his legacy, The Sound Of Fury 10". | 1:20:56 | 1:20:59 | |
It's a wonderful record, and I'm a fan. | 1:20:59 | 1:21:02 | |
When I was in Liverpool, doing the Strictly tour, and I was | 1:21:02 | 1:21:04 | |
walking round the docks, there's a fantastic statue of Billy Fury. | 1:21:04 | 1:21:08 | |
And there was half a dozen women putting flowers. | 1:21:08 | 1:21:10 | |
And I said, "What's going on?" They said, "It's his birthday." | 1:21:10 | 1:21:13 | |
So there's still people paying homage to this guy. | 1:21:13 | 1:21:18 | |
He was fantastic. | 1:21:18 | 1:21:19 | |
# My heart is breaking for the way you left me | 1:21:21 | 1:21:27 | |
# I'm feeling aching, baby | 1:21:27 | 1:21:30 | |
# Please, don't forget me. # | 1:21:30 | 1:21:32 | |
We opened the statue. | 1:21:32 | 1:21:33 | |
I was approached to see if I had any ideas | 1:21:33 | 1:21:36 | |
as to who could unveil a statue of Billy. | 1:21:36 | 1:21:38 | |
And I said, well, the only person really to do it is Jack Good. | 1:21:38 | 1:21:43 | |
Because Jack loved Billy. | 1:21:43 | 1:21:44 | |
He produced The Sound Of Fury, he should do it. | 1:21:44 | 1:21:47 | |
Jack doesn't do anything, he's becomes so reclusive. | 1:21:47 | 1:21:50 | |
And he said, "I tell you what, Vince, | 1:21:50 | 1:21:52 | |
"because it's Billy, I'll do it." | 1:21:52 | 1:21:54 | |
Me and Albie went down, and we were thrilled to bits. | 1:21:54 | 1:21:59 | |
It is a statue now that will give a bit of remembrance of him. | 1:21:59 | 1:22:04 | |
We're all very proud, and it's going to be here forever, you see. | 1:22:04 | 1:22:07 | |
Because it has been given to the people of Liverpool, this statue. | 1:22:07 | 1:22:10 | |
The statue is introducing the public to Billy and his music. | 1:22:10 | 1:22:14 | |
They see this statue of this energetic young man, | 1:22:14 | 1:22:17 | |
and they go and find out about him. Listen to the music. | 1:22:17 | 1:22:21 | |
And they realise what a great pop star he was. | 1:22:21 | 1:22:23 | |
It's a good statue, better than the one of John Lennon. | 1:22:23 | 1:22:26 | |
At last, he's getting some fame. He's getting the recognition he really deserved. | 1:22:26 | 1:22:30 | |
# Oh, honey | 1:22:37 | 1:22:39 | |
# How I pray | 1:22:39 | 1:22:41 | |
# That phone will ring today. # | 1:22:41 | 1:22:44 | |
You don't really want this place to be just Beatles city, we want | 1:22:44 | 1:22:47 | |
to do something for the other people that came from this city. | 1:22:47 | 1:22:50 | |
Billy Fury Way, I mean, considering Billy wasn't from London, | 1:22:50 | 1:22:54 | |
it's a hell of an acknowledgement. | 1:22:54 | 1:22:57 | |
It's a nice thing for people to go and visit. Billy Fury fans. | 1:22:57 | 1:23:02 | |
And there's a lot of them, all over the country, have seen it. | 1:23:02 | 1:23:04 | |
So with London having that, | 1:23:04 | 1:23:07 | |
Liverpool, I would have thought, should definitely have something. | 1:23:07 | 1:23:11 | |
So, come on, councillors, get it sorted. | 1:23:11 | 1:23:14 | |
Interesting to know whether the Beatles phenomenon could | 1:23:14 | 1:23:17 | |
have happened or would have happened had it not been for the ground | 1:23:17 | 1:23:20 | |
that was broken before them by Billy, Marty, Adam. | 1:23:20 | 1:23:22 | |
One of the great images of Billy Fury | 1:23:22 | 1:23:24 | |
is with his arms outstretched, like that. | 1:23:24 | 1:23:26 | |
And if you look at the statue from a distance, | 1:23:26 | 1:23:28 | |
you've got that position, with the arms outstretched. | 1:23:28 | 1:23:31 | |
And it looks great. It's such a distinctive pose of Billy Fury's. | 1:23:31 | 1:23:34 | |
It captures everything about Billy, really. | 1:23:34 | 1:23:37 | |
And all the force comes from a twist in his foot. | 1:23:37 | 1:23:40 | |
And it goes right through to his arms, like lightning, or something. | 1:23:40 | 1:23:43 | |
Going right through his foot, right through his hands, | 1:23:43 | 1:23:46 | |
it all happens in a split second. | 1:23:46 | 1:23:47 | |
# Well, all right | 1:23:47 | 1:23:53 | |
# I told a lie. # | 1:23:53 | 1:23:57 | |
You know, he's a great ballad singer. | 1:23:57 | 1:24:00 | |
And that's how he was a rocker. | 1:24:00 | 1:24:01 | |
When he did the live shows, he rocked. | 1:24:01 | 1:24:03 | |
He wasn't a mirror image of someone else. He was unique. | 1:24:03 | 1:24:08 | |
He was emblematic of a period. | 1:24:08 | 1:24:10 | |
In exactly the same way that Dusty Springfield was. | 1:24:10 | 1:24:13 | |
If you're really interested in that period, you couldn't make | 1:24:13 | 1:24:16 | |
a movie, not even a short movie, that didn't include him. | 1:24:16 | 1:24:18 | |
Youngsters love Elvis, they love the Beatles. | 1:24:18 | 1:24:21 | |
And, frankly, they should love Billy, because he was a pioneer. | 1:24:21 | 1:24:25 | |
There was probably more tribute acts to Billy Fury | 1:24:25 | 1:24:28 | |
than any other British artist. | 1:24:28 | 1:24:30 | |
I'm co-producing a show called Be-Bop-A-Lula. | 1:24:30 | 1:24:33 | |
We feature four icons in it, which is | 1:24:33 | 1:24:36 | |
Roy Orbison, | 1:24:36 | 1:24:38 | |
Eddie Cochrane, | 1:24:38 | 1:24:39 | |
Gene Vincent | 1:24:39 | 1:24:41 | |
and Billy Fury. | 1:24:41 | 1:24:43 | |
For the kids coming to see the show, they don't care. | 1:24:43 | 1:24:46 | |
They don't care whether it's Halfway To Paradise | 1:24:46 | 1:24:48 | |
or Gonna Type A Letter or Don't Knock Upon The Door. | 1:24:48 | 1:24:51 | |
They just think, "What is it? Wow! Proper rock and roll." | 1:24:51 | 1:24:55 | |
So his music is still being kept alive in one way. | 1:24:55 | 1:24:59 | |
And people ask, "Who was this fella?" | 1:24:59 | 1:25:01 | |
And of course, he was the greatest British rock and roll star. | 1:25:01 | 1:25:05 | |
Maybe the only British rock and roll star. | 1:25:05 | 1:25:07 | |
See, a lot of people can look well, they can sound well, | 1:25:07 | 1:25:10 | |
but they don't have that magic. | 1:25:10 | 1:25:12 | |
And Billy Fury had magic. | 1:25:12 | 1:25:15 | |
# All right, goodbye | 1:25:15 | 1:25:19 | |
# All right, goodbye. # | 1:25:19 | 1:25:24 | |
APPLAUSE | 1:25:31 | 1:25:32 | |
# I'm Alabamy bound | 1:25:32 | 1:25:35 | |
# I'm no heebie-jeebie hanging around | 1:25:35 | 1:25:39 | |
# I got the meanest ticket man, oh, man | 1:25:39 | 1:25:43 | |
# All I'm worth | 1:25:43 | 1:25:45 | |
# To get my tootsies in that upper berth | 1:25:45 | 1:25:48 | |
# To hear that choo-choo sound | 1:25:48 | 1:25:51 | |
# I know that soon I'm going to cover ground | 1:25:51 | 1:25:55 | |
# So I can shout it so the world can know | 1:25:55 | 1:25:58 | |
# Here I go | 1:25:58 | 1:26:01 | |
# I'm Alabamy bound | 1:26:01 | 1:26:04 | |
# I'm Alabamy bound | 1:26:04 | 1:26:07 | |
# Oh, I'm no heebie-jeebie hanging around | 1:26:07 | 1:26:11 | |
# I got the meanest ticket man, oh, man | 1:26:11 | 1:26:14 | |
# All I'm worth | 1:26:14 | 1:26:16 | |
# To get my tootsies in that upper berth | 1:26:16 | 1:26:19 | |
# To hear that choo-choo sound | 1:26:19 | 1:26:22 | |
# I know that soon I'm going to cover that ground | 1:26:22 | 1:26:26 | |
# And then I'll shout it so the world can know | 1:26:26 | 1:26:29 | |
# Lordy, here I go | 1:26:29 | 1:26:32 | |
# I'm Alabamy | 1:26:32 | 1:26:34 | |
# I'm Alabamy | 1:26:34 | 1:26:36 | |
# I'm Alabamy bound. # | 1:26:36 | 1:26:41 |