One wet Saturday afternoon in February 1961, my friend and I went to Liverpool Pier Head and there, tied up, was the “Formby” tug. We couldn’t believe our eyes because we knew Billy had worked on it. We went and spoke to some of the crew, one of whom told us he had a picture of the tug with Billy on. He gave it to me and, as we were walking back through town to catch our bus home, we couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw a powder blue MG going along Lime Street. We realised it was Billy’s registration number, 100 AD, so promptly ran after the car and followed to the car park. Billy got out with one of the Vernon Girls (I think her name was Fran) and began to walk towards the shops. We stopped him and asked if we could have his autograph and I produced the photo of the tug. He asked where I’d got it and I told him; he pointed to one of the two crew in the picture at the back of tug and said “that’s me”. We didn’t have a pen, neither did he so he asked Fran if she had one. She didn’t so he asked her if she had an eye pencil (he was obviously experienced in the matter of signing autographs!) and she produced a glittery blue eye pencil which he used to autograph the picture of the tug. He also signed my fan club card and commented that it said on it “Second Year Member”.
*Jean saw Billy many times in shows during the 60's. She is still an avid fan and attends lots of Billy events.
Jean tells her story of the tug photo.
Jean in the 60's
