The weekend started at the Wooden Walls of Old England pub and the 14 of us staying at the Hilton walked down there on the Friday evening. Daniel had set up his disco and we were all raring to go. The tiny pub quickly filled up and lots of familiar faces arrived. The locals seemed to enjoy it too, one guy took the mike and sang 'Hey Jude' with the Karaoke words on the screen. He was absolutely sloshed and kept falling over but was so full of fun! It got hot in the Wooden Walls so we had plenty of drinks to cool down. Dave Jay sang several songs, both Billy and classic rock'n'roll and was great. Rob Dee came on stage and went through a lot of different numbers including several of Billy's hits. Daniel, of course, did his famous Eden Kane impression and had us all asking for more. At the end of the evening we all sang 'Halfway to Paradise' holding hands. It was a wonderful atmosphere. The new manager made a donation to the Alder Hey charity.
On the Saturday we had an afternoon session at the Sunnyside starting at 3pm with Andrew Tween, a new face to us and very inpressive. Jet Scream followed and sang with great gusto. They were followed by David Nichols, a last minute booking who had given up a gig to attend and who was brilliant, sounding a lot like Gene Pitney'. Roger Sea came next giving us us plenty of rock'n'roll as well as Billy classics. Russ Dee did some of the more unusual Billy and Elvis songs and was a delight. Geoff Howlett did a great set accompanying himself on guitar and little Sophie Evans, not quite 11 years old and our youngest fan club member, played her electric guitar with tributes to Billy with' In Summer' and 'In Thoughts of You'. She has only been playing for a short time but showed us she has a good ear for music. She got some well deserved applause. Well done Sophie, you were great.
During the interval between 5pm and 6.30 most of us partook of refreshments and bought raffle tickets from Pauline Swindells and Diane Hetherington. There were 27 prizes, all donated. The fan clubs had memorabilia tables and Harry and Maureen were also selling their wares. Two of our regulars, Bob Taylor and Diana Roberts were ill and unable to attend so get well cards were circulated and signed for them. Daniel did a Billy Fury quiz, ten songs played backwards and we had to guess the titles. It was not as easy as it sounds! After the raffle was drawn there was the auction, which included a beautiful painting of Billy by artist David Wyatt, a framed Sunnyside poster signed by all the performers and a framed of photo of Billy. Dave Jay and Linda Cox were 'Billy'd' by Russ Dee on recommendation of Moya in New Zealand.
At 6.30pm the live music resumed with Johnny Storme who had a chesty cold but still gave us a great set looking moody perched on a high stool. 'Snowy' who is a tremendous rocker gave us one quick song and we hope to hear more of him sometime. They were followed by Holly, an attractive young lady with a powerful raunchy voice who gave us songs by Dusty Springfield and some American soul ballads. She finished with an emotional rendition of 'I Will'. Emily, only 15, also gave a soulful set, sometimes singing alongside Holly and they both backed Kevin Summerfield when he came on wearing a blond wig and jiving to some rocking tune, they were brilliant! David Broadley from New Zealand has an amazing voice and gave us a mixture of music and humour when he called Henry Swindells and a lady on stage, dressing them in in funny hats and getting them marching and dancing along to 'Amarillo'. They ended up doing the Conga around the hall! Really entertaining! Daniel sang ' Well I Ask Ya' and this always goes down well.
The final act of the night was Rob Dee who came on stage in black leather trousers and gold lame jacket backed by the Fury Sound. He sang lots of Billy's songs including 'I'd Never Find Another You',' In Summer', 'That's Love', 'Maybe Tomorrow' and 'Jealousy' when he got up on the tables and danced around with the girls. He later changed into a white jacket and did a lot more of Billy's songs, some of them not heard very often. Of course he finished with 'Halfway to Paradise' and as usual we all joined in. It was a fantastic couple of days and I am so glad I went as Harry said there is not likely to be another one. I wonder ......
The raffle raised £196 and the auction £105. Harry Whitehouse sent a cheque for £579 to Alder Hey Childrens' Hospital.
SUNNYSIDE 2007 Report and pics by Margaret Dewick
