The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Billy Fury’s story
Perth Concert Hall, September 25
When Colin Gold was preparing to appear on ITV’s cult music impersonation show Stars In Their Eyes back in 1996, it would be fair to say that it was about to change his life forever.
His performance as the goldenjacketed and bequiffed 60s British rock ‘n’ roll legend Billy Fury may not ultimately have been a winning one (the bubble-haired Gilbert O’Sullivan mimic on the night came through victorious) but the programme was seen by a very perceptive viewer: the friend of a drummer from Billy’s 1970s band, Fury’s Tornados.
“He spotted me on it and took a videotape of the show round to Chris Raynor [Fury’s Tornadoes’ guitarist] and said ‘look at this fella’. They had backed Billy for so many years and had their own project going at the time but they thought perhaps they should bring in someone to do a Billy show.”
Through no fault of anyone, that initial contact didn’t work out too well.
“I was doing two jobs at that time, gravedigging and driving children with special needs to school,” says Colin.
“I was underneath the school minibus screwing in the racks for the wheelchairs to be clamped down, when the phone rang with a number I didn’t recognise.
“At the other end, the guy says ‘my name is Chris Raynor. I used to be Billy Fury’s guitarist: are you interested in doing a show with us’? I thought, ‘OK, this is a friend winding me up’ so I just said that I was really busy at the moment and put the phone down.”
Luckily, Raynor called back the next day to prove he was the genuine article and soon Gold was heading off to Fury’s Tornados’ Nottingham base where he went into a rehearsal room.
And 21 years later he is still working with them on The Billy Fury Story, a two-hour show which takes in his career from Maybe Tomorrow, his first hit from 1959, to Forget Him, his final single release before his untimely death in 1983 at the age of just 42.
As well as performing what Colin calls “the big guns”, top five hits such as Last Night Was Made For Love, Jealousy, and his signature tune Halfway To Paradise, the show features some narration and film footage of Fury in his prime.
The Billy Fury Story feels far beyond being a tribute act and Gold agrees that there’s more to it than just a band retreading an act’s old hits.
“That word doesn’t give the show the respect it deserves and it would be better if ‘tribute’ was replaced by ‘life story of’, Colin explains.
“If anything, I’m the tribute, the rest of the band absolutely are not.
“It’s great to see the footage of them on stage back then and we have pics of them growing with him. There’s a lot of curly hair.”
billyfurystory.com