BILLY
RAYMOND
1960s Contd.
THE GENE VINCENT &
EDDIE COCHRAN TOUR (Contd.)
EDDIE COCHRAN TOUR (Contd.)
The following is an extract from an interview Billy had with Trevor Turner of the Eddie Cochran Connection:
“The tour was tiring, but considering that we were together and really a bit confined for weeks on end we got on very well, and only very occasionally did tempers get a little frayed. But perhaps there was a little bit of competition between Billy Fury and Vince Eager. Vince perhaps was the better all-round entertainer as such, but Billy had that amazing sex appeal that sent the girls wild and I think Vince was envious of this.
There were a number of dodgy occasions (during the tour), the main one being during Eddie’s “Tribute” tour when at the Glasgow Empire, the drunks in the “Gods” started throwing lead ashtrays and bottles at the stage. The fire curtain was brought down and this caused a riot, which had the mounted police in the theatre swinging their batons. We didn’t get out of the theatre until 3 a.m. And the “Rock’n’Riot” story was front page headlines in the Scottish Express and the Daily Mail. Such is the life of an R&R compere!”
HOW BILLY LEARNED OF EDDIE COCHRAN’S SUDDEN DEATH
(After the second show at the Bristol Hippodrome) ... We were all packing up, chatting and laughing, and there was no real hurry due to Eddie and Gene’s departure time. I knew that Eddie was going to Heathrow for an early flight in the morning, to spend Easter at home in the USA. At the end of the hilarity Eddie and I hugged each other. He was a lovely “huggy” person and I was very fond of him and I know that he liked me too. But I must emphasise that there was nothing sexual about this (not Eddie’s scene), we just got on a helluva well together. We talked about us all being together in 10 days’ time for the Moss/Stoll tour continuation and, sadly, the show became “A Tribute to Eddie Cochran”. As, on this occasion, I was driving my own car to my home in the Strand in London, I didn’t get there until about 5 a.m. And “crashed” into bed, taking the phone off the hook to avoid people ringing me early.
“The tour was tiring, but considering that we were together and really a bit confined for weeks on end we got on very well, and only very occasionally did tempers get a little frayed. But perhaps there was a little bit of competition between Billy Fury and Vince Eager. Vince perhaps was the better all-round entertainer as such, but Billy had that amazing sex appeal that sent the girls wild and I think Vince was envious of this.
There were a number of dodgy occasions (during the tour), the main one being during Eddie’s “Tribute” tour when at the Glasgow Empire, the drunks in the “Gods” started throwing lead ashtrays and bottles at the stage. The fire curtain was brought down and this caused a riot, which had the mounted police in the theatre swinging their batons. We didn’t get out of the theatre until 3 a.m. And the “Rock’n’Riot” story was front page headlines in the Scottish Express and the Daily Mail. Such is the life of an R&R compere!”
HOW BILLY LEARNED OF EDDIE COCHRAN’S SUDDEN DEATH
(After the second show at the Bristol Hippodrome) ... We were all packing up, chatting and laughing, and there was no real hurry due to Eddie and Gene’s departure time. I knew that Eddie was going to Heathrow for an early flight in the morning, to spend Easter at home in the USA. At the end of the hilarity Eddie and I hugged each other. He was a lovely “huggy” person and I was very fond of him and I know that he liked me too. But I must emphasise that there was nothing sexual about this (not Eddie’s scene), we just got on a helluva well together. We talked about us all being together in 10 days’ time for the Moss/Stoll tour continuation and, sadly, the show became “A Tribute to Eddie Cochran”. As, on this occasion, I was driving my own car to my home in the Strand in London, I didn’t get there until about 5 a.m. And “crashed” into bed, taking the phone off the hook to avoid people ringing me early.
