BILLY
RAYMOND
1993-4
I didn’t hear from Billy at all during 1993, so have no details about events in his life or at the Burdekin.
However, I received a letter from him dated 26 April 1994:
“Over the Christmas period and just before I did my “Farewell” Tour as an entertainer!! I came out of “retirement” to do a series of “Morning Melodies” concerts ... “Billy Raymond’s Sounds of Scotland” ... Around our theatre circuit from Cairns to the Gold Coast. This then developed into further appearances in the biggest clubs in Sydney including St George Leagues, Manly Warrangah Leagues, Canterbury-Bankstown Leagues, Marrickville RSL Club etc., etc. It was a lot of fun but the thought was a bit of a strain on me for I knew I was going to have the (heart) by-passes done and wasn’t at all well.”
In February 1994 Billy had another 5-valve heart by-pass operation, a re-do of the operation in 1984. Billy described the operation: “They use the arteries in your body for some of the grafts. You have two in the cavities of your chest and one on the stomach and they “linked” these up for three of the grafts and used veins from my legs for the others. The end result is that the three done with arteries should last around 12 years (maybe longer) and the ones with veins 8-10 years ... When the veins “go”, apart from getting angina attacks, you are still able to work on three “cylinders” for a few more years. While they were “in there” they fixed up my hiatus hernia. The only drawback was that, having both things done at the one time meant that I was on the “table” for nine and three-quarter hours and it was only meant to take five or maybe six hours!! The length of time under the anaesthetic affected my short term memory span dramatically and this will take maybe a year to get back to normal, when the brain cells build up again. Including the first 4 days in intensive care, I was in hospital for just about 10 days.”
After a recuperative holiday at “Seagulls” in Townsville, Billy was back at work by April, presenting shows including “Two Weeks with the Queen”, variety entertainment performers The Delltones and comedian Steady Eddy, as well as the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra and a community production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat”.
Of his plans for his future, Billy said: “In 1986 just over 17,000 patrons visited the Theatre and, although we haven’t completed the statistics for 1993 to April 1994, almost 80,00 people will have visited the Complex. So, from now on, it’ll be a “caring” but more “Que sera, sera” attitude!!”
However, I received a letter from him dated 26 April 1994:
“Over the Christmas period and just before I did my “Farewell” Tour as an entertainer!! I came out of “retirement” to do a series of “Morning Melodies” concerts ... “Billy Raymond’s Sounds of Scotland” ... Around our theatre circuit from Cairns to the Gold Coast. This then developed into further appearances in the biggest clubs in Sydney including St George Leagues, Manly Warrangah Leagues, Canterbury-Bankstown Leagues, Marrickville RSL Club etc., etc. It was a lot of fun but the thought was a bit of a strain on me for I knew I was going to have the (heart) by-passes done and wasn’t at all well.”
In February 1994 Billy had another 5-valve heart by-pass operation, a re-do of the operation in 1984. Billy described the operation: “They use the arteries in your body for some of the grafts. You have two in the cavities of your chest and one on the stomach and they “linked” these up for three of the grafts and used veins from my legs for the others. The end result is that the three done with arteries should last around 12 years (maybe longer) and the ones with veins 8-10 years ... When the veins “go”, apart from getting angina attacks, you are still able to work on three “cylinders” for a few more years. While they were “in there” they fixed up my hiatus hernia. The only drawback was that, having both things done at the one time meant that I was on the “table” for nine and three-quarter hours and it was only meant to take five or maybe six hours!! The length of time under the anaesthetic affected my short term memory span dramatically and this will take maybe a year to get back to normal, when the brain cells build up again. Including the first 4 days in intensive care, I was in hospital for just about 10 days.”
After a recuperative holiday at “Seagulls” in Townsville, Billy was back at work by April, presenting shows including “Two Weeks with the Queen”, variety entertainment performers The Delltones and comedian Steady Eddy, as well as the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra and a community production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat”.
Of his plans for his future, Billy said: “In 1986 just over 17,000 patrons visited the Theatre and, although we haven’t completed the statistics for 1993 to April 1994, almost 80,00 people will have visited the Complex. So, from now on, it’ll be a “caring” but more “Que sera, sera” attitude!!”
