BILLY RAYMOND

BILLY’S BLOG 2012

PAGE 11

 22 November 2012

NERVOUS?  WHO, ME?  YES, YES, YES!!!

So, why did I write that headline?  It’s because it’s now EIGHTEEN MONTHS since I have been allowed to work by the heart doctors, cancer oncologists - and so it goes on - and on!  No more of that boring stuff, for it you’ve been reading my blogs over the last year and a half you will already know all the “gory details”!!  The point is - I’ve been told that I can now work again and I do my first ‘gig’ on 1 December.  It is a St Andrew’s Day Highland Ball which should be fun to do.  Needless to say, I’ve been rehearsing like crazy for it and it SHOULD be OK, but I am really a wee bittie nervous.  As easy as riding a bike, they say - oh, no, it’s not!!!

On the subject of St Andrew’s Day, on THE day, a special that I recorded for Radio Station 4 CRB, a very popular station with a ‘target’ audience of 50-year-olds and upwards, goes to air from 8 a.m. until 9 a.m.  In fact, I’m on the station’s play list, which is great for me!

In early November I did a guest shot on NBN3  television station.  The station was celebrating its 50th anniversary since it first went to air.  It very quickly captured a huge audience and soon was the sixth most popular TV outlet in Australia!  The Channel asked their most popular personalities to do a six-minute segment to go out in the middle of their top-rating 6 p.m. evening news on a Monday night - a terrific time slot!

Now the word is getting around that I am able to work again, the phone is ringing, asking me my ‘availability’ for 2013.  I can honestly say that it is not “ringing itself off the hook”, but at least people ARE getting in touch again and that ‘warms the cockles of my heart’, for I have a firm booking for Redcliffe Performing Arts Centre and a couple of ‘pencilled in’ dates for the theatres at Lismore and Casino and will know if they are confirmed in the next week or so!

Anyway, folks, that’s about all the ‘goss’ for the moment, but I WILL write to blogs more frequently in the future, now that I’m getting back on my feet again!

Cheers, Billy