BILLY
RAYMOND
I soon found out that he was from Paisley, just 4 miles from my home. I wrote to Billy at Granada TV and he sent me back a 2x2” autographed photo of him and Marion Ryan. He had a Fan Club, which I duly joined, and I still have the membership card to this day! However, Scottish Television, a month or so into the run, decided to stop taking “Spot the Tune” due, I discovered, to “programme pressure”. Disaster! This had never happened before (or ever happened again, for that matter!). However, once every 3 weeks he was the compere of Granada TV’s “International Variety Show”, so I did see him then. STV decided to transmit the last “Spot the Tune” of the series in May, but again I didn’t see it, because it was a holiday weekend and my parents decided to take a bus run up to Killiekrankie that day and insisted that I join them. I was in Callander at 7 p.m. when “Spot the Tune” was transmitted - and I never saw the show.
In October 1961 a friend phoned me to tell me that Billy was topping the bill at the Glasgow Metropole the following week! I was going to see him live and “in the flesh” for the first time. And yes, I saw the show twice, on Tuesday 10th October and Saturday 14th October 1961. My Dad took me on the Tuesday evening and said he’d take me to the stage door to meet Billy, but I was a specky, spotty, shy 14 year old and I couldn’t pluck up the courage to ask to meet him. How I wish I had, now. His performance was so full of energy! He sang: “I’m Happy” (“Let Me Sing a Dixie Song”), “My Blue Heaven”, “Time”, “Sitting On Top of the World”, “Keep Right On to the End of the Road”, the novelty song “Who Put the Bomp”, “Up the Lazy River” and others. He also did take-offs of Shirley Bassey, Fyfe Robertson (a Scottish presenter), and Chick Murray.
I saw Billy on stage again in February 1962 in what was then an annual production in the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow, a charity fund-raising event called “Stars for Spastics” in which everyone available in the Scottish Theatre circuit appeared and was given a “spot”. Unfortunately for me, on the night that I went with my parents, Billy’s spot was cut because other stars were appearing just on that night. I remember it was Harry Secombe and I also remember Billy introducing a boy and girl act called “Elaine and Derek”.
Fast forward 4 years to 1966, when he returned to Scotland to be the compere of STV’s “A Search for Beauty”, a beauty competition when the winner went through to the English finals. I did pluck up the courage to meet him then! After the transmission on 17 September 1966, I asked him for his autograph, which he signed “For Linda, Hi there Billy Raymond”. He came back the following year to do the series again, but I didn’t get to meet him.
In October 1961 a friend phoned me to tell me that Billy was topping the bill at the Glasgow Metropole the following week! I was going to see him live and “in the flesh” for the first time. And yes, I saw the show twice, on Tuesday 10th October and Saturday 14th October 1961. My Dad took me on the Tuesday evening and said he’d take me to the stage door to meet Billy, but I was a specky, spotty, shy 14 year old and I couldn’t pluck up the courage to ask to meet him. How I wish I had, now. His performance was so full of energy! He sang: “I’m Happy” (“Let Me Sing a Dixie Song”), “My Blue Heaven”, “Time”, “Sitting On Top of the World”, “Keep Right On to the End of the Road”, the novelty song “Who Put the Bomp”, “Up the Lazy River” and others. He also did take-offs of Shirley Bassey, Fyfe Robertson (a Scottish presenter), and Chick Murray.
I saw Billy on stage again in February 1962 in what was then an annual production in the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow, a charity fund-raising event called “Stars for Spastics” in which everyone available in the Scottish Theatre circuit appeared and was given a “spot”. Unfortunately for me, on the night that I went with my parents, Billy’s spot was cut because other stars were appearing just on that night. I remember it was Harry Secombe and I also remember Billy introducing a boy and girl act called “Elaine and Derek”.
Fast forward 4 years to 1966, when he returned to Scotland to be the compere of STV’s “A Search for Beauty”, a beauty competition when the winner went through to the English finals. I did pluck up the courage to meet him then! After the transmission on 17 September 1966, I asked him for his autograph, which he signed “For Linda, Hi there Billy Raymond”. He came back the following year to do the series again, but I didn’t get to meet him.
INTRODUCTION 2