The Sound Of Fury/Billy Fury Decca Label 10" LP 1960

RONALD Wycherley of Liverpool looked at the poster advertising the Larry Parnes Extravaganza, a forthcoming package tour of rock 'n' roll stars appearing at the Essoldo Theatre, Birkenhead on September 1, 1958. Young Ronald who could play piano, guitar, wrote to pop impresario Parnes, who was the Simon Cowell of his day and asked for an audition. Parnes replied inviting Ronald to turn up an hour before the show began. He duly turned up, and played him a few songs. Larry Parnes was so impressed he decided to let Ronald open the show that night. He sang three songs, Margo, Don't Knock Upon My Door and one that was to become his first chart entry, Maybe Tomorrow. The reception that the audience gave him inspired Parnes to sign him up immediately and include him in the rest of the tour. Larry Parnes already had a string of young singers signed up, to which he gave all enigmatic names, Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Vince Eager, and Rory Storm; Ronald became Billy 'Fury.' Billy often said that his performance that night was one of the most frightening experiences of his life.

After initial success, it was decided that he should tour with his own band. Several local bands auditioned, including four young men who had just returned from Hamburg, Germany but had a regular slot at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. Billy listened to them but turned them down describing them as "too scruffy." A couple of years later they achieved success in their own right; we remember them as The Beatles.

The Sound Of Fury was issued in 1960 on a 10" LP, the songwriting credits were to a W. Wilberforce who was later revealed to be Billy himself writing under a pseudonym. The album was a huge success considering that Billy who was only 20, had written all of the songs. Billy had well over 20 songs in the charts throughout the sixties, surprisingly most of them heart rendering ballads, but he always included songs from The Sound Of Fury in his repertoire.

As a young man, he worked on the tugboats on the Liverpool docks and contracted rheumatic fever leaving him with a weak heart condition. He suffered ill health through most of his adult life and in January 1983 succumbed to a fatal heart attack. He was 42. Billy Fury remains one of the finest rock 'n' roll singers Britain ever produced.

Global vinyl revenue is expected to top £770 million this year, while sales of CDs and digital downloads continue to fall. Sony is to start making all their future recordings in vinyl again - three decades after it stopped making them. It is now desperately searching to find older engineers who knew how to press vinyl. Is there anybody out there?