Author of new Billy Fury book visits The Cavern

Dec 1 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

He was in the first wave of British rock and roll, performing with many stars along the way. This weekend, Vince Eager is coming to Liverpool with his stories. David Charters reports

ESPRESSO machines hissed steam in the cafés and sullen clouds brooded over the old dock town. Pigeons pecked, gulls cawed and spread their grey wings above the cranes. Girls pouted into little mirrors to check their lipstick.

It was the age of mood and style. Teddy boys thought about suspend- ers and combed their hair in café windows. The froth on dark coffee swayed in glass cups, as the juke boxes trembled to rock and roll.

But nobody inside saw the cool one padding along the pavements in his brothel creepers, quiet as a cat on velvet, towards the grand, art deco cinema, which had been opened 31 years before by Gracie Fields, the songstress from Lancashire.

He arrived at the stage-door, just a deckhand on the tugs with a pocketful of hope and some songs.

He left a star with a new name.

Many people have told the story of how Ronald Wycherley became Billy Fury, long hailed as Britain’s greatest rock and roller.

But today we’re hearing it straight from the mouth of a man who was there, a fine rock and roller himself.

This weekend, Vince Eager returns to Merseyside to sign copies of his autobiography, Rock ’n’ Roll Files, and to make his debut at The Cavern, on Mathew Street.

It is strange that he should not have appeared there in a career which dates back half a century, but Vince was more accustomed to big venues such as the Liverpool Empire and the 2,500-seat Essoldo Ritz in Birkenhead.

It was there that he met Billy on October 1, 1958.

Vince was leaving the building with Brian Bennett, then drummer with Marty Wilde’s backing group, and later with The Shadows.

They were heading for the local Wimpy bar when this figure with shoulders as wide as a clothes hanger approached through the drizzle, the collar high on his gabardine coat, fair hair sculpted on his head.

He knew that Larry Parne was presenting the Rock and Roll Extravaganza at the cinema. It was a huge event for teenagers on Merseyside. Marty Wilde and the Wildcats were top of the bill, which also included the John Barry Seven and Vince.

Unusually for the time, Ronnie Wycherley wrote his own songs and had made a tape of himself, recorded at Percy F Phillips’s studio, on Bold Street, Liverpool. This had been sent to Parnes, who had not replied. Ronnie wanted to know why.

Parnes (1930-89) liked young men and his tastes often matched those of teenage girls. This made him the ideal pop impresario.

His “stable” included Tommy Steele (Tommy Hicks), Marty Wilde (Reginald Smith), Vince Eager (Roy Taylor), Dickie Pride (Richard Knellar), Duffy Power (Ray Howard), Johnny Gentle (John Askew, from Liverpool), and Georgie Fame (Clive Powell).

It was said that he chose the names to match the characteristics of his singers, who devoted much of their energy to avoiding his advances.

Vince was never happy about being called “Eager”, wishing that he had been renamed Billy Fury.