About 2008

About 2008

The year started for PJ in Texas, where he was on holiday with his family.
On 8 January he joined the Ted Roddy Conjure Orchestra for the
Elvis Birthday Celebration in the Continental Club in Austin.
Here you can see the footage on YouTube, Proby singing
That’s Allright Mama and Don’t Leave Me Now.

After the succesful Autumn Tour 2007 David Halford from Artistes Direct booked
a Spring Tour.
There were 6 succesful shows
in Wavendon,
Rhyl,
Worthing,
Powys,
South Shields
and Stoke-on-Trent.
P.J. was even more powerful than the year before
and his voice was in top form.
More on our Spring Tour page....

Derek Franks approached P.J. to take part in his new Sixties show “Oh Boy .... It’s the Non-Stop Sixties!” Derek’s concept prooved to work! With his enthousiasm he found a way to combine P.J. Proby, Chris Farlowe, Vanity Fare, Mike Pender and Brian Poole.

After a promising start in Pocklington on 29 April, followed by Stevenage and Bolton, Derek Franks very sadly died suddenly on 11 May. This was a great loss to everyone.
Derek’s wife Debra bravely continued the show and managed to accomplish a great job, holding the show together and developing it into a very compact and powerful experience! The show went to 26 venues!
May Derek’s spirit live on in the music he loved so dearly in many more shows to come...
For a little report visit our Oh Boy page.

After the Oh Boy Tour ended in Truro,
P.J. joined Vanity Fare’s drummer Mark Ellen
and Johnny Podd, the No Comebacks,
at their gig at
The Spirit Of The West.
Members of Vanity Fare joined in as well.
It was a great happening and a musical
experience that won’t be easily forgotten
by the lucky public!

In the Autumn P.J. was invited by
Ricky Tomlinson again
to join his Laughter Show.
This time for two shows in
Benidorm!
A very classy performance in
the Grand Palace!!!

2008 was the year of P.J.’s 70th Birthday!

Stephen M. managed to make a great compilation of
rare, never released and/or famous Proby songs
and convinced EMI to release a
special Birthday CD
“The Best Of The EMI Years 1961-1972”.

Also Stephen M. did a great job in creating the very professional
Official P.J. Proby Website www.pjproby.net.

The Heritage Foundation threw Proby a Birthday Dinner, combined with their Christmas dinner, where P.J. and Les Reed performed Somewhere and Delilah!

Lee and Leanne Thomas from Australia came up with a
beautiful Birthday present, a glossy tribute magazine
full of contributions from old Proby friends and fans.
There are many photos in there that have never been
seen before. It is for sale on the website
www.pjproby.net under Shop.
Tony Priest in Australia organised a two hour P.J. Proby
interview /radio tribute show that was broadcast on Proby’s birthday by
Coast FM963 “Baby Boomers”. The whole world could listen streaming on internet. A great program!

At the end of the year PJ gave us a nice bonus surprise:
he wrote and recorded a Christmas single,
The Bells Of Christmas Day,
together with his friend Andy Crump.
This CD is for sale on the website
www.pjproby.net under Shop.

On 14 and 21 December Keith Skues featured P.J. Proby in an two-and-an-half hour interview on Pirate Radio Skues for BBC Norfolk. A great interview with very good music selection! On the photo with head of the BBC Norfolk David Clayton and radio presenter Keith Skues.

2008 also saw the birth of the P.J. Proby Appreciation Society, an exclusive version of a Fanclub, with lots of special goodies to obtain. You often get news and photos that are not on the website! The Appreciation Society is run by Hannah and Janet.
Special thanks also to Margaret Hartley for all her Proby support in 2008

A lot of special things happened in 2008 and Proby is in great shape and very versatile.
He’s pulling at the bit to do more work, but he’s missing one agent/promoter/manager.
The new company DutchBrand (Brian and Manja Dolan)
worked hard to organise different aspects,
and can promote, but are not agents or managers.
We’re all looking forward with great expectations to a succesful 2009:

Who will stand up in 2009 and take The Legend under his/her wings and become his agent/promoter/manager??