About 2009

About 2009

P.J. Proby – now aged 70! - bravely stepped into the New Year.
He started the year in Texas again and celebrated Elvis’ Birthday
on 8 January in the Continental Club in Austin Texas with the
Ted Roddy Conjure Orchestra.
Click here to have another look at the Tour Dates 2009…..

When PJ returned to the UK, he soon went to work for
the few shows that DutchBrand had arranged:
- Holiday Village Golden Sixties Weekend in Hemsby with
Vanity Fare on 21 March. This was the first time Vanity Fare
backed Proby on his whole show and they did a great job!
They also gave us some of their own songs.Of course Sophie was there as well. In fact Sophie didn’t miss one show with Proby the whole year and she can be considered an essential part of the Proby act.

-“One Night With You” with the Feds in South Shields 7 April. This was a comeback for P.J. Proby after the succes the year before. The Feds did the support act and were great throughout the whole show!
You can watch Proby singing Angelica here.

DutchBrand couldn’t accomplish any more shows as in
February Proby had sold his soul to Debra Franks for the rest
of the year. DFO had the monopoly of contacting theatres
for an expected to be big Tour around September:
P.J. Proby & Friends, featuring Proby, Vanity Fare and Brian Poole.
Also there was hope for the “Oh Boy.... It’s The Non-Stop
Sixties!” Show to travel abroad. Sadly that didn’t happen.

In March Proby attended the unveiling of a blue plaque
for his dear old friend Keith Moon, drummer of The Who.
The photos are made by Doug MacKenzie for
The Heritage Foundation.

In May Debra Franks got together a huge charity show in Batley with the biggest Sixties Line-up ever in memory of her late husband Derek Franks. All the artists performed for free to raise money for a Sunshine Coach for the children! It was a huge success.

The same month the Oh Boy show was hired for a private function in Southport.

In the meantime DutchBrand got two shows through Robert Pratt
of Chimes International for Pickering and Burntwood with The Feds!
These shows were something else.
The Pickering Show had Freddy Star not showing up
and a lot of improvising was needed. A new act had to be found
last minute. The whole show ran late and Proby & The Feds
were urged of stage before the show was finished.
A chaotic experience!

The Burntwood Festival was great.
Summer was in the air and all the good artists provided a very happy atmosphere. A real outdoor happening!
Proby & The Feds were great as ever.
Proby moved all over the stage like a 30-years-old
and everybody had a lot of fun.
The crowd loved it!

We also enjoyed the very good performances of New Amen Corner, The Searchers, Chip Hawkes, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Mike d’Abo, Alvin Stardust, The Move and many others. Don’t miss the festival next year!

The Proby & Friends Tour, organised by the Derek Franks Organisation, turned out to be nothing more than four one nighters in the autumn. They were a huge success however! There were Christchurch, Glenrothes, Glasgow and Chatham.
Sadly Brian Poole couldn’t make the shows in Scotland due to family circumstances and was replaced with another Proby Friend, Mike Pender. Brian was back for the finale in Chatham however. They all did great! Vanity Fare did a great job and glued all the friends together.
And of course there was Sophie, now with fringes!
You can click here for the report from Ron Tennant about Chatham as he wrote it for the Beat Magazine.

In the few Oh Boy Shows DFO could book for the autumn 2009 Proby was replaced with Dave Berry, except for the final Oh Boy show in Great Yarmouth in October. Again a huge success! It was more a Proby & Friends Show than an Oh Boy Show really, with Brian Poole and Mike Pender both in it... Chris Farlowe couldn’t make it and the show found Mike d’Abo replacing him. They ended the show with an extra finale from the Proby&Friends Tour: Chris Farlowe’s hit Out Of Time. And out of time they were........ for the artists it felt like a beginning instead of an ending of working together.

In between these shows P.J. Proby did a show with his old backing band The Frank Johns Band in Port Sunlight for David Crosby. It was a dynamic show. Alas, DutchBrand wasn’t there.... The photo is made by Elsie Pennington, who sadly passed away in December.

In July 2009 Robert Pratt of Chimes International made an offer to Proby he couldn’t refuse: for Robert to become Proby manager again! Needless to say PJ was very happy with this offer and accepted it straight away.
Robert’s hands were tied however, because of the commitment
PJ had made to DFO till the autumn of 2009. Patience was the word.

The time in between shows was spent well:
No Comebacks (Mark Dean Ellen from Vanity Fare & Johnny Podd) asked PJ to be a special guest on their new CD Back In The Saddle Again. They hadn’t forgotten the fun they had the year before in
The Spirit Of The West. The CD is out now and it’s a beautiful synthesis between the memories from PJ’s youth of Roy Rogers
and The Sons Of The Pioneers and the modern vision of
No Comebacks who give us up tempo Cowboy music
with an attitude! Go and get it now! Check them out on www.nocomebacks.co.uk

In November Proby introduced his latest discovery at the
Heritage Foundation Christmas Ball: the 11-years-old singer Ellie D.
They duetted on three songs - in the vein of Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter Miley-. but first Proby gave us a great redention of Bob Lumey’s “Let’s Think About Living”, together with Mike Read.
Check out Ellie D.’s MySpace site, she’s quite a talent!

A day later Proby made a surprise guest appearance
on the show of his old friend from the Hollywood days:
the legendary guitarist James Burton, who played behind
Elvis and many others! The show was held in New Brighton
as part of the 21st Guitar festival.
Together with Elvis impersonator Chris Clayton,
P.J. Proby gave us a his version of Suspicious Minds,
backed by the Passionettes.

For a great report and great photos go to the
tcbfanclub website.

It’s been a long hard winter, but you can hear the
ringing of the bells from Chimes International
for the upcoming shows in 2010!

And The Sun Will Shine!