Rockers of ages
Nov 24 2007 by Peter Grant, Liverpool Echo
Peter Grant meets a man who is Eager to please
SCOUSERS make great rock and rollers and they also provide the best audiences . . . who says so?
Pop star Vince Eager – a singer with The Vagabonds skiffle group – who worked with and was great friends with many of the Mersey giants.
Vince, born Roy Taylor in Grantham, was a member of the legendary Larry Parnes stable of stars which featured Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, Tommy Steele and Joe Brown. And he toured with the likes of Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.
His own band was offered a residency at the famous 2 I's Coffee Bar in London's West End, where his life would change.
He enjoyed star status with more than 100 TV appearances on shows such as Drumbeat, Six Five Special and Oh Boy.
Later Vince was prolific on the British and overseas cabaret circuit, in theatre, pantomime and for five years he starred in the Olivier Award-winning West End musical Elvis.
Now Vince is eager to please again . . . this time all those fans who can’t get enough of nostalgia with his newly-published Vince Eager’s Rock ’n’ Roll Files.
“It’s a coffee table read with a difference,” laughs Vince about this collection, packed with anecdotes, photographs and cartoons.
“I wanted to relate it all as it was – as it happened. All the highs and the lows, all the many disappointments.
“There’s heartbreak and very funny bits. I know because I was there.
“I didn’t want to write the usual style of autobiography, this is so natural, and I hope that helps the reader re-live scenes not reported before.”
Indeed 60s fans will learn a lot more about their idols, including Billy Fury and Freddie Starr. Those two local heroes feature throughout Vince’s vibrant memoirs.
Vince recalls the actual “showbiz birth” of superstar Billy Fury and many bizarre incidents with the unpredictable Freddie Starr, who started out as a singer.
And he praises all Scousers for their love of music and their collective respect for performers.
Vince says he can recall the very day he met the much-loved pop legend Billy Fury.
He says: “I had a sound check for a Larry Parnes show at Birkenhead Essoldo on October 1, 1958. Marty Wilde’s drummer, Brian Bennett, suggested we go out for Wimpy.
“As we stepped out of the rain and the dampness of a very overcast Merseyside afternoon, a slightly built young man wearing a gabardine overcoat with the collar turned up and looking very much like a cross between Elvis and James Dean said: ‘Excuse me, la, is Mr Parnes here?’ ”
Vince told him he was and that he would introduce this enigmatic lad to him.
That young man was Ronnie Wycherley. He told star-maker Larry that he had sent his songs to him, but obviously they hadn’t reached the impresario.
Mr Parnes auditioned Ronnie on the spot and was mesmerised.
Remembers Vince: “Larry asked him his name and said it had to be changed.
“He said ‘You look furious when you are singing, so Fury should be your second name and, as for the first name, you have a boy-next-door appeal like Tommy (Steele), so how about Billy?’
Jokes Vince: “Already I was jealous of him. Why couldn’t I have been christened Billy Fury?
“That was it, as cold and calculating and brilliant as it could be – Ronnie Wycherley of Dingle was re-born and I was in the presence of the future great Billy Fury.”
Vince has a real soft spot for 60s Liverpool and another performer, Freddie Starr.
He says: “Performing in Liverpool was amazing – the Scousers were such enthusiastic and knowledgeable audiences and they were very gladiatorial in showing their appreciation.
“If you could cut the mustard they would show their appreciation beyond belief with cheering, clapping, standing up and shouting out their adulation.
“But if you couldn’t meet their standards they would dissect your performance with the most hurtful and yet, at times, hilarious verbal onslaughts imaginable.”
While performing at such venues as the Liverpool Empire, Vince got to know some of the local stars.
“I met Freddie Starr at the Shakespeare. He was already a pop star. He was hilarious on and off stage and he’d get up to so many madcap antics.
“One night he got me out of my bed at 3am while I was staying at his house. He made me get dressed and dragged me outside to say goodnight to his good pal George.
“I didn’t see anyone while Freddie carried out a conversation with someone. I didn’t hear or see anyone outside because George was Freddie’s ghost pal.
“Freddie said that each night he had a goodnight chat otherwise George would get upset if he didn’t.” Laughs Vince: “You never stood a ghost of a chance with Freddie’s behaviour.”
There are other stories about Freddie, one involving a toilet roll and a guitar and another about him being “caught short” live on stage – both not suitable for a family newspaper, but in Vince’s book they illustrate the wacky whirlwind world of being an anything-goes rock ‘n’ roller.
For Vince it was a labour of love compiling the snapshots of 60s life and beyond from Grantham to Liverpool and 100 countries across the globe.
In 1986 Vince took up residency in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when, for 12 years, he became a cruise director on American luxury ships.
Along with his wife Annette, Vince is now based in rural Nottinghamshire celebrating his 50 years on and of the stage. He is close to his two sons Simon and Christie and their families.
He says: “Meeting Billy, working with Freddie and all my times in Liverpool were special.
“I’m glad I’ve written down my stories so my kids will know what dad got up to when he was younger.
“My motto now is still the same – ‘Keep rocking’.”
Vince Eager Rock and Roll Files (published by VIProbooks £11.99).
The Cavern Club book-signing and show December 2, 3pm.
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