Legend set to unleash the Fury

SWANSEA'S Grand Theatre will become a Wondrous Place next month when those dreamy Billy Fury numbers will be summoned up by The Billy Fury Years.

And the man who so often kept the beat for the Merseyside legend, Clem Cattini, will be at the kit, while Michael King takes up the vocal mic.

The former Tornados drummer became one of the most revered session men on the circuit throughout the 60s and 70s, playing on scores of number ones and adding shuffle and edge to records and tours by Tom Jones, Cliff, The Kinks, Lou Reed, Dusty Springfield, Joe Cocker and many others.

But he has always retained a soft spot for Billy, he says.

"He was a gentleman and always one of the boys.

"We would share the same hotels so we would have a lot of fun together.

"Billy was very shy off stage but he was a real performer so he came out of his shell when he was up there. I loved him."

The show, on February 6, from 7.30pm, will dip into hits like Wondrous Place, Half Way To Paradise and Maybe Tomorrow, reaching back to the late 1950s too, when the Tornados were Billy's backing band, under that crackpot purveyors of wonky charmers, Joe Meek.

Like most of Joe's stable of musicians, Clem had his differences with Meek.

But, he says, those were irreplaceable times for him.

"I didn't get on well with Joe. He did throw a tape recorder down the stairs at me once.

"You probably know he was a strange man and musically he was an idiot, but as a producer he was a genius."

In his quest to hit upon the unearthly, ultra-modern sounds he craved, Joe would have his players record their parts from inside a wardrobe, from the cupboard under the stairs, or from wherever took his fancy.

Clem says he wasn't spared that, even though he had a kit to haul.

"Yes, I did the dropping the marbles down the toilet and splashing my feet in a bath of water because he liked the sound of it.

"But it was worth it. Those records haven't really dated."

Clem isn't the only one to hear the worth of those tracks of course.

The Tornados served up the first ever US number one from a British band, with Telstar.

And the late1950s and the 1960s British sound is one which turned a million heads and which puts Clem's name at the top of many musician's fantasy band wish lists.

For some it doesn't have to remain a fantasy.

Paul Weller, who has always worn his adoration for the greats of the 1960s on his sleeve called Clem to play on his sensory thrill of an album, Wake Up The Nation, a couple of years back.

Clem says: "I don't do that much session work now because I don't really want to.

"Working the studio is so different now.

"When I started you would have the band in the studio, playing together.

"Now you have people putting down parts on their own and it doesn't feel the same or sound the same.

"But I enjoyed working with Paul Weller.

"He kept calling me 'sir' and giving me tea and donuts. Not many people can say they've been served tea and donuts by Paul Weller!"

Another favourite encounter saw Bruce Springsteen's long-term drummer and E Street Band mainstay give Clem a call one day.

"Max Weinberg is a real student of drummers and he just called me up to have a chat because the band loves that 1960s British sound

"We met up at Crystal Palace. I got to see them play and I met them all.

"Lovely chaps."