As a person Billy had thinning sandy hair and eyes which could penetrate and sus out subjects quicker than a computer.
Unlike some Dance Band Leaders who couldn’t pass the test to join their own Band, Billy was a musical genius who expected or demanded the best from his musicians. Often he fired musicians who failed to put music first.—often he would re-engage them. His bark was worse than his bite.
He could be tough, outspoken, easily irritated and subject to extremes of moods, yet deep down he was a sentimentalist. Sarcastically witty he could be cutting.
Sitting around a table, waiting for a Musicians Union Meeting to start he spotted Ivy Benson walking into the room. Billy said "we don't want bloody women in here". Joe Loss rose to her defence saying "Ah come on Billy, don't be like that she's a bandleader." Billy never liked Joe Loss and never forgave him for this. At a large concert with his Orchestra Billy played a medley of British Bandleaders siganture tune, (it is the opening track on Volune 4 of the Society CD's) he ommitted, quite deliberatley Joe Loss's signature tune " In the Mood"
He shouted down from the stage one night, as I danced past him in Keighley “Is the Dragon still at Shields Frankie?” - (an allusion to his former wife)
The gentle, sensitive, but private side of his nature is evident in his own composition of a love song “If this is only the beginning” to which he wrote both words and music (This track features also on Volume 4 of the Society CD's).
Frank Wappat - Founder
