George Formby fan plays tribute to George

[Lucy]

A nice article.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/07/29/george-formby-fan-pays-tribute-to-george-harrison-ahead-of-concert-92534-24263413/

[FPSHOT]

This is really nice to read about George and Ray Bernard.

Thanks for posting !!

some nice quotes from this article



Mr Bernard said: “It fell to me. He came to pick it up from my home in Alsager, near Stoke, and we became firm friends.

“We spent many a happy hour playing ukulele together.”

Harrison would visit his friend’s family home, and Mr Bernard and his wife, Karen Shutt, would stay with the musician at his Friar Park mansion, in Oxfordshire.

One Christmas, Mr Bernard said, Harrison’s wife, Olivia, called to say a certain instrument in his collection would be the perfect present, and asked if she could buy it from him.

Mr Bernard agreed.

He said: “Some years later, George rang me and said Paul McCartney had visited him over the weekend, had been playing the ukes, and asked if he could have the one I had sold him.

“He had rang to say he hoped I wouldn’t mind terribly, but he hadn’t had the heart to say no.”

Paul McCartney went on to play the same ukulele at the memorial concert in 2002 – a year after Harrison’s death.

additional note: another article says Paul still playes the same uke during his concerts.

.............


“I’ve met hundreds of entertainers over the years and George was the most unassuming, natural, pleasant guy I have ever met.

[FPSHOT]

I saw a report from someone who has been to the event and wrote this about the Ukelele part

The highlight for me was Ray Bernard, the ex-President of the George Formby Society and his wife Karen Shutt on the piano. She played a Gershwin melody and another piece - both very powerful. Ray did a ukelele song, the name of which escapes me, but brought a smile to everyone's face! He sang September in the Rain, saying George loved to hear him play that. He also did Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, as well as a medley of 3 George Formby numbers - finishing with Leaning on a Lamp post, which he said was George's favourite, and his last number was I'll See You In my Dreams and that choked me up.