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PRESS
RELEASE
Remembering my friend “GENE PITNEY” April 2006
What a sad day Wednesday the 5 th of April turned out to
be , you never know what tomorrow brings as they say !. My
phone rang about 9-00 pm , a mate saying he was sorry to
hear the bad news , I said what bad news , Gene Pitney had
died ! it took my breathe away , I was in disbelief , I quickly
rang Bill Davidson , Gene's Australian Tour Manager and Promoter
and he confirmed my worst fears , Gene Pitney had passed
away in his sleep of a heart attack in Cardiff , Wales aged
65 .
I first meet Gene Pitney 10 years ago when I was asked to
be his special guest for two nights in Tasmania , which for
me was a real thrill , little did I know it was to be the
start of a wonderful part of my life , career , and a special
friendship with one of the legends of rock'n'roll . I was
then asked to do the following tour 18 months later much
to my delight , and finished up doing the last 5 Australian
tours and August 06 was to be my sixth .
What was he like people ask ? , well he was a wonderful
man , very kind , but very shy , however once he got to know
you he felt more comfortable with your company , and as you
can understand being one of the legends of the entertainment
world he was very guarded with his privacy .
I have no illusions
about myself , I have been one of the luckiest people in
the world to share the stage with this man , many times
, and now that he will no longer grace our stages ever
again I realize just how precious each memory is , memories
that I will keep in my heart forever . His songs will be
timeless and it's only when you saw his show did you realize
that every song , not just one or two , every song was
a million seller . Another of my highlights was to write
and record 2 songs with him , “What a big Surprise” and “Let's
not make the same mistake again”, both were written on tour
, I still have a copy of the original lyrics that he wrote
down , something that I will treasure .
As a performer he expected nothing but the best you could
give , and my job was to have the audience ready for when
he appeared on stage , and that was my pleasure , although
he didn't need much as his fans just loved him and when the
band started the overture you could feel the excitement ,
something I never got tired of , the build up was all a performer
could ever want .
When I won the award
for “Victorian Entertainer of the Year” 06
, one of the first emails I received was from Gene , and
I quote , “Hi , What a great honor ! you work hard , are
damn good and you deserve it ! Gene” no need to ask me how
that makes me feel , and the last week we spoke via email
about my new CD of which I was putting “Let's not make the
same mistake again” on , his UK tour was going great and
he felt he was working better than ever , on top of the world
.
I will miss him greatly
but I am all the more richer for knowing him , and as we
all say and think , if only one more time I could shake
his hand and say thank you . He rekindled my passion for
this business and made me reach higher , I only hope he
knew how grateful I was for the experience he gave me ,
and as he would greet me sometimes , he'd say “G'day
Blue”, a saying he got from the song G'day G'day , it's now
my turn to say ……… “see ya cobber”
Rodney Vincent ---------------------------------------------------------------
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