The Beatles, Cheap Trick, Badfinger, Marshall Crenshaw, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, The Raspberries, Gary Lewis, The Stray Cats, Brian Setzer, Paul McCartney, Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, The Eagles, Carl Perkins, The British Invasion of the 60's, Dave Clark, Five, Billy J Kramer, Gerry & the Pacemakers, The Searchers, Herman's Hermits, The Rolling Stones, The Who
Sounds Like
A bit like Marshall Crenshaw, a bit of McCartney, a bit of Eric Carmen, Pete Ham
Billy became a professional musician at the young age of 13 years old. He's been a veteran of the Cleveland and Buffalo night club scene since 1975. Over the years, you might remember seeing Billy playing in bands like "Duce", "The Paul Pope Band", "Club Wow", "Moonlight Drive", "Beau Coup", and the duo "Spina & Sullivan". In 1986 Billy not only had his own band, but started a long and sucessful working relationship with Gary Lewis & the Playboys. He's toured all over the world and shared the concert stage with the likes of Gary Lewis, Mark Lindsay, Mitch Ryder, Dickey Betts, Peter Frampton, Mark Farner, Ian Hunter, Eric Carmen, Sam Moore, Lou Christie, Lesley Gore, Billy J Kramer,Peter Noone, Joey Molland, Tommy Roe, Bryan Hyland, Jimmy Zero and the list goes on. He's appeared on national television shows such as TNN's "Nashville Now" to 11 appearances on the 'Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. Through out all those years, Billy has been on countless recordings and jingles {IX Indoor Amusement Park} being the most recorded guitarist in Cleveland's history! Billy being the “multi-instrumentalist" not only plays guitar and sings but also is an accomplished drummer and percussionist, bassist and plays alittle keyboards as well! His own releases included the 1986 single release "Never Again {Without You}" reaching ..13 on the local charts and has recieved national airplay. His most recent CD release "All-American Popster" has sold copies as far away as Japan to Spain and France as well as the US. Billy had the distinct honor to be hand picked personally by Eric Carmen to participate in "An Evening with Eric Carmen" his first solo show in many years at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in March 2000 and the “Raspberries” Reunion Show in November 2004! After completing the 2005 Raspberries Reunion tour and also finishing an Asian tour with Gary Lewis & the Playboys as their drummer, Billy still record's and produces local artists and jingles and continues to play dates with his single act at his home in Cleveland as well as occasional Raspberries dates. Now, Billy is touring with Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone.
Just stopping by to say hello and give you some news. The new album 'Coolgilly and the Freakshow' from Centascope is now available worldwide from CD Baby and directly from the merchandise page of the official website. You can also get the album from Apple iTunes, MSN Music, Rhapsody, Napster, Amazon and many more.
A little blast from the past for you and for me. It brought back memories reading your blog and seeing The Paul Pope Band. And before that was Molkie Cole...
I just stopped by to let you know that my new song "Long, Long Time" is up and available to listen to and download. Give it a spin and let me know what you think!
hi ya billy, good to hear you have time to get to the islands. i have kayaks there if you want to cool off or call me if you get to the bay. great to hear from you!
Hi Billy- This is Dave Mauk (keyboards- writer of Just Another Day)- you know I was a big fan of the Paul Pope Band; I used to see you guys at Backstreets back in the day (around 1981), and I would have done anything to be in the Paul Pope Band. You guys didn't want a keyboard player. Crap!
Looks like you have a busy weekend which is awesome. Wish I was there. We all had such an awesome time in Vegas seeing you perform. See you in Naperville. Terry
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of... "Eeh... dat's right... AHM doin' the claim... MAAAYY 20th!" Hope you're doing well my friend... Take care, Pauly
Now that's concentration! I went to the Mad Cactus (the night before the Moondog) with Deb, DJ & Alexis but you weren't playing with Rich that night. I look forward to meeting you in Ontario.
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