This summer sees the release of a book by Billy Franks called A Far Cry from Sunset
It recalls the adventures of Billy and three friends from the U.S as they travel the world to ask ten of the planets best known singers including Rod to appear on a tribute album to an unknown songwriter. That unknown songwriter was Billy Franks himself.
As they travelled across two continents, they filmed their quest. It is now a 90 minute documentary called Tribute This!
Mick McCleery, who directed the film said, “He has given so much to others through his music. Dedicating ourselves to a project that would honour him was a no brainer on our part.”
Billy told SMILER today, In the summer of 2005, three friends and I took an eight month journey across the two continents of America and Europe. We were on a mission to get ten of the world’s most famous recording artists to record a tribute album to an unknown songwriter, And that songwriter would be me.
And as we travelled we were going to make a road movie,an epic chronicle of our quest, and a testament to our friendship. We made it and we called it, Tribute This!
The adventures we had and the people we met changed my life profoundly. Not only its present but also how I viewed its past.
We went about this adventure gorilla style and didn’t ask anyone’s permission before hand, It was only made official after the event when we asked for permission to use the film taken, If we had cleared it with Artists, management etc it wouldn’t have been any fun and would have made a stunted film. In saying this we all had Great respect for each Artist as they were People we followed ourselves, Apart from our struggles with managers, publicists, security and even one or two of the artists themselves we made some great friendships along the way. We ran into so many people from ordinary walks of life; cab drivers, hotel porters, fans standing in line to see their heroes, who couldn’t do enough to help or encourage us on our journey.
I can’t tell you too much about the book and film but at one stage we try to see Rod and fail so we dress up a Rod Stewart Tribute and pretended to meet him! And for one long summer, we lived life so brilliantly, so full of laughter and a gathering sense of achievement that I wondered if the artists we were pursuing ever got to see life in anything like the same way.
In contrast they seemed so protected, so hidden away, so cut off from the world that, towards the end of our travels, the thought occurred to me that, at that point in time, I wouldn’t swap one year of their lives for one day of ours.My hope is that, in reading my account of those heady days, you will understand why.
I love the idea of SMILER telling your members about the book and film and encourage them to go to my website and download my free compilation album and join the book list for Email reminders, as this will help me see how the interest is going too. Most of the money and the best part of our journey was used on following Rod around over three countries. We also pitched a song for each Artist and the one we chose for Rod is called ‘Sing it one more time for the broken hearted’. I thought Rod would like this song. I will let SMILER members have the track as a free download.
Billy’s book, A Far Cry from Sunset, shows also includes stories from his musical career touring with U2 and REM and others and is out in July.
“Anyone in, thinking of getting in or out of the music business, or anyone who is simply a lover of great music, should read this book.
Then they will know what it takes to dedicate a life to something you love”
MARC GEIGER – Vice President – WILLIAM MORRIS AGENCY
To read more about the adventure and download a free copy of Billy’s compilation album go to
www.billyfranks.com
And we will post a link to the free download ‘Sing it one more time for the broken hearted’ soon in the SMILER members section.
