The Sound of Fury

Britain's answer to Elvis Presley comes under the spotlight in this documentary. Ronald Wycherley was born in Liverpool in 1940, but a fortuitous meeting with impresario Larry Parnes in 1958 saw him rechristened Billy Fury, and heralded a run of 29 UK hits including Halfway to Paradise. Unlike many of his peers, Fury had the talent as well as the heart-throb looks to succeed, penning all the compositions on his seminal 1960 Sound of Fury album, which fused country with blues, rockabilly and rock 'n' roll. However, health problems, the pressures of fame and the changing music scene all played a part in his slide from the charts. Alan Byron and Mark Sloper's film may lack the presentation and polish of its star subject but it gains valuable insight from the contributions of Fury's family, his peers (including fellow Parnes performers Vince Eager and Joe Brown) and famous fans (Mark Kermode and Imelda May), each offering a different perspective on the man who was a dynamo on stagebut shy and withdrawn off it. More Fury archive wouldn't have gone amiss, but the home-movie footage of him in Jamaica cheerfully puffing away on the local weed comes as quite a surprise. This isn't the high-profile piece that fans might crave, but it does offer an easily digestible primer for one the biggest stars of the pre-Beatles era.