On Wednesday 3rd May 2000 I went to see GENE PITNEY who was performing at the Town Hall, Cheltenham. The concert started at 7.30pm with a puppeteer called DAMON, and I thought, 'oh dear, what have I let myself in for', as he was not that good.

Then after about 45 minutes GENE PITNEY came on stage and performed tracks like TWENTY FOUR HOURS FROM TULSA, THAT GIRL BELONGS TO YESTERDAY, RUBBER BALL, A STREET CALLED HOPE, PRINCESS IN RAGS, SOMETHING'S GOTTEN HOLD OF MY HEART, HELLO MARY LOU, LOOKING THROUGH THE EYES OF LOVE (which is my favourite Pitney song), and OCEANS AWAY (which is a lovely song) to name but a few.

About half way through the show Gene bought out some fan mail from the dressing room and started to read the messages out to us (some of which were very funny), he also told us about his website.

Before the night had started I had not realised he had written RUBBER BALL (which was a big hit for Bobby Vee), and HELLO MARY LOU (which was a big hit for Ricky Nelson).

I really enjoyed the show and was glad to see that he still had a good voice.