IN THE Sixties crowds flocked to the seafront to hear a 17-year-old teddy boy playing rock and roll.

Billy could always be found below Brighton's Palace Pier hanging off bumper cars and spinning the best tunes in town.

As the years went by many of the old mods and rockers faded away into suits and sensible hair cuts but Billy has stayed true to his roots. His grey hair is still styled into a quiff and his drain pipe trousers look faded but remain uncreased.

Billy's collection of thousands of old 78s fill his home and faces of Fifties rock and roll stars cover his bedroom wall.

Even though he is 53, Billy is still rockin!

Born in Brighton in 1946, he grew up in a house bursting with music.

His mother, Annie Wheeler, spent many nights at the piano playing her favourite songs from the big band era of the Thirties and Forties to her six children.

One day, after studying at Queens Park School, 12-year-old Billy hopped on a trolley bus into Brighton.

He strolled into Mrs Robert's shop in Guildford Road and bought his first single, All Shook Up, by Elvis.

And so began one of the finest independent record collections of rock and roll and R and B in the country.

Billy said: "I used to hang around the dodgem cars on the seafront just helping out. One day I was talking about my records and the boss asked me to bring them down and play them so I did."

At the weekend Billy and his gang would rev the engines of their BSA 250 motorbikes and disappear off in a cloud of exhaust fumes.

He said: "We'd race to the Day-Go coffee bar on the A23 and burn up the mods on their hair dryers."

Fashion was a big issue for Billy and in 1965 he bought his first drape jacket from Burtons for £15.

Throughout the Sixties and Seventies Billy ran rock and roll nights at The Richmond pub and other venues around Brighton.

He traded his Dansette for a twin-deck record player and he's been getting crowds jiving, strolling and bopping ever since.

Today Billy's wife Pam looks after his aging blue, red and leopard print drapes and makes sure they are repaired on a regular basis.

Billy and Pam live in Whitehawk in a house packed with rock and roll memorabilia and he admits that every day he dreams of visiting Memphis.

Now Billy only DJs for fun at The Chequers Inn on Preston Street and at the Churchill Palace Hotel, in Middle Street.

Billy says: "I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I wasn't playing. It's my life."

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