This year it was December '63 (Oh What a Night) and Silver Star that brought the group back to the UK for a majot tour. Despite Frankie picking up a throat infection during the tour it was a stupendous set of concerts. During the last week he was getting better day by day and ended with a two hour concert in Wolverhampton. How this came about was quite interesting. The previous night in Manchester the audience reception was so incredible that after the show had finished (final musical riff that always closed everything) Frankie brought the house lights down again and retuned to the stage. To the obvious surprise of the Four Seasons he announced that they would be doing two songs from the new Helicon album, on most of which he did not appear, during which he would "take some more cough medicine" and then return for two final songs. It is unheard of for the show to start again after the house lights go up, and I can tell you there were some grumbles from the stage crew...
Clearly not as rehearsed as the rest of the show, The Four Seasons performed creditably on "Let's Get It Right" and "If We Should Lose our Love" and then Frankie returned to do "I Got Love For You Ruby" (not performed anywhere else that tour) and finally a reprise of "Who Loves You". This was the talk of radio the next day and on the next (final) night of the tour he did it again, but before the house lights went up. This time everyone was prepared.
This was also the tour where I went to a reception dinner at The White Elephant on the River, a barge on the Thames. And the tour where I mentioned that the horn player in the middle section of "Silence Is Golden" was playing a flat note. The horn player was not pleased, but he corrected it from then onwards.
