ABOUT THIS SITE

Former BBC presenter, Stan Laundon, created this site in February, 2002. Photograph © John Foster.

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) in England employed Stan for almost 24 years between September 1970 and February 1994. For most of this time he produced and presented a country music programme on BBC Radio in the North East of England called "Country Time" which ran for 21 years.

After taking early retirement and spending thirteen years living on the Costa Blanca in Spain, he has since returned to his hometown of Hartlepool, which is on England's north east coast. It was during his time in Spain that he started to rekindle his interest in country music by checking on a few of his old friends. One of them is singer/songwriter, Jimmy Payne, who Stan has admired since his days in radio having worked with him on a number of occasions during his time at the BBC.

Whilst surfing the web, to check on one or two of his own favourites, Stan noticed there was a lack of information on the net about Jimmy Payne so he contacted him at his home in Nashville and asked his permission to set up a website for him. He agreed - and thanks to him and his family, this site was created. Coincidentally, this site was established just as Jimmy and three of his songwriting friends, Dick Feller, Danny Dill and Don Wayne – known as the Three Chord Heroes - were starting a series of concert dates singing their own songs that were made famous by other people. Sadly, the Three Chord Heroes no longer perform with the passing of Danny Dill on October 23, 2008, Dick Feller taking early retirement and the death of Don Wayne on September 12, 2011.

A personal note from Stan Laundon:

I would like to thank Jimmy and his family for their patience and help in establishing the Jimmy Payne website, to Jim Glaser for his valuable assistance to both Jimmy and myself and last, but not least, to Per Ivar Tautra, who ran the Dick Feller website at the time, for his knowledge, guidance and understanding - and helping me get this thing off the ground.

Created, written and edited in England by Stan Laundon