Buddy Holly would have been 77 on September 7th
An early death usually guarantees eternal fame and beatification for rock stars. Most of the famous ones like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Harry Nilsson or Jim Morrison, died from drug or drink overdoses or related medical conditions, but very few died in a true accident – the actual causes of Brian Jones’ demise are still being discussed. The death of Buddy Holly in a plane crash on 2nd February 1959 was a real tragedy. At the time he was certainly the most talented artist in the business, not least because he wrote most of his own material therefore pre-empting the Beatles and other acts of the 60s by several years.
All the great bands, including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones count him as a major influence. The Beatles recorded Words of Love on their Beatles for Sale album and also as a demo when they were still The Quarrymen. John Lennon recorded Peggy Sue on a solo album. The Stone’s third single and first big hit was Not Fade Away. The first rock‘n’roll show on British TV was called Oh Boy. Paul McCartney is quoted as saying that the first songs he and Lennon wrote together were directly influenced by Holly. I could go on. In fact, now I think of it, I would put Buddy Holly as the single most influential figure in the development of rock, bigger than Elvis because Elvis was only a performer. In a career lasting less than two years Buddy Holly from Lubbock in Texas changed the world of music and popular entertainment for ever.
Bob Dylan said in 1998, ‘…when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him…and he LOOKED at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was – I don’t know how or why – but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way.’
Despite his unlikely pop-star credentials with his weedy physique, curly hair and horn-rimmed specs, the influence of Buddy Holly cannot be over-emphasised, making his death even more tragic.
So, one way and several others, Buddy Holly is certainly water-tight material for a musical biography and the question is, does Buddy do it justice? The show takes us chronologically through his early outings as a country singer to his untimely death, along with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, when their light aircraft came down in a blizzard.
The staging of the show works well and there is a real period feel to all the mid-fifties music and costumes. Buddy, on the opening night, was played by Roger Rowley although there seems to be some alternating with another actor, Glen Joseph – though nobody seemed to know how that worked. Roger was excellent as the eponymous hero with just the right mixture of nerdy gawkiness and steely determination. He sang and played his vintage Strat with conviction. What early rock guitar work lacked in sophistication it more than made up for with raw energy. Generally all the music was good and Lydia Fraser came close to stealing the show with her rendition of Shout.
On the whole Buddy is a good show but I had a couple of reservations. There is an interminable and seemingly pointless front-cloth scene before the grand finale that almost brought the proceedings to a grinding halt – the stage crew certainly did not need so much time to arrange the set. Perhaps everyone was having a cup of tea and a rest before the exertions of the show’s spectacular climax which re-created Buddy’s last concert. The other thing I found disappointing was that very little was made of the events leading to the tragic plane crash. There was a missed opportunity for some real drama here, although I can understand them wanting to go out on a bang – with a couple of encores. Recommended, but with reservations. – Michael Hasted
