Eleven months prior to the fatal plane crash, Buddy Holly - who was memorably described as 'the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll' by music critic Bruce Eder - was on a tour of the UK. The tour which also included Gary Miller, The Tanner Sisters, Des O'Connors and Ronnie Keene & His Orchestra, stopped in at the Gaumont Theatre in Salisbury on March 22nd 1958. The Crickets stayed at the Grand Hotel, Wigan, and Buddy invited the receptionist, Barbara Bullough, to his concert. He dedicated ‘Everyday’ to Barbara and took her home in a taxi to Shevington. He wanted her to join on the tour but because this was 1958, she didn't accept his proposal. ‘He was the perfect gentleman,’ said Barbara of Buddy, whom she invited to visit her home. At the Old George Hotel, Buddy chatted with receptionist Margot Warrender, giving her two free tickets for the late show that night. She said: "I wasn't really a rock'n'roll fan and must admit I didn't really know who Buddy Holly was. I was bemused at the crowd of fans who were waiting for autographs." Back at the Old George Hotel after the shows, Buddy wrote a letter to his parents back home in Lubbock, Texas, using his new Woolworths pen. It read: "Dear Mother & Dad -- We had three good shows today. We are getting to where we can carry on pretty good on the stage what with a few little jokes and all. Everyone comments on how my jokes get bigger laughs than the comedian on the show. Who knows, we might change and be comedians instead of rock & roll stars. Love, Buddy." The Crickets were spotted by fan Diane Fishlock who remembers: My friend and I were in Woolworths before attending the early evening concert when we saw Buddy and Jerry Allison. We just followed them round, managed to get their autographs and had a short chat.
I was fifteen when I first heard of Buddy on Radio Luxembourg. It was the only source of this new pop music. I left art college and went to another college to study for a career in nursing. It was around that time that I heard this strange new sound on RL. Even the intro made me sit up and take notice, even before the singer started to sing! I used to take New Musical Express every week. I can still remember the day I read those magic words "Crickets To Tour UK"! I didn't stop yelling and jumping up and down for ages! We saw some 'names' with our free seats - Terry Dene, Gene Vincent and lots of others I've long since forgotten. But Buddy was appearing in Liverpool. Happily, my friend and I had been to Liverpool before to see Paul Anka. The venue was the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall which meant it was built for acoustics rather than visualization. In other words, the stage was so far away from us, anyone on it resembled tin soldiers at the far end of a billiard table. I was crushingly disappointed. Still, we were in the front row. the stalls below were ¾ empty, just the front ten or fifteen rows occupied. Imagine how peeving that was to strain to see them with all those empty seats in front of us, not to mention the effect it must have had on Buddy at all! First impressions of the theatre was that the stage was bare! It was also somewhat gloomy. Being a concert hall, there were no curtains and the stage was more like a big catwalk. Even Ronnie Keene's band didn't make much of an impression on the space.
All the artists had to walk out from the wings which seemed like a long, lonely walk. Then Buddy came onstage and an embarrassing interlude happened with the plug. Buddy plugged his lead into the amp and started to play but nothing happened! He unplugged it and plugged it in again, picked at his guitar but still nothing. He finally picked up the electric cable from the back of the amp and followed it along. We had a variety of different plug sizes including 5amp and 15amp. So finding your plug didn't fit was not an uncommon occurrence! I reckon Buddy and The Crickets were on stage for well over an hour. Some songs rang straight from one to the next. Buddy introduced a few with some attempts at funnies in between though I wouldn't go so far as to describe them as jokes! During one of the songs - think it might have been "Oh Boy" - Joe B did some spectacular stunts with his bass, getting down first on his knees and then laying on his back, still playing up a storm! There was an encore which I think was probably "Ready Teddy" but by then I was just in seventh heaven! The show was absolutely, stunningly, fantastically brilliant! I had seen lots of the stars of the day by that time and Buddy certainly rated as not just the best but the best by about a thousand miles. After the show, I went to the stage door and waited, despite my friend and I having to run to catch the last train back! At the backstage, I was only aware that I was in the same room as Buddy. He was so kind and polite. I got my programme signed and had a nice talk with him. My lasting memory is of Buddy leaning against the wall looking happy! It was certainly one of those "nights to remember." Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Rock biographer Michael Lydon (Ray Charles: Man & Music, The Rolling Stones Discover America): Buddy Holly was the first singer-songwriter. It’s hard to remember now, after decades in which rock’n’roll music has been recognised as a legitimate art form, that in the 1950s even its fans didn’t take it seriously. Early rockers were considered to be musical slobs with crude guitar riffs. Everybody loved Chuck Berry songs, but no one thought of him as a ‘lyricist’. White middle class kids did not consider rock’n’roll a possible career choice – it was something that was fun but stupid. Buddy Holly changed all that. Holly was a highly intelligent kid, bursting with musical talent, who saw that rock’n’roll could be truly good music. He listened to everything with open ears, and from all the sounds of early rock, he put together his own sound, clear and strong enough to be heard through the electric din of 50s music.
Billy Griggs: Buddy Holly is the original singer/songwriter. The things that he was doing in the 50s laid the groundwork for people writing their own songs. He showed that white guys with specs could make great rock’n’roll music. It was the Brits who really got Buddy Holly. The Americans don’t hold him in such reverence. They just see him as one among many. But Buddy should be acknowledged as rock’n’roll’s first great all-rounder and recognised for all his talents: singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, arranger and producer. He could perform ballads, country and rock’n’roll with a winning personality. No other rock’n’roll star possessed all these attributes at that time. Chuck Berry ticked most of the boxes but there was a coldness about him and he possessed no team spirit. Bob Dylan said, ‘The singers and musicians I grew up with transcend nostalgia – Buddy Holly and Johnny Ace are just as valid to me today as then.’ Dylan was being as mysterious as ever. Why didn’t he say Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry? We can say that Buddy Holly created a series of firsts, the first to have the lead/rhythm/bass/drums line-up, the first to have strings on a rock’n’roll record (yes, he was the first), the first to use the Fender Stratocaster (Paul Burlison from Johnny Burnette’s Rock’n’Roll Trio had a Fender Telecaster).
Maria Elena might disagree that Buddy wasn't sexy. Both he and Elvis played with their voices on ‘Baby I Don’t Care’, but Elvis sounds provocative while Buddy sounds childlike. No girl could have resisted Elvis’ pleas on ‘Don’t’, but Buddy singing the same song would have been a bit comical. However, even this worked in Buddy’s favour. It may be subconscious but one reason why he has so many male fans is because he is unthreatening. Male anxiety is a regular theme of his songs – ‘Maybe Baby’ or ‘Learning the Game’. A couple of suspect books: Ellis Amburn does an Albert Goldman to Buddy Holly, in his nightmarish story. Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue? is allegedly based upon her extensive diary entries, but despite the many illustrations, I would have liked a photograph of at least one page of the diaries to substantiate her claims. Unsurprisingly, Maria Elena has dismissed the book as fiction and as she is depicted as permanently bad-tempered, you wonder how anyone could have married her, let alone the effervescent Buddy Holly. Classic on-stage quote from Sonny Curtis: ‘Peggy Sue is still around. She is just not around us anymore.’ Holly's approach was such an anti-image, unlike Elvis. Most rock’n’roll artists were trying to be flamboyant sex symbols but he was like a college kid, and wearing your glasses on stage was unheard of in those days. He showed that you didn’t have to be glamorous to be noticed, the magic was in his sound. He also was very nice to talk to. —"Buddy Holly: Learning the Game" (2019) by Spencer Leigh
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