REVIEW | Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story
March 4th 2009 11:39
Fifty years to the day that Buddy Holly died in an airplane crash, 3rd February, Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story opened at the Star City Casino in the Lyric Theatre. Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley on 7th September, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas, U.S.A. His nickname came from his mother who said she called him Buddy because Charles Hardin was too long a name for such a little boy. As a child he learned to play the piano, violin, and guitar. When he was 13 years old he teamed up with school mate Bob Montgomery and they performed bluegrass locally as Buddy and Bob. Holly's break came when the duo performed as support artists for Bill Haley and his Comets resulting in Holly being contracted by Decca Records as a solo artist. His solo career was uneventful so he formed his band The Crickets and begun recording at Norman Petty's studios in Clovis, New Mexico where they recorded their early hit That’ll Be The Day, the phrase taken from the film The Searchers, a repeated phrase of John Wayne's.
Petty had a strong belief in Holly and contacted people he knew at Coral Records to sign him. Coral was a subsidiary of Decca and this put Holly in the unusual position of having two recording contracts at the same time. It was in one of these early contracts that Holley became known as Holly due to a spelling mistake and he stuck with it.
Buddy Holly was progressive for his time in that he used unusual instrumentations - e.g. the celesta on “Everyday”, vocal techniques - his use of “uh” in the middle of words, and he crossed the racial divide when mistakenly booked to play the Apollo Theatre, New York which was an all-black venue and successfully wooed the audience. His influence on popular music was integral to its’ development, he also instigated a higher level of engineering in the studio by layering his recordings with multiple vocal and instrumental lines before overdubbing became the norm. Examples of this can be heard on “Words of Love” and “Listen To Me”.
Buddy has been seen here in Sydney before and has been playing somewhere in the world for nineteen years, had over 16,000 performances and been seen by an estimated 20 million viewers.
In Australia the title role is played by Scott Cameron who does an amazing job of re-creating the Buddy Holly persona. He not only sings the songs with the characteristics that are synonymous with Holly he also plays the guitar riffs with blinding accuracy.
It is well known that Buddy Holly died in a plane crash with two other music luminaries of the day namely The Big Bopper, Jiles Perry Richardson Jnr, and Ritchie Valens, Richard Steven Valenzuela. The Big Bopper (known to friends as ‘Jape’) was a DJ who carved a career out of speaking most of his lyrics and had a hit with Chantilly Lace. Ritchie Valens was the first Hispanic, American born rock and roll star with hits “Donna” and “La Bamba”.
Luke Tonkin plays The Big Bopper with panache. Ritchie Valens is played by Sydney actor Flip Simmons, he sings superbly and moves around the stage deftly with all the gyrations that Valens was renowned for.
The show not only brings back all the wonderful well known hits but gives an insight into the journey that Buddy Holly and the Crickets went on. How they began playing country music, then rockabilly, and the development of their own distinctive style. The creative team of Director Craig Ilott, Musical Director Peter Laughton, Set Designer Christopher Smith, Lighting Designer Kevin Cawley, and Sound Designer John Taylor, have created an excellent evening of rock ‘n’ roll entertainment.
Peter McGill.
Performance Times
Tuesday 8pm
Wednesday 1pm & 8pm
Thursday 8pm
Friday 8pm
Saturday 2pm & 8pm
Sunday 5pm
Address:
Star City Pty Limited
80 Pyrmont Street,
Pyrmont NSW 2009
Telephone Enquiries:
General enquiries and Administration: (02) 9777 9000
International callers: 61 2 9777 9000
Petty had a strong belief in Holly and contacted people he knew at Coral Records to sign him. Coral was a subsidiary of Decca and this put Holly in the unusual position of having two recording contracts at the same time. It was in one of these early contracts that Holley became known as Holly due to a spelling mistake and he stuck with it.
Buddy Holly was progressive for his time in that he used unusual instrumentations - e.g. the celesta on “Everyday”, vocal techniques - his use of “uh” in the middle of words, and he crossed the racial divide when mistakenly booked to play the Apollo Theatre, New York which was an all-black venue and successfully wooed the audience. His influence on popular music was integral to its’ development, he also instigated a higher level of engineering in the studio by layering his recordings with multiple vocal and instrumental lines before overdubbing became the norm. Examples of this can be heard on “Words of Love” and “Listen To Me”.
Buddy has been seen here in Sydney before and has been playing somewhere in the world for nineteen years, had over 16,000 performances and been seen by an estimated 20 million viewers.
In Australia the title role is played by Scott Cameron who does an amazing job of re-creating the Buddy Holly persona. He not only sings the songs with the characteristics that are synonymous with Holly he also plays the guitar riffs with blinding accuracy.
It is well known that Buddy Holly died in a plane crash with two other music luminaries of the day namely The Big Bopper, Jiles Perry Richardson Jnr, and Ritchie Valens, Richard Steven Valenzuela. The Big Bopper (known to friends as ‘Jape’) was a DJ who carved a career out of speaking most of his lyrics and had a hit with Chantilly Lace. Ritchie Valens was the first Hispanic, American born rock and roll star with hits “Donna” and “La Bamba”.
Luke Tonkin plays The Big Bopper with panache. Ritchie Valens is played by Sydney actor Flip Simmons, he sings superbly and moves around the stage deftly with all the gyrations that Valens was renowned for.
The show not only brings back all the wonderful well known hits but gives an insight into the journey that Buddy Holly and the Crickets went on. How they began playing country music, then rockabilly, and the development of their own distinctive style. The creative team of Director Craig Ilott, Musical Director Peter Laughton, Set Designer Christopher Smith, Lighting Designer Kevin Cawley, and Sound Designer John Taylor, have created an excellent evening of rock ‘n’ roll entertainment.
Peter McGill.
Performance Times
Tuesday 8pm
Wednesday 1pm & 8pm
Thursday 8pm
Friday 8pm
Saturday 2pm & 8pm
Sunday 5pm
Address:
Star City Pty Limited
80 Pyrmont Street,
Pyrmont NSW 2009
Telephone Enquiries:
General enquiries and Administration: (02) 9777 9000
International callers: 61 2 9777 9000
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