BUDDY HOLLY

by ed bruce edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

This the first of three outdoor theatre productions at the Spring Mountain Ranch......22 miles west Las Vegas on Charleston !

As many readers know, we traveled to Clear Lake,Iowa on 2 February to the Surf Ballroom for the 50th reunion of Hollys last concert. Lots of nostalga, history and memories here....this the real deal with the real people at the real site. The bar for the Buddy Holly production is high because of my personal feelings and my recent history and research. This production...the fourth I have seen was the weakest...thats weakest of the four....not necessarily weak overall but it had some issues.

The story line and music itself historic and the effort of this production not lacking....but technically the Spring Mountain Theatre has digressed.....they made a financial plea (which I participated in ) stating that audio improvements have been made with this money ......then after the show started 23 minutes late (shitlist) there were audio issues. In the old days here (20 years ago) on a flat platform with a windy day....audio was troublesome....last night (opening night excuses) it was windy and there were audio issues! Who would have wanted to hear Buddy Hollys every word ? ? ? ? The drums were too loud....Jerry Allison we saw in Clear Lake...he played....he was not too loud ! Bitch bitch bitch.....well the bar is high for this I know the history and lived it !

Lots of pluses....some of the greatest music in history....Buddy recorded 33 songs and wrote 21....True Love Ways, I Guess it Doesn't Matter Anymore, That Will be the Day and Peggy Sue.... hall of fame stuff with simple lyrices on simple issues and Holly did all in 23 years. Brandon Albright as Holly was fine....lots of vocals, good voice and more confrontational than in John Goldrosen's book Remembering Buddy. Goldrosen was in Clear Lake and I interviewed him.....he did this excellent story in the mid 70's only 15 years after the fact and traveled from England to Lubbuck and Clovis....he really did his research....this out of print effort is highly recommended.

I liked the Apollo theatre segment with three talented singers....the costumes were excellent and the backup dancing was ok. Having read the book and played Clear Lake the issues of Norman Petty and the Crickets are fresh in my mind...the Crickets did not do the winter dance tour in 1959 but they did last night.

I would recommend this on the story and production effort...I may return for one of their better efforts...it runs thru Juneish 895 2787.

74 C