The Buddy Holly Story Festival Theatre Edinburgh 14th March 2023 Review
Buddy The Buddy Holly Story is at The Festival Theatre Edinburgh this week (Tue 14 to Sat 18 Mar) and if you want a night out celebrating the life and music of one of rock’n’roll’s most important figures, then this is the show for you.
This show, since its first performance in 1989, has been a worldwide success and set the template for many similar shows that were to follow in the coming years. Few of these other shows would, however, prove to be as popular or last as long as this one, and given the iconic songs that are in “Buddy”, that is little surprise. How many songwriters/performers out there have such instantly recognisable songs as “That’ll Be The Day”, “Everyday”, “Heartbeat”, “Peggy Sue”, “Rave On” and “True Love Ways” (to name just a few of them) in their music catalogue?
This show is not a documentary of the life of Buddy Holly, but it instead focuses on that brief period in time when he was moving away from the direction that so many people around him expected that he would take. Buddy Holly did not want to be the country and western music star that he so easily could have been, he wanted to play the new rock’n’roll music that he was hearing, but even more importantly, he wanted to play his music his way and along the way re-define not only what music could sound like, but also what a music star could look like. Taking this journey with him were his friends from Texas and band-mates, The Crickets, aka drummer Jerry Allison (Josh Haberfield), bassist Joe B Maulin (Joe Butcher) and rhythm guitarist Niki Sullivan (Christopher Weeks).
The format of this show, setting so much of the story with cast members playing their own instruments either in a recording studio, or live on stage somewhere (including the band’s now famous performance at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem) is what gives this show so much of its energy, as sitting in the audience at any theatre, we get a live performance of these great songs too, and some others from this period. Tonight that format worked its own magic as Buddy Holly and the Crickets once more took to the stage, and there was for me (and for many of us in the audience probably) a certain sadness when that final concert at the Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa was recreated and we all knew that when they took that light aircraft flight in a few hours after this show that Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper (Christopher Chandler), Richie Valens (Miguel Angel) and pilot Roger Peterson would die as their aircraft crashed as they tried to escape weather storm conditions to get to the next show on time. That date, February 3rd 1959, is for many people still, the day the music died.
Here we have the real story though, the music never died, if anything it has just grown over the years and tonight, our on stage Buddy Holly (A J Jenks) gave us all a little taste of what being there and watching this magic happen, hearing those sounds for the first time, might have felt like. At the time, few recording artists (certainly not young rock’n’roll artists) were writing their own songs, and not only was Buddy Holly doing this he was taking the rock and roll music he was hearing and blending it with the Mexican and Latin sounds that he grew up with, creating along the way that unique Tex-Mex sound. Buddy Holly also extended his influence over his music into then innovative studio production techniques (adding overdubs) and also adding string sections to some songs. Add into this his refusal to take off his glasses when performing and his choice to play (amongst others) his now iconic 1954 Fender Stratocaster guitar, Buddy Holly created not only unique music but a unique visual identity for himself. Buddy Holly also set the standard that influenced so many other musicians to come after him with his music influencing many for decades to come. What is amazing is that the core of this story, nearly all of this music, came out of a hugely creative period of only three years or so.
Buddy is a live on stage musical performance and, by default, the cast are there for their musical abilities and not their dramatic ones and this is what this show requires. As well as some energetic performances by Buddy Holly and The Crickets, Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens capture the energy of the music of the times. There is of course far more to this story than just the on stage music, and we get to meet other major figures in this story including record producer Norman Petty (Thomas Mitchells) and the woman that Buddy Holly fell almost instantly in love with at first sight, soon to be wife, Maria Elena (Daniella Agredo Piper).
Oddly missing from this story though are a few pieces of the story. For some reason, Bob Montgomery who co-wrote some songs with Buddy Holly, including “Heartbeat” is missing. Also, although we are told that Maria Holly was pregnant when Buddy left for his to be last tour, she lost the child due to a miscarriage. Many people thought at the time that the shock of hearing her husband had died was a major cause in this event.
At the end of the day though, this show is just like the music of Buddy Holly – fun!
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This show, since its first performance in 1989, has been a worldwide success and set the template for many similar shows that were to follow in the coming years. Few of these other shows would, however, prove to be as popular or last as long as this one, and given the iconic songs that are in “Buddy”, that is little surprise. How many songwriters/performers out there have such instantly recognisable songs as “That’ll Be The Day”, “Everyday”, “Heartbeat”, “Peggy Sue”, “Rave On” and “True Love Ways” (to name just a few of them) in their music catalogue?
This show is not a documentary of the life of Buddy Holly, but it instead focuses on that brief period in time when he was moving away from the direction that so many people around him expected that he would take. Buddy Holly did not want to be the country and western music star that he so easily could have been, he wanted to play the new rock’n’roll music that he was hearing, but even more importantly, he wanted to play his music his way and along the way re-define not only what music could sound like, but also what a music star could look like. Taking this journey with him were his friends from Texas and band-mates, The Crickets, aka drummer Jerry Allison (Josh Haberfield), bassist Joe B Maulin (Joe Butcher) and rhythm guitarist Niki Sullivan (Christopher Weeks).
The format of this show, setting so much of the story with cast members playing their own instruments either in a recording studio, or live on stage somewhere (including the band’s now famous performance at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem) is what gives this show so much of its energy, as sitting in the audience at any theatre, we get a live performance of these great songs too, and some others from this period. Tonight that format worked its own magic as Buddy Holly and the Crickets once more took to the stage, and there was for me (and for many of us in the audience probably) a certain sadness when that final concert at the Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa was recreated and we all knew that when they took that light aircraft flight in a few hours after this show that Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper (Christopher Chandler), Richie Valens (Miguel Angel) and pilot Roger Peterson would die as their aircraft crashed as they tried to escape weather storm conditions to get to the next show on time. That date, February 3rd 1959, is for many people still, the day the music died.
Here we have the real story though, the music never died, if anything it has just grown over the years and tonight, our on stage Buddy Holly (A J Jenks) gave us all a little taste of what being there and watching this magic happen, hearing those sounds for the first time, might have felt like. At the time, few recording artists (certainly not young rock’n’roll artists) were writing their own songs, and not only was Buddy Holly doing this he was taking the rock and roll music he was hearing and blending it with the Mexican and Latin sounds that he grew up with, creating along the way that unique Tex-Mex sound. Buddy Holly also extended his influence over his music into then innovative studio production techniques (adding overdubs) and also adding string sections to some songs. Add into this his refusal to take off his glasses when performing and his choice to play (amongst others) his now iconic 1954 Fender Stratocaster guitar, Buddy Holly created not only unique music but a unique visual identity for himself. Buddy Holly also set the standard that influenced so many other musicians to come after him with his music influencing many for decades to come. What is amazing is that the core of this story, nearly all of this music, came out of a hugely creative period of only three years or so.
Buddy is a live on stage musical performance and, by default, the cast are there for their musical abilities and not their dramatic ones and this is what this show requires. As well as some energetic performances by Buddy Holly and The Crickets, Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens capture the energy of the music of the times. There is of course far more to this story than just the on stage music, and we get to meet other major figures in this story including record producer Norman Petty (Thomas Mitchells) and the woman that Buddy Holly fell almost instantly in love with at first sight, soon to be wife, Maria Elena (Daniella Agredo Piper).
Oddly missing from this story though are a few pieces of the story. For some reason, Bob Montgomery who co-wrote some songs with Buddy Holly, including “Heartbeat” is missing. Also, although we are told that Maria Holly was pregnant when Buddy left for his to be last tour, she lost the child due to a miscarriage. Many people thought at the time that the shock of hearing her husband had died was a major cause in this event.
At the end of the day though, this show is just like the music of Buddy Holly – fun!
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com