SONGS IN THE SUN 2006 - a week to remember forever

Can you imagine it – the chance to spend a week in the company of Bob Montgomery’s son Kevin together with Tommy Allsup, the man who lost the toss of a coin to Ritchie Valens on that fateful day in February 1959, the day the music died; the day when, as with John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Princess Diana, you knew exactly where you were when you heard the news.

To quote that line by Ira Gershwin in the song I Got Rhythm, who could ask for anything more?

Back in 1957 I was a 14 year old schoolboy at a boarding school near Cheltenham in England where radios were banned but crystal sets were smuggled into the dormitories so that late at night we could listen to Radio Luxembourg, our only means of access to the new and exciting phenomenon of rock ‘n’ roll that came out of America and which was about to change the English music scene forever.

We heard Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino but it was the Crickets with that amazing Fender Stratocaster guitar sound and Buddy’s distinctive vocals that made the biggest impression on my young ears. In the November of that year That’ll Be The Day topped the UK charts. The first time I heard it the hairs stood up on the back of my neck and with the pocket money I had been saving for a special event I went out and bought it - my first ever record, one which I still have to this day and the start of a lifelong appreciation of Buddy Holly and his music.

Fast forward almost 40 years - I had been told about the Songs in the Sun week by Reg Fairfoot on a previous visit to the delightful Artemis apartments on the Akrotiri peninsular in Crete run by him and his wife Daphne. Reg has an encyclopedic knowledge of country music and enthusiastically promotes visits by American and British singer songwriters. When he told me that he had arranged for Kevin and Tommy to lead a songwriting and guitar workshop I signed up at once together with my daughter and a friend of mine who had played in a band with me back in the 60’s doing Buddy Holly covers.

On arrival we met Tommy and Kevin at the bar by the pool together with the small group of other students and they immediately put us at our ease. Those warm American accents helped too! During the week Tommy conducted the guitar tutorials and Kevin the songwriting ones. Back in the early days before the internet there were no transcriptions of guitar parts in pop songs so we tried to learn them by ear – good training but very frustrating. In fact it wasn’t until I saw some old footage of Buddy a few years ago that I realized he had used a capo on his guitar to play that famous introduction to That’ll Be The Day which made it a whole lot easier to play!

Tommy showed us some of the famous licks that he and Buddy used and new ways to develop chord progressions as well as providing a fund of stories about band life in those days. We asked all sorts of questions about the equipment that the Crickets used, the make and settings of their amplifiers and guitars, the recording techniques and so on and Tommy patiently answered all our questions and then some.

Then it was over to Kevin for the songwriting advice. Unlike the rest of us he has a wonderful music pedigree and a fabulous voice so we all felt rather intimidated but he made it great fun and we laughed, played and sang our hearts out for the entire week. Kevin paired us up and put us under pressure to write a song in half an hour, something I believe Buddy once did when challenged in an interview on local radio. Our efforts were amateur in the extreme but Kevin encouraged us to play them to the group as a whole and there was a great sense of achievement for everyone. Fortunately we made regular visits to the bar which helped to remove some, if not all, of our inhibitions.

Tommy and Kevin performed two evening concerts during the week which were outstanding. It must have been very emotional for Kevin to be playing songs that his father had written together with the man who had played on the original recordings but he handled it beautifully. Tommy demonstrated why he is still so sought after as a session musician and player, despite the fact that American Airlines had managed to lose his guitar en route so had to play one borrowed from Reg!

For me the highlight came on their first concert evening when Kevin invited my daughter up to duet with him on Wishing which he had recorded with Mary Chapin Carpenter for the Buddy Holly tribute album, after which he invited me up to sing and play a couple of Buddy’s songs with him and Tommy. For a few magic moments I was in Norman Petty’s studio in Clovis New Mexico and acted out that fantasy of playing with the Crickets that I had dreamed of as a schoolboy all those years ago!

I cannot underestimate the part played by Reg and Daphne in making the week such a great success. They were on hand all the time right from the date we booked with advice on flights, meeting us at the airport, making arrangements for car hire, providing recommendations on places of interest, beaches and restaurants to visit and last but not least, manning the bar at all hours. Better still though was Daphne’s cooking which did little for my waistline but a lot for my feeling of contentment and pure joy for the week as a whole.

I have already booked for next year. For anyone who would like personal tuition from such luminaries in an idyllic environment and the opportunity to meet new friends with similar interests, who could ask for anything more? I hope to see you there!

John Malpass - October 2006