The Buddy Holly Story – Richmond Theatre

I’d had a rough couple of days, it was a cold and grey Monday and my companion had let me down so I was faced with an evening alone. I had to force myself to leave the house to go to Richmond Theatre – I really wasn’t in the mood. But I am so glad that I made the effort.

Buddy Holly died in 1959, before I was born, but my dad (who bore more than a passing resemblance to him) was an avid fan and so as well as his music being a backdrop for many of my younger years I probably know the lyrics to most Buddy Holly tracks. Just like the rest of the audience, it turns out.

Anyway, upon reaching Richmond Theatre I was drawn to the crowd watching a rock and roll performance outside and was delighted to see that some of the audience had dressed up in 1950s gear. So glad that flared skirts are making a bit of a comeback at present.

So. The show opens with a stage bearing an array of colourful 1950s adverts and a radio broadcast by KDAV and the start of the battle between the Country and Western establishment versus the rockabilly and rock and roll upstarts. There’s a great line here when the young Buddy is admonished for playing music like Elvis Presley: “You have as much sex appeal as a telegraph pole”.

Early on – and interspersed with jingles for fridges and car oil sung convincingly by a trio of women - we are treated to a tentative rendition of “Changing all those changes” and “That’ll be the day”. Who would believe that such great music could be produced with a guitar, a double bass and drums? It makes me smile to think that so many people at the time thought that rock and roll music was the work of the devil.

“Brown eyed handsome man” was one of the numbers done in the recording studio and we heard how Sindy Lou became the eternally famous “Peggy Sue”, which was performed acappella – and rather well too. My favourite track “Every day” came up next. Then the scene shifted to Harlem and there was an electric duet performance of “Shout” – Melissa Keyes radiated energy and talent. “Not fade away”, “Peggy Sue” and “Words of Love” were belted out and just before the interval we were treated to a get-up-on-your-feet-high-energy-rendition of “Oh boy”.

The second half starts with the remainder of Buddy’s short life story – how he met and proposed to his wife in just five hours – and the tracks just keep on coming: “Listen to me”, “Well alright”, “It’s so easy” and, another favourite, “True love ways”.

But the lion’s share here portrays the final performance of the Winter Dance Show and we are treated to some other 50s favourites – “Why do fools fall in love?”, “Chantilly Lace” (Steve Dorsett as The Big Bopper was fun) and “La Bamba” (Miguel Angel as Ritchie Valens was astonishing and had to be seen to be believed – a real snake hips. The ladies near me went wild).

Then back to Buddy and “Raining in my heart” (with a lovely mirror ball sending sparkles around the theatre) and “Heartbeat” before final foot tapping “It doesn’t matter anymore”, “Rave on” and, as an encore – after a moment to hear the news broadcast of the plane crash and tragic death of the passengers - “Johnny B Goode” to ensure that we finished on a high. I must also mention the guys doing the backing singing at the side of the stage – their spirited dancing and synchronised finger snapping had me in stitches.

I was a little surprised at the audience – there were a fair few older folk there. Now whilst it IS Richmond I would have thought that a music performance about the birth of such an influential music movement would have attracted a wider range. After all, whilst I couldn’t quite see the appeal of Hairspray so many others did. Having said that, the group of women near me seemed to have a marvellous time and by the end of the show just about everyone in the audience was on their feet and dancing, singing and clapping along.

Having cringed through the West End production of “We will rock you” because I am a real Queen fan and had seen them perform a number of times and couldn’t bear what they did to their music, I was pleasantly surprised at Buddy. The lead looked like Buddy, sang like him and appeared to play guitar rather well. These guys are real musicians. There were occasions when I couldn’t tell whether we were hearing a live performance or a recording of Buddy. So absolutely top marks from this Buddy fan and, yes, I’m almost ashamed to admit that I downloaded a few more Buddy tracks onto my iPhone this morning.

I left the theatre with a smile, feeling a little lighter and humming “Well I guess it doesn’t matter any more…” So if you need an evening of simple pleasure – and a good few innocent laughs – then I suggest you get yourself down to Richmond asap.