#0008: Buddy Holly & The Crickets - The Chirping Crickets (1957) [***]

It was, ooooh, must have been 1997.  My daughter had just been born, I'd just parted ways with the band I was in and I was working in my first ever IT contract.  In the January, the aforementioned band had pulled off one of the most impressive feats (for a bunch of fuckwits) that Basingstoke had ever seen.

We were all big fans of Pink Floyd and Robbie (our trumpet player) had one of his madcap ideas.  Let's perform the whole of The Wall at the Anvil.  The Anvil is a 1200 seater venue and way out of our league.  Robbie was not to be put off by that.  He applied in writing to Mr Waters for permission to perform his masterpiece and give all the profits to charity.  Mr Waters agreed.  The rest of the story I'll tell you when I (hopefully) encounter the album on this list.

While we were performing there, I was offered a job on the technical crew of the venue.  I was delighted and jumped at the chance to work in a theatre.  One of the shows I worked on was Buddy: the travelling company version of the West End show.  It was excellent fun and I still remember those days very fondly.  The music of the show is ingrained for all time - the songs of Buddy Holly.

Many of them are included on this album and as much as I try to listen objectively, when I hear the twangy 50s guitar strumming out That'll Be The Day and Oh Boy I am transported back to the flying gantry where over the balustrade I would look down at the performers on stage and wish it was me.  I can smell the musty cloth of the blankets we laid on while waiting for cues, the ropes we heaved on to raise and lower the gargantuan Buddy neon sign.

Without that experience I think maybe this would've hit me much the same way as the Louvin Brothers did.  Okay, maybe not that bad but this 50s light rock and roll isn't really my bag.  My memories of a special time with this as the soundtrack give the songs an immutable resonance with me.  I can now identify with the kids of the 50s, whose own unique experiences played out over this simple, innocent sound so far removed from the over produced pop of recent times.