Just catched up wi this topic........better late than never!
My Wife and Me went speshully ti see Holly wi the Toby Twirl group.......GROUP!!!! ..[we didn't caal them BANDS!!...bands played trumpets!!]
After they set up and did the soond check,Holly was lukking aroond wi he's hand shading he's eyes ti see if any of he's marra's
had cum ti see him.
He got he's eye on me and came stryght up ti wor tyeble and sat doon aside wor lass,wi he's drink,till the stage-caal came.
As he got up ti gaan,he hoyed a haaf-croon on the tyeble and said Bill will ye get is a Bacardi n Coke for wa haaf-time please.?...[a didn't knaa wat that waas cos a was a tee-totaller...still am!]
[naa...aam sure it was TWO haaf-croons....cos a can mind thinking....ye bugga....he must be rich noo!]
Whey he came owa and had a gud crack aboot the aad days...[in the early-mid sixties..when we were aal starting oot wi nae gear hardly!],at haaf-time,then he said one last s'lang afore he went ti gaan inti thi van at the end of tha set.
He started the set wi "Up-up and away with my beautiful balloon" track....and the group's soond and of course Holly's voice was amazing![ mind,when he was a young-un,he did Mick Jagger ti a T !!..he aalwis waas a gud vocalist..a real pro.]
Harry Bryzinsky played in a few groups in the early -mid sixties,and was an amazing guitarist!...even though his fast playing wasn't my style in them days.....mainly cos a cudn't play thi bugga like him!!
Aav nivvor seen Holly since that neet at the Dom. in 1968,but wud luv ti hook up wi him again one day,even though he wadn't knaa me noo![ me knickname's nivvor changed since it was forced upon me in 1959-ish...and pretty easy ti remember,...like!!].....
Los Zafiros played there,[aav still got the forst vinyl album they recorded before their tour],and they waaked aroond the audience,as Spanish/Mexican groups did,singing and playing guitars aroond ya tyeble ...porsinall-like,[singin' ti thi Wife....not ME!]
ARRGHH! A canna mind thi nyem o' thi strong man who won "Opportunity knocks" [Hughie Green's show]and came ti thi Dom!
He myed he's nyem bla'an' het waata bottles up till they borsted!....waas it Mike...summik or otha?
He lifted a Blacksmith's Anvil wi he's teeth...and when a local lad and h'e marras were heckling him...[drunk!],he invited the ring-leader up on stage ti try and lift the anvil just wi he's arms..[cos the lad accused him of having stage props,and any bugga cud lift a wood anvil!!]
Whey thi clivvor lad got up on stage....and fund oot it WAS a steel anvil..and he cudn't lift thi bugga two inches off the floor....which highly amused ivry bugga.....mebbe some folk thowt that HE was a "Prop",as part of the show.....believe me...that lad used ti kick wor lasses chair from under her in class at the Catholic School,and later ran the Nyeuk!![in Bedlington Market -place!!!]
Aye Tom!! A bet ye canna mind o' that lark!!
The Ivy League played as weel...
Happy days they were!!