Buddy Holly And The Crickets. Souvenir Programme [Cover Title] Holly, Buddy America,British Isles,Music,Signed

Hastings, Hastings Printing Co., [1958]. Quarto, [8] pages (including the covers). Saddle-stapled three-colour pictorial wrappers lightly creased, with the hinge neatly reinforced from the inside; minimal signs of age and use (including some annotations - see below); a very good copy. Inscribed and signed ('Just in time . 1958 - 1987') by one of the support acts, Des O'Connor, at his portrait photograph on the third page. He is 'The Comedian with the modern style', as well as 'the possessor of a very fine voice' who sings a medley as the warm-up act before the star attraction. A ticket stub is mounted on the centrefold ('Gaumont, Southampton | 1st Perf. | 6.30 | Monday March 3'); the attendee has added some ink emphases and annotations to the programme (not least, the additional songs performed by Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Gary Miller and Des O'Connor). Buddy Holly and his group toured the UK in March 1958, performing at various venues from the 1st to the 25th of the month. Less than a year later, on 3 February 1959, he died at the age of 22 in a light aircraft crash at Clear Lake, Iowa, along with Ritchie Valens (aged just 17) and The Big Bopper (aged 28). Provenance: the personal collection of David Lovatt, proprietor of Bank Street Records, Adelaide (1985-1994). He purchased the item over the counter at Bank Street Records from an English lady fan who had gone to the concert (and had later emigrated to Adelaide).