The drummer got frostbite and had to be replaced by one of the stars of the show. The support band tried to keep warm by burning newspapers on the tour bus. Never mind Spinal Tap or even the BBC's infamous Calum Kennedy on the road documentary, the 1959 Winter Dance Party tour had enough macabre humour, human drama and, ultimately, real-life horror to render its participants perpetually fascinating.
Tommy Allsup survived - surrendering his seat on Buddy Holly's ill-fated flight by the toss of a coin - and even if he'd just stuck to Holly memories, this gig would have been a collector's item. For Don McLean, Holly's demise was the day the music died. Holly's agents brooked no such sentiment. The show went on - Allsup still sounds genuinely bemused by instructions to continue without the tour's three headliners - and Allsup went on to play guitar on 200 No 1 records.
Unassumingly splendid raconteur that he is, at the age of 76 Allsup also remains a formidable guitarist. His playing on Holly's Heartbeat brought his original contribution to authentic life and his talent for apt embellishment gave Kevin Montgomery's Tennessee Girl a classic edge.
Montgomery being the son of Holly's original partner, Bob, the Holly connection was richly celebrated, with Montgomery contributing particularly fine versions of True Love Ways and the earlier Buddy & Bob song Soft Place in My Heart. Equally memorable, though, were Allsup singing Right or Wrong from his western swing days with Bob Wills' Texas Playboys and recalling exploits across a 60-odd-year career for which the term eventful might have been coined.
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