Jerry Allison RIP

Sorry to hear of the death, at the age of 82, of Jerry Allison, who was the drummer for the Crickets and co-writer with Buddy Holly of such hits as 'That'll Be The Day' and 'Peggy Sue', the latter being named after his then girlfriend (later wife) Peggy Sue Garron. Jerry was with Buddy from the beginning in Lubbock and continued to lead the Crickets to success after Buddy's death. He also had one solo hit, a cover, under the name of Ivan, of Australian Johnny O'Keefe's 'Real Wild Child'. Jerry's drumming style was a major factor in the success of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, with imaginative use of slaps, hand claps and tom toms on many recordings. Among his songwriting achievements were 'More Than I Can Say', a hit for Bobby Vee, 'When You Ask About Love', 'He's Old Enough To Know Better' (for the Crickets) and 'Tell Me How'. He also claimed to have written 'Not Fade Away', which was attributed to Buddy Holly and Norman Petty.

I neglected to mention the sudden death a few weeks ago of music expert and blogger Red Kelly whose blog The B Side is linked to The Vinyl Word. Red was an expert on New Orleans R and B and blues and his 'soul detective' work investigated the background of many of the great records of the fifties and sixties. He championed the work of guitarist Reggie Young and interviewed him at one of the Ponderosa Stomp panel sessions in 2017 (pictured). He also interviewed Willie Hightower at the 2015 Stomp and promoted the career of blues man Sir Lattimore Brown. His detective work brought to light 'the Cosimo Code' - a numbering system devised by record producer Cosimo Matassa and went on music road trips with my friend John Broven in recent years. In fact, he was due to go on another such trip when he passed away. He will be missed.