Buddy Holly Center opening with variety of musical acts
There will be dancing in the streets when Lubbock celebrates the official opening of its Buddy Holly Center Sept. 3.
With three days of music and memories planned on Labor Day weekend by the City and the Lubbock Convention and Visitors Bureau, this area’s residents and visitors may experience a virtual return to the musical styles of the 1950s.
Mike Pritchard’s Blue Thunder and Lightning Horns have been signed as a prelude act for The Crewcuts, who will take over an outdoor stage in the Depot District as a part of a concert and street dance following opening ceremonies.
Notably, a second generation of musicians plan to take part in the celebration.
Among them, Stan Perkins, son of rock star Carl Perkins, is scheduled to entertain in the courtyard after a formal ribbon cutting ceremony.
Later, as part of the following day’s festivities, Big Bopper Jr. also known as J.P. Richardson Jr. will carry on his family’s musical tradition. His father died in the plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly and Richie Valens.
Other acts on Sept. 4 include an appearance by The Coasters, whose rock songs still are alive and well after 40 years, and Rock Hall of Fame inductee Charlie Thomas, once a member of The Drifters.
Rockin Robin, a group associated with hundreds of recordings and thousands of concerts, will share spots with Chris Montez of “Let’s Dance,” and Lubbock’s Virgil Johnson, who once performed “Tonight Could be the Night,” “Lana,” and “Let the Good Times roll” with The Velvets.
A Roots of West Texas Music Symposium has been scheduled Sept. 4-5 at Texas Tech.
The musical celebration will conclude Sept. 5 with a street dance and concert by The Diamonds, who began their recording career in 1956 with “Why do Fools Fall in Love.”
By RAY WESTBROOK
Avalanche-Journal
