Shurilla's Buddy Holly Tribute Still Going Strong!

Even Mark Shurilla didn't expect his Buddy Holly Tribute to be as popular as it has become. Shurilla started doing his Holly tribute back in 1983, mostly as a club act, and it enjoyed modest success. But when two years ago he moved it into concert falls and ballrooms, it was more successful than he expected. For the last two years, he has sold out shows at the Grand Opera House in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.             Some 300 people were turned away last year, he said. That prompted him to schedule two shows this year, Friday and Saturday, at the Grand. That's really amazing, isn't it? This is really Buddy Holly territory, Shurilla said. I'm surprised it is as big as it is. This is fulfilling a real need. Older people are being ignored by the music industry. Older people.. Holly himself would have been 60 years old now. But he died Feb 3, 1959, on the Winter Dance Party tour when the light plane he was traveling in crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa. It is of the famous tragedies of rock 'n' roll. Also killed in the crash were the pilot and rockers Richie Valens and the Big Bopper.            Holly was at the peak of his career at the time, probably the No. 2 rock star in the country, right behind Elvis Presley. The night before he performed in Clear Lake, he had been at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay. The bespectacled Holly continues to fascinate rock historians. Last year, Shurilla said, there were two new biographies, both of which, by the way, gave a lot of attention to the Winter Dance tour.            At that point, Holly had broken up with his original trio, the Crickets, and was part of an all-star troupe, including, in addition to Valens and the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson), there was Dion and the Belmonts and Wayon Jennings, who at the time was Holly's bass player and lost the seat on the plane to Holly by the flip of a coin. It's funny, this guy from Texas, after 38 years he's still a big deal, Shurilla said. Holly and the Crickets were pioneers to the modern rock 'n' roll bands, writing and playing their own music. The Crickets' music just shines. There's a timeless feel to it. People love the music and the man. The performances in Oshkosh, he said, prove the point. Doing two shows is pretty outrageous, he said.

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