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   CLUB SANDWICH 83

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A POEM FOR BUDDY

Buddy Holly Week 1997 was a turn for the verse

            Cometh September, cometh Buddy Holly Week. This wonderful annual fixture, sponsored by MPL, celebrated its 22nd event just a few weeks back. The man from Lubbock himself only lived to the age of 22.
            In a book published to tie-in with the 1997 happening Paul McCartney acclaims, "Years ago we inaugurated Buddy Holly Week as a doff of the cap to the memory of the great man and his great music. Over the years this has become the platform for many wonderful and wacky ways of marking that memory. We've had competitions for singalikes and lookalikes, we've had a paint a Buddy painting and contests to write a song in his style. And now we've done poetry inspired by Buddy. Good holly, it's Holly."
            So it was - A Poem For Buddy was the title of Buddy Holly Week 1997. Back in the spring, MPL sent out notices to colleges and literary societies inviting budding poets to contribute a piece, maximum 40 lines, celebrating the musician's life or work. An advertisement was also placed in the music magazine Beat Goes On, and DJ Chris Tarrant whipped up further interest by mentioning the competition in his Capital Radio show. The result was some 500 poems cascading into MPL's office.
            The task of reading all 500 fell to a hardy trio of lyricist Sir Tim Rice, Chris Meade of The Poetry Society, and poet Roger McGough, a member of the Scaffold once upon a long ago. The panel of three had twin duties to discharge - picking the best 50 poems from the 500, and then further whittling these down to a best three. As it happened, the best three turned out to be a best four, with two poets sharing third place. All four were brought to London at MPL's expense to attend a party on 10 September, held in a Mexican restaurant in the heart of Soho.
            As mein host, Paul climbed the stage to make a moving speech of welcome, recalling the day, back in February 1959, when the news of Buddy Holly's death reached a windswept playground at the Liverpool Institute school and touched the hearts of those who revered his music.
            The four winners were then called to the stage, to receive individually-engraved plaques and pocket substantial cheques guaranteed to bring a smile to even the most dour bank manager. They also read out their pieces of poetry. Grace Hughes, in joint third place, delighted the audience with her Radio-CHHL, cleverly written in the style of a weather forecast for the fateful day of 3 February 1959. Anne Rouse, also third, read Expected Him In A Limousine, painting a fine picture of Buddy's Texan roots. Second place Mike Turner delivered his Last Bus To Lubbock about a Texas diner waitress named Peggy Sue. Finally, the winner, a Welsh-American with a Liverpudlian-like surname, Amy Wack, stepped forward to take her prizes and read out The Crickets, subtly balancing the image of seeing Sonny, Jerry and Joe B, the members of that esteemed band, in concert recent times, with the memory of Holly

Club Sandwich 83