Bad Bad Boy opened their set, then Ain’t
Got No Bail, and into Burnette territory with
All By Myself. Elvis’ A Big Hunk O’ Love was
reinvented as pure rockabilly, and their take
on Ronnie Self ’s Bop-A-Lena impressed.
After a musical tribute to model Bettie
Page, the band closed out with Gene
Vincent’s B-I-Bickey-Bi-Bo-Go, and were
cheered on their way.
Cliff Edmonds has similarly carved out a
long-running solo career, with The Cavaliers
and others, but really shone with The
Avengers perhaps because of their spot-on
vocal background harmonies. These were
immediately in evidence on Gene Vincent’sLotta Lovin’, and third number in, Chuck
Berry’s Almost Grown.
Cliff ’s range from gritty rockabilly to
perfect doo-wop has ensured a 34-year
career in music, and continuing.
First up for the unenviable task of opening
on Thursday on the main stage was Shane
And The Korrados, and fortunately Shane
had both the moves and the confi dence to
win over the fans.
In black shirt and light jacket, Shane
had fi rst dibs on I Ain’t Givin’ Up Nothin’ as
recorded by Ben Hewitt which turned out
later to be a popular choice of number for
other groups and DJs.
He was also unafraid to take on the
Elvis Presley songbook, including Good
Rockin’ Tonight, Lawdy Miss Clawdy,
I Got Stung, and, by way of contrast, Can’t
Help Falling In Love, with the audience
singing along. He wasn’t fi nished with
Presley, though.
We had stroller Shopping Around and
I Need Your Love Tonight and to add variety
there was also Johnny Kidd’s Please Don’t
Touch, which also cropped up a lot later, and
The Lennerockers’ High Class Lady.Rockabilly style was in full
eff ect throughout the weekendCLIFF EDMONDS’ RANGE
FROM GRITTY
ROCKABILLY TO PERFECT
DOO-WOP HAS ENSURED
A 34-YEAR CAREERWildest Cats In Town
Italy’s tartan-suited Lucky
Lucianos with Jacko BuddinFlame on! The Fireballs UK’s set
included a driving take of Vince
Taylor’s Brand New Cadillac