Remembering the day Buddy Holly walked Chesterfield’s streets before Sheffield concert

The year before his tragic death, the rock and roll star walked the streets of Chesterfield town centre ahead of a concert in Sheffield.

Buddy and his band the Crickets played two shows at Sheffield City Hall on March 4, 1958.

Cliff Hircock previously told the Sheffield Telegraph he had his autograph book and a photo signed by his idol Buddy and Crickets Jerry Allison and Joe Mauldin.

He added: “It was a cracking show.

“There were just three of them on stage and the sound was incredible.

“Everybody had a heck of a time.”

The teenager, who paid 7/6d for a seat in the balcony, added: “I went home on a cloud.

“I lived at Hackenthorpe and it was quite a walk but I didn’t care - I had met God!”

Sheffielder Tony Land recalled how he was walking past the city’s Grand Hotel on the day of the concert.

“It was raining and three guys came out of the revolving doors of the hotel,” he said.

“One of the guys with big black frame glasses said to me: ‘Hey big fella, which way is it to the City Hall?’

“I said to him: ‘Just turn right by Wilson Pecks music shop, keep on up the street until you come to all the steps and that’s it’.

“The guy in the glasses simply said: ‘Hey fella, thanks a lot.’

“As I crossed the road, I thought: ‘My God, that was Buddy Holly’.”

Buddy’s many hits included That’ll Be The Day, Not Fade Away, Oh Boy, Peggy Sue and Heartbeat.

His works and innovations were copied by contemporaries and later musicians, notably the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and exerted a profound influence on popular music.

Musicians Ritchie Valens, 17, and JP ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson, 28, as well as pilot Roger Peterson were also killed in the plane crash near Clear Lake.