Winter Party Tour

Something tells me that back in the 1950's tours weren't as well planned out and stuff as the concerts we've become accustomed to this day and age.

You apparently haven't seen a tour schedule for today's bands, it's even worse.

We could blame anything on the crash -- you can take it as far back as you want -- Buddy wouldn't have chartered a plane if the bus didn't break down, the bus wouldn't have broken down if they took better care of it, they would have been able to take better care of it if the weather wasn't bad, etc. etc. Heck, if Ritchie Valens' mom and dad hadn't of had sex and conceived him, he wouldn't have died in the plane crash! The nerve of them!

There's no use in putting blame on anyone or anything as it won't bring any of them back.

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Trust me, most gigs don't go smoothly, and travel sucks. If things go well you start to get suspicious and foreboding.

I agree with you, I also have to think that the Winter Dance Party tour for 1959 has to be one of the most poor planned tour in music history, I don't know if there has to be any other tours that can even come close to this tour. And even I don't know how much they could have planned for it, if they had known that the weather would be as bad as it was since of course it was taking place in the midwest. And yeah you are so right about the tour schedule. And the fact is that they would even barely make it to each of the venues on time, where it could even be hurry hurry getting bags and lugagge on and off the bus. And the fact is that they didn't even have a night off during that time, and even when they did they filled it with a show at the Surf ballroom, and they had to sleep on the bus, instead of being in a warm bed in a hotel. You can even see why Buddy Holly wanted to book a flight, so he fly ahead of the show get laundry done and get some sleep in a nice warm bed. But you have to be even more surpised if they manged to get the plane out of the weather safely. I don't know how much to cover that you haven't already covered, yep you have to be surpised by the bus not keep breaking down, and even the need of Buddy Holly booking a flight, that led to the deaths of him, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. There was only one member of the band that did get frost bite that was serious, and that was Buddy Holly's drummer, and even the fact is that nobody else had thier own band, and Buddy's had to do the whole show, at least he sort of worked out when they had Ritchie Valens, and I believe it was also Buddy Holly that filled in for the drums, while the other performed performed.

Tours then weren't so well put together as some "pro" tours are now. Buddy Holly signed on to the tour b/c he'd been screwed by management & needed money ASAP. That time of year, though, the only work available was that Winter Dance Tour. Given the choice between that or going without for the next few months, they all signed on.

The biggest misfortune wasn't so much Holly booking the flght as the pilot not being certified to fly at night i.e instrument flying. Flying on instruments is no small thing as you can feel the plane is going one way when in reality its going another. So you literally live & die by what your instruments tell you. The pilot may have thought they were ascending as the plane accelerated when, in reality, they began to descend right away, & hit the ground at high velocity likely without ever knowing what hit them. Judging from the coroner's report, that it was so sudden was probably the most merciful part of the accident.

I agree. An extremely grueling schedule and poorly planned. This would never fly in this day and age. No way man.

"Hey guys! Whoa, Big Gulps huh? All right! Well, see ya later!" Dumb & Dumber