{"id":4115,"date":"2019-10-22T13:50:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T13:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/?p=4115"},"modified":"2019-10-23T13:40:34","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T13:40:34","slug":"weird-dreams-the-roy-buddy-hologram-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/weird-dreams-the-roy-buddy-hologram-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Weird Dreams: Roy & Buddy hologram tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Royal Concert Hall, October 21st<\/sup>, 2019. This review first appeared in the Nottingham Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roy Orbison, famously, was one of the first superstars to\nplay the Royal Centre, on June 3rd<\/sup>, 1985. Tickets were \u00a38 and he\nplayed for 55 minutes. I\u2019m told he did all the hits and his only words to the\naudience were before the encore: \u2018I\u2019ve had a request, so I\u2019ll stay\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddy Holly and the Crickets played two shows at Nottingham\u2019s\nOdeon on March 8, 1958. In a kinder world, perhaps, this would be a joint\nfarewell tour. Holly died in a plane crash at 22, Orbison of a heart attack in\n1988, aged 52. Both men would be 83 now, only four years older than Cliff\nRichard, who\u2019s just announced a date here next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who, you wonder, would headline? Roy had more hits, but if Buddy had lived… Tonight\u2019s holograms get over this conundrum by taking it in turns, short sets of varying length. Roy first. Short films before each half, including interviews with the likes of Tom Petty, Buddy\u2019s widow, Maria Elena, and, surprisingly, Robert Wyatt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a five piece band and two backing singers. Behind the holograms there\u2019s a pair of smoky Rorschach blots, similar to those in the 60\u2019s Dr Who credits. That\u2019s right, we\u2019re time travelling!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After an overture medley, Roy\u2019s hologram rises from a virtual trap door. Roy was quite a static performer and the crisp hologram looks OK, in a freakshow-ish way. Its occasional glance backs to the musicians are a nice touch. Buddy\u2019s hologram looks like a cartoon, too tall, too well built. It moves well, yet you never for a moment feel you might be watching the real thing. They do the hits you\u2019d expect, including the wonderful operatic Running Scared and Peggy Sue. At the end of Maybe Baby, Buddy vanishes in a puff of smoke. Nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does the show sound? As Whitney Houston\u2019s hologram might\npronounce, \u2018it\u2019s not right, but it\u2019s OK.\u2019 The band are strong. Stupidly, the\nside-screens stay on throughout, projecting the tour\u2019s title, making it\nimpossible to forget that you are, essentially, in a museum, watching a 3D\nimage projected onto a screen, behind which real musicians play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get two Orbison\u2019s 80s hits in the second half, a rousing\nYou Got It and a lively I Drove All Night, where the crowd clap along to the\nintro. It\u2019s the only part of the evening with a hint of atmosphere. Many of the\naudience are old enough to have seen that 1959 Holly show when they were in\ntheir teens. Their applause is polite, muted at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the encore, we\u2019re treated to a reunion of the Travelling\nWilburys, with Buddy taking the role of the still living Bob Dylan on \u2018Handle\nwith Care.\u2019 Sorry, I\u2019m kidding. There was no encore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This strange night lasted a scant ninety minutes and was probably best enjoyed with closed eyes. The time would have better spent in front of YouTube with the full 1988 Orbison concert A Black and White Night<\/a>. That\u2019s the way I\u2019ll choose to remember him. Approach similar events with caution and a closed wallet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddy Holly – Rave On<\/p>\n\n\n\n