Des O'Connor

ICBM

DB1 said:

When Buddy Holly came over - I'm thinking that it must have been 1958 - he arrived before the band's equipment did and to give him something to play around on while he was waiting, he asked Des (who was the compere for the multi-act tour) to go and find him a guitar. Des went out and bought a Hofner (a Senator maybe?) from a store and gave it to him. At that time, you couldn't really get an American guitar in the UK due to import tariffs, so German clunkers were more or less all that they had in music shops.

When the tour ended, Buddy gave the Hofner to Des, who very creditably gave the guitar to Buddy's family (it might have been for the Buddy Holly Foundation) after Buddy died. A nice gesture from a nice man.

Yes, it was.

It was a President. I was listening to the radio this morning and they had an old recorded interview with him where he talked about it - he said Buddy tried 17 guitars before settling on this one...!

http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/gallery/archtops5/arch1.html

RIP

DB1

Ah, thanks, that's interesting. My brain was a bit foggy with the details, as ever.

Dominic

Des was a great  entertainer and always had stunning wives !
He used to live 6 doors away from me and I was only talking to Sam ,his daughter about a month ago.
We used to hang around together in a group as late teenagers .

usedtobe

Great all round entertainer. So many great memories.