However, in the early 1980s the rockabilly revival was in full swing and it was during this period I discovered the recordings Buddy had made prior to his hit records. ‘Midnight Shift’, ‘Rock Around With Ollie Vee’, ‘Love Me’, ‘Don’t Come Back Knockin’’, ‘Modern Don Juan’, etc. Those records blew me away! They are virtually perfect rockabilly: the incredible slap bass from Don Guess, the excellent lead guitar picking from Sonny Curtis and Buddy’s confident and assured vocals – not trying to copy Elvis but

matching his enthusiasm for this new form of music Elvis had been so instrumental in creating while at Sun Records. Buddy made some of the greatest rockabilly recordings ever committed to tape. If rock and roll is 50 per cent country and 50 per cent blues, then rockabilly is 50 per cent rock and roll and 50 per cent country.

Artists like Elvis, Buddy, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran and numerous others seemed to instinctively understand this and that’s why their names are so intrinsically intertwined with the genre. Many of these erstwhile country boys went on to record some of the greatest and most enduring rock and roll records of the era. Buddy, like most of his contemporaries, was a country boy at heart so rockabilly was already in his blood. Rockabilly was never the poor man’s rock and roll but rather the stepping stone for many young artists in the 1950s onto the more lucrative path of rock and roll.

Throughout my career, I’ve returned to Buddy’s early recordings time and time again in order to study them, always discovering something new that I’ve overlooked but always being hugely impressed with how exciting I still find them. I’ve made a career out of being a rockabilly guitarist and I thank the greats for their continued inspiration and the immense joy their music has brought to my life. Buddy’s up there with the very best of them.