Eddie Cochran, Still Rocking the West Country 50 Years Later

I was recently reminded that Eddie Cochran died in Bath, at St. Martin's Hospital, 50 years ago, following a car accident near Chippenham, Wiltshire. His last show was at the Bristol Hippodrome. He died on 17 April 1960.

I still rate "Somethin' Else" (Earl Palmer on drums), "C'mon Everybody", "Summertime Blues" and "Twenty Flight Rock" as some of the greatest rock 'n' roll records. Eddie was also a superb blues guitarist. He played a Gretsch, with thin-gauge strings and a Gibson pick-up. Both B. B. King and Jimi Hendrix admired his skill and feeling for the blues.

He had a big infuence on early British rockers. Joe Brown (headliner in this summer's Aghiot Festival in Corfu) learnt a lot from him: "When I was on the road with him, we used to sit around for hours and hours just with the guitars".

Joe also pointed out that in those days British guitarists never had (or even knew about) different gauges of strings, "we just had guitar strings...then all of a sudden Eddie explained it to us." Eddie Cochran "took the time to sit and show us."

(Source, "Don't Forget Me, The Eddie Cochran Story" by Julie Mundy and Darrel Higham.)

Eddie Cochran in Australia 1957 (Whole Lotta Shakin') 

Somethin' Else (again)